AP Literary Terms

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

Allusion

refers to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture

Analogy

comparison made between two things to show how they are alike

Anaphora

repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent

Antagonist

opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story

Antithesis

balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure

Aphorism

brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth

Apostrophe

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea.

Invocation

the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration

Assonance

the repetition of similar vowel sounds

Blank Verse

unrhymed iambic pentameter; used in most of Shakespeare's plays

Characterization

the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character

Indirect Characterization

the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character's private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the character's effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. common in modern literature

Direct Characterization

the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form.

Static Character

is one who does not change much in the course of a story

Dynamic Character

is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action.

Flat Character

has only one or two personality traits. they are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. they can be summed up in one phrase.

Round Character

has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just as real people are

Cliché

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse

Conceit

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startingly different. often an extended metaphor

Conflict

the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story

External Conflict

conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society

Internal Conflict

a conflict 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 strict dictionary definition

Consonance

the repetition of similar consonant sounds

Couplet

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

Heroic Couplet

a couplet written in iambic pentameter

Diction

a speaker or writer's choice of words

Elegy

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died

Enjambment

the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next

Epic

A long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society

Epigraph

a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.

Euphemism

figurative language designed to replace phrasing that would otherwise be considered harsh, impolite, or unpleasant

Epithet

an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality

Homeric Epithet

compound adjective used with a person or thing

Figurative Language

words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe.

Flashback

a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time

Foil

a character who acts as a contrast to another character

Foreshadowing

the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot

Free Verse

poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme

Hyperbole

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect

Iambic Pentameter

a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable

Imagery

the use of language to evoke a picture or concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience

Irony

a discrepancy between appearances and reality

Verbal Irony

occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else

Situational Irony

takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.

Dramatic Irony

is so called because it is often used on stage. a character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better

Juxtaposition

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit

Lament

a non-narrative poem expressing grief or sorrow over a personal loss

Lyric Poem

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of a speaker

Ballad

tells a story

Malapropism

an incorrect word used accidentally in the place of another word with a similar sound. typically humorous because they give rise to nonsensical statements

Metaphor

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles

Extended Metaphor

a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it (conceit if it is quite elaborate)

Metonymy

a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it

Mood

an atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected.

Motif

a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme

Ode

a relatively long, serious, and usually meditative lyric poem that treats a noble or otherwise elevated subject in a dignified and calm manner

Onomatopoeia

the use of words whose sounds echo their sense

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase

Parable

a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life.

Paradox

a statement that appears contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth

Parallel Structure

(parallelism) the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures.

Parody

a work that makes fun of another work by intimating some aspect of the writer's style

Pastoral

a literary work dealing with shepherds and or rural life

Personification

a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Plot

the series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline

Point of View

the vantage point from which the writer tells the story

First Person Point of View

one of the characters tells the story

Third Person Point of View

an unknown narrator, tells the story, but this narrator zooms in to focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one character.

Omniscient Point of View

all knowing narrator tells the story, also using third person pronouns. this narrator, instead of focusing on one character only, often tells us everything about many characters

Objective Point of View

a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.

Protagonist

the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action

Pun

a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things

Quatrain

a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit

Refrain

a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem

Rhyme

a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words

End Rhyme

rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry

Internal Rhyme

rhyme that occurs within a line of poetry

Perfect Rhyme

rhyming sounds which match exactly

Slant Rhyme

rhyming sounds which are partial rather than perfect

Rhyme Scheme

the pattern of rhyme in a poem or stanza, typically described by assigning a lower case letter to each new rhyming sound

Rhymed Verse

poetry which contains rhyming words at the ends of certain lines

Rhetoric

art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse

Rhetorical Question

a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer

Satire

a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change

Simile

a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles.

Soliloquy

a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage

Stream of Consciousness

a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character's mind.

Symbol

a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself

Synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole

Theme

the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work

Tone

the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization

Understatement

a statement that says less than what is meant