Literary Terms

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Literary Terms

• We will be using these literary terms throughout
  the school year.
• You need to keep up with your notes. Dont lose
  your terms! You might be able to use them
• be RESPONSIBLE!!

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We will use the following terms

• Character Antagonist Protagonist
• Diction Denotation Connotation
• Imagery Mood Poetry Devices
• Exposition Rising Action Climax
• Falling Action Resolution Conflict
• Flashback Foreshadowing Suspense
• Point of View Setting Mood
• Theme Tone Personification
• Metaphor Simile Oxymoron
• Alliteration Onomatopoeia Hyperbole
• Irony Inference

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Character

• A character is a person or an animal that takes
  part in the action of a literary work.

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• Edward Cullen from Twilight
  Shakespeares Queen of the faeries
  
• 
  in A Midsummer Nights Dream
• Harry Potter
  Wilbur from Charlottes Web
• 
  

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Antagonist

• The Antagonist is a character or force in
  conflict with a main character, or protagonist.

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Do you know your Antagonists???

• On your paper take a few minutes to write down
  some Antagonists that you can recall from movies,
  television shows, and video games
• Remember the Antagonist is in conflict with the
  Protagonist, or main character!
• Helpful hint you should now know why people use
  the saying Dont antagonize me!

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NAME THAT ANTAGONIST
Antagonists can be anyone or anything that poses
as an obstacle for the protagonist
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Protagonist

• The Protagonist is the main character in a
  literary work
• Can you name some famous Protagonists that are
  found in literature?

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• Protagonists also come in all shapes, sizes,
  species, etc.
• 
  

Wilbur
Ponyboy Curtis and the Greasers
Catherine Garfield
Jonas
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Diction

• Diction is the manner in which we express words
  the wording used.
• Diction enunciation
• Some easy examples are
• Dont say goin say going, Dont
  say wanna say want to
• Now, its your turn to provide some
  enunciation errors or slurs

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Denotation

• The denotation of a word is its dictionary
  meaning, independent of other associations that
  the word may have.

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Connotation

• The connotation of a word is the set of ideas
  associated with it in addition to its explicit
  meaning.
• The connotation of a word can be personal, based
  on individual experiences.
• More often, cultural connotations those
  recognizable by most people in a group
  determine a writers word choices.

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Denotation versus Connotation

• Some examples
• Cheap is low in cost (denotation) but stingy
  or poorly made are the connotations of cheap

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• Lets use the word HOT
• The denotation (or dictionary definition
  remember d in denotation dictionary) of HOT is
  having a temperature higher than that of a human
  body.
• However, when you say Man! He/She is hot!, are
  you saying Man! He is having a temperature
  higher than that of a human body!?
• NO!!!!!!!!!
• You are saying the CONNOTATION of HOT which
  could mean a variety of things man he/she is
  cute, attractive, beautiful, and many other
  meanings those come from personal experiences
  and cultural meanings, etc.

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Imagery

• Imagery is words or phrases that appeal to one or
  more of the five senses. Writers use imagery to
  describe how their subjects look, sound, feel,
  taste, and smell.

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• EXAMPLES OF IMAGERY
• If you're tired and hopeless, how can you show
  someone this instead of just telling them?
• I took a walk around the world toEase my
  troubled mindI left my body laying somewhereIn
  the sands of timeI watched the world float to
  the darkSide of the moonI feel there is nothing
  I can do
• --"Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down
•  
• If you're a rapper, instead of telling someone to
  let your freestyles come naturally, how can you
  show them with your words?
• From the family tree of old school hip hop Kick
  off your shoes and relax your socks The rhymes
  will spread just like a pox Cause the music is
  live like an electric shock
• --Beastie Boys "Intergalactic" From Hello Nasty

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IMAGERY IN THE OLDEN DAYSI Wandered Lonely As A
Cloud by William Wadsworth

• I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high
  o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a
  crowd,A host, of golden daffodilsBeside the
  lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing
  in the breeze.
• Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on
  the milky way,They stretched in never-ending
  lineAlong the margin of a bayTen thousand saw
  I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly
  dance.

• The waves beside them danced but theyOut-did
  the sparkling waves in gleeA poet could not but
  be gay,In such a jocund companyI gazed---and
  gazed---but little thoughtWhat wealth the show
  to me had brought
• For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in
  pensive mood,They flash upon that inward
  eyeWhich is the bliss of solitudeAnd then my
  heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the
  daffodils.

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MOOD

• Mood, or atmosphere, is the feeling created in
  the reader by a literary work or passage.
• Writers use many devices to create mood,
  including images, dialogue, setting, and plot.
• Often, a writer creates a mood at the beginning
  of a work and then sustains the mood throughout.
  
• Sometimes, however, the mood of the work changes
  dramatically.
• Edgar Alan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart emits a
  mood of terror based on the insanity of the
  murderous protagonist

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Plot

• Plot is the sequence of events. The first event
  causes the second, the second causes the third,
  and so forth.
• In most novels, dramas, short stories, and
  narrative poems, the plot involves both
  characters and a central conflict.
• The plot usually begins with an exposition that
  introduces the setting, the characters, and the
  basic situation. This is introduced and
  developed. The conflict then increases until it
  reaches a high point of interest or suspense, the
  climax. The climax is followed by the falling
  action, or end, of the central conflict. Any
  events that occur during the falling action make
  up the resolution.

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PLOTLINE
Climax
Rising Action
Falling Action
Resolution
Exposition
Conflict Introduced
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Exposition

• The Exposition is the introduction. It is the
  part of the work that introduces the characters,
  setting, and basic situation.
• In Harry Potter the Sorcerer Stone, we
  quickly learn that Harry was turning 11, had a
  mysterious scar on his forehead, was living with
  his very disgruntled and burdened aunt, uncle,
  and bullying cousin due to the death of his
  parents when he was a baby. At the end of the
  exposition, we learn that he was the product of
  two wizard parents and on his way to entering
  Hogwarts.

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Rising Action

• Rising Action is the part of the plot that begins
  to occur as soon as the primary conflict is
  introduced. The rising action adds complications
  to the conflict and increases reader interest.

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Climax

• The Climax is the point of greatest emotional
  intensity, interest, or suspense in the plot of a
  narrative.
• On a plot diagram, it is the highest point due to
  how intense it is and immediately after the
  climax, there is a drastic drop in events leading
  to the resolution.
• The climax typically comes at the turning point
  in a story or drama.

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Falling Action

• Falling Action is the action that typically
  follows the climax and reveals its results.

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Resolution

• The Resolution is the part of the plot that
  concludes the falling action by revealing or
  suggesting the outcome of the conflict.

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Conflict

• Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces
  in a story or play. There are two types of
  conflict that exist in literature.

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External Conflict

• External conflict exists when a character
  struggles against some outside force, such as
  another character, nature, society, or fate.
• Person vs. Person
• Person vs. Society
• Person vs. Nature (environment)
• Person vs. Time
• Person vs. Supernatural
• Person vs. Technology (machine)

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NAME THAT CONFLICT
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Internal Conflict

• Internal conflict exists within the mind of a
  character who is torn between different courses
  of action.
• Questioning Having a Dilemma
• In a predicament What to Do?
• Example Person vs. Self

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Man Versus Self
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Flashback

• A flashback is a literary device in which an
  earlier episode, conversation, or event is
  inserted into the sequence of events.
• Often flashbacks are presented as a memory of
  the narrator or of another character.

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Flashback continued

• The movie Titanic is told almost entirely in a
  flashback.
• What are some other films that contain flashback
  to help tell stories?
• Holes
• Willy Wonka
• Think of some more

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Foreshadowing

• Foreshadowing is the authors use of clues to
  hint at what might happen later in the story.
  Writers use foreshadowing to build their readers
  expectations and to create suspense. This is
  used to help readers prepare for what is to come.

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Can you think of an element of foreshadowing?
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Suspense

• Suspense is the growing interest and excitement
  readers experience while awaiting a climax or
  resolution in a work of literature. It is a
  feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcome
  of events. Writers create suspense by raising
  questions in the minds of their readers.

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Point of View

• Point of View is the perspective, or vantage
  point, from which a story is told. It is the
  relationship of the narrator to the story.
• First-person is told by a character who uses the
  first-person pronoun I.
• Third-person limited point of view is the point
  of view where the narrator uses third-person
  pronouns such as he and she to refer to the
  characters.

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Types of Third Person

• Limited storyteller lets us know thoughts and
  feelings of main character (protagonist) only
• Omniscent storyteller lets us know thoughts and
  feeling of all characters

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Setting

• The setting of a literary work is the time and
  place of the action.
• The setting includes all the details of a place
  and time the year, the time of day, even the
  weather. The place may be a specific country,
  state, region, community, neighborhood, building,
  institution, or home.
• Details such as dialect, clothing, customs, and
  modes of transportation are often used to
  establish setting.
• In most stories, the setting serves as a backdrop
  a context in which the characters interact.
  The setting of a story often helps to create a
  particular mood, or feeling.

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Style

• Style is the distinctive way in which an author
  uses language.
• Word choice, phrasing, sentence length, tone,
  dialogue, purpose, and attitude toward the
  audience and subject can all contribute to an
  authors writing style.

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Theme

• The theme of a literary work is its central
  message, concern, or purpose. A theme can
  usually be expressed as a generalization, or
  general statement, about people or life. The
  theme may be stated directly by the writer
  although it is more often presented indirectly.
  When the theme is stated indirectly, the reader
  must figure out the theme by looking carefully at
  what the work reveals about the people or about
  life.

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Tone

• Tone is a reflection of a writers or speakers
  attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or
  other literary work. Tone may be communicated
  through words and details that express particular
  emotions and that evoke and emotional response
  from the reader.
• For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to
  convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or
  sarcasm.

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Figures of Speech

• A figure of speech is a specific device or kind
  of figurative language, such as hyperbole,
  metaphor, personification, simile, or
  understatement.
• Figurative language is used for descriptive
  effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. It is
  not meant to be taken literally. Figurative
  language is used to state ideas in vivid and
  imaginative ways.

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Metaphor

• A Metaphor is a type of speech that compares or
  equates two or more things that have something in
  common. A metaphor does NOT use like or as.
• Example Life is a bowl
• of cherries.

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Simile

• A Simile is another figure of speech that
  compares seemingly unlike things. Similes DO
  use the words like, as, than, or resembles.
• Example Her voice was like nails on a
  chalkboard.

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Oxymoron

• An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a
  combination of seemingly contradictory words.
• Examples Same difference
• Pretty ugly
• Roaring silence

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Personification

• Personification is a figure of speech in which an
  animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given
  human qualities or characteristics.
• Example Tears began to fall from the dark
  clouds.

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Alliteration

• Alliteration is the repetition of sounds, most
  often consonant sounds, at the beginning of
  words. Alliteration gives emphasis to words.
• Example Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
  peppers

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Alliterative Fun

• Caring Cats
  Rain
• Caring cats cascade off Rain
  races,
• Laughing llamas
  Ripping like wind.
• Lounging.
  Its restless rage
• Underneath yelling yaks
  Rattles like
• Yelling at roaming
  Rocks ripping through
• Rats
  The air.

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Irony

• Special contrast between reality and appearance
• Usually one in which reality is the opposite
  from what it seems

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Irony

• Situational-contrast between what would seem
  appropriate and what really happens or what we
  expect to happen is in fact quite opposite to
  what really does take place
• This is like a surprise ending or a twist in the
  plot that you didnt expect.

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Irony

• Verbal-someone knowingly exaggerates or says one
  thing and means another
• Sarcasm is often verbal ironyWe use this in our
  every day lives
• Example We try to be civilized here, said
  General Zaroff. The Most Dangerous Game

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Irony

• Dramatic-When the reader or viewer knows
  something that a character does not know.
• Romeo and Juliet example

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Hyperbole

• An exaggeration
• Example enough food to feed a whole army

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Fiction

• Imaginary elements
• Can be based on real people and events
• Realistic fiction/historical fiction

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Nonfiction

• Real events, people, and places
• Autobiography/biography
• Personal narrative/memoirs
• Newspapers
• Informative articles

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Inference

• A conclusion derived from facts/evidence
• Making an educated guess based on what you have
  read, learned, or know
• While reading a story, you may be able to infer
  something about the character based on what you
  have read in regards to his action, thoughts,
  viewpoints of others, etc.