Vocabulary 11/2: Analysis of fictional texts

 

1.     act

one of the main parts into which a stage play, opera etc is divided.

2.     action

the things that happen in a play or book.

3.     actor

someone who performs in a play, film, or television programme.

4.     antagonist

character in a fictional text or drama who is opposed to, or in conflict with, the protagonist.

5.     atmosphere

the tone or mood of a novel, short story or play created by setting, description and characters.

6.     audience

a group of people who watch and listen to someone speaking or performing in public.

7.     chapter

one of the parts into which a book is divided: I've only read as far as ~ 5.

8.     climax

the most exciting or important part of a story or experience that normally comes near the end.

9.     comedy

a play, film etc that is intended to entertain people and make them laugh.

10.  content

the ideas, facts, or opinions that are contained in a speech or a piece of writing.

11.  dénouement

The final outcome of a fictional text, especially in a drama, when the conflict is resolved. In tragedy, it may be the hero’s or heroine’s destruction or his or her failure to achieve his or her goals; in comedy, it may be the restoration of the hero’s or heroine’s fortunes or the accomplishment of his or her goals. The term is also known as ”solution”.

12.  director

the person who gives instructions to the actors, cameraman etc in a film or play.

13.  drama

a play for the theatre, television, radio etc.

12.  fiction

books and stories about imaginary people and events.

15.  flashback

An episode which interrupts the chronological order of a text in order to go back in time and show what happened earlier. It is often used to reveal new information, which had previously been hidden from the reader, at selected places so that the reader may understand a character’s motivation better.

16.  flat character

a person in a piece of fiction that does not show any character development.

17.  genre

a particular type of art, writing, music etc, which has certain characteristics that all examples of this type share.

18.  leitmotif

a feature that appears often in something such as a book, a speech, or an artist's work.

19.  line

a line of words on a page, for example in a poem or a report.

20.  metre

the arrangement of sounds in poetry into patterns of strong and weak beats.

21.  monologue

a long speech by one character in a play or film.

22.  narrative perspective

a general term for the point of view of piece of fiction.

23.  narrative text

text in which the author relates an event or a sequence of events.

24.  narrator

a person in some books, plays etc who tells the story.

25.  novel

a long fictional prose text. It often has a large number of characters, different settings and a complex plot.

26.  novelist

someone who writes novels.

27.  playwright

someone who writes dramas.

28.  plot

the sequence of events in a story, novel or play as arranged by the author. It says what happens and why.

29.  poem

a piece of writing arranged in patterns of lines and of sounds which often rhyme, expressing thoughts, emotions, and experiences in words that excite your imagination.

30.  poet

someone who writes poems.

31.  prop

a small object such as a book, weapon etc used by actors in a play or film.

32.  prose

written language in its usual form, as opposed to poetry.

33.  protagonist

the most important character in a play, film, or story.

34.  quatrain

a group of four lines in a poem.

35.  rehearsal

a period or a particular occasion when all the people in a play, concert etc practise it before a public performance.

36.  rhyme

the use of words that rhyme in poetry, especially at the ends of lines.

37.  round character

a person in a piece of fiction who shows a development of his or her character.

38.  scene

part of a play during which there is no change in time or place.

39.  setting

the place or time that the action of a book, film etc happens.

40.  short story

a short fictional prose text which is meant to be read in a single sitting.

41.  showing

method of characterizing persons through action, setting, and dialogue.

42.  sketch

a short humorous scene on stage, television etc that is part of a larger show.

43.  soliloquy

a speech in a play in which a character talks to himself or herself so that the audience knows their thoughts.

44.  stage direction

a written instruction to an actor to do something in a play.

45.  stanza

a group of lines in a repeated pattern forming part of a poem.

46.  stream-of-consciousness technique

the expression of thoughts and feelings in writing exactly as they pass through your mind, without the usual ordered structure they have in formal writing.

47.  style

the particular way someone uses words to express ideas, tell stories etc.

48.  subtext

a hidden or second meaning in something that someone says or writes.

49.  suspense

a feeling of excitement or anxiety when you do not know what will happen next.

50.  telling

method of characterizing persons by explicitly stating their character traits: Tom Waites is a foolish person.

51.  tone

the general feeling or attitude expressed in a piece of writing, activity etc.

52.  tragedy

a serious play or book that ends sadly, especially with the death of the main character.

53.  turning point

A structural element of a fictional text, marking a change in the conflict or suspense It usually follows the climax and precedes the falling action.

54.  verse

a set of lines of poetry that forms one part of a poem, and that usually has a pattern that is repeated in the other parts.

55.  writer

someone who writes books, stories etc, especially as a job.

 

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