Literary Terms

We will be using these literary

terms throughout the school year.
There WILL be literary terms used
on your FINAL EXAMS in May!!
You need to keep up with your
notes. Dont lose your terms! You
might be able to use them
be RESPONSIBLE!!

We will use the following terms:

Character Antagonist Protagonist
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

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

Antagonist
The Antagonist is 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 Dont
antagonize me!

Protagonist
The Protagonist is the main
character in a literary work
Can you name some
famous Protagonists that
are found in literature?

Diction
Diction is the manner in

which we express words; the

wording used.
Diction = enunciation
Some easy examples are:
Dont say goin say going, Dont say wanna say
want to

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

Connotation
The connotation of a word is the set of
ideas associated with it 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 writers word choices.

Denotation versus
Connotation
Some examples
Cheap is low in cost (denotation) but
stingy or poorly made are the
connotations of cheap

Lets 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.

Imagery
Imagery is words 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.

MOOD
Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling
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.

Plot
Plot is the 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
g
n
tio
Ac

Ris
in

llin
Fa

gA
ctio
n

Climax

Exposition
Conflict Introduced

Resolution

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

Rising Action
Rising Action is the 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.

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 turning
point in a story or drama.

Falling Action
Falling Action is the action
that typically follows the
climax and reveals its
results.

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

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

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

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

Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the authors 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?

Suspense
Suspense is the 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
Point of View is 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 setting of a literary work is 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.
Details such as dialect, clothing, customs, and
modes of transportation are often used to
establish setting.
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.

Style
Style is the 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 authors writing
style.

Theme
The theme of a literary work is its central
message, 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 life.

Tone
Tone is a reflection of a writers or speakers
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 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 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.

Metaphor
A Metaphor is a 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.

Simile
A Simile is another figure of speech
that compares seemingly unlike
things. Similes DO use the words
like or as.
Example: Her voice was like nails on a
chalkboard.

Oxymoron
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that
is a combination of seemingly
contradictory words.
Examples:

Same difference
Pretty ugly
Roaring silence

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

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