Antagonist: The character (or force) who opposes the protagonist. Often, but not always, “the bad guy.” In Batman, the Joker is the antagonist.
Archetype: An ideal example or model after which other things are patterned. It is what is considered a typical example of a thing or person. Character archetypes, for instance, could include the jock, the nerd, the cheerleader, etc.
Character: The person represented in a work of literature. Also, the psychological, moral, and emotional traits of the character (character traits = the traits that define who they are as a person).
Characters are often defined and developed further by their literary dimensions: they can be flat or round, and static or dynamic. Flat characters lack depth, and serve as poles around which round characters (more developed and complex) orbit. In this sense, round characters are more realistic, more human. Both flat and round characters can be either dynamic or static. Dynamic characters change or evolve, whereas static characters do neither.
Conflict: The struggle between two opposing forces in a literary work. Typically, conflicts are either internal or external. An internal conflict is a psychological or moral conflict that a character must work through within her-/him-/them-self. An external conflict is a struggle the character faces from without—character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. society. Conflict often occurs between a narrative’s protagonist and antagonist.
Foreshadowing: A character, object, or occurrence, which predicts future narrative events. Quite simply, to foreshadow is to drop clues that hint at how the story will end.
Imagery: The creation of images through words; or, the pictures an author “paints.”
Intertextuality: This term refers to the way a literary text builds upon, incorporates, and references other texts through allusion, citation, or even structure.
Irony: Irony refers to a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs. There are 3 types of irony: Verbal Irony (this is the intentional use of words to mean something else), Situational Irony (this involves a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens) and Dramatic Irony (this is when the audience is aware of something that the characters are not).
Narrative point of view / narration: Think “perspective.” The point of view is the vantage point from which the narrator views and relates the action of the story. The point of view may be told in the first person (this is when the narrator is a character in the story) or in the third person (this is when the narrator is outside the story; the narrator can still be a character in this case, only s/he will not participate in the action as it unfolds). A narrator can be omniscient or limited—terms that determine (respectively) whether or not the narrator is privy to the internal thoughts and feelings of the story’s characters. Authors like to use their narrators to challenge the reader by way of narrative tricks—a kind of literary sleight of hand—, so it is important to pay close attention to narration and any possible shifts in point of view. The reader should ask herself whether she trusts the narrator. Is the narrator reliable or unreliable?
Parody: Parody describes an author’s attempt to imitate and/or exaggerate original source with mockery/humour in order to critique the source and/or its meaning.
Plot: The sequence of events that occurs in a story, usually as it relates to the plotting of the character’s conflict(s)—i.e. the development of the action. Plot is often divided into three sequential elements: rising action, turning point, and denouement.
Protagonist: The main character and hero of the story – the character(s) we are rooting for (there can be more than one!) In Batman, Batman is the protagonist.
Setting: Where and when a narrative takes place. More specifically, setting is the historical, geographical, temporal, cultural and social location (whether real or invented) of a work of fiction. An author enriches setting by adjusting the feel of a space, by tweaking mood and atmosphere—this way, the author conveys a sense of a character’s space, as opposed to simply providing an image of its surroundings.
Symbol: Think of symbol as a sign or image charged with meaning. Usually, a symbol stands for something larger than itself, in that it creates a connection between an image and an idea or a concept. In most examples in literature, a symbol is either an object, a person, a place, or an action. Signs and symbols are arbitrary, until they are assigned meaning (a red octagon signifies stop because most English speaking and European countries agree that it does—this said, in other countries the symbol is meaningless, at least in this particular context). An author can use a symbol to either confirm or defy our expectations of its meaning. Water can symbolize life, but it can also symbolize death, or even rebirth—indeed, symbolism is a rather fluid literary technique.
Theme: The overarching idea, message, or commentary of a work of fiction. The theme is what the author wants you to take away from, or understand about, the story.
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