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Fable

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A very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life.

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Farce

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A type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations.

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Figure of thought (or Tropes)

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Words or phrases used in ways that effect an obvious change (or "turn") in their standard meaning. One kind of trope depends on a comparison between two very different objects, or else on a transference of qualities associated with an object, experience, or concept to another not literally connected with it. Such figures of thought include simile, metaphor, personification, pathetic fallacy, synecdoche, and metonymy. A second kind of trope depends on a contrast between two levels of meaning to another. These include irony, paradox, oxymoron understatement, hyperbole.

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Flashback

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A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.

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Foil

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A character who acts as contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

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Foreshadowing

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The use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.

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Genre

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A French term for a kind, a literary type or class. The major Classical genres were: epic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire, to which would now be added novel and short story (though there are numerous subgenres, like romance, gothic, detective, etc.) Genres typically have a set of "rules" or constraints prescribed to them, and audiences who favor a certain genre typically have a set of expectations that must be filled in order for the work to be considered "successful" Of course, success based on generic adherence is not always the case; many of the most successful works of literature are successful partially because they do not easily fall into generic categories. But, alternatively, it is those generic expectations that can make a particular work appealing, such as the horror or detective novel.

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Verbal Irony

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Consists of implying a meaning different from, and often the complete opposite of, the one that is explicitly stated. Usually the irony is signaled by clues in the context of the situation or in the style of expression. One of the most famous examples: Swift's satire "A Modest Proposal," which purports to present a happy solution to the famine in the author's native Ireland: using the infants of the starving lower classes as a source of food.

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Situational Irony

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Takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.

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Structural Irony

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Refers to an implication of alternate or revised meaning that pervades the unreliable narrator who continually interprets events and intentions in ways that the author signals are mistaken. Another means of creating structural irony is to relate the same events from the perspectives of different narrators.

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Dramatic Irony

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Is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.

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Cosmic Irony

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Refers to an implied worldview in which characters are led to embrace false hopes of aid or success, only to be defeated by some larger force, such as a god or fate.

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Juxtaposition

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A poetice and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating and effect of surprise and wit. Example: Ezra Pound:"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough." Juxtaposition is also a form of contrast by anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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Litotes

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A trope or figure of thought that is a form of understatement. The positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form. Example:"He's no fool."

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Metafiction

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A term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. In providing a critique of their own methods of construction, such writings not only examine the fundamental structures of narrative fiction, but also explore the possible fictionality of the world outside the literary fictional text.

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Mood

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An atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected.

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Motif

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A recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses "So it goes" throughout Slaughterhouse-Five to remind the reader of the senselessness of death.

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Motivation

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The reasons for a character's behavior.

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Narration

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This term refers to the act of telling a story, whether in prose or in verse, and the means by which the telling is accomplished. The main narrative forms in prose are the novel, the novella, and the short story. In its broad sense, narration includes all of the aspects of a story and all of the techniques available to the author: the nature of the narrator, the choice of point of view, the roles that the place, the means of conveying characterization, the use of dialogue, the structure, the themes that emerge, the tone that the work conveys, and, standing behind the fictional narrative, the authorial voice implied by these various choices.

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Narrator

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The person who tells the story. His or her identity differs from that of the author, because the narrator is always in some sense the author's invention, one of the devices that he or she is using to shape the narrative. In fact, however, even when there is not clear distinction between the narrator and the characters, the narrator remains a quasi-fictional speaker, contrived for the purposes o the particular story. Always remember that "narrator" does not mean "author". See voice.

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Parable

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A relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life.

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Paradox

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A figure of thought or trope in which a statement that appears on the surface to be contradictory or impossible turns out to express an often striking truth. For example, "Less is more."

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Paratactic Sentence

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Simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. "I am tired: it is hot."

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Parody

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A work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style.

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Periphrasis

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A figure of thought in which a point is stated by deliberate circumlocution, rather than directly. One prominent use of periphrasis is an euphemisms, such as "passes away" for "died" and "in his cups" for "drunk". There the aim is to cushion the painful or embarrassing effect of the explicit term. Periphrasis also occurs in the kennings(descriptive phrases that substitute for ordinary words) characteristic of Old English poetry, such as "whale-road" for "sea" and "sword-hate" for warfare. In this case, the periphrastic term gives the narration greater variety by avoiding the repetition of common words and makes the concept more vivid by turning it into a virtual metaphor.

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Plot

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Sometimes called the storyline, the sequence of events leading to some sort of resolution that is designed to reveal the feelings, motives, and values of the characters. Plot is not the story. Plot is the sequence of events-how the story is told-and the story is what happens.

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Exposition

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The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.

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Rising Action

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Complications in conflict and situations (may introduce new ones as well)

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Climax

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That point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest, Also called "turning point"

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Resolution

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The conclusion of a story, when all or most of the conflicts have been settled; often called the denouement.

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Point Of View

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The vantage point from which the writer tells the story.

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First person Point Of View

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One or more of the characters tell the story, easily identifiable from the use of the pronoun"I' or, occasionally, "we". This POV has the advantages of immediacy and directness, but also imposes limitations, as the narrator can only relate what he or she (or they) might have witnessed.

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Third Person Point of View

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This POV presents a narrator that has a much broader view and, usually, an objective perspective on characters and events, identifiable from the use of "he," "she," or "they."

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Omniscient Point of View

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has a narrator that can enter the consciousness of any character, evaluate motives and explain feelings, and recount the background and predict the outcome of situations. An omniscient narrator who offers philosophical or moral commentary on the characters and the events he depicts is called an Intrusive narrator.

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Third-Person Limited

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is a POV that features a narrator who describes events only from the perspective and with the understanding of one, or sometimes, a select few characters.

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Objective Point of View

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has a narrator who is called an objective narrator. This POV is totally impersonal and objective, and the story is told with no comment on any characters or events. Objective POV is a subtler technique, and we are often left to infer the characters' feeling from the spare, matter-of-fact report of their dialogue and actions.

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Second Person Point of View

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has a narrator that addresses the audience directly using the pronoun "you." This POV assumes that the audience is experiencing the events along with the narrator. That implies audience may be the reader, a character who appears later in the story, or a listener who is never identified, such as a therapist in whom the narrator is confiding. Its use can be relatively rare. While it has the immediacy of the first person, it can have the off-putting effects of seeming self-concious and of calling constant attention to the process of narration. It also limits the kind of scenes that can effectively be related through such constant back-and-forth involvement between narrator and audience.

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Protagonist

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The central character ina story, the one who initiates or drives that action. Usually the hero or anti-hero; in a tragic hero, like John Proctor of The Crucible, there is always a hamartia, or tragic flaw in his character which will lead to his downfall.

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Romance

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In general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful.

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Satire

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A type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change.

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Setting

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The time and place in which the events in a work of literature occur.

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Stream of Consciousness

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An extreme form of third person limited, this style of writing portrays attempts to replicate the thoughts processes of a character, with little or no intervention by the narrator. The running meditation may include sensory impressions, memories, opinions, and insights, organized by free association, in just the digressive form that it might follow in real life.

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Style

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The distinctive way in which a writer uses language: a writer's distinctive use of diction, tone and syntax.

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Subplot

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Secondary stories that parallel or contrast with the main action.

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Suspense

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A feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story.

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Symbol

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A person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself.

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Syntactic Permutation

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Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. Often difficult for a reader to follow.

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Tell Tale

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An outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable.

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Telegraphic Sentence

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Sentence shorter than five words.

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Theme

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The central idea that a literary work conveys, wither directly or implicitly. In is broad sense, the term refers to an abstract concept that recurs in many works of literature-for example, courtship, the horrors of was, or conflict between parents and children. The narrower meaning of theme is a view or a value conveyed by a particular literary work, either by assertion or by implication. A theme can often emerge by implication and conveyed by the choices that the author makes about the narration and the tone.

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Understatement

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A figure of thought and a form of irony in which a point is deliberately expressed as less, in magniture, value, or importance, than it actually is. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio dismisses that fatal wound he has just received as "a scratch." The effect is to create a sort of double take sense, this trope is the opposite of hyperbole.

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Verisimilitude

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The extent to which a work of fiction exhibits realism or authenticity, or otherwise conforms to our sense of reality.

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Vernacular

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The language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality.

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Voice

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The voice of the author, in the form of various convictions and values by which he or she judges characters and events as well as evokes judgments in the reader, stands behind every fictional narrative. That voice may be implied by various aspects of the narration which emerge in the telling and which may discerned by the attentive reader.

IB English Literary Terms for Prose Fiction – Flashcards

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