Transcript Slide 1

Literary Terms
Notes!!!
Keep up with these notes. Don’t lose these
terms! I might be able to use them –
be RESPONSIBLE!!
Contains the following terms:
Antagonist
Denotation
Mood
Exposition
Falling Action
Flashback
Point of View
Setting
Figures of Speech
Irony
Metaphor
Personification
Protagonist
Connotation
Plot
Rising Action
Resolution
Foreshadowing
Paradox
Theme
Hyperbole
Antithesis
Simile
Alliteration
Diction
Imagery
Anaphora
Climax
Conflict
Suspense
Parallelism
Tone
Juxtaposition
Oxymoron
Indirect vs. Direct Characterization
Indirect
•When information is learned
about the character through
the ___________________.
Direct
•When the author _________
descriptions/information
about the character
•Ex: “Oh, I’m so upset that I
can’t reach the sardines on
that top shelf!”
•Ex: He was a short man that
loved sardines.
Protagonist
• The Protagonist is the _________
_____________ in a literary work
• Can you name some famous
Protagonists that are found in
literature?
Antagonist
•The Antagonist is a character
or force _____________ with a
main character, or protagonist.
Character Types
• There are several character types:
_________ character-one of the most important
characters in the story.
__________ character- all other characters.
__________ character- they show varied and
contradictory traits.
_________ character- reveals only one personality
trait.
Character Types Cont.
_______________- a flat character that is familiar
and often repeated. (Dumb Blonde, Dumb Jock,
Band Nerd, etc.).
____________ character- develops within in the
course of a literary work.
_________ character- they remain the same
throughout the entire story.
________- a character, usually minor, designed to
highlight qualities of a major character.
Diction
• Diction is the manner in which we
•
•
express _________; the wording
used.
Diction = enunciation
Some easy examples are:
Don’t say ‘goin’ – say ‘going’, Don’t say ‘wanna’ – say ‘want
to’
Denotation
The denotation of a word is
its __________________
meaning, independent of
other associations that the
word may have.
Connotation
The connotation of a word is the set of
___________ associated with it in
addition to its explicit meaning. The
connotation of a word can be personal,
based on individual experiences. More
often, ____________ connotations –
those recognizable by most people in a
group – determine a writer’s word
choices.
Denotation versus Connotation
Examples –
Cheap is “low in cost” (denotation) but “stingy”
or “poorly made” are the connotations of
cheap
Let’s 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.
Imagery
Imagery is words or phrases that
appeal to one or more of the ___
_______. Writers use imagery to
describe how their subjects look,
sound, feel, taste, and smell.
MOOD
Mood, or atmosphere, is the _________
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.
Plot
Plot is the _____________ 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.
PLOTLINE
C.____________
E.____________
A.______________
Conflict Introduced
Exposition
The Exposition is the
_____________. It is the part
of the work that introduces
the characters, setting, and
basic situation.
Rising Action
Rising Action is the part of the plot
that begins to occur as soon as
the _____________ is
introduced. The rising action
adds complications to the conflict
and increases reader interest.
Climax
The Climax is the point of greatest
emotional intensity, interest, or
suspense in the plot of a
narrative. The climax typically
comes at the _________ point in
a story or drama.
Falling Action
Falling Action is the action that
typically ______________ the
climax and reveals its
__________.
Resolution
The Resolution is the part of the
plot that concludes the falling
action by revealing or
suggesting the _____________
of the conflict.
Conflict
Conflict is the struggle between
opposing forces in a story or
play. There are ______ types
of conflict that exist in
literature.
External Conflict
External conflict exists when a character struggles
against some ___________ force, such as
another character, nature, society, or fate.
Man vs. _______ Man vs. ________
Man vs. _________
Internal Conflict
Internal conflict exists __________ the mind of a
character who is torn between different
courses of action.
Man vs. __________
Flashback
A flashback is a literary device in which
an ___________ episode,
conversation, or event is inserted
into the sequence of events. Often
flashbacks are presented as a
____________ of the narrator or of
another character.
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…
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the author’s use of clues to
________ at what might happen __________
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.
Can you think of an
element of
foreshadowing?
Suspense
Suspense is the ____________ 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 __________________ in the minds
of their readers.
Point of View
Point of View is the _______________, or
vantage point, from which a story is told. It is
the relationship of the narrator to the story.
_______-person is told by a character who uses
the first-person pronoun “I”.
________-person limited point of view is the
point of view where the narrator uses thirdperson pronouns such as “he” and “she” to
refer to the characters.
________-person omniscient- same as limited
but the narrator is all knowing.
Setting
The setting of a literary work is the _______ and
_________ of the action.
The setting includes all the _____________ 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.
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.
Theme
The theme of a literary work is its ________________
__________, 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 ____________.
Tone
Tone is a reflection of a writer’s or speaker’s
_____________ 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 an
_____________ response from the reader.
For example, word choice or phrasing may seem to
convey respect, anger, lightheartedness, or
sarcasm.
A brief word on tone and theme
Diction creates Tone…
Tone creates Theme…
The Theme of a story is NEVER one word!!!
Example: The theme of Romeo and Juliet is NOT
“Love”. What was Shakespeare really saying
about teenage love?
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 ______________
effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. It is not
meant to be taken literally. Figurative
language is used to state ideas in _________
and imaginative ways.
Metaphor
A Metaphor is a type of speech that __________
or equates two or more things that have
something in common. A metaphor does NOT
use like or as.
Example: Life is a box
of chocolates.
Simile
A Simile is another figure of speech that
compares seemingly ___________ things.
Simile’s DO use the words like or as.
Example: Her voice was
like nails on a
chalkboard.
NOT a simile: I am not as fast as Michael. (there
is NO comparison of unlike things going on
here)
Oxymoron
An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that is a
combination of seemingly ________________
words.
Examples:
Same difference
Pretty ugly
Jumbo shrimp
Personification
Personification is a figure of
speech in which an
animal, object, force of
nature, or idea is given
_____________ qualities
or characteristics.
Example:Tears began to fall
from the dark clouds.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of __________,
most often consonant sounds, at the
________________ of words. Alliteration
gives emphasis to words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers
Irony
• Irony is when something happens that is the
______________ of what’s expected.
• ________________ Irony: when the audience
knows what will happen before the characters
• _______________ Irony: when something
happens that’s unexpected
• ____________ Irony: when a character says
one thing but means another
(over/understated)
Hyperbole
• A hyperbole is an ______________ overexageration.
• Ex: Yo mama’s so fat, she’s got her own zip
code.
Paradox
• A statement that _______________ itself
• Ex: I always lie.
• Ex: She hid inside herself.
Anaphora
• The ____________ of the same word or group
of words at the beginning of successive
clauses; it helps to establish a strong rhythm
and produces a powerful ____________
effect.
• Ex: I have a dream…
Parallelism
• Parallelism is the use of components in a
sentence that are grammatically the ______;
or _____________ in their construction,
sound, meaning or meter.
• This method adds balance and _________ to
sentences giving ideas a smoother flow and
thus can be persuasive because of the
repetition it employs.
Example of Parallelism
• "Today's students can put dope in their veins
or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it
and believe it, they can achieve it. They must
know it is not their aptitude but their attitude
that will determine their altitude." - Jesse
Jackson
Juxtaposition
• Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which
two or more ___________, places, characters
and their actions are placed side by side in a
narrative or a poem for the purpose of
developing comparisons and _____________.
• Ex: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear;”
• Shakespeare uses the juxtaposition of light and
darkness here to describe Juliet’s beauty.
Antithesis
• Antithesis, literal meaning ____________, is a
rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas
are put together in a sentence to achieve a
_______________ effect.
• Ex: “It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness,…”