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AP Lit Glossary Term
AP Lit Gossary Term
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abstract | (style of writing) typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil ,and seldom uses examples to support its points. |
| Academic | (adjective describing style) dry and theoretical writing. When it seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis |
| Accent | (referring to poetry) the stressed portion of a word. Also a matter of opinion and interpretation Example: "To be or not to be" the accent falls on the first "be" and "not". |
| Aesthetic(s) | (adjective) appealing to the senses. (noun) coherent sense of taste- dark clothes, dark room, listens to funeral music has an aesthetic (plural noun) the study of beauty with questions like "What is beauty?" or "Is the beautiful always good" |
| Allegory | Story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. Many fables have an allegorical quality. True allegories are very hard and fast. Examples: "The Ant and the Grasshopper" and "Pilgrim's Progress" |
| Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds; consonant clusters coming closely cramped and compressed |
| Allusion | Reference to another work or famous figure. Classic allusions refer to Greek and Roman mythology or literature. Can be topical or popular, refer to a current event or pop culture. |
| Anachronism | (derived from Greek) Means "misplaced in time" Example: If Brutus's actor had on a wristwatch it will be anachtonistic |
| Analogy | A comparison. Involves two or more symbolic parts and are employed to clarify an action or a relationship. |
| Anecdote | A short narrative |
| Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that a pronoun refers to or replaces. Example: In "The principle asked the children where they were going"- they is the pronoun and children is the antecedent |
| Anaphora | The repetition of an initial word or phrase. Example: "every day, every night, n every way, I am getting better" |
| Anthropomorphism | When inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation. Confused with personification, this doesn't take on human shape Example: ,"The forest waited for me, I could hear it's patient breathing" |
| Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. Frequently comic. |
| Antihero | A protagonists (main character) who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of unsavory qualities |
| Aphorism | A short, usually witty saying |
| Apostrophe | An address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea. |
| Archaism | The use of deliberately old fashioned language. Authors sometimes use them to create a feeling of antiquity. |
| Aside | A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage |
| Aspect | A trait or characteristics, as in "an aspect of the dew drop" |
| Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds as in "Old King Cole was a merry old soutl" |
| Atmosphere | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene. |
| Ballad | A long, narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme. Typically has a naive folksy quality, distinguishing it from epic poetry |
| Bathos/Pathos | When the writing of a scene evoke a feeling of dignified pity and sympathy. When writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup, that's bathos. |
| Black humor | The use of disturbing themes in comedy. Example: In "Waiting for Godot" two characters comically debate over who should kill themselves first and where the branches of the tree will support their weight. |
| Bombast | Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. When one tries to be eloquent by using the largest, most uncommon words. |
| Burlesque | Broad parody, one that takes a style or a form, such as a tragic drama and exaggerates it into ridiculousness. Usually takes on a specific work, such as Hamlet. Interchangeable with parody |
| Cacophony | (in poetry) using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds. |
| Cadance | The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense. Example: Iambic pentameter is technical name for rhythm. |
| Caesura | A pause within a line, usually inficated by commas or semicolons |
| Blank Verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| Canto | The name for a section division in a long work of poetry. A canto divides a long poem into parts the way chapters divide a noel |
| Caricature | A portrait that exaggerates a facet of personality |
| Catharsis | This is a term drawn from Aristotle's writing on tragedy. refers to "cleansing" of emotions |
| Chorus | In drama, a chorus is a group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it |
| Classic | Means typical, as in "Oh, that was a classic blunder" can also mean an accepted masterpiece . Also refers to the arts of ancient Greece and Rome. |
| Coinage (neologism) | A new word, usually one invented on the spot. People's names often become gist for coinages, as in, "Oh you just pulled a major William" |
| Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in every day conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "schoolbook" English. For example, "I'm toasted" |
| Complex, Dense | These terms carry a similar meaning- suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words (image, idea, opposition) there are variations, there are multiple layers of interpretation; the meaning is both explicit and implicit |
| Conceit, Controlling Image | In poetry, referring to a startling or unusual metaphor or a metaphor developed and expanded upon over several lines. When the image dominates and shapes the entire work, it's called a controlling image. |
| Connotation, Denotation | The literal meaning of a word (denotation) vs. everything else the word suggests or implies (connotation) |
| Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words, rather than at their beginnings. Example: A flock of sick, black-checkered ducks |
| Couplet | A pair of lines that end in a rhyme |
| Decorum | A character's style of speech according to her social station and in accordance with the occasion. |
| Diction, Syntax | The author's choice of words- wept v cried is diction- syntax is ordering of the words. |
| Dirge | A song for the dead- it's tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy |
| Dissonance | The grating of incompatible sounds |
| Doggerel | Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme. Limericks are a kind of doggerel |
| Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something the characters in the drama do not |
| Dramatic Monologue | When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience |
| Elegy | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. Often use the recent death of a notable person as a starting point. Memorialize specific dead people |
| Elements | The basic techniques of each genre of literature |
| Enjabment | The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause |
| Epic | A very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style- deals with glorious or profound subject matters (great wars, heroic journies, etc.) |
| Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place- usually a line or handful of lines, often serious or religious |
| Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality |
| Euphony | When sounds blend harmoniously |
| Explicit | To say or write something directly and clearly |
| Farce | A funny play; a comedy |
| Feminine Type | Line rhymed by their final two syllables, A pair of lines edging with running and gunning are feminine rhyme. The penultimate syllable is stressed ad the final syllable unstressed. |
| Foot | The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry- formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed |
| Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. |
| Foreshadowing | An event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later |
| Free verse | Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern |
| Genre | A subcatergory of literature |
| Gothic, Gothic novel | Sensibility derived from Gothic novels. Mid 18th century popular for about 60 years- mysterious and gloomy |
| Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement |
| Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. |
| In medias res | "in the midst of things" |
| Interior monologue | A term from novels and poetry. Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head. Related to, but not identical to stream of consciousness. Tends to be coherent, as though the character were actually talking. |
| Heroic couplet | Two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter |
| Inversion | Switchin the ustomary order of lements in a sentece or phrase. hen done badly it can give a stitled, artificial feel to the verse, bu t poets do i tall the time. This is called poetic lisence. |
| Irony | A statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean |
| Lament | A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss |
| Lapoon | A satire |
| Loose and periodic sentence | A loose sentence is complete before it ends. A periodic sentence is not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase. |
| Lyric | A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world |
| Masculine Rhythm | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable |
| Melodrama | A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the hero rotten, and the heroine oh so pure. |
| Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one things IS another. "His eyes were burning coals" |
| Simile | Just like a metaphor but softens the full-out equation of things, often, but not always, using LIKE or AS "His eyes were burning like coals" |
| Meter | Poetic rhythm measured in feet |
| Metonym | A word that is used to stand for something else that it has the attributes of or is associated with (a heard of 50 cows is called 50 head of cattle) |
| Nemesis | The protagonist's archenemy or Supreme and persistent difficulty |
| Objectivity | Treatment of a subject matter is an impersonal or outside of view event |
| Subjective | Treatment that uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional responses |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean (bloom, splat, babble) |
| Opposition | It means you have a pair of elements that contrasts sharply |
| Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction |
| Parable | Like a fable or an allegory, a parable is a story that instructs |
| Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not |
| Parallelism | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect |
| Paraphrase | To rephrase |
| Parenthetical phrase | A phrase set off by commas that interpreters the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail |
| Parody | The work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness |
| Pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature, or eve more specifically, one about shepards |
| Persona | The narrator in a non-first-person novel. In a third person novel, even though the author isn't a character, you get some idea of the author's personality. |
| Personification | Giving an inanimate object human qualities or form |
| Plaint | A poem or speech expressing sorrow |
| Prelude | An introductory poem to a longer work of verse |
| Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play |
| Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings |
| Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem |
| Requiem | A song or prayer for the dead |
| Rhapsody | An intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually love or praise |
| Rhetorical question | A question that suggests an answer. Causes the listeners to come up with the answer for themselves |
| Satire | Exposes common character flaws to the cold light of humor. Attempts to improve things by pointing out people's mistakes in the hope that once exposed, such behaviors will become less common |
| Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone on stage. Meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character;s thoughts. Unlike an aside, it it not meant to imply the breaking of the fourth wall |
| Scansion | The process of scanning a poem to determine its meter |
| Stanza | A group of lines in verse |
| Stock characters | Standard or cliched, character types, the drunk, the minters, etc. |
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