Short Story Literary Terms

1. Short Story Literary Terms 12thgraDE CP English

2. LITERARY terms for this unit Exposition Conflict internal/external Imagery Allusion Foreshadowing Irony Symbolism Hyperbole • Characterization • direct • indirect • flat • round • static • dynamic • Setting • Mood • Atmosphere • Allegory

3. Exposition • Background information provided by author to enhance the audience’s understanding of the context of a fiction or nonfiction story. • Example: Robert Louis Stevenson gives the reader plenty of cultural background on the small seaside village of his youth in hopes the audience will better appreciate the context of “The Lantern-Bearers.”

4. hyperbole • Originally in Greek meant “overshooting.” • A bold overstatement or extravagant expression of fact, used for serious or comic effect. • Easily recognized as exaggeration for effect. • Example: There must have been ten million people at our Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving. • Or, Shakespeare’s, Othello, Act III, Scene III, Lines 330-33 reads: • Not poppy nor mandragora, • Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, • Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep • Which thou ow ‘dst yesterday.

5. Imagery • Use of images, especially in a pattern of related images, often figurative, to create a strong, unified sensory impression. • Use of sensory details to create images that support the theme of the essay. • Appeals to the readers 5 senses.

6. Irony • A contrast between expectation and reality • Originated in Greek comedy with the character eiron, who was a “dissembler.” Appeared less intelligent than he was, spoke in understatement, and triumphed over the alazon—the self-deceiving and stupid braggart. • Greek dramatist Sophocles developed the “tragic” or “dramatic” irony in his 100-plus tragedies, including Antigone and Oedipus Rex. • Four kinds of irony: verbal, structural, dramatic, and situational.

7. Verbal Irony • Verbal irony: demands the most audience sophistication. This requires “reading between the lines.” • Also, this irony takes the greatest risks with the audience who might misinterpret what is irony and what is literal. • Might be simple reversal of literal meanings of words spoken or more complex, subtle, indirect and unobtrusive messages that require the collection of hints from within the text. • Compliments the intelligence of the reader, who, by perceiving the irony, is in partnership with the author and the minority of characters who understand, too. • Example: “It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice). The subtle irony is that a single woman is in want of a rich husband as manifested by the evidence in the novel that follows this opening line. • Sarcasm: a type of verbal irony that is crude and blatant praise or dispraise. Example: “Oh, you’re God’s great gift to women, you are!”

8. Dramatic Irony • Involves a situation in a play or narrative in which the audience shares with the author knowledge of which the character is ignorant. • The character expects the opposite of what is destined, or says something that anticipates the outcome, but not in a way that is meant when said. • Example: In Macbeth, by Act I, Scene I, the audience knows that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have already planned out Duncan’s murder—yet King Duncan never suspects that he is walking into a trap.

9. Situational Irony • When the writer shows a discrepancy between the expected results of some action or situation and it actual results. • The work has a surprise ending, that, although a “surprise,” still fits the purpose, point of view, evidence and tone of the text. • Example: In Thomas Hardy’s “The Three Strangers,” it is a surprise to the characters and the audience when the two strangers at the chimney corner turn out to be the hangman and his intended victim.

10. Mood • The atmosphere in the text created by the author’s tone towards the subject. • Sometimes called “atmosphere” or “ambience.” • Tools used: • -Style (how sentences are combined) • -syntax (strength, length and complexity of each sentence) • -diction (individual word choice)

11. Symbol • An object, place, setting, prop, event or person that represents or stands for some idea or event. • Never hidden, but interwoven throughout the text. • It may also retain its own literal meaning while taking on the symbolic qualities.

12. tone • Author’s attitude toward subject matter as revealed through style, syntax, diction, figurative language, and organization. • Author’s tone creates mood in the text by use of the above tools.

13. Characterization • Direct: The author tells us exactly what the character is like • Indirect: The reader needs to form their own judgment based on the clues the author gives. • Flat: character has only one or two character traits • Round: has many traits associated with the character. • Static: A character that does not change much throughout the story • Dynamic: Character changes as a result of the events in the story.