Literary Terms
Flashcards
This occurs when the reader/
audience knows something that
the character(s) in the story do not
know.
Dramatic Irony
The series of related events that make
up a story.
Plot
Literature (along with film and
music) is broken down into these
different categories.
Genre
A person, a place, a thing, or an
event (a concrete visible object)
that has its own meaning AND
stands for something beyond itself
(an invisible object or idea with a
deeper meaning) as well.
Symbol
A figure of speech in which a
nonhuman or nonliving thing or
quality is talked about as if it were
human or alive.
Personification
A person or character that is
considered to be the main character in
a novel, play, story, or poem.
Protagonist
This is a very broad term and refers to
a type of language or writing that does
not want the reader to take things
literally. It is a word or a phrase that
describes one thing in terms of
another and is not literally true.
Figurative Language
The literal dictionary definition of a
word.
Denotation
The repetition of the same or very
similar consonant sounds at the
beginning of words that are close
together.
Alliteration
A person or character that deceives,
frustrates, or somehow works against
the main character.
Antagonist
An interruption in the action of a plot
to tell something of importance which
happened at an earlier time.
Flashback
The feelings, emotions, and
associations that a word suggests.
(positive, negative, or neutral)
Connotation
A person or animal who takes part in
the action of a story, play, or other
literary work. (The ways in which the
author develops that person or animal
in a story.)
Character/ Characterization
This term is a type of figurative
language where one uses an extreme
exaggeration for dramatic effect.
Hyperbole
A struggle or clash between opposing
characters or opposing forces. This
type is when a character struggles
against some outside force.
External Conflict
An imaginative comparison between
two unlike things in which one thing is
said to be another thing. A figure of
speech.
Metaphor
A truth about life revealed in a work of
literature.
Theme
An all-knowing perspective from which
a story is told.
Omniscient Point of View
A perspective from which a story is
told where the narrator only focuses
on one characters thoughts and
feelings.
3rd Person Point of View
A perspective from which a story is
told in which the narrator is telling the
story him or herself, using the person
pronoun “I”.
1st Person Point of View
A story that attempts to explain
something about the world or how
something was created and typically
involves gods or other superhuman
beings.
Myth
Involving a contrast between what is
said or written and what is meant:
sarcasm.
Verbal Irony
The use of clues to suggest events that
will happen later in the plot.
Foreshadowing
A struggle or clash between opposing
characters or opposing forces. This
type is when the struggle is within the
character’s own mind.
Internal Conflict
An example of figurative language in
which a comparison between two
unlike things is made, using a
connecting word such as “like” or “as”.
Simile
The time and place in which the events
of a work of literature take place.
Setting
An educated guess, a conclusion that
makes sense because it is supported
by evidence. (What you know + what
you read = inference)
Inference
A reference, found in a story, to a
statement a person, a place, or an
event
from literature, history, religion,
mythology, politics, sports, or science.
Allusion
Occurs when what happens in a story
is very different than what was
expected to occur.
Situational Irony
A conversation between two or more
characters.
Dialogue