Short story terms quiz

a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme

the representation of a thing as existing before it actually does or did so, as in- he was a dead man when he entered. (A flash forward)

repetition of conjunctions in close proximity (as we have ships and men and money)

the sequence of events

1. *Exposition or introduction

2. *Rising action (introduction of conflict)

3. *Climax

4. *Falling action (denouement)

5. *resolution

Time and Place where the story takes place

the way an author establishes distinctive qualities (moral, intellectual, physical and emotional) of a person in a narrative.

characterization by means of dialogue and/or what other characters say about the character 

when the author directly informs the readers of the character’s qualities.

the main character of a narrative, often its hero or heroine

a character who is in real or imagined opposition to the protagonist (called a villain if evil)

a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. He or she may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. Often what antiheroes learn, if they learn anything at all, is that the world isolates them in an existence devoid of God and absolute values. Yossarian from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is an example of an antihero. 

a full, complex, multi-dimensional character whose personality reveals some of the richness we are accustomed to observing in actual people 

a character who undergoes a permanent change in morality in the story

a simple, one-dimensional, usually unchanging character who shows none of the human depth or complexity of a round character

a character who does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of that character does not grow

conventional characters who appear in numerous works, especially works of the same type, and behave in predictable ways. Examples include the cruel stepmother in fairy tales, or the hardboiled detective in mystery stories. These characters sometimes serve as a stereotype. 

a character who parallels another major character and by sharp contrast, serves to stress and highlight the distinctive qualities of both

the fictional mask or identity that a narrator uses to tell a story

Refers to who tells us a story and how it is told. What we know and how we feel about the events in a work are shaped by the author’s choice of point of view. The teller of the story, the narrator, inevitably affects our understanding of the characters’ actions by filtering what is told through his or her own perspective. The various points of view that writers draw upon can be grouped into two broad categories

narrator uses he, she, or they to tell the story and does not participate in the action

narrator uses I and is a major or minor participant in the action.

you, is also possible, but is rarely used because of the awkwardness of thrusting the reader into the story, as in "You are minding your own business on a park bench when a drunk steps out and demands your lunch bag."

point of view employs a third-person narrator who does not see into the mind of any character. From this detached and impersonal perspective, the narrator reports action and dialogue without telling us directly what the characters think and feel. Since no analysis or interpretation is provided by the narrator, this point of view places a premium on dialogue, actions, and details to reveal character to the reader.

a general concept or doctrine, whether implicit or asserted, which an imaginative work is designed to incorporate and make persuasive to the reader. The story need not have any “moral message”, but the theme can just be a complicated, nuanced issue that the writer attempts to explore and better understand through their writing of the story. 

beginning “in the middle of things”. The process of limiting exposition and jumping right into the story, starting right in the middle of the conflict/story. 

the appearance of being real or true; using details to give the appearance of being true to life

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

a moment of discovery or realization, a lightbulb moment

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. 

An appeal based on the integrity, reliability, and experience of the speaker

An appeal based on logic: statistics, credible sources, facts, reason

An appeal based on emotion: appealing to a sense of justice, tapping into hope, anger, pity or any strong emotion to persuade the audience. 

when poets, writers, and speakers use language in ways that stimulate the reader’s senses or his/her imaginative recall of sense experience.  The effect is to make a text more concrete rather than abstract.  

appeals to your sense of sight (paints a picture in your mind)

appeals to your sense of sound (gives you a chance to hear it)

appeals to your sense of smell (explains how something smells)

appeals to your sense of touch (tell you what you can feels)

appeals to your sense of taste (explains the sensation on your taste buds and in your mouth)

ending a series of lines, phrases, sentences, or clauses with the same word

repetition of a word or words  at the beginning of lines in poetry or prose

a literary style in which writers interweave realism in representing ordinary events with fantastic or dreamlike elements.  The fantastic elements are communicated in such a way as to make them seem as real and unquestionable as the ordinary elements. 

dissembling or hiding what is actually the case in order to achieve special rhetorical or artistic effects; OR recognition of a reality differing from the masking appearance.

when the reader’s awareness of a reality differs from the reality the characters perceive

figurative language in which the intended meaning differs sharply from the literal meaning, eg. sarcasm, the taunting use of apparent praise for dispraise. 

when what occurs in the plot differs sharply from what the characters and/or readers expect.

type of fiction that develops a brooding atmosphere of gloom and terror, represents events that are uncanny, macabre, or melodramatically violent, and often deals with aberrant psychological states.  

person who is a look-alike to another person, and is often a foil in literature. Doppelgängers are often harbingers of bad things to come, and can often be evil twins to the protagonist. Doppelgängers are usually identified because they look so much like the main character, yet they could also resemble someone else in personality or behavior.

the writer or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, audience, or events of the text. Word choice (diction), details, imagery, and sentence structure (syntax) all contribute to the understanding of tone. Tone is the result of other literary choices made by the author. Keep in mind that all texts have tone.

A fallacy of reason in suggesting that nonhuman phenomena act from human feelings, as suggested by the word "pathetic" from the Greek pathos; a literary device wherein something nonhuman found in nature—a beast, plant, stream, natural force, etc.—performs as though from human feeling or motivation. In Jack London's To Build a Fire, "The cold of space," London writes, "smote the unprotected tip of the planet, . . ." The word "smote" suggests nature deliberately striking the northern tip of the earth with severe cold. The poetry of William Wordsworth is replete with instances of pathetic fallacy—weeping streams, etc.

 a literary work in the form of letters