Basic and Advanced Literary
Terms
Basic Literary Terms

The following literary terms are the
foundation of skills for understanding
literature and analyzing literature.
Elements of Plot

Plot: the sequence of events in a narrative
work.

There are basically five stages of plot that
you’ll have to know.
Elements of Plot (cont.)

Exposition: introduces the characters,
setting, and conflict.

Rising Action: The complications to the
conflict and increase the reader’s interest.
Elements of Plot (cont.)

Climax: The point of greatest emotional
intensity, interest, or suspense. The
turning point.

Falling Action: Follows the climax and
shows the results of the climax.
Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the
five senses.

There are five types of imagery you need
to know…
Imagery (cont.)

Visual Imagery


Imagery that deals with picturing something.
Example: The dark, black cloud began to
block the azure, blue sky as we sat and
watched on the beach.
Auditory Imagery
Imagery that deals with sound and hearing.

Example: The doorbell rang and Rayna screamed,
“I’ll get it!”
Imagery (cont.)

Olfactory Imagery


Imagery that represents a smell.
Example: The garbage can released an odor
of rancid, three-week-old milk.
Gustatory Imagery

Imagery that represents a taste.
Example: Mark tasted the briny, bitter salt
water for the first time.
Imagery (cont.)

Tactile Imagery

Imagery that represents touch.
Example: She dug her toes in the wet sand,
but she was still sweating from the hot sun.
Tone

An author’s attitude toward his or her
subject matter.


We can figure out tone by an author’s word
choice, punctuation, sentence structure, and
figures of speech.
SAMPLE TONE WORDS:
sympathetic, serious, ironic, sad, bitter,
humorous, angry, apologetic, critical, proud
Mood

The emotional quality of a literary work.
How a setting makes the reader feel.

Mood is determined by setting, subject
matter, and tone.
SAMPLE MOOD WORDS:
Cheerful, gloomy, bleak, eerie, tense,
calm, ominous, uncertain, miserable

Elements of Plot (cont.)

Resolution: (Denouement) part of the plot
that reveals the outcome of the conflict.
The story comes to a close.
Conflict

The struggle between opposing forces in a
story.

External Conflict


A character struggles against some outside
force: a person, nature, society, or fate.
Internal Conflict

The struggle takes place in the character’
mind as he/she is torn between opposing
forces.
Theme

The main idea, message, or lesson of a
story.
Themes of Romeo and Juliet:
One must learn to control his/her emotions.
Love takes on many forms.
One must be allowed to choose who they
marry.
Foreshadowing and Flashback

Foreshadowing: Clues or hints to prepare
readers for events that happen later in a
story.

Flashback: An interruption of the
chronological order of a narrative to
describe an event that happened earlier.
Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an exaggeration used for
effect.
Examples:
I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
I told you a million times!
We’re never going to get out of this
class!
Metaphor
A comparison that does NOT use like or
as.
Examples:
Juliet is the sun.
He is a beast on the football field.
Keep your meat hooks off of that food!
There are three types of metaphors you
need to know…

Metaphor (cont.)
Extended Metaphor: A metaphor used
throughout an entire story or poem.
Example:
All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women merely
players
They have their exits and entrances;
A And one man in his time plays many parts.

Metaphor (cont.)
Implied Metaphor- A metaphor that is not
direct, but implies a comparison.
Examples:
Tom Brady was licking his chops
whenever he found out he was playing the
Broncos and not the Steelers.

He really spread his wings whenever he
graduated. He soared into his future.
Metaphor (cont.)

Mixed Metaphor: When more than one
metaphor is used and the metaphors imply
different things.
Example: He flew down the track, ate his
competition up, cruised by the last runner,
and blew up the finish line.
Simile and Personification

Simile: A comparison using “like” or “as.”


Examples: He is like a beast on the field.
He whines like a baby when he
has to do work.
Personification: An animal, object, force of
nature, or idea is given human
characteristics.

Example: The house glanced darkly at him.
The sun smiled down on her.
Symbolism



The use of any literal person, animal,
place, object, or event to represent
something on the figurative level.
In Romeo and Juliet, the ring is a symbol
of their love.
In Of Mice and Men the farm house
George and Lennie dream of symbolizes
hope.
Irony

A contrast or discrepancy between
expectation and reality, or between what is
expected and what actually happens.

There are three types of irony.
Irony (cont.)
1. Situational Irony:
The outcome of a situation is the opposite of
what’s expected.
Example: An ambulance injuring
pedestrians.
2. Verbal Irony:
A person says one thing but means another.
Example: Sarcasm
Lennie Small
Irony (cont.)
3. Dramatic Irony:
The audience or reader knows information
that the characters do not know.
Example: A “kick me” sign on someone’s
back.
Point of View

The position from which a story is told.

There are four types of Point of View you
need to know.
Point of View (cont.)

First Person Point of View



One of the characters is telling the story and
we get only his/her perspective.
I, me, we, us, and our will be used
Third Person Limited

The narrator is not in the story, and the
narrator only focuses on one character’s
thoughts.
Point of View (cont.)

Third Person Omniscient


The narrator is not in the story, but we get the
thoughts and feelings of all characters.
Third Person Objective

The narrator is not in the story, but we only
get the actions of the characters (no
thoughts).
Anaphora
Repetition of the same
word or group of
words at the
beginning of the line.
This royal throne of
kings…
This earth of majesty…
This other Eden…
This fortress built…
Antithesis
A balanced, paralleled
structure of
contrasting ideas.
Examples:
It was the best of times;
it was the worst of
times.
Ask not what your
country can do for
you, but what you can
do for your country.
Apostrophe
Address to something
inanimate, usually
carrying heavy
emotion.
Examples:
O, my soul, where you
stand…
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Assonance
Repetition of identical or
similar vowel sounds,
but usually with
different ending
consonant sounds.
Examples:
Lake and fate
Produced and abused
Hook and took
Asyndeton
Removed conjunctions
to give phrases or
groups of words a
faster pace.
“I came, I saw, I
conquered.”
Consonance
Where the end
consonants agree but
the preceding vowels
are not in agreement.
River and ever
Heaven and given
Up and step
Dialect
Language or way of
speech of a particular
region.
What’s yinz doin?
You betcha
Y’all
Litote
A figure of speech that
emphasizes its
subject by conscious
understatement.
Usually states the
negative of its
opposite.
Examples:
1. Not bad = good
2.
Little profits = no
profits at all.
Metonymy
The substitution of the
name of an object
closely associated
with a word for itself.
The crown = the
monarchy
The White House
announced today =
the government
Overstatement = Hyperbole
Exaggerated
overstatement.
I’m starving
I’m so hungry I can eat
a horse.
The shot heard round
the world.
Synecdoche
When a part is used to
signify the whole.
Usually distinguished by
the item standing for
the whole should be a
significant/important
part of the whole and
directly associated
with it.
All hands on deck!
Nice threads that you
have on today.
Understatement
A figure of speech which
defectively falls short of
the magnitude of what is
being talked about.
Litotes, although a form of
understatement, work
with negative/opposite
terminology.
"It's just a flesh wound."
(Black Knight, after
having both of his
arms cut off, in Monty
Python and the Holy
Grail)