1. Literary Terms Fall Semester

2. Anecdote A short written or oral account of an event in a real person’s life

3. Antagonist A person or force that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama

4. Climax The turning point or emotional high point of a story or drama; the point of highest contention

5. Epic A long narrative poem that recounts(tells) in formal language the exploits of a larger than life hero

6. Exemplum A brief story used as an example to illustrate a moral point

7. Extended Metaphor A metaphor that compares two unlike things in various ways throughout an entire paragraph, stanza, or selection

8. Frame Story A plot structure that includes the telling of a story within a story

9. Genre A category or type of literature Examples: Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama

10. Irony A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality Types: Verbal, Dramatic and Situational

11. Legend A tale that is based on history and handed down from one generation to the next

12. Kenning A descriptive figure of speech that takes the place of a common noun Example: in Beowulf, a battle is called a “storm of words”

13. Narrative Writing that tells a story

14. Nonfiction Literature that deals with real people, events, and experiences

15. Point of View The relationship of the narrator to the story 1 st person: narrator is telling...hint: “I” is used 3 rd person limited: narrator tells the thoughts of one character 3 rd person omniscient: narrator knows the feelings of all Little known---2 nd person POV: writing that gives directions…hint: “you” is used

16. Protagonist The central character in a story, drama, or dramatic poem whom most of the action revolves Does the protagonist have to be “good”?

17. Romance A term used to describe long narrative works about the exploits and love affairs of chivalric heroes

18. Satire Literature that exposes to ridicule the vices or follies of people through the devices of exaggeration, understatement and irony

19. Setting The time and place in which the events of a literary work occur

20. Style The expressive qualities that distinguish an author’s work, including word choice (diction), sentence structure (syntax), and figures of speech

21. Theme The main idea of a work expressed as a general statement about life

22. Tone A refection of the writer's attitude toward the subject that is conveyed through diction, syntax, punctuation and figures of speech

23. Vernacular Ordinary spoken language of people of a particular region Example: “Y’all”—southern “loo”—used in England for bathroom