- Characterization: Characterization is defined as a literary device that the writer uses to highlight and explain step by step a character’s details in a story.
- Flat character: A flat character in a work of fiction is a character with little development. The character does not change or undergo significant change as the story progresses.
- Round Character: A round character is a term coined by E. M. Foster. It is opposite to a flat character, and is defined as a complex character that changes and is developed by the writer during the course of the story.
- Stock Character: A stock character is defined as character that is based on a social or a literary stereotype and depends a lot on cultural types or names for its characteristics.
- Plot: Plot is defined as a literary term that comprises events that constitute a story, especially as they relate to each other in a pattern or by coincidence.
- Action: Action is defined as one of the moral and dispositional qualities of characters in a fictional work, the other being dialogue. What a character does is called action, while what the character says is called dialogue.
- Pace: Narrative pace is the speed at which the author tells a story. It can also be defined as the movement of story from one section to another.
- Conflict (Internal and External): A conflict is a clash arising in actions, desires, ideas, or goals of a story’s plot. A conflict may arise between the protagonist or other individual and some other character (external conflict), or between the main character and other forces beyond his or her control such as nature, fate or society or within his or her own nature (internal conflict).
- Unreliable Narrator: A narrator of a story of a piece of fiction is the teller of a story. An unreliable narrator is a narrator that cannot be trusted and whose credibility has been compromised
- First Person Narration: A first person narrative is a narrator that speaks in first person or speaks as an “I” and is himself part of the story
- Second Person Narration: A second-person narrative is less frequently used in a work of fiction and is a narrative mode where the protagonist is referred by second-person personal pronouns.
- Third Person Omniscient Narration: In a third person narrative, the narrator is not a part of the story and refers to other characters in the story by their proper names or as “he”, “she” or “they”. An omniscient narrator is an assumption that the narrator knows everything that is important in relation to the agents or events in the story. The omniscient narrator is free to move at will in time and place
- Third Person Limited Narration: Third person limited narration is defined as a method of storytelling where the narrator is aware of a single character’s thoughts and feelings. In such storytelling, other characters are presented externally.
- Third Person Objective Narration: In the third person objective narration, the narrator only knows the reader would know. The narrator is unaware of the people's thoughts and knows only the character’s actions and words.
- Setting (and functions of): Setting of a narrative is defined as the general locale and the historical time in which the action of the narrative takes place.
Setting (a text example): The general setting of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is in the Elsinore Castle, eastern Denmark. The play, which was perhaps written between 1599 and 1601, takes place mostly around the castle. During that time, Elsinore was a strategic port that used to charge a toll for ship passing through the Oresund strait. Another setting of the play is the royal court, where the dynamic is manipulative.
First person narrator (a text example): In “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, the protagonist, tells her own story. The novel is written in the first person, and it appears that the protagonist is writing her own story. She explains to her reader the setting of the story and her experiences along with the thoughts in her mind. She also tells the reader her rationale behind her decision and at times, explains her feelings. However, Jane also appears to be suppressing her own feelings to appear calm or composed. Her feeling can be best explained through her sentence in chapter 23, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you" (Bronte, Chapter 23).
Stock Characters (a text example): Stock characters in Elizabethan romantic comedy often used the devise of disguise. In comedies such as William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” or “Twelfth Night”, the plot often turned on a heroine disguised as a young man. In “As You Like It”, Rosalind disguises as a man and goes to the Forest of Ardent to search for freedom. She turns into a man so that her lover, Orlando, can make a move on “Ganymede”, her disguised look.
Third Person Narrator (a text example): A third person narrator can be best described in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. The narrator is an omniscient narrator, who moves from ballrooms to Darcy’s estate to the protagonist’s home. The third person narrative gives a different dimension to the novel, as it does not allow emotions to overpower dialogue, opinions, ideas, and events. “Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three and twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develope. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news” (Austen, Chapter 1). The only exception in the novel is Chapter 36, which is devoted entirely to Elizabeth’s emotional transformation.
Work Cited
Literary Terms, AP English. Web. 10 March 2014. http://www.yourcharlotteschools.net/tidwell/LiteraryTermsAPEnglish.html
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. New York: Washington Press, 1992
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Washington Press, 1992
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Web. 10 March 2014. http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/cbronte/bl-cbronte-jan-23.htm
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Web. 10 March 2014. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppv1n01.html
