Essential Literary Terms and Narrative Structures

Posted on May 22, 2026 in English Studies

Language and Literary Devices

  • Literal Language: Describes things exactly as they are, without exaggeration or metaphor.
  • Connotation: The emotional meaning connected to a word, beyond its basic dictionary meaning.
  • Metaphor: A figure of speech that describes one thing as another to show similarity.
  • Personification: A literary device where something non-human is given human qualities.
  • Animisation: The attribution of animal-like characteristics or behaviors to humans or objects.
  • Synecdoche: A figure of speech where a part represents the whole, or the whole represents a part.
  • Metonymy: A figure of speech where one thing is named by something closely related to it.
  • Alliteration: Repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words.

Foundations of the Novel

First Novel Writers: Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Jonathan Swift, and Laurence Sterne.

Realism: Presents everyday life and ordinary experiences truthfully, without idealization.

Narratology and Characterization

Narratology: The study of how stories are structured and told, including elements like plot, narrator, perspective, time, and the way events are presented.

Character Types

  • Protagonist: The central character in the story, usually the one the plot follows.
  • Side Characters: Supporting characters who help develop the story.
  • Background Characters: Minor characters with little importance, mainly creating setting or atmosphere.
  • Round Character: A complex character with many traits, emotions, and depth.

Classical Theory and Folktales

Aristotle’s Poetics: Explains plot, character, and the purpose of storytelling.

Hamartia: A tragic flaw or mistake that causes the hero’s downfall.

Folktale Structure:

  1. The structure is more important than its content.
  2. Built from a limited number of recurring narrative functions.
  3. Functions appear in a predictable order.
  4. Characters are defined by their roles, not their personalities.
  5. All winner tales share a common deep structure.
  6. Narrative meaning emerges from relations between functions.

Narrative Discourse and Perspective

Narrative Discourse: The way a story is told to the reader.

  • Mimetic Discourse: Showing events directly, like in dialogue or action.
  • Diegetic Telling Discourse: Telling or describing events through a narrator.

Narration: Tells events and actions in a story.

Focalisation: The perspective through which the reader sees the story:

  • External Focalisation: The narrator shows only outside actions, not characters’ thoughts.
  • Internal Focalisation: The story is shown through a character’s thoughts and feelings.

Frame Narrative: A main story that contains another story inside it (the Embedded Narrative).

Speech Representation

  • Mimetic: The character’s exact words or thoughts are shown (e.g., “I have to go; I told her”).
  • Transposed: Indirect speech (e.g., “I told her I had to go”).
  • Narratised: Speech summarized by the narrator without exact words (e.g., “I informed her that it was necessary for me to leave”).

Narrator Types and Dramatic Structure

Main types of narrators depend on:

  1. Grammatical person
  2. Knowledge and perspective
  3. Participation in the story
  4. Reliability

Levels of a Drama Play

  1. Exposition: Introduces characters, setting, and conflict.
  2. Rising Action: Conflict develops and tension increases.
  3. Denouement: Conflict is resolved.