Fiction Vocabulary
Every discipline has its own technical vocabulary; the study of literature is no different. In order to discuss fiction in an intelligent and competent manner, a familiarity (or literacy) with this vocabulary is crucial. Define each of the following words calling from various sources--reference books, lectures, your own reading--making clear your own understanding of the vocabulary. Pay particular attention to the bolded elements.
  1. allegory
  2. alliteration
  3. allusion
  4. antagonist
  5. anti-hero
  6. archetype
  7. atmosphere
  8. canon
  9. character(ization)
    • Flat
    • Round
    • Stock
  10. climax
  11. colloquialism
  12. conflict
  13. convention
  14. deconstruction
  15. dénouement
  16. description
  17. deus ex machina
  18. diatribe
  19. epigraph
  20. epiphany
  21. ethos
  22. exegesis
  23. exposition
  24. flashback
  25. foil
  26. foreshadowing
  27. Freytag's Formula
  28. genre
  29. hero
  30. hubris
  31. hypertext
  32. imagery
  33. in medias res
  34. irony
  35. mellodrama
  36. metaphor
  37. metonymy
  38. milieu
  39. mimesis
  40. monologue
  41. motif
  42. mood
  43. myth
  44. narration
  45. narrative
  46. narrator
    • First-Person
    • Third-Person
  47. novel
  48. novella
  49. onomatopoeia
  50. oration
  51. pace
  52. paradox
  53. parody
  54. pathos
  55. persona
  56. personification
  57. plot
  58. point of view
  59. prose
  60. protagonist
  61. Reader Response Criticism
  62. resolution
  63. reversal
  64. rhetoric
  65. rhyme
  66. rising action
  67. satire
  68. science fiction
  69. semantics
  70. setting
  71. short story
  72. simile
  73. stream of consciousness
  74. style
  75. subplot
  76. surrealism
  77. symbol(ism)
  78. syntax
  79. text
  80. theme
  81. tone
  82. trope
  83. verisimilitude

LIT 2010



 12 January 1999; 2.0