1. Literary Terms
Notes!!!
Keep up with these notes. Don’t lose these terms! I might be able to use them –
be RESPONSIBLE!!

2. Contains the following terms:
Antagonist Protagonist Diction
Denotation Connotation Imagery
Mood Plot Anaphora
Exposition Rising Action Climax
Falling Action Resolution Conflict
Flashback Foreshadowing Suspense
Point of View Paradox Parallelism
Setting Theme Tone
Figures of Speech Hyperbole
Irony Antithesis Juxtaposition
Metaphor Simile Oxymoron
Personification Alliteration

3. Indirect vs. Direct Characterization
When information is learned about the character through the ___________________.
Ex: “Oh, I’m so upset that I can’t reach the sardines on that top shelf!”
When the author _________ descriptions/information about the character
Ex: He was a short man that loved sardines.

4. Protagonist
The Protagonist is the _________ _____________ in a literary work
Can you name some famous Protagonists that are found in literature?

5. Antagonist
The Antagonist is a character or force _____________ with a main character, or protagonist.

6. Character Types There are several character types:
_________ character-one of the most important characters in the story.
__________ character- all other characters.
__________ character- they show varied and contradictory traits.
_________ character- reveals only one personality trait.

7. Character Types Cont.
_______________- a flat character that is familiar and often repeated. (Dumb Blonde, Dumb Jock, Band Nerd, etc.).
____________ character- develops within in the course of a literary work.
_________ character- they remain the same throughout the entire story.
________- a character, usually minor, designed to highlight qualities of a major character.

8. Diction
Diction is the manner in which we express _________; the wording used.
Diction = enunciation
Some easy examples are:
Don’t say ‘goin’ – say ‘going’, Don’t say ‘wanna’ – say ‘want to’

9. Denotation
The denotation of a word is its __________________ meaning, independent of other associations that the word may have.

10. Connotation
The connotation of a word is the set of ___________ associated with it in addition to its explicit meaning. The connotation of a word can be personal, based on individual experiences. More often, ____________ connotations – those recognizable by most people in a group – determine a writer’s word choices.

11. Denotation versus Connotation
Examples –
Cheap is “low in cost” (denotation) but “stingy” or “poorly made” are the connotations of cheap

12. 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.

13. Imagery
Imagery is words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the ___ _______. Writers use imagery to describe how their subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and smell.

14. MOOD
Mood, or atmosphere, is the _________ created in the reader by a literary work or passage. Writers 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.

15. Plot
Plot is the _____________ 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.

16. PLOTLINE C.____________ _B.___________ D.____________ E.____________
A.______________
Conflict Introduced

17. Exposition
The Exposition is the _____________. It is the part of the work that introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation.

18. Rising Action
Rising Action is the part of the plot that begins to occur as soon as the _____________ is introduced. The rising action adds complications to the conflict and increases reader interest.

19. Climax
The Climax is the point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a narrative. The climax typically comes at the _________ point in a story or drama.

20. Falling Action
Falling Action is the action that typically ______________ the climax and reveals its __________.

21. Resolution
The Resolution is the part of the plot that concludes the falling action by revealing or suggesting the _____________ of the conflict.

22. Conflict
Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces in a story or play. There are ______ types of conflict that exist in literature.

23. External Conflict
External conflict exists when a character struggles against some ___________ force, such as another character, nature, society, or fate.
Man vs. _______ Man vs. ________
Man vs. _________

24. Internal Conflict
Internal conflict exists __________ the mind of a character who is torn between different courses of action.
Man vs. __________

25. Flashback
A flashback is a literary device in which an ___________ episode, conversation, or event is inserted into the sequence of events. Often flashbacks are presented as a ____________ of the narrator or of another character.

26. The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a flashback.
Flashback continued…
The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a flashback.
What are some other films that contain flashback to help tell stories?
Holes
Willy Wonka
Think of some more…

27. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues to ________ at what might happen __________ 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.

28. Can you think of an element of foreshadowing?

29. Suspense
Suspense is the ____________ 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 __________________ in the minds of their readers.

30. Point of View
Point of View is the _______________, or vantage point, from which a story is told. It is the relationship of the narrator to the story.
_______-person is told by a character who uses the first-person pronoun “I”.
________-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.
________-person omniscient- same as limited but the narrator is all knowing.

31. Setting
The setting of a literary work is the _______ and _________ of the action.
The setting includes all the _____________ 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.
In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop – a context in which the characters interact. The setting of a story often helps to create a particular mood, or feeling.

32. Theme
The theme of a literary work is its ________________ __________, concern, or purpose. 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 ____________.

33. Tone
Tone is a reflection of a writer’s or speaker’s _____________ 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 an _____________ response from the reader.
For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or sarcasm.

34. A brief word on tone and theme
Diction creates Tone… Tone creates Theme… The Theme of a story is NEVER one word!!! Example: The theme of Romeo and Juliet is NOT “Love”. What was Shakespeare really saying about teenage love?

35. Figures of Speech
A figure of speech is a specific device or kind of figurative language, such as hyperbole, metaphor, personification, simile, or understatement.
Figurative language is used for ______________ effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not meant to be taken literally. Figurative language is used to state ideas in _________ and imaginative ways.

36. Metaphor
A Metaphor is a type of speech that __________ or equates two or more things that have something in common. A metaphor does NOT use like or as.
Example: Life is a box
of chocolates.

37. Simile
A Simile is another figure of speech that compares seemingly ___________ things. Simile’s DO use the words like or as.
Example: Her voice was
like nails on a
chalkboard.
NOT a simile: I am not as fast as Michael. (there is NO comparison of unlike things going on here)

38. Oxymoron
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a combination of seemingly ________________ words.
Examples: Same difference
Pretty ugly
Jumbo shrimp

39. Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given _____________ qualities or characteristics.
Example:Tears began to fall from the dark clouds.

40. Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of __________, most often consonant sounds, at the ________________ of words. Alliteration gives emphasis to words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

41. Irony
Irony is when something happens that is the ______________ of what’s expected.
________________ Irony: when the audience knows what will happen before the characters
_______________ Irony: when something happens that’s unexpected
____________ Irony: when a character says one thing but means another (over/understated)

42. Hyperbole A hyperbole is an ______________ over-exageration.
Ex: Yo mama’s so fat, she’s got her own zip code.

43. Paradox A statement that _______________ itself Ex: I always lie.
Ex: She hid inside herself.

44. Anaphora
The ____________ of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses; it helps to establish a strong rhythm and produces a powerful ____________ effect.
Ex: I have a dream…

45. Parallelism
Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the ______; or _____________ in their construction, sound, meaning or meter.
This method adds balance and _________ to sentences giving ideas a smoother flow and thus can be persuasive because of the repetition it employs.

46. Example of Parallelism
"Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude." - Jesse Jackson

47. Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which two or more ___________, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and _____________.
Ex: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;”
Shakespeare uses the juxtaposition of light and darkness here to describe Juliet’s beauty.

48. Antithesis
Antithesis, literal meaning ____________, is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a _______________ effect.
Ex: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,…”