Literary Terms and Concepts

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Allegory

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A story that has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. Characters or objects often embody abstract ideas (e.g., John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress or George Orwell’s Animal Farm).

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Author’s Craft

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Intentional and deliberate use of organizational patterns, text and graphic features, syntax, devices, and diction to create an effective written work; may vary by genre.

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Author’s Purpose

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The reason an author writes about a particular topic (e.g., to persuade, to entertain, to inform, to explain, to analyze, etc.); includes particular details, features, or devices in a work.

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Characterization

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The method in which an author constructs a character explicitly stating aspects of his/her personality and appearance (direct characterization) or by revealing aspects through actions, thoughts, speech, other characters, etc. (indirect characterization).

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Citation

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A reference to the author’s name, title of work, date published, publisher, and/or page numbers of quoted or paraphrased text in a shortened in-text notation or in a longer bibliographic entry.

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Collaboration

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The process of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing wherein each member speaks, is heard, and takes ownership of the resulting product or activity.

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Commentary

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Written/spoken explanations or interpretations that further develop an idea.

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Conflict

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In literature, the opposition of persons or forces that brings about dramatic action central to the plot of a story. Conflict may be internal, as a psychological conflict within a character, or external (e.g., man versus man, man versus nature, or man versus society).

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Connotative meaning

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The emotions or set of associations attached to a word that is implied rather than literal (e.g., feeling blue).

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Context

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The words, sentences, or passages that precede or follow a specific word, sentence, or passage.