Literary Terms

Question 1

Allegory

Answer 1

I symbolic narrative that has a second /hidden meaning, usually moral or political

Question 2

Antagonist

Answer 2

A character or force against which another character struggles

Question 3

Character

Answer 3

Imaginary person who inhabits a literary work

Question 4

Characterisation

Answer 4

Means by which writers present and reveal characters

Question 5

Climax

Answer 5

The turning point of action in the plot of the story or a play. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work

Question 6

Complication

Answer 6

Intensification of conflict in the story or play

Question 7

Denouement

Answer 7

Resolution of the plot of a literary work

Question 8

Dialogue

Answer 8

Conversation of characters in a literary work

Question 9

Fable

Answer 9

Brief story with an explicit moral provided by the author. They tend to include animals as characters

Question 10

Falling action

Answer 10

In the plot of a story or play, the action following the climax of the work that moves towards its denouement/resolution

Question 11

Fiction

Answer 11

And imagined story, whether in prose, poetry or drama

Question 12

Flashback

Answer 12

Interruption of a work’s chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main timeframe of the work’s action

Question 13

Foil

Answer 13

A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story.

Question 14

Foreshadowing

Answer 14

Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or story

Question 15

Irony

Answer 15

The contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what happens and what is expected to happen in life and in literature

Question 16

Narrator

Answer 16

A voice and the implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living author

Question 17

Parody

Answer 17

A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful and it’s playful imitation

Question 18

Plot

Answer 18

The unified structure of incidents in a literary work

Question 19

Point of view

Answer 19

The angle of vision from which the story is narrated

Question 20

First person (in a story, poem…)

Answer 20

The narrator is a character

Question 21

Third person (in a story, poem…)

Answer 21

Where the narrator is an observer

Question 22

What is an objective point of view?

Answer 22

Where do narrator knows or appears to know no more than the reader

Question 23

What is an omniscient point of view?

Answer 23

Where the narrator knows everything about the characters

Question 24

What is a limited omniscient point of view?

Answer 24

Where the narrator knows something is about the characters but not everything

Question 25

Protagonist

Answer 25

The main character

Question 26

Quatrain

Answer 26

Four line stanza

Question 27

Resolution

Answer 27

The sorting out or unravelling of a plot at the end of a play, novel or story

Question 28

Rising action

Answer 28

A set of conflict and crisis that constitute a part of the play’s or story’s plot leading up to the climax

Question 29

Satire

Answer 29

Literary work that criticises human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities and follies

Question 30

Setting

Answer 30

The time and place of a literary work that establish its context

Question 31

Subplot

Answer 31

A lesser or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot

Question 32

Symbol

Answer 32

An object or action of literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself

Question 33

Syntax

Answer 33

Grammatical order of words in a sentence or line of a verse or dialogue

Question 34

Tercet

Answer 34

Three line stanza

Question 35

Theme

Answer 35

What the text is all about

Question 36

Tone

Answer 36

The implied attitude of the writer towards the subject and characters of a work

Question 37

Tragic flaw

Answer 37

A weakness (hamartia) or limitation of a character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero

Question 38

Tragic hero

Answer 38

Privileged, exalted character of a high repute who, by virtue of tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering

Question 39

Conflict

Answer 39

A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work. Conflict may also occur within a character

Question 40

Pathetic fallacy

Answer 40

When the weather reflects a particular mood or feeling. For example rain reflecting sadness