ELA 10-1 Literary Terms

Any device used to represent something, especially the abstract.

Feeling of anxiety/uncertainty experience by the reader/character about the outcome of events.

Central idea of story, usually implied rather than directly stated - about life or human nature

A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

The struggle between opposing forces, that is the protagonist and someone or something else.

Perspective from which a story is seen or told.

Author's manner of speaking, how it reveals his attitude toward the subject matter of the story

The pervasive colour or tone of a literary work.

Indirect reference to an event, person, thing, place or quality.

The framework of a story, or the conscious arrangement of its events.

The leading or central character in a story or, the dominating character.

The time and place of a narrative.

Identification of one's own feelings with fictional/poetic character to understand him better.

Anticipation, by indication of suggestion, of what will eventually happen.

The final, culminating event in a series of actions, the decisive moment in a literary work.

The part of a story in which the problem or struggle is solved.

The story is told from "outside" the characters, from the perspective of one character, he/she

Background info by author, to further the development of plot/conflict/setting/characterization

The action immediately following the climax and lasting until the end of the story.

Feelings created in a reader by the atmosphere of a story.

Features a character telling the story directly to the reader in the 1st person - using “I”.

The process through which the author reveals to the reader the qualities of a character.

The tying up of loose ends or resolution (in a story).

A sudden switch in the plot from the present to the past.

The incidents in a plot that precede the climax.