Literay Terms

Forms Of Prose Fiction
1. Novel - this is a long work of prose fiction, especially one that is relatively realistic.

2. Novella - this is a work of prose fiction, longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.

3. Short Story - this is a fictional narrative, usually a prose, rarely longer than 30 pages and often much briefer.

Elements Of Prose Fiction
1. Narrative Technique - The style of telling the "story". Concentrate on the order of events and on their detail in evaluating a writer's technique.

2.  Point Of View - this refers to the method of narrating a short story, novel, narrative poem or work of non- fiction.

3. Characterization - this is the presentation of a character whether by direct description, by showing the character in action, or by the presentation of other characters who help to define each other.

4. Setting - the time and place of a story, place, or poem.

5. Theme - the central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life. Usually, theme is unstated in fictional works, but in nonfiction, the theme may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing.

6. Plot - the episodes in a narrative or dramatic work, that is, what happens.

7. Style - the manner of expression, evident not only in the choices of certain words but also in the choice of certain kinds of sentence structure, characters, settings and themes.

Literary Devices
1. Imagery - words and phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for the reader.

2. Symbols - a symbol is a person, place, object or activity that stands for something beyond itself.

3. Irony - the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning/the contrast between what is said and what is meant.

4. Satire - literary technique in which ideas, customs, behaviours or institutions are ridicule for the purpose of improving society.

5. Allusion - reference to a historical or fictional person, place or event with the reader is assumed to be familiar.

Structural Devices
1. Stream Of Consciousness - techniques where the author writes down their thoughtts as fast as they come, typically to create an interior monologue characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that trace a character's fragmentary thoughts.

2. Interior Monologue - a passage of writing presenting a character's inner thoughts and emotions in direct, sometimes disjointed or fragmentary manner.

3. Flashback - an account of a conversation, an episode or an event that happened before the beginning of a story.

4. Fore Shadowing - a writer's use of hints or clues that suggest what events will occur later in a narrative.

5. Time Frame - a period during which something takes place or is projected to occur.

6. Motif - a recurring word, phrase, image, object, idea or action in a work of literature.

7. Juxtapostition - using two themes, characters phrase, words, or situations together for comparison, contrast or rhetorical.

Types Of Fiction
Eight Types:

1. Science.
2. Realistic.
3. Mystery.
4. Animal.
5. Folktales.
6. Autobiography.
7. Fantasy.
8. Humorous.

Literary Context
1. Social - the environment of people that surrounds something's creation or intended audience. Social contexts reflects how the people around use and interpret it. The social context influences how something is viewed.

2. Political - political context reflects the environment in which something is produced indicating its purpose or agenda.

3. Historical - this reflects the time in which something takes place or was created and how that influences how you interpret it. In other words, it is the events that took place around something through which you understand that thing.