LITERARY TERMS

1) Fabl
A short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters.
 The Tortoise and The Hare can be given as an example.

2) Fantasy
An imaginative fiction dependent for effect on strangeness of setting, in other words, it is a genre of
fiction that concentrates on imaginary elements.
 Harry Potter Series and The Lord of the Rings Series are the most known fantasy novels by
the public.

3) Conflict
A literary element that involves a struggle between two opposing forces.
To simplify, anything that protagonist and the antagonist do not agree upon creates conflict and
therefore, a story to be told.
There are two types of conflicts, internal and external;

3.1) Internal Conflict

Experiences of two opposed feelings such as virtue and vice or good and evil.
 The struggles that Hamlet goes through, knowing that it is not right to kill but still aching for
revenge is the classical example of internal conflict in literature.

3.2) External Conflict

This type of conflict involves an outside force that damages the progress of a character.
The most common type is the usual encounters between a protagonist and an antagonist.
 Batman vs. Joker in comics
 Prospero vs. Alonso and Antonio from Shakespeare

4) Theme
a universal idea, lesson, or message.
 All works of literature have themes.
 Themes are almost never stated explicitly.
 LITERARY THEORIES
1) Alienation
Alienation is a psychological trauma which occurs when a person withdraws or becomes isolated
from their environment or from other people.
In literature, it is used for giving an emotional base, psyche to a character.
 Joker, a character we all know, is an example by himself. A comedian with a mental health
issues who feels the push of discrimination from society.
2) Base & Superstructure (BnS)
It is a Marxist term that is studied in sociology.
BnS suggests that for a society to exist and work efficiently, there has to be two separate classes;
2.1) Base
(It is gonna be easier to explain the attributes of the Members of the Base Class)
 They are the majority in population.
 They’re the working forces of the society.
 The fact that they are not unified makes them weaker against the political threats that comes
from the class of Superstructure.
 They’re systematically put into different classes so that the chances of their unification
decreases.
2.2) Superstructure
Superstructure consists of members from every force of society and government aside from the Base.
 They’re the minority in population.
 Government officials, capitalists, people who hold feudal power, members of Congress etc.
 They work in a harmony so that the Base is controlled and keeps on working.
2.3) A Literary Examples of Base & Superstructure
Konu hakkında net bir edebi örnek verilemesinin sebebi, BnS’in gerçekliğinin kabulü sonrasında
devlet ve topluluk öğesi içeren her edebi eserin BnS örneği olması problemidir.

The main reason behind the lack of example for Base and Superstructure is that, if we, hypothetically,
were to accept it as the truth, every work of literature which consists a society would be an example of
this term.

3) Binary Opposition
Any two related term or concept that are the opposite in meaning.
In literature, it is used for purposes below;
 To help the plot of a story
 To explore the differences between groups of individuals

In modern literature, binary oppositions are still used but, just like in real life, nothing is complete
black or nothing is complete white. For these reasons, authors implement a gray area in their work of
art to reflect the real life better if desired.

Any example with a two different side in any movie is an example of Binary Opposition.

MCŞ
200411005