Literary Terms of
Importance
ENGLISH I
MRS. JEFFRIES
LITERATURE
FICTION
NON-FICTION
LITERARY ELEMENTS
LITERARY DEVICES
Literature
Fiction
I.
Elements of Fiction
A.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A.
B.
Characterization
Plot
Setting
Point of View
Theme
Tone
Style
Mood
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
Non-Fiction
II.
K.
L.
Elements of Non-fiction
A.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Facts
Data
Charts
Graphics
Headings
III. Literary Non-fiction
Literary Devices
IV.
M.
V.
Personification
Simile
Metaphor
Hyperbole
Satire
Foreshadowing
Flashback
Imagery
Allegory
Symbolism
Dialect
Allusion
Irony
Sound Devices
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
Alliteration
Anaphora
Assonance
Consonance
*Euphony
*Cacophony
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Literature
A body of written or spoken works of a specific language,
period, or culture; a representation of life, both fiction
and non-fiction
Fiction
Nonfiction
Literary
Nonfiction
Prose language that is
not poetry
Expository
writing that explains or
describes something
Drama
arts works
written for performance on the
stage, television, or radio
considered as a literary genre
Narrative
writing that tells a story
Poetry text that aims to
present ideas and evoke an emotional
experience in the reader through the
use of meter, imagery and connotative
and concrete words.
Persuasive
writing that convinces
someone to do something or
to think a certain way
Fiction
Any story that is the product of imagination
rather than a documentation of fact. Characters
and events in such narratives may be based in
real life but their ultimate form and configuration
is a creation of the author.
Elements of Fiction
Traits that mark a work as imaginative or narrative
discourse (communication)
Characterization
Plot
Setting
Point of View
Theme
Style
Tone
Mood
Symbol*
*With the exception of this, all of the above are also called “Literary Elements”
Nonfiction
Text that is not fictional; designed primarily to
explain, argue, instruct or describe rather than
entertain. For the most part, its emphasis is factual.
Elements of Nonfiction
Traits that mark a work as reportorial, analytical,
informative or argumentative (e.g., facts, data,
charts, graphics, headings).
Facts
Data
Graphics
Charts
Headings
Literary Nonfiction
Not the
chart
Text that includes literary elements and devices
usually associated with fiction to report on actual
persons, places, or events.
Examples include
Characterization
Plot
Setting
Point of View
Theme
Style
Tone
Mood
Symbol*
but are not limited
to:
Nature Text
Travel Text
Biography
Autobiography
Memoir
Essay
Literary Elements
An essential technique used in literature :
1. Character
2. Plot
3. Setting
4. Point of View
5. Theme
6. Tone
7. Style
8. Mood
Literary Elements
I. Character
A person, animal or inanimate object portrayed in a
literary work.
Character Types
a. Round – multiple traits
b. Flat- 1 or 2 traits
c. Dynamic –change w/i story
d. Static – do not change
Protagonist- main character
Antagonist-character who opposes the protagonist
Methods of Characterization
Only definition
Methods of Characterization
Indirect Characterization through
Words (Dialogue)
…and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the
momentary interruption and leaned toward me.
“I’ll tell you a family secret,” she whispered enthusiastically.
“It’s about the butler’s nose. Do you want to hear about the
butler’s nose?”
What can we say about Daisy’s personality based on
what she says?
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
Literary Elements
II. Plot
Elements of Plot* (leave a space after each)
 Exposition
 Rising action
 Conflict
 Climax
 Falling action
 Resolution
Plot- Exposition
*Exposition is the beginning of the story.
* The exposition introduces the setting and characters
Plot- Rising Action
*Rising Action includes events leading up to the
climax.
*There are conflicts that arise during these events.
 What are the events that lead up to the climax?
 What are the conflicts that are arising during the
rising action?
Plot- Conflict*
Conflicts are problems or complications.
Man vs. man -- two people arguing or fighting
Man vs. himself --a person who has problems within, such as
depression, unresolved anger or love, feelings of rejection, etc.
Man vs. nature --a person against a natural disaster or Mother
Nature, i.e. a storm, blizzard, hurricane, etc.
Man vs. supernatural -- a person against things that are not easily
explained or "normal", such as ghosts, evil forces, gods, etc.
Plot- Conflict
*Climax is the turning point of the story.
* It is a high point and is usually somewhere in the
middle of the story.
Plot- Falling Action
*Falling Action includes events after the climax.
*These events lead to the resolution and start tying up
loose ends.
Plot- Resolution
*Resolution is the end of the story where all of the
loose ends are tied up for the reader.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
III. Setting
cont’d
Only definition
The time and place in which the story unfolds
Setting cont’d
IV. Point of View
Only definition
 The manner in which an author reveals characters, events
and ideas in telling a story.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The vantage point from which a story is told.
 There are different “Points of View.”
First person
 Third Person
 Third person limited
 Omniscient

Point of View cont’d
 First Person The narrator is a character in the story who
can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings and what he
or she sees and is told by other characters. He can’t tell us
thoughts of other characters.
 Third-Person Objective The narrator is an outsider who
can report only what he or she sees and hears. This
narrator can tell us what is happening, but he can’t tell us
the thoughts of the characters.
 Third-Person Limited The narrator is an outsider who
sees into the mind of one of the characters.
 Omniscient The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who
can enter the minds of more than one of the characters.
V. Theme
 A topic of discussion or work; a major idea broad
enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work.
 A theme may be stated or implied.
 Clues to the theme may be found in the prominent
and/or reoccurring ideas in a work.
VI. Tone
 The author’s attitude, stated or implied, toward a subject.
 Some possible attitudes are sarcastic, humorous,
pessimistic, optimistic, earnest, serious, bitter, and joyful.
 An author’s tone can be revealed through choice of words
and details
Author
VII. Style
 Style refers to the way in which an author puts together
words, and the kinds of words he uses.
 Most good writers have a recognizable style.
 Literary style can be classified by formality, directness,
complexity of language and the tendency to use imagery.
 For example, a realistic style usually has stark imagery and
relatively straightforward sentences, while a romantic style
has flowery images and flowing sentence
VIII. Mood
 The climate of feeling in a literary work.
 The prevailing emotions or atmosphere of a work derived
from literary devices such as dialogue and literary
elements.
 The choice of setting, objects, details, images, and words
all contribute to creating a specific mood.
Reader
Literary Devices
Only definition
a tool used by the author to enliven and provide voice to the text
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
personification
simile
metaphor
hyperbole
satire
foreshadowing
flashback
imagery
allegory
symbolism
dialect
allusion
irony
1. Personification An object or abstract idea given
human qualities or human form (Flowers danced
about the lawn.)
2. Simile A comparison of unlike things using like or
as (An ant scurried as fast as a cheetah).
3. Metaphor A comparison of unlike things without
using like or as (The speech gave me food for
thought)
4. Hyperbole An exaggeration or overstatement (I
had to wait forever.)
5. Satire- A literary approach that ridicules or
examines human vice or weakness (Twain’s, “The
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County)
6. Foreshadowing-An organizational device used in
literature to create expectation or to set up an
explanation of later developments.( In the opening of
The Wizard of Oz, set in Kansas, the transformation
of Miss Gulch into a witch on a broomstick
foreshadows her reappearance as Dorothy's enemy
in Oz )
7. Flashback-An organizational device used in
literature to present action that occurred before
current (present) time of the story.
8. Imagery-Descriptive or figurative language in a
literary work; the use of language to create sensory
impressions.
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay
9. allegory - A form of extended metaphor in which
objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are
equated with meanings that lie outside the
narrative itself. The underlying meaning may have
moral, social, religious, or political significance,
and characters are often personifications of
abstract ideas such as charity, greed, or envy.
10. symbolism- A device in literature where an
object represents an idea.
11. dialect-A variety of a language distinct from the
standard variety in pronunciation, grammar, or
vocabulary.
12. Allusion- An implied or indirect reference in
literature to a familiar person, place, or event.
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber
door—Pallas = Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom)
Edgar Allen Poe “The Raven”
13. Irony- the use of a word or phrase to mean the
exact opposite of its literal or usual meaning;
incongruity between the actual result of a sequence
of events and the expected result. “The Story of an
Hour.”
Sound Devices
devices used by authors to assist in achieving euphony
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•
•
•
•
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Alliteration
Anaphora
Assonance
Consonance
*Euphony
*Cacophony
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Sound Devices
Alliteration
 The repetition of the initial consonant sounds in
neighboring words (consonants-all letters of the alphabet that are not
vowels)
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber doorOnly this, and nothing more.“
-Edgar Allan Poe “The Raven”
Sound Devices
Anaphora
• Repetition for effect
 the use of the same word or phrase at the beginning of several
successive clauses, sentences, lines, or verses, usually for
emphasis or rhetorical effect
e.g. "She didn't speak. She didn't stand. She
didn't even look up when we came in.”
• Referring back
• reference to a word or phrase used earlier, especially to avoid
repeating the word or phrase by replacing it with something else
such as a pronoun.
e.g. "I told Paul to close the door and he did so," the
clause "he did so"
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.
Anaphora?
Alliteration?
Sound Devices
Assonance
 the repetition of the same vowel (a, e, i, o, u) sound in
neighboring words (stressed portion if multisyllabic)
ex. right-hive
pane-make;
lake and fate
dog, mock, and strong
It was all a dream
I used to read Word Up magazine
Salt'n'Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine
Hangin' pictures on my wall
Every Saturday: Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl
--Biggie Smalls (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G.)
Sound Devices
Consonance
 The repetition of consonant sounds in neighboring words.
 The repeating sounds can be anywhere in the word, in any
combination, except when it repeats only in the beginning
consonant sound because then it is ___________.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
Anaphora?
Assonance?
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
This it is and nothing more."
-Edgar Allan Poe “The Raven”
Sound Devices
Consonance
 The repetition of consonant sounds in neighboring words.
 The repeating sounds can be anywhere in the word, in any
combination, except when it repeats only in the beginning
consonant sound because then it is alliteration.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
This it is and nothing more."
-Edgar Allan Poe “The Raven”
Sound Devices
Which poem is unpleasant sounding? Why? Why is the other pleasant
sounding?
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatcheves run;
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!“
-from “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
-from “To Autumn” John Keats
Sound Devices
Euphony
Pleasantness in sound
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatcheves run;
Cacophony
Unpleasantness or
harshness in sound
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!“
-from “To Autumn” John Keats
-from “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
Sound Devices
onomatopoeia
A word that imitates the actual sound it makes, such as
pop, sizzle, and crash.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and
barred;
-from “The Highwayman” Alfred Noyes