Literary Jargon

Elements of Drama

Act - A main separation in the play

Scene - The minor section within the act

Exposition - The part of the play or novel in which the theme a main characters are introduced.

Conflict- The struggle between characters or forces in which the story is based.

Complication - A factor, condition, or element that creates difficulties.

Climax- The highest point of the narrative; all actions build towards.

Denouement - A solution or unraveling of a plot in a play or story.

Peripeteia - A sudden reversal of fortune or the change in circumstances.

Characterization - The way in which the writes creates or develops his characters.

Protagonist - the main character; hero or heroine of a drama.

Antagonist - the main characters in a piece of fiction that provides a source of conflict upon which the plot may turn.

Main Plot - The pattern of events or main story in a drama.

Sub Plot- The plot in a play or film or novel in a story that is separate and less important than the main story.

Form of Drama

Comedy - The misadventures of the characters which are presented in a drama as amusing rather than disastrous and provide a happy ending.

History - A drama which is based on the past; often the mid evil or early modern past.

Tragedy - A serious play based on human suffering that offers the audience pleasure which provides a sad ending.

Romance - A heroic play and verse narrative portraying chivalrous deeds.

Theatre of the Absurd - A theatrical style originating in France after World War 2 which took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world of which cannot be logically explained.  

Satire - Using humour of exaggeration to show what is bad or weak about a person or thing.

Modern Drama - The Western Development of drama beginning in the late nineteenth century. It also represents a wide array of historical and fictional perspectives.

Melodrama - A dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions.

Features of Drama

Monologue - When the character may be speaking his or her thoughts directly addressing another character or speaking to the audience especially the former.

Dialogue - Words spoken by the characters in a novel or play.

Soliloquy - A speech in a play in which a character tells his or her thoughts to the audience as if talking to him or herself.

Aside - A dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience.

Set- The time, place, and circumstances in which a narrative, drama or film takes place.

Stage Directions - An instruction in the text of a play displaying the movements of the actors, the arrangement of the scenery, etc

Stage Convention - Certain devices used in a performance that are accepted as portraying an event or style not necessarily being realistic.

Chorus - A non-individualized group of performers in a play who comment with a collected voice on the dramatic action.

Dramatic Unities - the three unities of time, place and action observed in a classical drama.

Disguise - to change the appearance or guise of so as to conceal identity or mislead.

Literary  devices.

Imagery - the writer or speakers use of words to produce pictures in the viewer’s mind.

Motif - aspect of literature (a type of character or theme) which recurs frequently.

Symbolism - the representation of something in symbolic form or the attribution to symbolic meaning.

Tragic Irony - the words and actions of the characters contradict the real situation, which spectators fully realize.

Dramatic Irony - the words and actions possess words and actions possess significance that the listeners or audience understands, but the speaker and character does not.

Juxtaposition - side by side or close together.

Literary Context

Social - living together in groups

Historical - from the past; connected to the past.

Political - relating to the state or its government

Religious - observation of religious laws or practices.
Ethnic - different racial or social groups of people within a country

Moral - conforming to accepted standards; having integrity.

Intellectual- highly intelligent devotes to mental or intellectual pursuits.

Cultural - refers to the patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance or importance.