1. Antagonist. The primary character in a plot (refer to "Plot"), on
whom the reader's interest centers, is the protagonist--or
alternatively, the hero or heroine--and if the plot is such that
he/she is in opposition with another character, that character is
the antagonist. The relation between them is one of conflict.
(Please refer to "Conflict.")
2. Anticlimax. Anticlimax denotes a writer's deliberate turn from
the serious and elevated to the trivial and lowly in order to
achieve a comic or satiric effect.
3. Antihero. An antihero is the primary character in a modern
novel or play whose attributes are discrepant from those we
associate with the traditional protagonist of a serious literary
work. Rather than manifesting largeness, dignity, power or
heroism, an antihero is petty, disgraceful, passive, ineffectual or
dishonest.
4. Bildungsroman is a German term that signifies "novel of
formation." The subject of such a novel is the development of a
protagonist's mind and character from childhood through various
experiences--often through a spiritual crisis--and into maturity,
which usually involves recognition of his/her identity and role in
the world.
5. Character and characterization. Characters are the persons in
a narrative or dramatic work who have particular moral,
intellectual and emotional qualities that we infer from what they
say and the distinctive ways the speak (the dialogue) and from
what they do (the action). The grounds of the characters'
moralities, temperaments and reactions are their motivations. A
character may remain stable with respect to outlook and
disposition or may undergo a radical change, either through a
gradual process of development or as a result of a crisis.
An author or dramatist establishes the distinctive characteristics
of the persons in a narrative or drama by showing and/or telling.
In showing--also known as the dramatic method--the characters
talk and act, and we have to infer the motives and dispositions
that serve as grounds for what they say and do. The author may
show not only external speech and actions, but also inner
thoughts, feelings and responses. In telling, the author
intervenes in order to describe and/or evaluate the motives and
dispositions of the characters.
6. Climax. Please refer to "Freytag's Pyramid."
7. Comedy. A comedy often ends happily, for its function is to
entertain, provoking laughter and satirizing manners. Comedy
focuses on humans in social situations and depends on codes of
conduct, manners and morality, which it uses to express or imply
a standard against which deviations are measured. Comedy may
be high (intellectual) or low (physical).
8. Conflict. Most plots contain conflict. Conflicts may occur
between a protagonist and an antagonist, between a protagonist
and his/her fate, between a protagonist's circumstances and
his/her goal(s), or between the oppositional desires and values of
a protagonist.
9. Crisis. Please refer to "Freytag's Pyramid."
10. Denouement. Please refer to "Freytag's Pyramid."
11. Dialect. A dialect is a regional variety of the standard literary
language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists that
differs in pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary. Writers often
use dialects in an attempt to present a character more
realistically or to express significant differences in class and
background.
12. Dialogue. Please refer to "Character and characterization."
13. Dramatic irony. Such occurs when a reader is aware of
something that a character or characters in a story do not yet
know. Authors use it to heighten tension or suspense or to
increase the reader's sympathy and/or comprehension.
14. Flashback. The order of a united plot is a continuous sequence
of beginning, middle and end. The beginning initiates the main
action in a way that makes us look forward to something more;
the middle resumes what precedes and requires something to
follow; the end follows from what precedes but requires nothing
more. The structural beginning may not be the initial stage of
the action that an author or dramatist brings to a climax in a
narrative or play. Many epics and short stories begin at the point
of the climax--in media res, "in the middle of things"--and
dramas often capture our attention in the opening scene with a
representative incident that relates to and closely precedes the
event which precipitates the conflict. In novels, modern dramas,
and motion pictures, such exposition often occurs with
flashbacks: interpolated narratives or scenes (frequently
memories, reveries or confessions) that represent events
occurring before the time at which the works open.
15. Flat character. If an author or dramatist builds a character
around a single idea or quality and presents him/her without
much detail, then the character is flat. Usually one can describe
such a character in a single phrase or sentence.
16. Foil. A character in a work who serves to stress and highlight
the distinctive temperament of the protagonist is a foil.
17. Foreshadow. To foreshadow is to present an indication or a
suggestion of an event that will occur later in the work.
18. Freytag's Pyramid. The German critic Gustav Freytag in
Technique of the Drama
(1863) introduces an analysis of plotknown as Freytag's Pyramid. He describes the typical plot of a
five-act play as a pyramidal shape--consisting of rising action,
climactic action, and falling action. Although his description
applies to a limited number of plays, critics of prose frequently
use his terminology. The rising action begins during or
immediately after the opening and continues with the
development of a conflict. The rising action (conflict) reaches a
climax (the highest point of tension). Next, a crisis (a reversal or
turning point) occurs, which inaugurates the falling action.
Finally, the action or intrigue ends in success or failure for the
protagonist. Two frequently used terms for the outcome of a
plot are resolution and denouement.
In many plots the denouement involves a reversal in the
protagonist's fortunes (failure or destruction in tragic works and
success in comic works). The reversal often depends on a
discovery, the discovery of something important that was
unknown to him/her.
19. Hero or heroine. Please refer to "Antagonist."
20. In media res. Please refer to "Flashback."
21. Motif. A motif is a conspicuous element--such as a symbol,
image or theme--that appears throughout a work, contributing to
the unity of the work.
22. Narrator. Point of view signifies the way we experience a
story, the way the author presents the characters, setting,
dialogue, actions and events that constitute the narrative. In a
third-person narrative, the narrator is someone outside the story
who either refers to all the characters by name or as he, she,
they. In a first-person narrative, the narrator speaks as I and is a
participant in the story. In a second-person narrative, the
narrator addresses the audience as you.
23. Parable. A parable is a very short narrative about human
beings that stresses the tacit analogy, or parallel, with the thesis
or lesson the narrator is trying to convey to his/her audience.
24. Plot. The plot in a narrative or dramatic work constitutes its
events and actions, rendered and ordered to achieve specific
artistic and emotional effects. That description is deceptively
simple because characters perform the actions (verbal discourse
as well as physical actions) that are the means by which they
exhibit their qualities. Therefore, plot and character are
interdependent critical concepts.
There is a variety of plot forms: tragedy, comedy, romance,
satire and other genres. Each exhibits diverse plot-patterns and
is narrative or dramatic and in verse or prose.
25. Point of view. Please refer to "Narrator." In a third-person
narrative, the narrator has either an omniscient perspective or a
limited point of view. If the narrator is omniscient (knows
everything), then he/she may be intrusive--that is, he/she reports
and evaluates the actions and motives of the characters--or
unintrusive--that is, impersonal and objective. If the narrator
has a limited point of view, then he/she tells the story in third
person but stays inside the confines of what is perceived,
thought, remembered and felt by a single character.
Two other narrative tactics are relevant to a consideration of
points of view. The self-conscious narrator shatters any illusion
that he/she is relating an actual occurrence by revealing that the
narration is a fictional work of art. One variety of self-conscious
narrative is the self-reflexive novel, which incorporates into its
narration references to the process of composing the fictional
story itself. Although we ordinarily accept what a narrator tells
us as authoritative, the fallible or unreliable narrator is one
whose perception, interpretation and evaluation of the matters
he/she narrates do not coincide with the opinions and norms the
author implies, which the author expects the alert reader to
share.
26. Protagonist. Please refer to "Antagonist."
27. Resolution. Please refer to "Freytag's Pyramid."
28. Reversal. Please refer to "Freytag's Pyramid."
29. Rising action. Please refer to "Freytag's Pyramid."
30. Round character. An author presents a round character with
subtle particularity because the character is complex in
temperament and motivation. Such a character is difficult to
describe adequately, and similar to a real person, he/she is
capable of surprising us.
31. Satire. Despite the aesthetic and often comic pleasures of
satire, satirists incline toward self-promotion as judges of morals
and manners, of thought and behavior. Numerous satirists
ridicule or berate the shortcomings of their own times, hoping
that their values will outlast the occasions or crises of the
moment.
32. Setting. The overall setting of a narrative or dramatic work is
the general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in
which its action occurs. The setting of a single episode or scene
within such a work is the particular physical location in which it
takes place.
33. Soliloquy. A soliloquy is a dramatic form of discourse in which
a character reveals his/her thoughts when alone or unaware of
the presence of other characters.
34. Stock character. Stock characters are types that occur
repeatedly in a particular literary genre and are recognizable as
part of the conventions of the form.
35. Stream of consciousness. Stream of consciousness is the term
for a mode of narration that reproduces, without a narrator's
intervention, the full spectrum and continuous flow of a
character's mental process, in which sense perceptions mingle
with conscious and half-conscious thoughts, memories,
expectations, feelings and associations.
36. Style. Traditionally style means the manner of linguistic
expression in prose or verse or how a writer says whatever it is
he/she says. To analyze the style specific to a particular work or
writer, determine the rhetorical situation and aim, the
characteristic diction, the types of sentence structure and syntax,
and the density and kinds of figurative language.
37. Subplot. A subplot is a story within a story or play that is
complete and interesting in its own way(s).
38. Suspense. A lack of certainty, on the part of the reader, about
what will happen, especially to the characters with whom the
reader has established a bond of sympathy, is known as
suspense. If what occurs violates any expectations the reader
formed, then it is surprise.
39. Symbolism. In the broadest sense of the term, symbolism means
anything that signifies something. With respect to that sense, all
words are symbols. With respect to literature, however, a
symbol is an object or event that signifies another object or
event, which in turn signifies something beyond itself. Some
symbols are public; some symbols are private.
40. Theme. A theme is a general concept or doctrine, implicit or
explicit, that a writer incorporates into his/her work and makes
persuasive to the reader.
41. Tragedy. A tragedy normally features a reversal of fortune from
good to bad and ends in catastrophe and death for the
protagonist and others. It is the genre of most works that focus
on the meaning and the significance of life.
