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Tale
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Short narrative without a complex plot, often containing supernatural elements.
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Parable
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Brief, usually allegorical narrative that teaches a moral, though the moral is not explicitly stated.
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Short story
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Prose narrative too brief to be published in a separate volume. Usually involves one or two main characters involved in a single compelling action.
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Bildungsroman
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German for "novel of growth and development". Sometimes called an apprenticeship novel, it depicts a youth who struggles toward maturity, forming a worldview or philosophy of life.
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Tone
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Attitude toward a subject conveyed in a literary work.
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Epistolary novel
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Story is told by way of letters written by one or more of the characters.
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Fable
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Brief, often humorous narrative told to illustrate a moral. Characters are traditionally animals whose personality traits symbolize human traits. Usually will explicitly state the moral.
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Point of view
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Perspective from which a story is told.
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Plot
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Particular arrangement of actions, events, and situations that unfold in a narrative.
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Realism
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Attempt to reproduce faithfully the surface appearance of life, especially that of ordinary people in everyday situations.
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Antihero
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Protagonist who is lacking in one or more of the conventional qualities attributed to a hero.
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Foreshadowing
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Technique of arranging events and information in such a way that later events are prepared for, or shadowed, beforehand.
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Symbol
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A person, place, or thing in a narrative that suggests meanings beyond its literal sense.
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Theme
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Generally recurring subject or idea conspicuously evident in a literary work.
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Dynamic character
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Character who, during the course of the narrative, grows or changes in some significant way.
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