AP Lit

Allegory

A story where characters/events represent deeper ideas, often moral or political ones.

Allusion

A brief reference to a famous person, event, place, or work.

Ambiguity

When something has more than one possible meaning.

Analogy

A comparison between two things to explain an idea.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word/phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Antithesis

A contrast between opposing ideas, often in parallel structure.

Aphorism

A short statement expressing a general truth or life lesson.

Apostrophe

Addressing an absent person, object, or abstract idea as if it could respond.

Archetype

A common character, symbol, or situation that appears across many stories.

Aside

A character speaks directly to the audience while other characters supposedly cannot hear.

Asyndeton

Leaving out conjunctions between words/phrases.

Bildungsroman

A coming-of-age story following a character's growth and development.

Caesura

A deliberate pause in the middle of a line, often marked by punctuation.

Caricature

An exaggerated portrayal of a person’s traits, usually for humor or criticism.

Catharsis

An emotional release experienced by the audience or character.

Chiasmus

Reversal of grammatical structure in two related phrases.

Conceit

An extended, often surprising comparison between two very different things.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds, especially within or at the ends of words.

Denouement

The final part of a story where conflicts are resolved and loose ends are tied up.

Deus ex machina

An unlikely or sudden solution that resolves a seemingly impossible problem.

Diction

An author's specific choice of words and language.

Doppelganger

A character who is a double or opposite version of another character.

Dynamic character

A character who undergoes significant internal change.

Dystopia

An imagined society where life is oppressive, controlled, or deeply flawed.

Elision

Leaving out a sound or syllable, usually to create a particular rhythm.

Ellipsis

The omission of words or an unfinished thought, often shown with “…”.

Enjambment

When a poetic line continues into the next line without punctuation or a pause.

Epiphany

A sudden realization or understanding.

Epistolary

A story told through letters, emails, diary entries, or other documents.

Epithet

A descriptive word or phrase used to characterize someone.

Flashback

A scene that takes place earlier than the current point in the story.

Flat character

A simple character with few developed traits who usually doesn't change much.

Round character

A complex, developed character with multiple traits and motivations.

Foil

A character who contrasts with another character to highlight their traits.

Foreshadowing

Hints or clues about something that will happen later.

Frame story

A story that contains another story inside it.

Hamartia

A character's error or mistaken judgment that contributes to their downfall.

Hubris

Excessive pride or confidence that leads to a character's downfall.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis.

Interior monologue

A character's thoughts presented directly to the reader.

In medias res

Beginning a story in the middle of the action.

Invocation of the Muse

A request for inspiration from a muse, god, or supernatural source, traditionally at the beginning of an epic.

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality.

Situational irony

What happens is different from what is expected.

Verbal irony

Someone says something but means the opposite or something different.

Dramatic irony

The audience knows something the characters don't.

Litotes

Understatement using a negative to express a positive.

Local color

Writing that emphasizes the distinctive culture, language, setting, and customs of a particular place.

Magical realism

Realistic settings and events mixed with magical elements treated as normal.

Malapropism

Using an incorrect word that sounds similar to the correct word, often humorously.

Meiosis

Deliberate understatement that makes something seem less important than it really is.

Monologue

A long speech by one character.

Metonymy

Replacing something with a related word or concept.

Motif

A recurring image, idea, object, or theme that contributes to a work's meaning.

Oxymoron

Two contradictory words placed together.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that contains a deeper truth.

Polysyndeton

Using many conjunctions in a series.

Satire

Using humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize people, institutions, or society.

Soliloquy

A character, usually alone, speaks their private thoughts aloud.

Static character

A character who remains essentially the same throughout the story.

Stream of consciousness

Writing that attempts to reproduce the continuous flow of a character's thoughts.

Symbolism

Using an object, person, color, or event to represent a deeper meaning.

Synesthesia

Describing one sense using language associated with another sense.

Synecdoche

Using a part of something to represent the whole, or vice versa.

Tragic flaw

A character trait that contributes to a tragic hero's downfall.