elements of literature literary terms

ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

FABLES

A fictional narrative

meant to teach a moral

lesson. The characters

in a fable are usually

animals whose words

and actions reflect

human behavior.

EXAMPLES OF FABLES

The Ants and the Grasshopper: In this fable, the ants

saved food for the winter and the grasshopper did not.

The moral is “It is best to prepare for the days of

necessity.”

EXAMPLES OF FABLES

The Golden Touch (King Midas) - Midas loved gold so

much, he asked a fairy to grant his wish that everything

he touched turned to gold. He was happy until he

touched his daughter and she turned to gold. The moral

is, “Be careful what you wish for.”

FICTION

Written stories about

people and events those

are not real. Literature

that tells stories which are

imagined by the writer.

Something that is not

true.

EXAMPLES OF FICTION

• NARNIA

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

EXAMPLES OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

FLASHBACK

Flashbacks are interruptions

that writers do to insert

past events in order to

provide background or

context to the current

events of a narrative.

EXAMPLES OF A FLASHBACK

The Bible is a good source of flashback examples:

In the Book of Matthew, we see a flashback has been used when Joseph, governor of Egypt, sees his brothers after several years, Joseph “remembered his dreams” about his brothers and how they sold him into slavery in the past.

Progymnasmata:

Preliminary rhetorical exercises that introduce

students to basic rhetorical concepts and strategies.

In classical rhetorical training, the progymnasmata

were "structured so that the student moved from

strict imitation to a more artistic melding of the

often disparate concerns of speaker, subject, and

audience" (Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and

Composition, 1996).