AP Lit - Terms to Know for Advanced Placement Literature Exams

allegory

a work of literature told on two levels of meaning, one literal and one symbolic (e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell, animals = Russian leaders); more or less symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a second meaning not explicit in the narrative, where characters and events have a one to one correlation to the thing being allegorized and often bear descriptive names, such as “Christian” or “Faith”

alliteration

sound device; repetition of initial (beginning) consonant sounds

allusion

figure of speech which makes brief reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object; a reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work (e.g. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot alilides to biblical figure John the Baptist

ambiguity

the expression of an idea in language which gives more than one meaning and leave uncertainty as to the meaning

anachronism

something out of its place in time or history (eg Julius Caesar riding a motorcycle)

anadiplosis

repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next (e.g. As You Like It = “For your brother and my sister no sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in those degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage”)

analogy

the comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some familiar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one

anaphora

the repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases for rhetorical or poetic effect (e.g. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address = “We cannot dedicate/We cannot consecreate/We cannot hallow this ground…”

anecdote

a short narrative used in a longer work or speech -- to make a point, often humorous

antagonist

the character in a narrative or play who is in conflict with the main character; an antagonist may not even be a person -- or may be the same pesron as the main character

antecedent

the noun that a pronoun refers back to in a sentence or closely related sentences

antithesis

a figure of speech in which a thought is balanced with a contrasting thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases (e.g. “He promised wealth and provided poverty”, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”)

apostrophe

addressing someone or something, usually not present, as thought present (e.g. “Death, be not Proud”); a figure of speech wherin the speaker speaks directly to something non-human; often to a god, ghost, or some supernatural thing, like Death, Night, or Fate; may also be to a person, if the person isn’t there, or if the speaker doesn’t think the person is there

archetype

a character or plot element known throughout all cultures and time periods (e.g. the quest, the wise old man, the tyrannical king, the temptress)

arguments

assertions made based on facts, statistics, logical reasoning, hard evidence, etc.

aside

a statement delivered by an actor in such a way that the other characters on stage are presumed not to have heard him

assonance

similarity or repetition of vowel sound in two or more words, especially in a line of verse (e.g. “The Bells” by Edgar Allen Poe = short e in “Hear the mellow wedding bells…”, long o in “…the molten-golden notes”)

asyndeton

the omission of conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words and phrases (e.g. “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”, “I came, I saw, I conquered”)

autobiography

author’s own life story; first-person account

blank verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter; metrical verse with no ending rhyme (Shakespeare)

cacophony

a combination of harsh, unpleasant sounds which create an effect of discordance; opposite is euphony

characterization

the method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work; personality may be revealed (1) by what the character says about himself/herself (2) by what others reveal about the character (3) by the character’s own actions

chaismus

aka antimetabole; a reversed repetition in successive clauses which are usually parallel in syntax (e.g. JFK = “Ask not what your country can do for you”, Macbeth = “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”)

chronological ordering

arrangement in the order in which things occur; may move from past to present or in reverse chronological order, from present to past

classification

aka cataloguing; as a means of ordering, arrangement of objects according to class (e.g. media classified as print, television, and radio)

colloquial

informal, not always grammatically correct expressions that find acceptance in certain geographical areas and within certain groups of people (e.g. Southerners saying “Y’all”); words and phrases used in everyday speech but avoided in formal writing (e.g. Kent was bummed out about his algebra grade” instead of “Kent was upset about his algebra grade”)

comedy

a work which strives to provoke smiles and laughter

comic relief

something of humour interrupts an otherwise serious, often tragic, literary work

comparison

involves showing smilarities between two things

contrast

shows differences between two things

complement

the part of a sentence that comes after a subject and verb and completes the thought

complication

the part of a plot in which the entanglement caused by the conflict is developed

conceit

an elaborate and often surprising comparison between two highly dissimilar things (e.g. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” = “Let us go then, you and I/When the evening is spread out against the sky/Like a patient etherized upon a table”)

concession

acknowledgement of another point; a device for creating a persuative argument; lends more credence to the argument because the writer/speaker agrees that the other side does have some valid concerns or supportable positions

conflict

a struggle between opposing forces: man versus man; man versus nature; man versus himself

conjunction

part of speech used to link words, phrasess, and clauses

coordinate conjunctions

conjunctions that connect independent clauses (e.g. and, but, or, nor)

subordinate conjunctions

conjunctions that connect a subordinate clause to an independent clause, a complete thought

connective

aka transition; word or phrase that link ideas, sentences, or paragraphs together to create logical organization in writing --may be one word “also”, a phrase “along with”, or a subordinate clause

connotation

the emotional implications that a word may carry; implied or associated meaning for a particular word (e.g. home vs house)

consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry (e.g. “bu__t__ ye__t__ we t__rus__t”)

crisis

the climax or turning point of a story or play (may have more than one when there are several almost-equal major characters)

crux

the most crucial lines in a poem or prose passage, the part that best shows the main point

cumulative sentence

a sentence that starts with an independent clause, then adds on more and more with other explanatory phrases and/or subordinate clauses

denotation

the specific, exact meaning of a word; a dictionary definition

denouement

the resolution of a plot after the climax

dialect

speech peculiar to a regon; exhibits distinctions between two groups or even two persons (e.g. “Eastern” vs “Southern”)

dialogue

conversations between two or more characters, usually set off with quotation marks

diction

an author’s choice or words (i.e. simple, sophisticated, colloquial, formal, informal)

direct object

noun complement that comes after an action verb in an English sentence

drama

story performed by actors on a stage

dramatic irony

irony in which the character use words which mean one thing to them but another to those who understand the situation better

ellipsis

omission of a word or words necessary for complete construction but understood in context (e.g. “To be or not…that is the question”); Emily Dickinson uses a dash instead

epanalepsis

repetition at the end of a clause or sentence of the word or phrase with which it began (e.g. “Nothing can be created out of nothing”, “Men of a few words are the best men”)

epic

a large narrative, usually written in elevated language, which related the adventures of a hero upon whom rests the fate of a nation

epiphany

an awakening; a sudden understanding or burst of insight; key moment in Greek plays (e.g. “everything has a price”)

epistrophe

the opposite of anaphora, having repeated wording at the ends of clauses

epitaph

an engraving on a tombstone

epithet

nickname or appellation (e.g. “Helen of the white arms” in the Iliad)

euphemism

substitute words that sounds better than other (e.g. lingerie instead of underwear); the use of inoffensive or neutral words to describe a harsher, more serious concept

euphony

a quality of style marked by pleasing, harmonious sounds, the opposite of cacophony

exposition

the introductory material which sets the tone, gives the setting, introduces the characters, and supplies necessary facts

explication

an analysis of a piece of writing, looking at all facets of its creation

fable

a tale in which beasts behave like humans; usually communicates a moral

fairy tale

a fictional tale, marked by fantasy and magic, often appealing to the imagination

falling action

everything that happens in plot between the climax/crisis and the denouement

farce

a totally ridiculous comedy; a light dramatic composition that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, exaggerations, and violence

figurative language

writing or speech not meant to be taken literally; states something that is not literally true in order to create an effect (e.g. similes, metaphors, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, synsthesia, apostrophe, oxymoron, hyperbole)

first person

subjective narrator point of view when a character relays a narrative using “I”

flashback

a device by which an author can present action or scenes that occurred before the opening scene in a work

flat character

a character who is not fully developed by an author; character who has only one outstanding trait or feature, or at the most a few distinguishing marks

foil

character who provides a contrast to another character, thus the emphasizing the other’s traits (e.g. Frankenstein and his monster)

folk tale

a story which has been composed orally and then passed down by word of mouth

foreshadowing

the arrangement and presentation of events and information in such a way that prepare for later events in a work

form

the structure, shape, pattern, organization, or style of a piece of literature

free verse

unrhymed poetry with lines of varying lengths, containing no specific metrical pattern

foot

unit of meter

genre

a specific kind or category of literature (e.g. mystery story, sonnet, romance novel)

gothic

a form of literature in which magic, mystery, horrors and chivalry abound

grotesque

focuses on physically or mentally (warped, deluded) impaired characters

hero/heroine

main character who has strength or moral character, a noble cause

humour

writing whose purpose is to evoke some kind of laughter

hyperbole

exaggeration for effect and emphasis, overstatement

idioms

expressions that do not translate exactly into what a speaker means; culturally relevant (e.g. “under the weather”, “through thick and thin”

imagery

devices which appeal to the senses: visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, kinetic; a group of words that create a mental “picture” (i.e. animal, water, death, plant, decay, war, etc.)

indirect object

noun complement used after an action verb, with implied “to” or “for” before it

inverted sentence/inversion

reversing the normal subject-verb-complement order

irony

surprising, amusing, or interesting contrast between reality and expectation

juxtaposition

the positionng of ideas or images side by side for emphasis or to show contrast (e.g. in Romeo and Juliet, love and hate are juxtaposed as the two teenagers’ love is forced into the same arena as the families’ hatred)

legend

a widely told tale about the past, one that may have a foundation in fact

line

unit of poetic vers

lyrical

emotional writing showing author’s ardent expression

metaphor

a figure of speech wherein a comparison is made between two unlike quantities without the use of the words “like” or “as” (e.g. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards = “There are black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm and big with thunder”)

meter

pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables, established in a line of poetry (e.g. iambic - unstressed stressed, trochaic - stressed unstressed, anapestic - unstressed unstressed stressed, dactylic - stressed unstressed unstressed, spondaic - stressed stressed)

metonomy

substituting a word naming an object for another word closely associated with it (e.g. “pay tribute to the crown”, “the pen is mightier than the sword”)

narrative

a story

narrator

speaker or persona, the one who tells a story

reliable narrator

everything this narrator says is true, and the narrator knows everything that is necessary to the story

unreliable narrator

narrator who may not know all the relevant information, may be intoxicated or mentally ill, may lie to the audience

novel

an extended prose narrative