Lit 3

Exposition: explanatory stage of plot

The exposition sets up the story.

Expressionism: a technique of distorting objects and events in order to represent them as they are perceived by a character in a literary work

Fable: a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters

The tortoise and the hare is a fable.

Fallacy: an argument that uses poor reasoning

“That painting is worthless because I don’t recognize the artist.”

Falling action: part of the plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved

The falling action ties up all the loose ends after the climax.

Farce: a light, humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of a character.

Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest” is a good example of farce in which the characters are stereotypical English upper-class through which Wilde made fun of the elite.

Figurative language: language that contains or uses figures of speech, metaphors

You are what you eat.

Flashback: an event or scene takes place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work

The man flashes back to his life before he was married.

Foil: another character in a story who contrasts with the main character, usually to highlight one of their attributes.

Folk tale: a tale or legend originating and traditional among a people or folk, especially one forming part of the oral tradition of the common people

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a folk tale.

Foreshadowing: to show or indicate what is to come

Khaled Hosseini foreshadowed his inevitable return to Afghanistan in the beginning of the book.

Free verse: a verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern

After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;

After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,

Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,

Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship – Walt Whitman

Genre: a class or category of writing

The Kite Runner is under the realistic fiction genre.

Gothic tale:

Hyperbole: an obvious and intentional exaggeration

“He was as tall as a tree.”

Imagery: the figurative description or illustration

Authors use imagery to give a greater sense of the story’s atmosphere and environment.  “The white cloud seemed to dance over the horizon in the wind.”

Implication: something that is implied

“I can’t remember anything from the party last night.”  The implication is that the person got hammered last night at the party.

Incongruity: not harmonious in character

Character’s face incongruity when it comes to their actions versus their thoughts.

Inference: a proposition reached by a process of inference

The woman’s inference was incorrect when she thought the man did not want to talk to her based upon his short responses when actuality he was short with her because he wanted her to ask what was wrong.

Irony: a technique of indicating as through character or plot development an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.

The bully was beaten up by his classmates.