Literary terms, explanation

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• Allusion A reference, often implicit or direct, to another literary work or genre
• Allegory Abstract concepts taking on concrete form in a literary work.
• Anthropomorphism The attribution of human traits, emotions or intentions to nonhuman characters.
• Author The biographical author or the historical author, is the one who wrote the book.
• Canon A list of literary work that are considered to be major.
• Character We get to know characters through description, scenes, speech or action.
• Context Socio-historical and cultural context; conditions at the time and place of publication
• Crisis A moment when the conflict has reached a point when it becomes clear that the plot can fork out in different directions
• Defamiliarization The distinctive effect achieved by literary works that disrupt our habitual perception of the world, making us to "see" things afresh
• Fairy Tale A folktale adapted and written down for entertainment
• Fantasy A literary genre, which in contrast to realistic fiction includes supernatural or other unrealistic elements.
• Fiction Imaginary prose narrative. Ex. fable, short story
• Foreshadowing Something that signals something that will occur later in the plot.
• Genre A category of literary works
• Imagery A distinction is made between metaphor, simile and symbol
• Irony A literary technique whereby the surface meaning of a passage differs radically from its actual meaning.
• Literary pedagogy An academic field concerned with the teaching of literature
• Metafiction Fiction about fiction; a kind of fiction that openly comments on its own fictional status
• Metaphor An image used to illustrate a concept.
• Motif A narrative device: repeated through the work. A repeated phrase, a recurring object etc.
• Narration The telling of a story, through a narrative voice adopting a certain point of view
• Narrator The "voice" telling the story. Ex. All-knowing narrator or a character in the story.
• Plot the sequence of events where each affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect.
• Parody Mocking imitation of another literary work or genre.
• Point of view The perspective, who speaks and who sees.
• Reader The real readers or the reader that the book implies.
• Reader response An approach and a theory of great significance to literary pedagogy.
• Realism Reflect real people and events, or include characters and settings that resemble real people and places.
• Satire Ironic criticism of an aspect of social life
• Scene Event involving characters and dialoge.
• Symbol An image or an object in a literary work that is central to its main point, or theme
• Setting Place and time in the literary work.
• Theme A topic that is explored by a literary work.
• Tone The attitude in a literary work may be sentimental or comical, serious or ironic.

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