AP Lit Terms (21-40)

Chiasmus Definition

-In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed

Chiasmus Example

-"Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike"

Cliche

-an overused expression

Colloquialism

-a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.

Colloquialism -example

"He's out of his head if he thinks I'm gonna go for such a stupid idea."

Comedy

-A literary work which ends happily because the hero or heroine is able to overcome obstacles and get what he or she wants.

Conceit

-An elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.

Confessional poetry

-a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet's life.

Conflict (external)

Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces/characters. External: can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society

Conflict (internal)

Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces/characters. Internal: can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person's mind.

Connotation

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its dictionary definition

Couplet

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

Dialect

a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or the inhabitants of a geographical area

Diction

choice of words

Didactic

a form of fiction that teaches a specific moral value or models a behavior

Elegy

a poem of mourning, particularly for the dead

Epenalepsis

repetition of a word at the end that occurred at the beginning

Epic

A narrative poem with heightened telling the story of the deeds of a heroic character whose morals align with the society

Epigraph

a quote or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work indicative of the theme

Epithet

an adjective or adjective phrase used to emphasize a person's characteristic quality

ARGUMENTATION

uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way.

PERSUASION

relies more on emotional appeals than on facts

ARGUMENT

form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way.

CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP

Form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument.

DESCRIPTION

a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or emotion

EXPOSITION

one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or "set forth."

NARRATIVE

the form of discourse that tells about a series of events.

Allegory

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.It is often used in poetry and prose to create rhythm or emphasis.

Allusion

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