Literary Elements Definitions(: -ByAshlee<3

Exposition
The introductory material which gives the setting, creates the tone, presents the
characters, and presents other facts necessary to understanding the story.

Foreshadowing
The use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the story.

Conflict
A struggle between opposing forces which is the driving force of a story.

Protagonist
A protagonist is considered to be the main character or lead figure in a novel, play, story,
or poem.

Dissonance
Lack of agreement, consistency, or harmony; conflict

Theme
The main idea or underlying meaning of a literary work.

Setting
The time and place where a story occurs.

Climax
The turning point in a story, at which the end result becomes inevitable, usually where
something suddenly goes terribly wrong; the “dramatic high point” of a story.

Rising Action
A series of events that builds from the conflict. It begins with the inciting force and ends
with the climax.

Falling Action
The events after the climax which close the story.

Resolution
Rounds out and concludes the action.

Antagonist
The character or force that opposes the protagonist.
Hero
A character whose actions are inspiring or noble.

Heroine
A character whose actions are inspiring or noble.

Plot
Sequence of events in a story.

Character
The people who inhabit and take part in a story.

Dialogue
Where characters speak to one another.

Narrator
One who tells a story, the speaker or the “voice” of an oral or written work.

Suspense
That quality of a literary work that makes the reader or audience uncertain or tense about the
outcome of events.

Moral
A lesson teaching literary work.

Mood
The atmosphere or emotional condition created by the piece, within the setting.

Flashback
A scene in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem that interrupts the action to show
an event that happened at an earlier time.

Rhythm
The arrangement of stressed an unstressed syllables into a pattern.

Allusion
A reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of
literature.

Analogy
The relationship of similarity between two or more entities or a partial similarity on
which a comparison is based.

Anecdote
A short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event.

Antithesis
Using opposite phrases in close conjunction.

Colloquialism
A word or phrase used everyday in plain and relaxed speech, but rarely found in formal
writing.

Exaggeration
When a writer makes something out to be more than it is.

Hyperbole
The trope of exaggeration or overstatement.

Idiom
The language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people or the constructions or
expressions of one language whose structure is not matched in another language.

Irony
Where an event occurs which is unexpected, in the sense that it is somehow in absurd or
mocking opposition to what would be expected or appropriate.

Loaded Words
Wording that attempts to influence the listener or reader by appealing to emotion.

Local Words/Colors
The use of regional detail in a literary or an artistic work.

Metaphor
A direct relationship where one thing or idea substitutes for another.

Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds within close proximity, usually in consecutive words
within the same sentence or line.

Oxymoron
A contradiction in terms.

Paradox
Where a situation is created which cannot possibly exist, because different elements of it
cancel each other out.

Parallelism
Use of similar or identical language, structures, events or ideas in different parts of a text.

Personification
A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human
characteristics.
Pun
A play on words or the humorous use of a word emphasizing a different meaning or
application.

Sarcasm
The act of ostensibly saying one thing but meaning another.

Sensory Details
Words and phrases that help readers see, hear, taste, feel, or smell what an author is
describing.

Simile
A comparison between two otherwise unlike objects or ideas by connecting them with the
words "like" or "as."

Slang
Informal diction or the use of vocabulary considered inconsistent with the preferred
formal wording common among the educated or elite in a culture.

Symbol
A word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal
level.

Understatement
A form of irony in which something is intentionally represented as less than it is in fact.

Argumentation
A form of discourse, the purpose of which is to convince a reader or hearer by
establishing the truth or falsity of a proposition.

Arrangement
An organized structure for arranging or classifying.

Balance
Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length
and
importance.

Cliché
An overused expression or a saying that is no longer considered original.

Allegory
A story in which people, things and actions represent an idea about life; allegories often
have a strong moral or lesson.
Autobiography
A form of non-fiction in which a person tells the story of his or her life.

Biography
A non-fictional account of a person's life--usually a celebrity, an important historical
figure, or a writer.
Comedy
Ludicrous and amusing event or series of events designed to provide enjoyment and
produce smiles or laughter usually written in a light, familiar, bantering, or satirical style.

Drama
A composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative
involving conflict and usually designed for presentation on a stage.

Essay
A short literary composition on a particular theme or topic, usually in prose and generally
thoughtful and interpretative.

Fable
A short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.

Fantasy
Used to denote a literary work in which the action occurs in a nonexistent and unreal
world or to a selection that involves incredible characters.

Folk Tale
A traditional legend or narrative originating among a people, usually part of an oral
tradition and subject to variation in transmission.

Historical Fiction
Fiction that explores a past time period and may contain references to actual people and
events of the past.

Myth
A legendary or traditional story, usually one concerning a superhuman being and dealing
with events that have no natural explanation.

Novel
A lengthy fictitious prose narrative portraying characters and presenting an organized
series of events and settings.

Novella
An extended fictional prose narrative that is longer than a short story, but not quite as
long as a novel.
Parable
A story or short narrative designed to reveal allegorically some religious principle, moral
lesson, psychological reality, or general truth.

Play
A specific piece of drama, usually enacted on a stage by diverse actors who often wear
makeup or costumes to make them resemble the character they portray.

Poetry
A variable literary genre characterized by rhythmical patterns of language.

Prose
Any material that is not written in a regular meter like poetry.

Realism
Refers generally to any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner,
unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced aesthetic glorification and
beautification of the world.

Science Fiction
A narrative which draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge, theory, speculation, and
the effects of future events on human beings in its plot, theme, and setting.

Short Story
Narrative fiction that contains description, dialogue, and commentary.

Tall Tale
A humorously exaggerated story about impossible events.

Tragedy
Where a story ends with a negative or unfortunate outcome, which was essentially
avoidable, usually caused by a flaw in the central character’s personality.

Action
The events that take place in a work of literature.

Characterization
The personality a character displays; also, the means by which an author reveals that
personality.

Ambiguity
The expression of an idea in such a way that more than one meaning is possible.

Foil
A character who sets off another character by contrast.
Tone
The attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, and readers.

Point Of View
The vantage point from which a narrative is told.

-First Person Point Of View

when a character narrates the story with I-me-my-mine in his or her speech.

-Second Person Point Of View

The narrator tells the story to another character using "you," so that the story is being told
through the addressee's point of view.

-Third Person Point Of View

Where a “non-participant” serves as the narrarator and has no insight into the characters’
minds.

1) Omniscient
The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of
the characters.
2) Limited Omniscient
The story is told by a narrator OUTSIDE the story, but it is told “through the eyes” of
a particular character
3) Camera View
The most objective point of view, allowing the story teller to record the action from
his or her own point of view, being unaware of any of the characters’ thoughts or
feelings.

Ballad
A short, narrative folk song that fixes on the most dramatic part of a story, moving to its
conclusion by the means of dialogue and a series of incidences.

Dystopia/Utopia
An imaginary place or government in which political and social perfection has been
reached in the material world.

Act
Divisions of plays or operas.

Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close together, in a group of words.

Author’s Perspective
The unique combination of ideas, values, & beliefs that influence his view.
Author’s Purpose
The author’s reason for writing the story.

Description
Any careful detailing of a person, place, thing, or event.

Dialect
A representation of the speech patterns of a particular region or social group.

Monologue
A long, uninterrupted speech (in a narrative or drama) that is spoken in the presence of
other characters.

Epilogue
A conclusion added to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem.

Horror
A very strong feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.

Imagery
Language, which describes something in detail, using words to substitute for and create
sensory stimulation, including visual imagery and sound imagery.

Memoir
An autobiographical sketch--especially one that focuses less on the author's personal life
or psychological development and more on the notable people and events the author has
encountered or witnessed.

Onomatopoeia
Where sounds are spelled out as words; or, when words describing sounds actually sound
like the sounds they describe.

Realistic Fiction
Novels and stories which are "real" in that they take place in a time and place like a
present, or recent past, time and place, have plots which are possible, and have characters
which are believable as real people.

Repetition
Where a specific word, phrase, or structure is repeated several times, usually in close
proximity, to emphasize a particular idea.

Satire
the use of humor and wit with a critical attitude, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule for exposing
or denouncing the frailties and faults of mankind’s activities and institutions, such as
folly, stupidity, or vice.
Soliloquy
A speech delivered by a character when he or she is alone on stage; it is as though the
character is thinking out loud.

Sound Device
Sound devices, also known as "musical devices" make poetry a special art form.

Stereotype
A form that does not change; this type of character has no individuality and fits the mold
of that particular kind of person.

Structure
The manner in which the various elements of a story are assembled.

Style
A manner of putting thoughts into words or the characteristic mode of construction and
expression in writing and speaking.

Surprise Ending
A completely unexpected revelation or turn of plot at the conclusion of a story or play.