Literary TermsWe will be using these 30 literary terms throughout the 1st period. There WILL be literary terms test

during period exams!! You need to keep up with your notes. Don’t lose your terms!

You might be able to use them – be RESPONSIBLE!!

We will use the following terms:

Character Protagonist Antagonist

Diction Denotation Connotation

Imagery Mood Plot

Exposition Rising Action Climax

Falling Action Resolution Conflict

Flashback ForeshadowingSuspense

Point of View Setting Style

Theme Tone Figures of Speech

Metaphor SimileOxymoron

Personification AlliterationOnomatopoeia

Character

A person or an animal that takes part in the action of a literary work.

Protagonist

The main character in a literary work

• Can you name some famous Protagonists that are found in literature?

Antagonist

A character or force in conflict with a main character, or protagonist.

Do you know your Antagonists???

• On your paper take a few minutes to write down some Antagonists that you can recall from movies, television shows, and video games

• Remember the Antagonist is in conflict with the Protagonist or, main character!

• Helpful hint – you should now know why people use the saying “Don’t antagonize me!”

Diction1. Choice and use of words in speech

or writing.2. Degree of clarity and distinctness of

pronunciation in speech or singing; enunciation.

Examples: Don’t say ‘goin’ – say ‘going’, Don’t say ‘wanna’ – say ‘want to’

DenotationThe dictionary meaning of a word, independent of other associations that the word may have.

ConnotationThe set of ideas associated with a word in addition to its explicit meaning.

The connotation of a word can be personal, based on individual experiences. More often, cultural connotations – those recognizable by most people in a group – determine a writer’s word choices.

Denotation versus Connotation

Some examples – Cheap is “low in cost” (denotation) but “stingy” or

“poorly made” are the connotations of cheap

Let’s use the word HOT The denotation (or dictionary definition – remember d in

denotation = dictionary) of HOT is: having a temperature higher than that of a human body.

However, when you say “Man! He/She is hot!”, are you saying “Man! He is having a temperature higher than that of a human body!”? No!!

You are saying the CONNOTATION of HOT – which could mean a variety of things – man he/she is cute, attractive, beautiful, and many other meanings – those come from personal experiences and cultural meanings, etc.

ImageryWords or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses.

Writers use imagery to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell.

MOODThe feeling created in the reader by a

literary work or passage.

Writer’s use many devices to create mood, including images, dialogue, setting, and plot. Often, a writer

creates a mood at the beginning of a work and then sustains the mood throughout. Sometimes, however,

the mood of the work changes dramatically.

PlotThe sequence of events. The first event

causes the second, the second causes the third, and so forth.

In most novels, dramas, short stories, and narrative poems, the plot involves both characters and a central conflict.

The plot usually begins with an exposition that introduces the setting, the characters, and the basic situation. This is introduced and developed. The conflict then increases until it reaches a high point of interest or suspense, the climax. The climax is followed by the falling action, or end, of the central conflict. Any events that occur during the falling action make up the resolution.

PLOTLINE

ExpositionResolution

Ris

ing A

ctio

n

Climax

Falling Action

Conflict Introduced

ExpositionThe introduction. It is the part of the work that introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation.

Rising ActionThe part of the plot that begins to

occur as soon as the conflict is introduced. The rising action adds complications to the conflict and increases reader interest.

ClimaxThe point of greatest emotional

intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a narrative. The climax typically comes at the turning point in a story or drama.

Falling Action

The action that typically follows the climax and reveals its results.

Resolution

The part of the plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the outcome of the conflict.

ConflictThe struggle between opposing forces in a story or play. There are two types of conflict that exist in literature:

1. external2. internal

External Conflict

External conflict exists when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another character, nature, society, or fate.

Man vs. ManMan vs. Nature

Internal Conflict

Internal conflict exists within the mind of a character who is torn between different courses of action.

Man vs. Himself

Flashback

A literary device in which an earlier episode, conversation, or event is inserted into the sequence of events.

Often flashbacks are presented as a memory of the narrator or of another character.

The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a flashback.

What are some other films that contain flashback to help tell stories?

Flashback continued…

ForeshadowingThe author’s use of clues to hint at

what might happen later in the story.

Writers use foreshadowing to build their readers’ expectations and to create suspense. This is used to help readers prepare for what is to come.

Can you think of an element of

foreshadowing?

SuspenseThe growing interest and excitement

readers experience while awaiting a climax or resolution in a work of literature. It is a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of events.

Writers create suspense by raising questions in the minds of their readers.

Point of View

The perspective, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is the relationship of the narrator to the story.

First-person is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I”.

Third-person limited point of view is the point of view where the narrator uses third-person pronouns such as “he” and “she” to refer to the characters.

Setting

The time and place of the action.

The setting includes all the details of a place and time – the year, the time of day, even the weather. The place may be a specific country, state, region, community, neighborhood, building, institution, or home.

StyleThe distinctive way in which an

author uses language.

Word choice, phrasing, sentence length, tone, dialogue, purpose, and attitude toward the audience and subject can all contribute to an author’s writing style.

ThemeThe central message, concern, or purpose of a

literary work.

A theme can usually be expressed as a generalization, or general statement, about people or life. The theme may be stated directly by the writer although it is more often presented indirectly. When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader must figure out the theme by looking carefully at what the work reveals about the people or about life.

ToneA reflection of a writer’s or speaker’s

attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or other literary work.

Tone may be communicated through words and details that express particular emotions and that evoke and emotional response from the reader.

For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm.

Figures of Speech

A specific device or kind of figurative language, such as hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, or understatement.

Figurative language is used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not meant to be taken literally. Figurative language is used to state ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.

MetaphorA type of speech that compares or

equates two or more things that have something in common. A metaphor does NOT use like or as.

Example: Life is a bowl of cherries.

SimileA Simile is another figure of speech

that compares seemingly unlike things. Simile’s DO use the words like or as.

Example: Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

OxymoronA figure of speech that is a

combination of seemingly contradictory words.

Examples: Same differencePretty uglyRoaring silence

PersonificationA figure of speech in

which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities or characteristics.

Example: The trees danced in the sunlight.

AlliterationThe repetition of sounds, most often

consonant sounds, at the beginning of words.

Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

OnomatopoeiaThe formation or use of words that imitate the

sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

Example of onomatopoeia in relation to water:• splash• spray• sprinkle• squirt•drip•drizzle

GAME TIME

The feeling created in the reader by a literary work or

passage is…Character Protagonist Antagonist

Diction Denotation Connotation

Imagery Mood Plot

Exposition Rising Action Climax

Falling Action Resolution Conflict

Flashback Foreshadowing Suspense

Point of View Setting Style

Theme Tone Figures of Speech

Metaphor Simile Oxymoron

Personification Alliteration Onomatopoeia