Quiz on Literary Terms: Enhance Your Understanding of Key Concepts

1. There will be a Quiz on these lit terms! • Setting • the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place. • Protagonist • the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

2. Climax • the most intense, exciting, or important point of something • Theme • the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic • Symbols • a thing that represents or stands for something else, esp. a material object representing something abstract.

3. Antagonist • a character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works against the main character, or protagonist, in some way. The antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. • Dialogue • The conversation between characters in a drama or narrative. A dialogue occurs in most works of literature.

4. Parable • A simple story meant to teach a moral or spiritual lesson • Allegory • a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor • A complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas

5. Metaphor • A type of figurative language in which a statement is made to say one thing, but is another. Metaphors can uncover new meaning about a work • Broken Heart, I feel blue, She is the apple of my eye • Imagery • visually descriptive or figurative language, esp. in a literary work • Genre • Category of artistic works (poems, fiction, non-fiction, novels, short stories, etc.)

6. Point-of-view • Perspective in writing (1st “I”/2nd “You”/3rd “He/She, They, Them”) • Hyperbole • An extravagant exaggeration. Used for descriptive effect. • Narrator • The voice or speaker of the story. Participant in the story (1st person). Observer in story (2nd person). Non-participant (3rd)