AP Lit Vocab 1

allegory

a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

The book Animal Farm.

antecedent

a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another

The Age of Enlightenment is the antecedent to the American Revolution

aphorism

A pithy observation that contains a general truth

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

archaism

a very old-fashioned thing

rotary phones

couplet

two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit

“I have wished a bird would fly away, and not sing by my house all day”

dramatic irony

when the audience knows something that the characters don’t

Romeo thought Juliet was dead, but the audience knows she is only pretending

euphony

the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words

words like mist, mellow, sunlight, bless and vines

foreshadowing

be a warning or indication of a future event

her early interest in animals foreshadowed her later career as a veterinarian

gothic novel

an English genre of fiction popular in the 18th to early 19th centuries characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror and having a pseudomedieval setting

The Fall of the House of Usher

inversion

the action of inverting something or the state of being inverted

at no time were we aware of the schedule change

masculine rhyme

a rhyme of final stressed syllables

blow/flow , confess/distress

melodrama

a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions

her extreme reaction to the news would have landed her a role in a melodrama

rhetorical question

a question asked to create a dramatic effect or make a point rather than to get an answer

“If you prick us do we not bleed?”

theme

the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic

the theme of the kids show was the treat others with kindness

utopia

an imagined place or state of things which everything is perfect

The garden of eden can be considered a utopia