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TERMINOLOGY USED
TO TALK OR WRITE ABOUT FICTION
Characterization:
Terms that help us talk about the characters in a story
1.
protagonist/hero(ine)—main character
2. antagonist/villain—character
in conflict with protagonist
3. dynamic character—events can
modify him/her; a changing, growing character
4. static character—unchanging
character
5.
flat characters—usually one trait delineates them
6.
round character—3-dimensional, multifaceted
7.
foil—one who sets off, by contrast, character traits of the
protagonists (may be bumbling versus brilliant or cowardly versus brave)
8.
confidant—character who gives protagonist a chance to speak his
thoughts
9.
antihero—a protagonist who is a “little” man unable to take his own
life into his hands; just surviving, not glorious (i.e. character in Death of
a Salesman)
10. stereotype—one
trait exaggerated—no individuality at all, but some truth to it.
11. stock
character—traditional, readily available and readily recognizable:
“absent-minded professor”
12. existential
character—can change his/her usual pattern or habit by an act of free will to
change
13. caricature—exaggerated
for comic relief, a visual cartoon
14. motivation—sufficient
reason for actions
Plot—arrangement
of action which usually follows in five parts:
exposition, rising action, climax or turning point, falling action, and
denouement or conclusion.
1.
exposition—setting up the story (setting, introduction of characters)
2.
rising action—events that intensify or complicate the conflict
3.
climax—moment of greatest tension when conflict reaches the turning
point—outcome is decided
4.
falling action—complications get untangled
5.
denouement—resolution of the story—tying up loose ends
6.
internal conflict—battle within the self (of fears, misconceptions,
values)
7.
external conflict—battle outside the self (human vs. human, human vs.
object or machine, human vs. nature, individual vs. community, human vs.
God)—forces that prevent growth of protagonist OR forces that push him/her to
grow when he/she does not want to)
8.
suspense—created when action is in doubt—pleasurable anxiety as
reader wonders how story will end.
9.
Foreshadowing—clues to plot ending (coming events cast their shadows
beforehand)
10. Flashback—going
back in time (device used to fill in what happened earlier)
11. In medias
res—beginning the story in the middle of the action.
12. Complication—a
new conflict
13. Open
plot—conflict is not resolved at the end of the story
14. Closed
plot—conflict is resolved
Setting
1.
locale—specific nation, state, city or town, farm or house, school,
etc. Several locales may be
important in the text (scaffold and forest in Scarlet Letter)
2.
atmosphere/weather—sunny, cloudy, foreboding, dark scenes, lots of
light, heat, etc.
3.
time of year/season—particularly note holidays, or significance of
season
4.
period of time—how long does the story take?
Is it set in years? Days? Hours?
5.
Time of day—predawn, breakfast, noontime, midnight, etc.
6.
Particular historical moment—specific time period, war, famine,
specific historical importance which influences the characters, the plot, the
theme
Point of View—includes
focus and voice
1.
focus—chooses what we can see and from what angle; frames an event;
creates proportion, emphasize or de-emphasizing or distorting; focus can be
fixed or mobile.
2.
Persona—voice or figure of the author which tells the story and may or
may not be like the real author (often seen in poetry more than fiction)
3.
Narrator—one who tells the story
3a.
Omniscient narrator—non-participant third person all-knowing narrator
who sees through the minds of all the characters
3b.
Limited omniscient narrator—third person narrator who sees through the
mind of a single character.
3c.
Objective (dramatic narrator)—describes events from the outside (fly on
a wall)—no inner thoughts
3d.
First-person narrator—participant telling story through his/her eyes
3e. Second
person narrator—monologue addressed directly to the reader (one part of a
dialogue with no other characters--you as reader are the second character).
3f.
Naïve observer—a character who fails to understand all the
implications of the story (a child, someone without experience, someone with
diminished mental capacity)
4. Stream of
consciousness—a procession of thoughts passing through the mind randomly
5. Interior
monologue—presentation of character’s thoughts in an ordered manner
Theme/message
Insight into how individuals relate to their world within
the framework of a story—what the author intended to say. See the themes in
lit handout.
Symbols—something
which stands for something else
1.
figurative—compares two unlike things (snake as a symbol for evil;
names like Faith or Goodman Brown)
2.
simile—explicit comparison stated by using like or as
3.
metaphor—implicit comparison between two unlike things:
“His heart, that bloody motor”
4.
allegory—like a metaphor in that one thing is spoken of as another, but
rather than one part of a story, the entire story works as a symbol/metaphor—Pilgrim’s
Progress, with a man named Christian, who meets other characters named
Pliable or Obstinate, etc. Allegory
is often about the journey of life through temptations, redemption, etc.
5.
myth—when an entire story is symbolic, it is sometimes called a myth,
in this case, meaning of communal origin & providing an interpretation of
man, nature, universe, and the relation among them
Miscellaneous
1.
Tone—author’s choice of details, character, event, and situations,
and words that lead us to infer the author’s attitude (or the persona the
author uses, which may not be the author’s personal attitude): amusement,
anger, affection, sorrow, contempt, hate
2.
Style—individual traits and characteristics of a piece of writing; a
writer’s particular way of managing words, the language a writer uses, length
and complexity of sentences, habitual use of imagery, patterns of sound, etc.
3.
Irony—meaning of words different from speaker’s meaning:
a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant; wry contrast or
incongruity in a situation
4.
Allusion—historical or biblical or cultural references
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