ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

Allusion

⬜An indirect reference to another literary work or to a famous person, place or event.

Audience

⬜ The person or persons who are intended to read a piece of writing. The intended audience of a work determines its form, style, tone and the details included.

Characterization

Refers to the techniques a writer uses to develop

characters. There are four basic methods of characterization:

-physical description -through the character’s own words, thoughts,

actions and feelings -through the actions, words, thoughts and

feelings of other characters -through the narrator’s own direct comments.

Conflict

⬜ A struggle between opposing forces.

External- pits a character against nature, society

or another character.

Internal- a conflict between opposing forces within a character.

Diction

⬜A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words.

Flashback

⬜A break in the narrative to describe events that took place at an earlier time.

Foreshadow

⬜A writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur in a story.

Hyperbole

⬜Exaggeration for a specific effect

⬜Ex. The bag weighed a ton!

Imagery

⬜The descriptive words and phrases that a writer uses to re-create sensory experiences.

Irony

⬜ Refers to a contrast between appearance and actuality.

Situational Irony-is a contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

Dramatic Irony-when a reader knows more than the characters do.

Verbal Irony-when someone states one thing, but means another.

Metaphor

⬜Compares two things without using like or as.

Mood

⬜ The feeling or atmosphere that the writer creates for the reader.

Narrator

⬜ The character in a story who is telling the story

Oxymoron

⬜ Bringing together two contradictory terms

⬜ Ex. Jumbo Shrimp

Personification

⬜ Giving human qualities to nonhumans⬜ Ex. The tree sings.

Plot

⬜ The plot is the sequence of actions and events in a literary work.

Point of View

⬜ The perspective from which the events in a story or novel are told.

⬜ 1st person – the narrator is a character in the work who tells everything in his or her own words and uses the pronouns I, me and my.

⬜ 3rd person-events are related by a voice outside the action and uses the pronouns he, she, they, etc.

Setting

⬜ The time and place in which the action occurs.

Simile

⬜ Compares two things using like or as.

Suspense

⬜ Created by having clues yet not knowing how things will turn out

Symbol

⬜ A concrete object that represents another idea

Theme

⬜ The central idea of the story, the message the author wants to convey to the reader

Tone

⬜ A writer’s attitude toward his or her subject.

Understatement

⬜ Something that is represented less than it is

⬜ Ex. Don’t worry, it is just a scratch, when is reality it is a huge dent.