Glossary of

Literary Terms
AKE 107/ING 109/DING 109 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: PROSE AND SHORT STORY

Dr. Gamze Katı Gümüş

 Action
The thing or things that happen in a story’s plot—what the characters
do and what is done to them.
Allegory
A narrative in which Characters, places,
things, and events represent general qualities
and their interactions are meant to reveal a
general or abstract truth. Such characters,
places, things, and events thus function as
symbols of the concepts or ideas referred to.
 e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell
 e.g. “Allegory of Cave” by Plato
 Allusion
An implied or
indirect reference e.g. Referring to
to something with someone as
which the reader is Einstein, Romeo,
supposed to be Barbie etc.
familiar.
Ambiguity

A situation expressed in such a way

as to admit more than one possible
interpretation; also, the way of
expressing such a situation. Many
short story writers intend some
element of their work to be
ambiguous, but careless or sloppy
writing often creates unintentional
ambiguity, or vagueness.
A character in some stories who is in real or imagined opposition to the
Protagonist or the hero. The conflict between these characters makes
up the action, or plot, of the story. It is usually resolved in some way,
but it need not be.
e.g. Lord Voldemort

Antagonist
 Flat character: simple, one-dimensional, Round character: complex, full, described in
unsurprising, usually unchanging or static detail, often contradictory, and usually
dynamic, changing in some way during the
story

Character: A person who plays a part in a

narrative
 Protagonist/
Hero

Main character

Antagonist
Climax
The turning point or point of highest interest in a narrative; the point
at which the most important part of the action takes place and the
final outcome or the resolution of the plot becomes inevitable.
Leading up to the climax is the rising action of the story; after the
climax, the falling action takes the reader to the denouement or
conclusion, in which the results of the climactic action are presented.
 Conflict

The opposition presented to the main character of a narrative by

another character, by events or situations, by fate, or by some aspect
of the protagonist’s own personality or nature. The conflict is
introduced by means of a complication that sets in motion the rising
action, usually toward a climax and eventual resolution.

 e.g. the mental illness of the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Connotation
The meaning of a word or words that is
implied or suggested by the spesific
associations the word calls to mind and by
the tone in which it is used, as opposed to
its literal meaning and denotation.
 e.g. Wall Street
 A critical approach investigating the
unstable properties of language,

Deconstruction especially the destabilization of single

definitions of meaning and the
defamiliarization of literary
conventions.
Dialogue
The written presentation of words spoken by characters in a
narrative; used to introduce the conflict, give some impressions of
the lives and personalities of the characters who are speaking, and
advance the action to its climax and resolution.
A term used to describe a narrative or other work of art that is
presented in order to teach a specific lesson, convey a moral, or inspire
and provide a model for proper behavior.
e.g. Religious tracts, morality plays, early literary work

Didactic
Epiphany
A “showing forth” or sudden revelation of the true nature of a
character or situation through a specific event—a word, a gesture, or
other action—that causes the reader to see the significance of that
character or situation in a new light.
 The presentation of background
information that a reader must be
Exposition aware of, especially of situations that
exist and events that have occurred
before the action of a story begins.
Falling Action
The events of a narrative that follow the climax and resolve the
conflict that reached its highest point in that climax before bringing
the story to its conclusion.
 The telling of a story by a person who
was involved in or directly observed the

First-person action narrated. Such a narrator refers

to himself or herself as I and becomes a

narration character in the story, with his or her

understanding shaping the reader’s
perception of the events and
characters.
 I like to tell stories. I tell them inside my
head. I tell them after the mailman
says, Here’s your mail. Here’s your mail
he said.

The House on I make a story for my life, for each step

Mango Street my brown shoe takes. I say, “And so

she trudged up the wooden stairs, her

Sandra Cisneros sad brown shoes taking her to the

house she never liked.”

I like to tell stories. I am going to tell

you a story about a girl who didn’t want
to belong. p.109
 A technique of exposition in which the
flow of events in a narrative is

Flashback interrupted to present to the reader an

earlier incident or situation that has a
bearing on the story or film or its
characters.
 Foreshadowing

The introduction of specific words, images, or events into a narrative

to suggest or anticipate later events that are central to the action
and its resolution.
 A type of literary work, such as
short story, novel, essay, play
or poem.

Genre
Genre may also be used as a
term that classifies literature
within a type, such as science-
fiction stories or detective
novels.
Image
A word or group of words used to give a concrete representation,
either literal or figurative, of a sensory experience or an object that is
perceived by the senses.
Irony
The reader’s or audience’s awareness of a reality that differs from the
reality the characters perceive (dramatic irony) or the literal meaning
of the author’s words (verbal irony).
 Limited Omniscience: The
ability of a third-person narrator
to tell the reader directly about
any events that have occurred,
are occurring, or will occur in
the plot of a story, and about
the thoughts and feelings of
Different one particular character or a
few characters

Point-of-
Views
(PoVs) Omniscient: The ability of a
narrator to tell the reader
directly about the thoughts and
feelings of any character; “all-
knowingness”
Metaphor
An implied comparison of two different things
that is achieved by a figurative verbal
equation of those things.

The goal is not to define but to attribute

certain qualities to the thing being discussed.

e.g. “And your very flesh shall be a great

poem.” Walt Whitman*
Motivation

The external forces (setting,

circumstance) and internal forces
(personality, temperament, morality,
intelligence) that compel a character
to act as he or she does in a
narrative.
Narration
The dramatic telling of the events that make
up the action or plot of a story
First-person
narration

a
identifie
characte
s as I
r

observe
d first-
hand
 detached, almost
anonymous voice

Third-person refers to the

narration characters as he,
she, and they

may or may not

be omniscient
 Our hero was not one of those
Dominican cats everybody’s always
going on about—he wasn’t no home-

The Brief run hitter or a fly bachatero, not a

playboy with a million hots on his jock.

Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wao Junot And except for one period early in his
life, dude never had much luck with the

Díaz females (how very un-Dominican of

him).

He was seven then. p. 11

Persona

The fictional mask or voice an author

may adopt to tell a story.
 The series of events in a narrative that
form the action, in which a character or
Plot characters face an internal or external
conflict that propels the story to a
climax and an ultimate resolution.
Point of View
The perspective from which an author lets
the reader view the action of a narrative;
thus, the choice of who tells the story.
 PoVs
First-Person PoV Third-Person PoV

The narrator is not directly involved in the

The narrator partakes in the story or story, and views it from a certain distance
observes it directly

The narrator may be omniscient or his

The narrator knows only what has knowledge may be limited to what one or
been explicitly revealed, or what he more characters know, or even to the
has been able to deduce from that plainly observable speeches and acts of
the characters
Setting
The place and time in which a
story’s action takes place; also, in a
broader sense, the culture and the
ways of life of the characters and
the shared beliefs and assumptions
that guide their lives.
Simile

A figurative comparison of one thing The comparison is achieved by

to another , especially to one that is using connecting words such as like
not usually thought of as similar. or as.
 Brave as a lion. Bright as sunshine. Hard-working like a
bee.

Simile examples
Stereotype

A generalized, oversimplified
character (often a stock character)
whose thoughts and actions are
excessively predictable because they
are used so frequently that they
have become conventional.
The (Black)
 Maternal
 Kind-hearted

Mammy 


Happy
Contented (slave)
 Hearty laughter
 Wide grin
 Loyal servitude
Stream-of-consciousness
The narrative technique by which an author attempts to capture the
flow of a character’s thoughts, often in a series of separate and
apparently unrelated passages that unite to give an impressionistic
view of reality as seen by that character.
The Sound and the
Fury William Faulkner
A quarter hour yet. And then I’ll not be. The peacefullest
words. Peacefullest words. Non fui. Sum. Fui. Non sum.
Somewhere I heard the bells once. Mississippi or
Massachusetts. I was. I am not. Massachusetts or
Mississippi. Shreve has a bottle in his trunk. Aren’t you
even going to open it Mr and Mrs Jason Richmond
Compson announce the Three times. Days. Aren’t you even
going to open it marriage of their daughter Candace that
liquor teaches you to confuse the means with the end I
am. Drink. I was not. Let us sell Benjy’s pasture so that
Quentin may go to Harvard and I may knock my bones
together and together. I will be dead in. Was it one year
Caddy said. Shreve has a bottle in his trunk. Sir I will not
need Shreve’s I have sold Benjy’s pasture and I can be
dead in Harvard Caddy said in the caverns and the grottoes
of the sea tumbling peacefully to the wavering tides
because Harvard is such a fine sound forty acres is no high
price for a fine sound. p. 174
Symbol
A person, event, or thing that stands for or represents
by association some other, usually broader, idea or
range of ideas, in addition to maintaining its own literal
meaning.
examples

• Love,

Red danger,
blood,
passion

Cros • Christinanit

s
y

Lam • Jesus
b
Theme
The central, unifying point or idea that is made
concrete, developed, and explored in the action and the
imagery of a work of fiction
 The expression of the author’s attitude
toward his subject matter—the
characters, their setting, and the action
Tone they undertake or undergo. Tone is
revealed in the author’s diction,
vocabulary, and various other choices
that contribute to the making of a style.
Unreliable Narrator
A fictional character telling the story whose
knowledge or judgment about events and
other characters is so flawed as to make him
or her a misleading guide to the author’s
intentions.
Voice
A term referring to the specific manner chosen by the author to tell
the story. Voice encompasses elements of PoV and literary style.
e.g. formal, informal, 1st person PoV, etc.