ENG 1020-11

• 1- Fable
• 2- Parable
• 3- Tale
• 4- Tall tale
• 5- Fairy tale, folktale
• 6-  Short story
• 7- Initiation story

A brief, often humorous narrative told to illustrate a moral. The characters in fables are traditionally animals whose personality traits symbolize human traits.

A brief, usually allegorical narrative that teaches a moral. In parables, unlike fables (where the moral is explicitly stated within the narrative), the moral themes are implicit and can often be interpreted in several ways.

A short narrative without a complex plot. Tales are an ancient form of narrative found in folklore, and traditional tales often contain supernatural elements. A tale differs from a short story by its tendency toward lesser-developed characters and linear plotting.

A humorous short narrative that provides a wildly exaggerated version of events. Originally an oral form, the tall tale usually assumes that its audience knows the narrator is distorting the events. The form is often associated with the American frontier.

A traditional form of short narrative folklore, originally transmitted orally, which features supernatural characters such as witches, giants, fairies, or animals with human personality traits. Fairy tales often feature a hero or heroine who strives to achieve some desirable fate - such as marrying royalty or finding great wealth.

A prose narrative too brief to be published in a separate volume - as novellas and novels frequently are. The short story is usually a focused narrative that presents one or two characters involved in a single compelling action.

(also called coming-of-age story) A narrative in which the main character, usually a child or adolescent, undergoes an important experience (or "rite of passage") that prepares him or her for adulthood.

• 1- Protagonist
• 2- Antagonist
• 3- Exposition
• 4- Conflict
• 5- Complication
• 6- Crisis
• 7- Climax
• 8- Conclusion

The main or central character in a narrative. The protagonist usually initiates the main action of the story, often in conflict with the antagonist.

The most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist in a narrative. The antagoinst may be another character, society itself, a force of nature, or even - in modern lierature - conflicting impulses within the protagonist.

The opening portion of a narrative. In the exposition, the scene is set, the protagonist is introduced, and the aurthor discloses any other background information necessary for the reader to understand the events that follow.

The central struggle between two or more forces in the story. Conflict generally occurs when some person or thing prevents the protagonist from achieving his or her goal. Conflict is the basic material out of which most plots are made.

The introduction of a significant development in the central conflict between characters (or between a character and his or her situation). Complications may be external (an outside problem that the character cannot avoid) or internal (a complication that originates in some important aspect of a character's values or personality).

The point in a narrative when the crucial action, decision, or realization must take place. From Greek word krisis, meaning "decision."

The moment of greatest intensity in a story, which almost inevitably occurs toward the end of the work. The climax often takes the form fo a decisive confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist.

In plotting, the logical end or outcome of a unified plot, shortly following the climax. Also called resolution or denouement ("the untying fo the knot"), as in resolving - or untying the knots created by - plot complications earlier in the narrative.

• 1- Foreshadowing
• 2- Flashback
• 3- Epiphany
• 4- In media res

An indication of events to come in a narrative. The author may introduce specific words, images, or actions in order to suggest signigicant later events.

A scene relived in a character's memory. Flashbacks may be related by the narrator in a summary, or they may be experienced by the characters themselves. Flashbacks allow the author to include significant events that occured before the opening of the story.

A moment of profound insight or revelation by which a character's life is greatly altered.

A Latin phrase meaning "in the midst of things"; refers to the narrative device of beginning a story midway in the events it depicts (usually at an exciting or significant moment) before explaining the context or preceding actions.

• 1- Total omniscience
• 2- Limited or selective omniscience
• 3- Impartial omniscience
• 4- Editorial omniscience
• 5- Objective point of view

Point of view in which the narrator know everything about all of the characters and events in a story. A narrator with total omniscience can move freely from one character to another. Generally, a totally omniscient narrative is written in the third person.

Point of view in which the narrator sees into the minds of some but not all of the characters. Most typically, limited omniscience sees through the eyes of one major or minor character.

Point of view employed when an omniscient narrator, who presents the thoughts and actions of the characters, does not judge them or comment on them.

Point of view employed when an omniscient narrator goes beyond reporting the thoughts of his characters to make a critical judgment or commentary, making explicit the narrator's own thoughts or attitudes.

Point of view in which the third-person narrator merely reports dialogue and action with little or no interpretation or access to the characters' minds.

• 1- Omniscient or all-knowing 
• 2- Participant or first-peron narrator
• 3- Observer
• 4- Nonparticipant or third-person
• 5- Innocent or naive
• 6- Unreliable 

A narrator who has the ability to move freely thorugh the consciousness of any character. The omniscient narrator also has complete knowledge of all the external events in a story.

A narrator who is a participant in the action. Such a narrator refers to himself or herself as "I" and may be a major or minor character in the story.

A first-person narrator who is relatively detached from or plays only a minor role in the events described.

A narrator who does not appear in the story as a character but is usually capable of revealing the thoughts and motives of one or more characters.

A character who fails to understand al the implications of the story he or she tells. The innocent narrtor - often a child or childlike adult - is frequently used by an author to generate irony, sympathy, or pity by creating a gap between what the narrator perceives and what the reader knows.

A narrator who - intentinally or unintentionally - relates events in a subjective or distorted manner. The author usually provides some indication early on in such stories that the narrator is not to be completely trusted.

• 1- Interior monologue
• 2- Stream of consciousness

An extended presentation of a character's thoughts in a narrative. Usually written in the present tense and printed without quotation marks, an interior monologues reads as if the character were speaking aloud to himslef or herself, for the reader to overhear.

A type of modern narration that uses various literary devices, especially interior monologue, in an attempt to duplicate the subjective and associative nature of human consciousness.

The techniques a writer uses to create, reveal, or develop the characters.

An aspect of characterization through which the author overtly relates either physical or mental traits of a character. This description is almost invariably a sign of what lurks beneath the surface of the character.

The process by which a character is introduced, advanced, and possibly transformed in a story.

What a character in a narrative wants, the reasons an author provides for a character's actions. Motivation can be either explicit (the reasons are specifically stated in a story) or implicit (the reasons are only hinted at or partially reveled).

A term coined by English novelist E.M. Forster to describe a character with only one outstanding trait. Flat characters are rarely the central characters in a narrative and stay the same throughout the story.

A term also coined by E.M. Forster to describe a complex character who is presented in depth in a narrative. Round characters are those who change significantly during the course of a narrative or whose full personalities are revealed gradually throughout the story.

A common or stereotypical character. Examples of stock characters are the mad scientist, the battle-scarred veteran, and the strong but silent cowboy.

The time and place of a story. The setting may also include the climate and even the social, psychological, or spiritual state of the characters.

The location where a story takes place

The dominant mood or feeling that pervades all or part of a literary work. Atmosphere is the total effect conveyed by the author's use of language, images, and physical setting.

The literary representation of a specific locale that consciously uses the particulars fo geography, custom, history, folklore, or speech. In regional narratives, the locale plays a crucial role in the representation and progression of the story.

A type of fiction in which the characters are presented as products of victims of environment and heredity. Naturalism is considered an extreme form of realism (the attempt to reproduce faithfully the surface apperance of life, especially that of ordinary people in everyday situations).

The attitude toward a subject conveyed in a literary owrk. No single device creates tone; it is the net result of the various elements an author brings to creating the work's feeling and manner.

All the distinctive ways in which an author uses language to create a literary work. An author's style depends on his or her characteristics use of diction, imagery, tone, syntax, and figurative language.

Word choice or vocabulary. Diction refers to the class fo words that an author decides is appropriate to use in a particular work.

A literary device in which a discrepancy of meaning is masked beneath the surface of the language. Irony is present when a writer says one thing but means something quite the opposite.

Where the reader understands the implication and meaning of a situation and may forsee the oncoming disaster or triumph while the character does not.

A type of situational irony that emphasizes the discrepancy between what characters deserve and what they get, between a character's aspirations and the treatment he or she receives a the hands of fate.

A statement in which the speaker or writer says the opposite of what is really meant. For exampe, a friend might say, "How graceful!" after you trip clumsily on a stair.

A conspicuously bitter form fo irony in which the ironic statement is designed to hurt or mock its target.

A brief condensation of the main idea or plot of literary work. A summary is similar to paraphrase, but less detailed.

The main idea or larger meaning of a work of literature. A theme may be a message or a moral, but it is more likely to be a central, unifying insight or viewpoint.

A person, place, or thing in a narrative that suggests meanings beyond its literal sense. Symbol is related to allegory, but it works more complexly. A symbol often contains multiple meanings and associations.

A literary symbol that has a conventional or customary meaning for most readers - for example, a black cat crossing a path or a young bride in a white dress.

An action whose significance goes well beyond its literal meaning. In literature, symbolic acts often involve some conscious or unconscious ritual element such as rebirth, purification, forgiveness, vengence, or initiation.

A narrative in which the literal events (persons, places, and things) consistently point to a parallel sequence of symbolic equivalents. This narrative strategy is often used to dramatize abstract ideas, historical events, religious systems, or political issues. An allegory has two levels of meaning: a literal level that tells a surface story and a symbolic level in which the abstract ideas unfold.

• 1- Verse
• 2- Paraphrase
• 3- Summary
• 4- Subject
• 5- Theme

This term has two major meanings. It refers to any single line of poetry or any composition written in separate lines of more or less regular rhythm, in contrast to prose.

The restatement in one's own words of what one understands a poem to say or suggest. A paraphrase is similar to a summary, although not as brief or simple.

A brief condensation of the main idea or plot of a work. A summary is similar to a paraphrase, but less detailed.

The main topic of a work, whatever te work is "about."

A generally recurring subject or idea noticeably evident in a literary work. Not all subjects in a work can be considered themes, only the central one(s).

• 1- Lyric poem
• 2- Narrative
• 3- Dramatic monologue
• 4- Didactic peom

A short poem expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker. Often written in the first person, it traditionally has a songlike immediacy and emotional force.

A poem that tells a story. Ballads and epics are two common forms of narrative poetry.

A poem written as a speech made by a character at some decisive moment. The speaker is usually addressing a silent listener.

A poem intended to teach a moral lesson or impart a body of knowledge.

The mood or manner of expression in a literary work, which conveys an attitude toward the work's subject, which may be playful, sarcastic, ironic, sad, solemn, or any other possible attitude. Tone helps to establish the reader's relationship to the characters or ideas presented in the work.

Poetry that blends criticism with humor to convey a message, usually through the use of irony and a tone of detached amusement, withering contempt, and implied superiority.

Latin for "mask." A fictitious character created by an author to be the speaker of a literary work.

• 1- Irony
• 2- Verbal irony
• 3- Sarcasm
• 4- Dramatic irony
• 5- Cosmic irony

In language, a discrepency between what is said and what is meant. In life, a discrepency between what is expected and what occurs.

A mode of expression in which the speaker or writer says the opposite of what is really meant, such as saying "Great story!" in response to a boring, pointless anecdote.

A style of bitter irony intended to hurt or mock its target.

A situation in which the larger implications of character's words, actions, or situation are unrealized by that character but seen by the author and the reader or audience.

The constrast between a character's psoition or aspiration and the treatment he or she receives at the hands of a seemingly hostile fate; also called irony of fate.