Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Fiction/Non-Fiction Terms
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Allusion
• A quick reference in a literary work to
something that is well known in the society
• Eg.: referring to the Bible, Shakespeare, Lady
Gaga, etc.
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Antagonist
• The characters or forces arrayed against the
protagonist(s)
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Anti-Climax
• An effect which works against the climax
• Often acts to bring a lofty tone “down to
earth”
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Aside
• A short dramatic speech, said by a character
to him/herself, but out loud, so the audience
can overhear
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Audience
• Obviously, the person/people experiencing
the play/book/song/film, etc., but also the
“type” of person the author had in mind
when creating the work
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Conflict
• General term for negative interactions
between characters
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Conflict: Internal
• Internal – struggle inside a character’s mind
or self – person vs. self
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Conflict: External
• Person vs. Person – conflict between 2 or
more characters
• Person vs. Environment – conflicts between a
person and their situation – Nature, society,
group, etc.
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Character
• General name for someone in a story
• Can also refer to a person’s overall personality
and sense of morality
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Characterization
• The way in which a character is “drawn” by
the author – the way in which we are
introduced to the character’s traits
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Characterization
• Presentation – how the author tells the
reader about a character:
– Direct – the author actually tells the reader
about a character’s traits, motivations, etc.
– Indirect – the author has other characters tell the
reader about another a particular character, or
shows us through the character’s actions
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Character - Traits
• Round – character has many traits
• Flat – character has few traits
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Character - Traits
• Dynamic – character’s traits change over
time
• Static – character’s traits do not change over
time
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Character - Types
• Stereotype/Stock – character with clichéd or
familiar traits which appears often in
especially escapist-type literature
– Eg. James Bond, Robin Hood, Wicked
Stepmother, etc.
• Realistic – A character who is NOT based on a
stereotypical cliché, but on “real life”
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Character - Types
• Foil – a secondary character whose traits or
actions contrast with those of the main
character in order to draw attention to them
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Cliché
• An idea or part of a artistic work which has
been used so much that it has lost its original
meaning or effect
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Climax
• The point at which the action and/or tension
is at its height
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Colloquial Language
• Words and phrases that are used in informal
settings, but are not appropriate for formal
ones; “everyday” language
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Comedy
• A literary or dramatic work that is not
serious, and usually has a happy ending
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Compare
• Looking at how 2 things are similar
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Complication
• A challenge or hurdle placed in the way of the
protagonist
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Connotation
• The ideas, thoughts, or feelings associated
with a particular word or phrase
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Contrast
• Looking at how 2 things are different
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Crisis
• The main problem or troubling event that sets
the action going
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Denotation
• The thing or situation that a word refers to,
its definition, or actual meaning
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Denouement
• French for “unknotting”
• Loose ends of the plot tied up, either after the
climax, or (more commonly) in the very final
scenes of the story
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Dialogue
• The words spoken, usually in conversation, by
characters in a story or play
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Dilemma
• A choice that a character must make between
2 unpleasant outcomes, in response to a plot
challenge
• Dilemmas are often hard choices that involve
moral or ethical issues
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Drama
• A work meant to be represented onstage by
actors speaking dialogue, but also refers to
any plot that has many ups and downs
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Epiphany
• A term for a character’s sudden realization
about something
• Think “lightbulb moment” – a thought or idea
that occurs to a character that changes his or
her outlook
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Episode
• A particular incident or event within the main
plot of a story
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Exposition
• Tells background information
• Sets up plot events
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Falling Action
• Events following the climax
• Crisis resolved; character conflicts dealt with
• Aka: the Resolution
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Figurative Language
• Language which uses various sorts of
comparisons to talk about multiple layers of
meaning at once, often using similes,
metaphors, etc.
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Flashback
• A scene inserted into the plot that shows
events that occurred at an earlier time
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Foreshadowing
• Hints given in the plot as to its outcome
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Genre
• A particular category of literature, such as
Drama, Romance, Comedy, Tragedy, etc.
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Hyperbole
• “hy-PER-bo-lee”
• When something is emphasized using
deliberate exaggeration
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Image
• A visual picture, described in words
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Imagery
• The use of visual pictures to add meaning to
literature
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Indeterminate Ending
• An ending in which the reader cannot be
certain of the outcome
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Irony
• A literary device in which the writer
expresses a meaning that is different than
the words used
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Jargon
• Specific words or language used by a certain
technical or professional group
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Metaphor
• A direct comparison of one thing to another
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Mood
• Also called atmosphere or ambience
• The “feeling” presented in the story through
the way the author describes scenes or plot
events
• Eg.: It was a dark and stormy night…
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Moral
• A message the author is trying to give through
the story
• Also, a term that indicates whether or not the
actions of the characters are good or just,
from a societal perspective
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Narration
• Story as told by a narrator
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Narrative
• A story told by a narrator
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Narrator
• The person telling a story
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Oxymoron
• A figure of speech that puts 2 things which
puts 2 opposite things together
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Paradox
• A statement which seems to contradict itself,
but does in fact work
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Personification
• Giving inanimate objects human-like qualities
or characteristics
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Persuasion
• Attempting to prove a position and convince
an audience of that position, using logic and
emotion
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Plot
• What happens in a story
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Point of View
• The viewpoint through which a story is told
• Types:
– First Person –
• “I” – solely the POV of the narrator
• reader only knows as much as narrator
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Point of View
• Types Cont’d:
– Third Person Omniscient – “God Mode” –
narrator knows characters’ thoughts and feelings
– Third Person Limited Omniscient – narrator
knows thoughts and feelings of one character,
but not necessarily others
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Point of View
• Types Cont’d:
– Objective/Dramatic – “fly on the wall” – narrator
is completely outside the action, and simply
relates it as he/she sees it happening.
• Eg. Reality TV/DVD extras footage, etc.
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Propaganda
• Literature made and distributed in order to
put forth a particular argument or point of
view
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Protagonist
• The main character(s) in a story
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Rising Action
• The series of events leading to the climax
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Sarcasm
• An ironic verbal device, in which what is said
is the opposite of what is meant
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Satire
• The ridiculing of any subject in order to
demean it and make it laughable
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Setting
• The place and time in which a story occurs
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Simile
• A direct comparison using “like” or “as”
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Slang
• Informal, everyday-type language that takes
the place of more usual, or more serious
terms
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Style
• The particular way an author writes – his or
her word choice, sentence structure, rhythms
of language, etc.
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Subplot
• A secondary plot or story woven in-between
the events in the main plot
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Surprise Ending
• An ending which does not naturally follow on
from the main points in the plot
• Most effective when foreshadowed
information is revealed to mean something
completely different from the reader’s
expectations
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Suspense
• A feeling of tension that builds throughout the
plot
• Usually linked to what will happen at the
climax
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Symbolism
• When an important person, place or thing in a
story represents both itself, and something
else
• The secondary representation is generally
figurative = not a literal one
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Theme
• The central idea or thesis of a story
• Can be stated directly by the author, or
indirectly through the outcome of the plot
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Tone
• The author’s attitudes and/or biases that
come through in the story, whether in
character descriptions, or in their dialogue
Kelly Road English Department – English 10
Tragedy
• A serious literary or dramatic work that
usually ends with the death or downfall of
the protagonist(s)
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Understatement
• The deliberate downplaying of something to
make it seem less than it really is