AP English Literature terms

Accent

Rhythmically significant stress on the syllables of a verse, usually at regular intervals

Aesthetic

Inclusion of references to artistic elements or expressions within a textual work

Allegory

A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another

Alliteration

The commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration ), as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable (vocalic alliteration )

Allusion

Brief but purposeful references, within a literary text, to a person, place, event, or to another work of literature

Anachronism

Something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time

Analogy

Literary device that compares seemingly unrelated things to one another

Anecdote

A very short story that is significant to the topic at hand; usually adding personal knowledge or experience to the topic

Antecedent

Preceding; prior

Anthropomorphism

Literary device that assigns human characteristics to nonhuman entities like animals or inanimate object

Anticlimax

A figure of speech that consists of the usually sudden transition in discourse from a significant idea to a trivial or ludicrous one

Antihero

A hero that has some of the characteristics and personality traits of a villain, but ultimately gives in to the goals and desires of a hero

Aphorism

A pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”

Apostrophe

A speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object

Archaism

The use of writing that is today considered outdated or old fashioned

Aside

When a character in a work of fiction addresses the audience directly for a moment to either express a truth, reveal a feeling, or comment on the events of the story

Assonance

two or more words are placed close to each, repeating the same vowel sound

For example, “His tender heir might bear his memory” (William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 1”). The “eh” sound in “tender,” “heir,” “bear,” and “memory” is an assonant sound

Atmosphere

The feeling readers get from the elements of a narrative. It is influenced by the setting, foreshadowing, objects, background, and the character's past experiences.

Ballad

A type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music.

Black humor

A literary device used in novels and plays to discuss taboo subjects while adding an element of comedy

Bombast

A pejorative term for pompous and inflated speech or writing

Burlesque

A literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects

Cacophony

A combination of words or phrases that sound harsh, jarring, and generally unpleasant

Cadence

A literary device used to indicate the rising and falling of the voice when reading words. Cadence also signals momentary changes in rhythm and pitch while reading poetry or prose. In both poetry and prose, cadence helps set a pace.

Canto

The major unit of division in epics or other long narrative poems. Similar in function to a stanza, a canto helps divide a lengthy poem into discrete units, demarcating sections and enabling a coherent story to unfold.

Caricature

When a character or subject is exaggerated

Catharsis

A literary device used to simulate a release of emotions

Chorus

The repetition of a short phrase or multiple lines more than once within a poem

Colloquialism

Literary device that utilizes informal words or phrases, typically words or phrases that are only used under certain conditions such as: specific regions, eras, or demographics of speaker

Conceit

A type of figurative language in which the writer establishes a comparison between two very different concepts or objects. Conceit is a specific use of extended metaphor.

connotation

Refers to the selection of a word or phrase for its suggested meaning instead of its literal one

Consonance

The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text

Couplet

The repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text

Decorum

The appropriate rendering of a character, action, speech, or scene

Denotation

The objective meaning of a word

Diction

Choice of words, especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness

Dirge

A brief hymn or song of lamentation and grief

Dissonance

A disruption of harmonic sounds or rhythms that depends more on the organization of sound for a jarring effect, rather than on the unpleasantness of individual words

Doggerel

A low, or trivial, form of verse, loosely constructed and often irregular, but effective because of its simple mnemonic rhyme and loping metre

Dramatic irony

A literary device by which the audience's or reader's understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters

Dramatic monologue

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader

Elegy

A poem of mourning

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next

Epic

long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds

Epitaph

A short poem intended for (or imagined as) an inscription on a tombstone and often serving as a brief elegy

Euphemism

A word or phrase that softens an uncomfortable topic

Euphony

Sound patterns used in verse to achieve opposite effects

Farce

A comedy in which everything is absolutely absurd

Feminine rhyme

Also called double rhyme, in poetry, a rhyme involving two syllables (as in motion and ocean or willow and billow

Foil

A character who contrasts with another character; typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist

Foot

The basic unit of measurement of accentual-syllabic meter. A foot usually contains one stressed syllable and at least one unstressed syllable. The standard types of feet in English poetry are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, spondee, and pyrrhic (two unstressed syllables)

Foreshadowing

Device used to give an indication or hint of what is to come later in the story

Free verse

Poetry that is free from the limitations of a regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed

Gothic novel

European Romantic pseudomedieval fiction having a prevailing atmosphere of mystery and terror

Hubris

A personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that is an intentional exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect

Interior monologue

Narrative technique that exhibits the thoughts passing through the minds of the protagonists

Inversion

Literary device in which the writer purposefully words phrases or sentences in a non-traditional order

Irony

Whenever a person says something or does something that departs from what they (or we) expect them to say or do

Lampoon

Virulent satire in prose or verse that is a gratuitous and sometimes unjust and malicious attack on an individual

Lyric

A type of personal rhythmic poetry

Masculine rhyme

Rhymes ending in a stressed syllable, such as “hells” and “bells.” It is the most common type of rhyme in English poetry

Melodrama

A story or play in which there are a lot of exciting or sad events and in which people's emotions are very exaggerated

Metaphor

A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated

Metonym

FIgure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original, as “crown” to mean “king”

Nemesis

Protagonist's foremost enemy

Objectivity

The quality or character of being objective : lack of favoritism toward one side or another : freedom from bias

Onomatopoeia

The naming of a thing or action by imitation of natural sounds

Oxymoron

A rhetorical term that describes words or phrases that, when placed together, create paradoxes or contradictions (words)

Parable

A usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle

Paradox

A statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense (ideas/themes)

Parallelism

Using similar words, clauses, phrases, sentence structure, or other grammatical elements to emphasize similar ideas in a sentence

Parody

An imitation of the style and manner of a particular writer or school of writers

Pastoral

Class of literature that presents the society of shepherds as free from the complexity and corruption of city life

Pathos

To persuade an audience by purposely evoking certain emotions to make them feel the way the author wants them to feel

Persona

The person who is understood to be speaking (or thinking or writing) a particular work

Personification

Figuratively describing it with human traits in order to craft a vivid image of that object in your reader's mind

Plaint

A formerly popular variety of poem that laments or protests unrequited love or tells of personal misfortune, misery, or injustice

Protagonist

The character who drives the action--the character whose fate matters most

Pun

A pun is a literary device that is also known as a “play on words.” Puns involve words with similar or identical sounds but with different meanings

Refrain

A word, line or phrase that is repeated within the lines or stanzas of the poem itself

Requiem

A solemn chant (such as a dirge) for the repose of the dead

Rhapsody

A highly emotional literary work

Rhetorical question

An inquiry that ends in a question mark but is asked for effect rather than to elicit an answer

Satire

The art of making someone or something look ridiculous, raising laughter in order to embarrass, humble, or discredit its targets

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as

Soliloquy

Monologue that is delivered when the character is alone

Stanza

A division of a poem consisting of two or more lines arranged together as a unit

Stock characters

A character in a drama or fiction that represents a type and that is recognizable as belonging to a certain genre

Subjectivity

Something that's based on a person's opinions, individual experiences, and biased influences instead of facts

Subjunctive mood

Expresses wishes, suggestions, demands, or desires in a sentence with usually two clauses, with a verb such as wish (or suggest, demand, etc.) in one clause and a second verb in the subjunctive mood. In the sentence 'I wish I were the president' the verb 'were' is in the subjunctive mood

Summary

Short overview of the main points of a text

Symbolism

A literary device that uses symbols, be they words, people, marks, locations, or abstract ideas to represent something

Theme

A universal idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature

Thesis

Your argument or insight or viewpoint crystallized into a single sentence that gives the reader your main idea

Tragic flaw

A defect in the character of a good person (as the hero of a tragedy) that causes his or her destruction

Travesty

The treatment of a noble and dignified subject in an inappropriately trivial manner

Truism

A claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device

Utopia

An imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members

Zeugma

The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one