DEFINITIONS OF TECHNICAL TERMS

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS:
• Action: Events, either physical or verbal, that drive the story, including stories within stories.
• Anecdote: A short story focusing on an event or person, often used for emphasis or to provide
background. a common feature of narrative in prose and verse.
• Conflict: The central issue to be resolved in the story, which can be internal, external, or both. It
usually occurs between two characters.
• Epilogue: A concluding statement or section of a literary work
• Event: An actual occurrence within a story’s plot that propels action.
• Plot: The sequence of events that make up a story, typically including a conflict, rising action,
climax, and resolution.
• Rising Action: Events that create suspense, interest, and tension in a narrative, leading up to the
climax.
• Climax (Turning point): The turning point and peak of a story’s tension or conflict.
• Denouement: The resolution phase following a story’s climax, where conflicts are resolved, and
outcomes are revealed.
• Expectation: The anticipation of what is to happen next
• Flashback: A narrative technique that presents past events as background or context to the
current events.
• Focus: the point from which the people, events, and other details in the a story are viewed.
• Setting: The time, place, and culture in which the action of a narrative takes place.
• Realistic Setting: Realistic Setting is where and when concrete events, actions, experiences, and
social human challenges take place.

CHARACTER ELEMENTS:
• Antagonist: The major character in a narrative or drama who works against the hero or
protagonist.
• Protagonist: The main character around whom the story revolves, often facing and overcoming
conflict.
• Anti-hero: A main character lacking traditional heroic qualities, like courage, typically distrust
conventional values and is unable to commit themselves to any ideals. they accept and celebrate
being social outcasts.
• Character: An individual whose actions contribute to the plot. Characterization is how these
characters are presented and developed.
• Characterization: The fictional or artistic presentation of a character;
• Dynamic Character: A character who experiences change throughout a narrative.
 • Existential character: A person who, whatever his or her past or conditioning, can change by an
act of will
• Flat character: A simple and unchanging character, often fulfilling a single role in a story.
• Hero/Heroine: The main character who displays positive qualities and engages the reader’s
sympathy.
• Static character: A character who changes little if at all in the progress of the narrative.
• Round Character: A multi-dimensional character that undergoes development, sometimes
sufficiently to surprise the reader convincingly.
• Villain: The one who opposes the hero and heroine, the bad guy.

POINT OF VIEW:
• Centered (central) Consciousness: A limited point of view tied to one character, often with
access to his or her inner thoughts
• Limited Point of View: A narrative perspective confined to one character, limiting the reader’s
access to other characters’ thoughts.
• Voice: the speaker or the person telling the story.

GENRES AND FORMS:

• Prose: Ordinary written or spoken language without metrical structure, as distinguished from
poetry or verse.
• Aura: the pervading tone and atmosphere of a piece of literary work. which is the dominant
emotional tone in that particular genre.
• Comedy: It aims to amuse, and it typically ends happily.
• Drama: A script intended for stage performance, consisting of character dialogue and actions.
• Elegy: A formal, and usually, long, poetic lament for someone who is dead.
• Epic: A lengthy narrative poem about heroic deeds, often of national significance, blending myth
and history.
• Fable: A prose or verse with a moral, commonly featuring animals as characters.
• Fantasy: A genre involving non-realistic settings and supernatural elements.
• Folktale: An orally transmitted narrative with common themes like fairytales, legends, and ghost
stories.
• Genre: A category of literary work. Genre may refer to both the content of a given work and to
its form.
• Interpretive Literature: The literature written to broaden, deepen and sharpen our awareness
of life.
• Legend: stories of ancient origin that were once believed to be true by a particular cultural group,
and have human beings as their hero.
 • Lyric: any fairly short poem, consisting of an utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state
of mind or a process of perception, thought, and feeling.
• Novel: As an extended narrative, the novel is distinguished from the short story; because its
magnitude permits a greater variety of characters, greater complication of plot (or plots).
• Novella: A short novel presenting a more focused narrative than a full-length novel.
• Novelette: A work of fiction shorter than a novel but longer than a short story.
• Ode: A long lyric poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate
in its structure.
• Pastoral: A work of literature portraying an idealized version of rural life.
• Science Fiction: A type of narrative-based upon real or imagined scientific theories and
technology.
• Short Story: A fictional prose narrative shorter and more focused than a novella. The short story
usually deals with a single episode and often a single character.
• Sonnet: A lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines.
• Tale: A story told by a narrator with a simple plot and little character development.
• Tragedy: A literary work that deals with serious themes, typically involving a noble protagonist
who is brought to ruin by a personal flaw.

LITERARY DEVICES AND TECHNIQUES:

• Deus ex Machina: An unexpected, improbable plot device that resolves a difficult situation,
originally depicting a god’s intervention in plays.
• Dialogue: Conversation between characters in a narrative or a standalone literary work.
• Figurative Language: A technique in which an author uses figures of speech such as hyperbole,
irony, metaphor, or simile for a particular effect.
• Irony: A statement or situation where the intended meaning is opposite to the literal meaning.
• Literal Language: Language that conveys information without embellishment or exaggeration.
• Metaphor: A figure of speech where one object or idea is described in terms of another,
highlighting similarities.
• Monologue: A long speech by one character in a play or narrative, or a work written in this form.
• Paradox: A statement that appears illogical or contradictory at first, but may point to an
underlying truth.
• Personification: A figure of speech that gives human qualities to abstract ideas, animals, and
objects.
• Plot summary: A description of the arrangement of the action in the order in which it appears
in a story.
• Red Herring: A misleading clue or distraction that diverts attention from the main issue.
• Stereotype: a person or thing that is or is assumed to be the same as all others of its type.
• Structure (Form): The form taken by a piece of literature.
• Structuring: The arrangement or re-arrangement of the elements in the history.
 • Style: The unique way in which a writer uses language to reflect his or her own personality and
attitudes.
• Symbol: Something that suggests or stands for something else without losing its original
identity.
• Theme: The main point of a work of literature.
• Tone: The attitude or approach that the author takes toward the work’s central theme or subject
matter.

OTHER CONCEPTS:
• Autobiography: A person’s own life story, which can be real or fiction.
• Context: The circumstances or setting surrounding an event or action in a narrative.
• Curiosity: the desire to know what is happening or has happened
• Folklore: Culturally specific traditions, myths, and legends often shared orally.
• History: The sequence of fictional events and characters created by the author’s imagination.
• Literature: Written or spoken material, particularly creative writings like poetry, drama, and
fiction.
• Nature: Inherent characteristics of a person, often seen as fixed and unchangeable.
• Personality: The characteristic set of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve
from biological and environmental factors.
• Subject: The literal description of what a story is about.
• Suspense: The intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of
certain events.