Characterization is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative or dramatic works of art. This representation may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or commentary, and indirect (or "dramatic") methods inviting readers to infer qualities from character's actions, dialogues, or appearance. Such a personage is called a character. Character is a literary element.  The term chracterization was introduced in the 19th century. Aristotle promoted the primacy of plot over characters, that is, a plot driven narrative, urging in his Poetics that tragedy "is a representation, not of men, but of action and life." This view was reversed in the 19th century, when the primacy of the character, that is, a character-driven narrative, was affirmed first with the realist novel, and increasingly later with the influencial development of psychology. The psychologist Carl Jung identified twelve primary "original p...

A narrative hook (or simply hook) is a literary technique in the opening of a story that "hooks" the reader's attention so that he or she will keep reading. The "opening" may consist of several paragraphs for a short story, or several pages for a novel, but ideally it is the opening sentence in the book. Opening a novel with startling, dramatic action or an ominous description can function as a narrative hook. Ovid's Fasti employs narrative hooks in the openings of each book, including the description of a bloody ghost and an ominous exchange between the characters Callisto and Diana. A narrative hook can also take the form of a short, often shocking passage discussing the important event in the life of one of the work's characters. The device establishes character voice and introduces a theme of the work. In Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue, the opening sentence recounts the first time the protagonist endured abuse from her husband, which is the c...

Consumption, defined as the acquisition of utility, is a major concept in economics and is also studied in many other social sciences. It is seen in contrast to investing, which is spending for acquisition of future income. Different schools of economists define consumption differently. According to mainstream economists, only the final purchase of newly produced goods and services by individuals for immediate use constitutes consumption, while other types of expenditure -- in particular, fixed investment, intermediate consumption, and government spending, are placed in separate categories. Other economists define consumption much more broadly, as the aggregate of all economic activity that does not entail the design, production and marketing of goods and services (e.g. the selection, adoption, use, disposal, and recycling of goods and services). Economists are particularly interested in the relationship between consumption and income, as modeled with the consumption function. ...

Ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework which posits that sexism has two sub-components: "hostile sexism" and "benevolent sexism." Hostile sexism reflects overtly negative evaluations and stereotypes about a gender (e.g. the ideas that women are incompetent and inferior to men). Benevolent sexism represents evaluations of gender that may appear subjectively positive (subjective to the person who is evaluating) but are actually damaging to people and gender equality more broadly (e.g. the idea that women need to be protected by men). For the most part, psychologists have studied hostile forms of sexism. However, theorists using the theoretical framework of ambivalent sexism have found extensive empirical evidence for both varities. The theory has largely been developed by social psychologists Peter Glick and Susan Fiske. Sexism, like other forms of prejudice, is a type of bias about a group of people. Sexism is founded in conceptualizations of one gender as...