Fiction

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Fiction

• Literary Terms

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Short Story

• A brief work of fiction. It resembles the longer
  novel, but generally has a simpler plot and
  setting. Character tends to be revealed at a
  crucial moment rather than developing through
  many incidents.

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Novel

• A longer work of fiction. The plot explores
  characters in conflict just like a short story.
  However, a novel is typically much longer than a
  short story and may have one or more subplots,
  several themes, and more complex characters.

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Character

• Protagonist - the most important character in a
  story (the one that readers would like to see
  succeed!)
• Antagonist the character who opposes the main
  character, or the protagonist.

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Character continued

• Round characters show many traits faults as
  well as virtues.
• Flat characters demonstrate a single trait.
• Dynamic characters develop and grow during the
  course of the story.
• Static characters do not change.

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Diction

• Word choice. To discuss a writers diction is to
  consider the vocabulary used, the appropriateness
  of the words, and the vividness of the language.

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Syntax

• The grammatical arrangement of words within a
  sentence. Writers often manipulate syntax,
  changing conventional word order, to place
  certain emphasis on particular words.
• Example "Sense sure you have,/ Else could you
  not have motion" (Shakespeare Hamlet 3.4.71-2)

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Frame Narrative

• A narrative structure containing or connecting a
  series of otherwise unrelated tales. A story
  within a story.

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In medias res

• Technical term for the epic convention of
  beginning "in the middle of things," rather than
  at the very start of the story.
• Example many episodes of The Walking Dead

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Foreshadowing

• hints and/or clues as to what is going to happen
  next

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Flashback

• A device that allows the writer to present events
  that happened before the time of the current
  narration or the current events in the fiction.
  Flashback is useful for exposition, to fill in
  the reader about a character or place, or about
  the background to a conflict.

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Idiom

• An expression that means something other than the
  literal meanings of its individual words. Ex
  working the graveyard shift

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Irony

• The general term for literary techniques that
  portray differences between appearance and
  reality, expectation and result, or meaning and
  intention.

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Irony continued

• In verbal irony, words are used to suggest the
  opposite of what is meant.
• Ex No one would argue that there could be
  anything more important in choosing a college
  than how close it is to the beach."

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Even More Irony

• In dramatic irony, there is a contradiction
  between what a character thinks and what the
  reader or audience knows to be true.
• Ex When Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged sleep,
  he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon
  awakening to find her dead lover beside her,
  Juliet then kills herself.

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Yep. Still More Irony!

• In irony of situation, an event occurs that
  directly contradicts the expectations of the
  characters, the readers, or the audience.
• Ex a professional pickpocket had his own pocket
  picked just as he was in the act of picking
  someone else's pocket.

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Point of View

• The perspective from which a story is told. If
  the narrator is part of the action, the story is
  told from first-person point of view. In a story
  told in third- person, the narrator is someone
  outside the action.

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Point of View continued

• An omniscient third-person narrator is
  all-knowing. A limited third-person narrator
  only tells the thoughts and feelings of one
  character.

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Prose

• The ordinary form of written language. Most
  writing that is not poetry, drama, or song is
  considered prose.

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Theme

• A central message or insight revealed through a
  literary work. The theme may be stated directly
  or implied. Some works may have multiple themes,
  while others will have no theme at all.

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Universal Theme

• A message about life that can be understood by
  most cultures.

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Tone

• The writers attitude towards his or her audience
  and subject. The tone can often be described by
  a single adjective, such as formal or informal,
  serious or playful.

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Mood

• Sometimes called atmosphere, this is the feeling
  created in a reader by a literary work.

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Assignment

• Choose two works (film or book).
• Identify characters from each that are dynamic,
  static, round, and flat. (4 characters from each
  work).