AP LANG LITERARY TERMS

Allegory

an entire narrative (story/poem/piece of writing), including its characters/settings/plot represents another idea/message

if an entire story represents smth else

eg. Orwell’s Animal Farm as allegory for critiquing Russian authoritarian control

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

eg. She sells seashells on the seashore

Allusion

reference to someone/something known from history, literature, religion, etc

eg. reference to Gandhi’s nonviolence in MLK’s speech

Ambiguity

deliberately suggesting two/ more different meanings; cause confusion

eg. meetings held biweekly (twice a week or per two weeks)

Analogy

comparison between 2 things; for explanation/clarification

eg. “a sword is a weapon of a knight, just like how a pen is the weapon of a writer”

Anaphora

repetition of a word/phrase/clause at beginning of sentence

eg. “I have a dream … I have a dream”

Anastrophe

Reversing natural order of parts of a sentence, often for emphasis/poetic effect (for rhetorical purposes)

eg. “Powerful you have become Dooku, the dark side I sense in you” - Yoda, The Phantom Menace

Anecdote

Brief story told to illustrate a point/serve an example

eg. John Lewis using anecdotal evidence to convey credibility and demonstrate that he worked with MLK previously

Antagonist

Opponent struggling against or blocking the protagonist of a story

eg. Lord Voldemort

Antimetabole

repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order

eg. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” -JFK

Antithesis

contrast of ideas but in parallel structure (a type of juxtaposition; w parallel structure)

eg. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” -William Shakespeare, A Tale of Two Cities

antihero

Central character lacking all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes.

eg. Severus Snape in HP

Anthropomorphism

animal/object acts and thinks like humans (instead of figuratively like in personification)

eg. Donkey in Shrek

Aphorism

A short, witty statement making a wise observation about life. (maxim/epigram)

eg. “Don’t judge a book by its cover”

Apostrophe

suddenly addressing someone dead/absent/nonhuman as if they were present and capable of understanding

eg. “O Death, where is thy sting?” -Bible

Apposition

two or more nouns, where latter is explanation/qualification/modification of the first

eg. “John, the dentist, will be scheduling an appointment tonight”

Assonance

repetition of similar vowel sounds but following consonant sounds differ

eg. “Hear the mellow wedding bells” -Edgar Allan Poe

Asyndeton

parts emphasized equally w commas; omits conjunctions (and/or etc)

eg. “I came, I saw, I conquered” -Julius Caesar

Characterization

process by which writer reveals the personality of a character

eg. HP being characterized throughout series

indirect characterization

author not directly telling reader characterization; subtly reveals hints of characterization indirectly

eg. HP personality told thru eyes of Vernon Dursley

direct characterization

author directly describes character

eg. directly told HP is Dolores Umbridge; “mean” “a toad”

static character

character that doesn't change throughout most of story

eg. Dolores Umbridge

dynamic character

character that changes in important ways as a result of the story's action

eg. Severus Snape

flat character

character w/ only one or two personality traits

eg. Dolores Umbridge

round character

character w/ more dimensions in personalities; complex

eg. Severus Snape

cliche

overused word/phrase

eg. “only time will tell”

colloquialism

word/phrase used in conversational/informal writing, inappropriate for formal situations

eg. “Whatcha gonna do, man?”

Conflict

struggle between opposing forces/characters in a story

eg. Trying to get the philospher’s stone

external conflict

conflict existing between 2 ppl/person vs nature or machine/ person vs society

eg. HP vs. Voldy

internal conflict

conflict involving opposing forces w/in a person's mind

eg. HP on whether he shld go alone to the Department of Mysteries or go with friends and possibly cause them harm

connotation

associations/emotional overtones attached to a word or phrase

eg. “gross”; disgust, highly negative emotions

Diction

speaker or writer's choice of words

Epanalepsis

same expression (single word/phrase) repeated at beginning and end of line

eg. “common sense is not so common”

Epigraph

quotation/aphorism at beginnning of literary work, suggesting the theme

eg. “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once”; epigraph in TKAM

Epistrophe

same expression repeated at end of each sentence

eg. “… of the people, by the people, for the people” -Abraham Lincoln

figurative language

language that cannot be interpreted literally and instead holds deeper meanings

flashback

scene interrupting normal chronological sequences to depict something that happened earlier in time

eg. pensieve flashbacks in HP

foil

character acting as a contrast to another character (eg. villain contrasting hero/funny side kick vs hero)

eg. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

foreshadowing

use of hints/clues suggesting events happening later in the plot

eg. Quirrell wearing a turban foreshadows he is hiding something/someone (Voldy) on the back of his head

hyperbole

incredible exaggeration or oversattement for effect

eg. “I’ve been here a million times”

imagery

evoking a picture/concrete sensation of a person/thing/place/experience

inversion

reversal of the normal word order in a sentence/phrase (anastrophe is a kind of inversion)

eg. “Rest you must”

irony

A contrast between expectation and reality

Verbal irony

someone saying smth but meaning smth else

eg. “Well isn’t this great” when someone spills a drink

situational irony

when an outcome turns out to be very different from what is expected/appropriate to happen

eg. Harry gets the philosopher’s stone even though he’s a kid and he’s young and inexperienced

dramatic irony

when audience is aware of something that character isn't

eg. audience aware that Juliet is only asleep/drugged in the final scene but Romeo thought she was actually dead and suicided

juxtaposition

form of contrast; normally unassociated ideas/words/phrases placed next to each other

eg. Romeo & Juliet’s love vs. Montague & Capulet hatred

metaphor

comparing two unlike things w/out using like/as

eg. “The soup is a warm hug”

implied metaphor

does not state explicitly the two terms of comparison

eg. “I like to see it lap the miles”; it and some animal

extended metaphor

metaphor extended/developed as far as writer wants to take it

eg. The Deathly Hallows; represent 3 choices ppl have when facing death

dead metaphor

metaphor used so often that a comparison is no longer vivid

eg. “Heart of the matter”

mixed metaphor

two or more incompatible metaphors combined to make the message confusing or jarring

eg. “We need to put all our eggs in one basket so that we can climb the corporate ladder”

metonymy

person/place/thing is referred to by smth closely associated w/ it

eg. "we support the crown; crown=monarch"

mood

atmosphere created by writer's details/diction

motif

a recurring message or symbol or idea that keeps appearing throughout a text

eg. the scar in HP

motivation

reasons for a character's behavior

eg. Philosopher’s Stone

onomatopoeia

use of words that imitate sounds

eg. “bang, bang, he knocked on the door harshly”

oxymoron

combination of opposite/contradictory terms

eg. awfully great

paradox

self-contradictory statement that holds some truth

eg. “Neither can live while the other survives” -HP

parallel structure

parallelism; repetition of words/phases in similar grammatical structures

eg. “I have a dream… I have a dream”

personification

animal/object given human qualities

eg. As the wind blew, the flowers chattered amongst themselves; the conversation able to be heard a mile away.

plot

series of events in a story/play; storyline

point of view

vantage point from which writer tells story

First person pov

narrator is character in story

eg. Tim O’Brien in Love & Spin

third person pov

unknown narrator tells the story

—>if limited: only to one or two ppl

eg. HP

—>omniscient: all characters

eg. The Lord of the Rings

objective pov

narrator is totally impersonal and objective; tells the story w/ no comment on any characters/events

eg. Hills Like White Elephants- Ernest Hemingway

polysyndeton

sentences uses a conjunction w/ no commas to separate items in series (x, y, and z)

eg. a and b and c

protagonist

central character initiating the action in a story

eg. HP

pun

play on words

eg. she told her husband that it was raining moose, her husband said it was “reindeer”

rhetorical question

question asked for effect and not needing answer

eg. “Isn’t it time we take action for once?”

simile

explicit comparison between two unlike things, using "like/as/than/resembles"

eg. Her smile was as bright as the sun

style

distinctive way where writer uses language

suspense

feeling of uncertainty abt what happens next

symbol

A thing that represents or stands for something else

eg. The carried things in The Things They Carried

synecdoche

a metaphor where a part represents a whole

eg. "have a footing" "you will lose your wheels"

theme

insight abt human life revealed in a literary work

tone

attitude writer takes towards the subject/characters/audience of a work; revealed thru diction/fig lang/organization

understatement

statement that says less than what is meant

“You’ve just fallen off the cliff” “It’s no biggie.”

vernacular

language spoken by ppl who live in a particular locality

eg. “Aye, me mam was there- fought in the war, she did.”

Consonance

repetition of two or more consonants at the end of a sequence of words followed by different vowel sounds

eg. blank and think (nk; diff vowels a & i)

Enjambment

a sentence in poetry that extends past one line

eg. I think I shall never see

A poem as lovely as this tree.

litotes

expressing an idea by negating its opposite

eg. not unfriendly = friendly

Ellipsis

omission of words that would have had to be placed to complete the sentence

eg. She likes coffee, he, tea.

Denotation

Literal definition of words
eg. def of Definition is when a word’s meaning is given

Vignette

A brief, impressionistic scene that captures a moment, mood, or detail—often used to reflect fragmented memory or emotion, rather than advance a linear plot.

eg. the “Spin” chapter in The Things They Carried

Catharsis

Emotional release, often achieved through art or storytelling, leading to psychological relief and renewal

eg. O’Brien’s catharsis in The Lives of the Dead when “resurrecting Linda” with storytelling.

hypophora

Asking a question then answering it

eg. Why do we eat? Because it is a necessity.

Jargon

language/terminology used in a particular context or setting

eg. technical jargon

Cataloging

creating long lists for poetic effect

eg. He packed his bag with clothes, books, pens, papers, snacks.

binary opposition

a pair of related concepts and terms that are set against each other as opposites, used to display meaning

eg. love vs. war; intimacy vs. separation

epiphany

a moment of sudden realization or insight

eg. when O’Brien goes back to Vietnam, where Kiowa died, and realized that he’s not seeking forgiveness from anyone else and instead is finding peace for himself

archetype

symbol, theme, character type, story pattern that recurs across literature and cultures

eg. the archetype of “the Hero”