Literary Terms Glossary Page


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Character: a person or animal who takes part in the action of a literary work.

Main Character: protagonist who is the most important individual in the story, the focus of the reader's attention

Round Character: full developed with both good and bad traits revealed and background is revealed

Flat Character: posseses only one or two traits

Dynamic Character: changes during the story

Static Character: does not change during the story

Climax: the highest point of interest or suspense

Conflict: a struggle between opposing forces

External Conflict: character struggles against some outside person or force

Internal Conflict: struggle takes place within the protagonist's mind to reach some new understanding or decision

Drama: a story written to be performed by actors

Fiction: prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events

Flashback: a section of a literary work that interrupts the sequence of events to relate an event from an earlier time.

Foreshadowing: clues that suggest events that have yet to occur, what may happen next, creates suspense

Irony: techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions

Plot: sequence of events that contains conflicts, climax, and resolution

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