AP Literary Terms #1

ad hominem argument

from Latin meaning “to or against the person”, it appeals to emotion rather than reason, to feeling rather then intellect. example: Stalin was evil and against religion, so all people against religion are evil

allegory

using a character or story elements to symbolically represent and abstraction to the literal meaning, usually deals with moral truth, usually used in fiction. example: a character personifies hope or freedom

alliteration

the repetition of sounds. example: she sells seashells by the seashore

allusion

a direct or indirect reference to something that is presumably commonly known, such as a event, book, myth, place, or work of art

ambiguity

the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. could also have a sense of uncertainty

analogy

a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. it can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar

anecdote

a short, narrative account of an amusing unusual, revealing, or interesting event. includes a single, definite point and clarifies abstract poins

antecedent

the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. example: chelsey finished HER project

antithesis

a figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure, serves to emphasize opposition of ideas. example: “man proposes, God disposes” or “too black for heaven, too white for hell”

aphorism

a terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle. example: actions speak louder than words

apostrophe

a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction, such as liberty or love, or an inanimate object

atmosphere

the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author’s choice of objects that are described

caricature

a representation in which the subject’s distinct features are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic effect

chiasmus

a figure of speech based on inverted parallelism, it is when two clauses are related to each other through a reversal of terms

clause

a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb

colloquialism

slang or informality in speech or writing, usually included in local or regional dialects

conceit

a fanciful expression, usually in he form of an extended metaphor or a surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. example: her eyes shined brighter than the moon

connotation

the nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning, can involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. example: he’s such a dog (not actually a dog, but he is messy)

denotation

the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. example: she was cold (as in temperature)

diction

refers to the writer’s particular word choices in regard to their clearness or effectiveness. example: the work is formal

didactic

comes from greek origin, and it means “instructive”. used for teaching and instructing, especially when teaching moral or ethical principles. example: Aesop’s Fables