Glossary

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underplot
a subordinate plot in fiction or drama. Also called a subplot.

understatement
language that avoids obvious emphasis or embellishment; litotes is one form of it.

unity of time
one of the three unities of drama as described by Aristotle in his Poetics. Unity of time refers to the limitation of a play’s action to a short period—usually the time it takes to present the play or, at any rate, no longer than a day. See classical unities.

unlimited point of view
also called omniscient point of view; a perspective that can be seen from one character’s view, then another’s, then another’s, or can be moved in or out of any character’s mind at any time. Organization in which the reader has access to the perceptions and thoughts of all the characters in the story.

unreliable narrator
a speaker or voice whose vision or version of the details of a story are consciously or unconsciously deceiving; such a narrator’s version is usually subtly undermined by details in the story or the reader’s general knowledge of facts outside the story. If, for example, the narrator were to tell you that Columbus was Spanish and that he discovered America in the fourteenth century when his ship the Golden Hind landed on the coast of Florida near present-day Gainesville, you might not trust other things he tells you.