| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| central conflict | The main struggle or tension in a narrative that typically involves the protagonist and is often directly related to character epiphanies. |
| character change | The transformation or development of a character's traits, beliefs, or values over the course of a narrative. |
| character interactions | The ways in which characters engage with, respond to, and influence one another through dialogue, action, and behavior. |
| complexity | The intricate, multifaceted, and often contradictory aspects of character relationships that go beyond simple or straightforward dynamics. |
| conflict of values | A clash between different principles or beliefs that a character holds, which often drives character development in a narrative. |
| epiphany | A sudden moment of realization or insight that allows a character to see things in a new light and often leads to significant change. |
| exclusion | The rejection or separation of a character from a group, revealing the group's attitude toward that character. |
| inclusion | The acceptance or incorporation of a character into a group, revealing the group's attitude toward that character. |
| nuance | Subtle variations, shades of meaning, or delicate distinctions in character relationships and interactions. |
| textual details | Specific words, phrases, descriptions, dialogue, and actions within a text that provide evidence about characters, their perspectives, and motivations. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| attitude | The emotional stance or perspective a narrator, character, or speaker takes toward a subject or situation. |
| character | A person or entity in a narrative whose actions, thoughts, and relationships drive the story forward. |
| character development | The process by which a character's personality, beliefs, or motivations change or are revealed through events in the narrative. |
| conflict of values | A clash between different principles or beliefs that a character holds, which often drives character development in a narrative. |
| narrative | A story or account of events presented in a text, including how those events are ordered and connected. |
| setting | The time, place, and social context in which a narrative takes place, which can function to establish conflict, reveal character, or drive plot development. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| abstraction | Non-concrete ideas or concepts such as emotions, ideologies, and beliefs that settings or symbols may represent. |
| ideology | Systems of beliefs, values, and ideas that can be symbolically represented through literary elements like setting. |
| image | A descriptive representation in a text that can be literal or figurative, appealing to the senses or creating associations with sensory experience. |
| imagery | The use of vivid, descriptive language and sensory details to create mental images and evoke emotional responses in a reader. |
| motif | A unified pattern of recurring objects or images used to emphasize a significant idea in large parts of or throughout a text. |
| setting | The time, place, and social context in which a narrative takes place, which can function to establish conflict, reveal character, or drive plot development. |
| symbol | A person, place, object, or action that represents something beyond its literal meaning, such as an abstract concept, emotion, or idea. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| attitude | The emotional stance or perspective a narrator, character, or speaker takes toward a subject or situation. |
| entity | A thing with distinct and independent existence, such as an abstract concept or force. |
| personification | A type of comparison that assigns human traits or qualities to nonhuman objects, entities, or ideas in order to characterize them. |
| simile | A figure of speech that uses the words 'like' or 'as' to compare two different things and transfer the qualities of one to the other. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| arrangement of details | The strategic ordering and placement of information in a narrative to control pacing and emphasis. |
| chronology | The arrangement of events in the order they occur in time. |
| emotional reaction | The feelings or affective responses evoked in readers through narrative techniques and story structure. |
| frequency of events | How often events occur or are repeated within a narrative, which contributes to the overall pacing. |
| narrative structures | The organizational frameworks used to arrange and present events in a story, such as linear, non-linear, or fragmented structures. |
| pacing | The speed and rhythm at which events unfold in a story, controlled by the order and timing of information revealed to the reader. |
| plot | The sequence of events in a narrative that are connected through cause-and-effect relationships, with each event building on the others. |
| syntax | The arrangement and structure of words and sentences in a text that can reveal a narrator's or speaker's perspective and attitude. |
| tense | The verb form that indicates when an action or event occurs, which can shift within a narrative to affect pacing and perspective. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| contradictory information | Conflicting or opposing details and accounts provided by different narrators or speakers in a text. |
| multiple narrators | Two or more narrators or speakers in a text who may provide different perspectives, details, or contradictory information about the same events. |
| narrator's reliability | The degree to which a narrator can be trusted to provide accurate, truthful, and complete information about events in a narrative. |
| unreliable narrator | A narrator whose account of events is distorted, incomplete, or deliberately misleading, affecting how readers interpret the narrative. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| alternative interpretation | Different or competing ways of understanding or analyzing a text that may challenge the primary argument. |
| claim | A statement about a text that requires defense with evidence from the text. |
| commentary | Explanatory writing that clarifies the relationship between textual evidence, reasoning, and thesis in a literary argument. |
| defensible claim | An argument or interpretation that can be supported and justified through evidence and logical reasoning. |
| evidence | Specific details, quotes, examples, or references from a text used to support and develop a line of reasoning in a literary argument. |
| interpretation | An explanation or understanding of the meaning or significance of a literary text or its elements. |
| line of reasoning | The logical sequence of claims that work together to defend and support the overarching thesis statement. |
| relevance | The connection or applicability of an interpretation to a broader context or audience understanding. |
| significance | The importance or meaning of an interpretation within a broader context or framework. |
| textual evidence | Specific details and quotes from a text that support and defend a claim in literary analysis. |
| thesis | The overarching central claim or argument that an essay defends and develops throughout. |
| thesis statement | A statement that expresses an interpretation of a literary text and makes a defensible claim that can be supported through textual evidence and reasoning. |