Terms for Discussing Fiction
Test yourself with this self-grading online
quiz from Gonzaga University, (it's kind of brutual).
Alliteration: is the repetition of initial consonant
sounds in neighbouring words,e.g., "She sells
seashells by the seashore.
Allegory: A complete narrative that may also
be applied to a parallel set of external situations that may be political,
moral, religious, or philosophical; a complete and self-contained narrative
signifying another set of conditions.(allegory: symbol::movie:still picture).
Atmosphere (mood): The emotional aura that a
work evokes; the permeating emotional texture within a work.
Character: The verbal representation of a human
being, with all the good and bad traits of being human. Character is
revealed through authorial comments, interactions with other characters, dramatic
statements and thoughts, and statements by other characters.
Cliché: A once pithy, clever sayings in
which someone encapsulated an idea or feeling. Unfortunately, thousands of
other people used and reused those sayings, until they became trite and tiresome.
Because they are catchy and concise, clichés stick in the brain and
immediately occur to the stymied writer. However, using a worn-out phrase
is tantamount to admitting that you have not been able to think of anything
more interesting to say.
One often hears young people say "That movie was so cliché!"
The standard expression is clichéd.
Conflict: The essence of plot; the opposition
between two forces. Examples: man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. himself
where "man" is understood to mean "human beings."
Contextual or authorial symbol: A symbol specific
to a particular work that gathers its meaning from the context of the work.
Cosmic irony or irony of fate: Situational irony
that is connected to a pessimistic or fatalistic view of life.
Cultural or universal symbol: A symbol recognized
and shared as a result of common social and cultural heritage.
Dramatic irony: Situational irony in which a
character perceives his or her plight in a limited way while the audience
and one or more other characters understand it entirely.
Dramatic or objective point of view: Third person
point of view in which no authorial commentary reveals characters' thoughts.
Epiphany: Literally, a “manifestation”; for
Christian thinkers, a particular manifestation of God’s presence in the created
world. For James Joyce: “a sudden sense of radiance and revelation that one
may feel while perceiving a commonplace object.” In literature, epiphany “has
become the standard term for the description . . . of the sudden flare into
revelation of an ordinary object or scene.”
Fable: A story that features animals with human
traits and "morals" or explanations.
First person point of view:
Narration from the perspective of "I" or "We." Narrators may be involved
with the action or may simply observe it; they may also be reliable or unreliable.
Flashback: a transition (in literary or theatrical
works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological
development of the story
Flat character: A character that is static and
does not grow. One purpose of flat characters is to highlight
the development of round characters. Flat characters may be one of several
special types, such as stereotypes or stock characters.
Foreshadow: to indicate by signs, to hint at
some event or act or realization to come.
Initiation: Type of story or theme in which
a character moves from innocence to experience.
Irony: The discrepancy between what is perceived
and what is revealed; language and situations that seem to reverse normal
expectations.
Metaphor: Comparison of two unlike things; describing
some unlike thing in terms of something understandable to the reader.
Metonymy: Reference to something or someone by
naming one of its attributes. (from meta , "change" and onoma, "name").cf.
Syndecdoch. Examples:
The pen is mightier than the sword
The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the
sword is an attribute of military action
We await word from the crown.
I'm told he's gone so far as to giver her a diamond ring.
Revenue Canada is auditing me? Great. All I need is a couple of suits
arriving at my door.
Myth: A narrative story associated with the
religion, philosophy, or collective psychology of various societies and cultures.
Naturalism: A turn-of-the-century literary
movement in which heredity and environment determine human fate.
Omniscient point of view: Point of view in which
an authorial voice reveals all the characters' thoughts; may include commentary
by the author.
Overstatement (hyperbole): Exaggeration for
effect.
Personification: Attributing human attributes
or actions to nonhuman things or abstractions.
Parable: A short, simple allegory with a
moral or religious bent.
Plot: The development and resolution of a conflict;
includes the element of causation. E. M. Forster: "The king died, and the
queen died of grief."
Point of view: The voice of the story; the story
from the perspective of the person doing the speaking. Examples: first person,
second person, third person omniscient, third person limited omniscient, third
person dramatic or objective.
Protagonist: The main character of a story;
the character around whom the conflict is centered.
Round characters: E. M. Forster: "are dynamic--capable
of surprising the reader in a convincing way." Round characters recognize,
change with, and adjust to circumstances.
Second person point of view: Story told from
the perspective of "you" (uncommon). Example: Lorrie Moore's "How to
Become a Writer."
Setting: A work's natural, manufactured, political,
cultural, and temporal environment, including everything that the characters
know and own.
Simile: Comparison of two unlike things using
"like" or "as."
Situational irony: A type of irony emphasizing
that human beings are enmeshed in forces beyond their comprehension and control.
Stereotype: Flat characters that exhibit no
attributes except those of their class.
Stock character: Flat characters who represent
a class or group. Examples: the braggart soldier, the shrewish wife,
the hypocritical Puritan, and so forth.
Story or narration: The reporting of actions
in chronological sequence. E. M. Forster: "The King died, and then the Queen
died."
Structure: The way in which a plot is assembled:
chronologically, through dreams, speeches, fragments, etc.
Suspense: apprehension about what is going to
happen next.
Style: The manipulation of language to create
certain effects.
Symbolism: Objects, incidents, speeches, and
characters that have meanings beyond themselves.
Syndecoche: Pronounced, roughly, as si-NECK-de-key.
You use this when you speak of a part of something but mean the whole thing.
When Patrick O’Brian has Captain Jack Aubrey tell his first lieutenant
to “let the hands go to dinner” he’s employing
synecdoche, because he’s using a part (the hand) for the whole man.
You can also reverse the whole and the part, so using a word for something
when you only mean part of it. This often comes up in sport: a commentator
might say that “The West Indies has lost to England” when he means
that the West Indian team has lost to the English one. America is often used
as synecdoche in this second sense, as the word refers to the whole continent
but is frequently applied to a part of it, the USA. cf. Metonymy
Listen, you've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels.
One refers to a vehicle in terms of some of its
parts, "wheels"
"He shall think differently," the musketeer threatened, "when
he feels the point of my steel."
A sword, the species, is represented by referring
to its genus, "steel"
Theme: The major or central idea of a work.
Third person limited omniscient point of view:
Point of view in which onethird-person character's thoughts are revealed but
the other characters' thoughts are not.
Tone: The ways in which the author conveys attitudes
about the story material and toward the reader.
Understatement (litotes): Deliberate underplaying
or undervaluing of a thing to create emphasis or irony
Some definitions of terms are adapted from Literature: An Introduction
to Reading and Writing, 6th ed., ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E.
Jacobs (Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 2001).