AP Literature Glossary 9 – Additional Terms (Style, Meaning, and Structure)

Absolute

a word free from limitations or qualifications (“best,” “all,” “unique,” “perfect”)

Concrete details

details that relate to or describe actual, specific things or events

Connotation

the implied or associative meaning of a word

Denotation

the literal meaning of a word

Fantasy

a story that concerns an unreal world or contains unreal characters; a fantasy may be merely whimsical, or it may present a serious point

Frame device

a story within a story (e.g., Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales)

Homily

a sermon, or a moralistic lecture

Implication

a suggestion an author or speaker makes without stating it directly (the author implies; the audience infers)

Motivation

a character’s incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act

Resolution

the falling action of a narrative; the events following the climax

Synesthesia (or synaesthesia)

describing one kind of sensation in terms of another (“a loud color,” “a sweet sound”)

Tragedy

a work in which the protagonist, a person of high degree, is engaged in a significant struggle and which ends in ruin or destruction

Trilogy

a work in three parts, each of which is a complete work in itself

Trite

overused and hackneyed

Understatement

the deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is; a deliberate under-emphasis