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AP Lit Terms Revised
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| allegory | a narration or description in which events, actions, characters, settings or objects represent specific abstractions or ideas. |
| alliteration | The repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rhythm, or emphasis. |
| allusion | A reference in literature or in art to previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture/current events, or the Bible. |
| anaphora | repetition of the same word or words at the start of two or more lines |
| antecedent | The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers. |
| antihero | A protagonist who carries the action of the literary piece but does not embody the classic characteristics of courage, strength, and nobility. |
| antithesis | A concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented idea. |
| apostrophe | A rhetorical figure of direct address to a person, object, or abstract entity. |
| archetype | A character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore. |
| aside | A short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience rather than to the other characters, who do not hear him or her. |
| assonance | repetition at close intervals of vowel sounds |
| aubade | A love poem set at dauwn which bids farewell to the beloved. |
| ballad | A folk song or poem passed down orally that tells a story which may be derived from an actual incident or from legend or folklore, usually written in quatrains. |
| blank verse | Unrhymed poetry of iambic pentameter. |
| caesura | a natural pause in the middle of a line, sometimes coinciding with punctuation |
| catharsis | An emotional cleansing or feeling of relief. |
| characterization | the representation of the traits, motives, and psychology of a character in a narrative, through direct description, by a narrator, another character, or by the character him or herself, or revealed by his or her actions, thoughts, or dialogue. |
| colloquial | Of or relating to slang or regional dialect, used in familiar everyday conversation. |
| conceit | A far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things. an extended witty, paradoxical, or startling metaphor |
| connotation | what a word suggests beyond its surface definition |
| consonance | repetition at close intervals of consonant sounds. "What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore" |
| convention | A traditional aspect of a literary work such as a soliloquy in a Shakespearean play or a tragic hero in a Greek tragedy. |
| couplet | two successive lines which rhyme, usually at the end of a work |
| denotation | The dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase. |
| diction | The deliberate choice of a style of language for a desired effect or tone. |
| didactic literature | Literature that intends to instruct or teach. |
| elegy | poem which expresses sorrow over a death of someone for whom the poet cared, or on another solemn theme |
| enjambment | The running over of a sentence from one line or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first. |
| epic poem | Long and serious narrative poem about a hero and his heroic companions. |
| epiphany | A sudden flash of insight. A startling discovery. |
| euphemism | Substitution of an inoffensive word or phrase for another that would be harsh, offensive, or embarrassing. It makes something sound better than it is but is usually more wordy that the original. |
| figurative language | Unlike literal expression, this uses figures of speech such as a metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification, and hyperbole. Appeals to one's senses. |
| first person | A character in the story tells the story, using the pronoun I. This is a limited point of view since the narrator can relate only events that he or she sees or is told about. |
| flat character | A simple, one-dimensional character who remains the same, and about whom little or nothing is revealed throughout the course of the work. May serve as symbols of types of people, similar to stereotypical characters. |
| foil | A character whose contrasting personal characteristics draw attention to, enhance, or contrast with those of the main character. A character who, by displaying opposite traits, emphasizes certain aspects of another character. |
| foreshadowing | Hints at what is to come. It is sometimes noticeable only in hindsight, but usually it is obvious enough to set the reader wondering. |
| form | The shape or structure of a literary work. |
| free verse | Poem composed of rhythmical lines varying in length, following no fixed metrical pattern, usually unrhymed. |
| genre | The category into which a piece of writing can be classified-poetry, prose, drama. |
| hubris | Insolence, arrogance, or pride. In Greek tragedy, this is usually the protagonist's tragic flaw that leads to his or her downfall. |
| hyperbole | An extreme exaggeration for literary effect that is not meant to be interpreted literally. |
| iambic pentameter | A five-foot line made up of an unaccented followed by an accented syllable. It is the most common metric foot in English-language poetry. |
| imagery | Anything that affects or appeals to the reader's senses: Sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell. |
| in medias res | In literature, a work that begins in the middle of the story. |
| interior monologue | A literary technique used in poetry and prose that reveals a character's unspoken thoughts and feelings. It may be presented directly by the character, or through a narrator. |
| internal rhyme | A rhyme that is within the line, rather than at the end. The rhyming may also be within two lines, but again, each rhyming word will be within its line, rather than at the beginning or end. |
| inversion | A switch in the normal word order, often used for emphasis or for rhyme scheme. (ex. strong he was.) |
| irony | incongruity or discrepancy between the implied and expected; verbal, dramatic, situational |
| lyric poem | A fairly short, emotionally expressive poem that expresses the feelings and observations of a single speaker. |
| metaphor | A figure of speech which compares two dissimilar things, asserting that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another. |
| metaphysical poetry | Refers to the work of poets like John Donne who explore highly complex, philosophical ideas through extended metaphor (or this type of conceit) and paradox. |
| meter | regularized rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables; accents occur at approx. equal intervals of time |
| metonymy | A figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word of phrase closely associated with it. Similar to synecdoche (many authors do not distinguish between the two). (The White House issued a statement is an example.) |
| mood | the atmosphere suggested by the structure and style of the poem |
| motif | the repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work which is used to develop theme or characters. Ex. Flight and naming in SoS |
| near, off, approximate, or slant rhyme | A rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds. |
| octave | 8-line stanza |
| ode | Was usually a song in honor of gods or heroes, but now usually a very long lyric poem characterized by elevated feelings. |
| onomatopoeia | Words that imitate sounds. Tick-tock and Plop are examples. |
| oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, placed side by side. (ex. bitter sweet, wise fool, living death) |
| paradox | statement or situation containing seemingly contradictory elements. For instance, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Hamlet tells his mother "I must be cruel, only to be kind," he's using this to express that his behavior, |
| parody | A comical imitation of a serious piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or his work. |
| pathos | The quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the reader's or viewer's emotions-especially pity, compassion, and sympathy. |
| personification | The attribution of human characteristics to an animal or to an inanimate object. |
| point of view | the perspective that the narrator holds in relation to the events of the story. |
| pun | Humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings. |
| quatrain | Four-line stanza. |
| rhyme | repetition of end sounds |
| rhythm | The repetitive pattern of beats in poetry. |
| satire | The use of humor or to ridicule and expose the shortcomings and failings of society, individuals and institutions, often in the hope that change and reform are possible. |
| sestet | 6-line stanza |
| setting | Where and when a story takes place; often shapes the story's main events and motivates the characters to act as they do. |
| shift | In writing, a movement from one thought or idea to another; a change. |
| sibilance | hissing sounds represented by s, z, sh |
| simile | A comparison of unlike things using the word like, as, or so. |
| soliloquy | A character's speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed. A monologue is only this if the character is alone on the stage. |
| sonnet | 14 line poem, fixed rhyme scheme, fixed meter (usually 10 syllables per line) |
| speaker | narrator or voice of a poem |
| stanza | A grouping of poetic lines; a deliberate arrangement of lines of poetry. |
| stream of consciousness | A form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works. Ideas are presented in random order; thoughts are often unfinished. |
| symbol | A concrete object, scene, or action which has deeper significance because it is associated with something else, often an important idea or theme in the work. |
| synecdoche | A figure of speech where one part represents the entire object (All hands on deck is an example). It is a type of METONYMY or substitute naming. |
| syntax | word order or grammatical appropriateness |
| tercet | 3-line stanza |
| terza rima | A verse of Italian origin that has tercets of 10 or 11 syllables with the middle line rhyming with the 1st and 3rd lines of the following tercet. aba, bcb, cdc, etc... |
| theme | The implied central idea expressed through characterization, motifs, language, plot. (AKA "interpretation of the work as a whole") |
| tone | Refers to the author's attitude toward the subject, and often sets the mood of the piece. |
| tragic flaw | a literary device that represents a flaw or deficiency in character that results in the downfall of the hero in a tragic literary work. (hamartia) |
Created by:
mrsrossi
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