AP Lit Terms

Flashcards covering literary terms and dramatic and poetic techniques.

Diction

the word choices made by the writer

Elevated, Formal, or Scholarly Diction

language that creates an elevated tone. It is free of slang, idioms, colloquialisms, and contradictions. It often contains polysyllabic words, sophisticated syntax, and elegant word choice.

Colloquial Diction

the language of everyday use. It is relaxed and conversational. The casual or informal but correct language of ordinary speakers; it often includes common and simple words, idioms, slang, jargon, and contractions.

Denotation

the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color.

Connotation

the implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning (denotation) over and above what they mean or actually denote.

Tone

the attitude a speaker or writer takes toward a subject, a character, or the reader.

Dialect

nonstandard subgroup of a language with its own vocabulary and grammatical features.

Slang

a group of recently coined words, often out of usage within months or years.

Sarcasm

sharp, caustic attitude conveyed in words through jibes, taunts, or other remarks.

Wit

primarily intellectual word choice and expressed in skillful phraseology, plays on words, surprising contrasts, paradoxes, & epigrams.

Cliché

an over-used, worn-out, hackneyed expression that used to be fresh but is no more.

Plot

structure of a story; the sequence in which the author arranges events in a story. The structure often includes the exposition, rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.

Frame Story

literary device in which a story is enclosed in another story, a tale within a tale.

Allegory

narrative in which characters, objects, and events all have underlying political, religious, moral, or social meanings.

Character

a person, spirit, object, animal, or natural force in a literary work.

Protagonist

the main character in a story, play, or novel.

Antagonist

a character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist, produces tension or conflict.

Foil

a minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character, and thus by contrast sets off or illuminates the major character; most often the contrast is complementary or the major character.

Setting

the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem take place.

Atmosphere / Mood

the emotional feelings created by the setting

Point of View

the perspective of the events as told by the narrator. The author chooses the point of view for its precise effect on the meaning of the story.

First Person

the participant point of view is also called the first-person point of view because of the first person pronouns (I, me, my, we, us our) are used to tell the story.

Third Person

also called the non-participant because the third person pronouns (he, him, she, her, they, them) are used to tell the story.

Omniscient Narrator

narrator can enter the minds of all the characters. The omniscient point of view allows great freedom in that the narrator knows all there is to know about the characters, externally and internally. The narrator can tell the past, present, and future.

Limited Third Person Narrator

narrator limits his omniscience to the minds of a few of the characters or to the mind of a single character.

Objective Narrator

narrator does not enter a single mind, but instead records what can be seen and heard. This type of narrator is like a camera or a fly on the wall that can see all the actions and comment on them, but does not know the inner thoughts or feelings of the characters.

Unreliable Narrator

the point of view of a narrator, who, we perceive, is deceptive, self-deceptive, deluded, or deranged.

Irony

situation or statement characterized by a significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant.

Dramatic Irony

the audience understands something that the character or characters do not realize. It occurs when a character or speaker says or does something that has different meanings from what he or she thinks it means, though the audience and other characters understand the full implications of the speech or action.

Situational Irony

a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect, though often the twist is oddly appropriate.

Verbal Irony

a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite.

Motif

the repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work that is used to develop the theme or characters.

Symbol

any object, person, place, or action that maintains its own meaning while at the same time standing for something broader than itself.

Theme

the central message of a literary work. The main idea or meaning of a work. It is not the same as subject. The theme is the idea the author wishes to convey about that subject. A literary work can have more than one theme, and most themes are not directly stated but are implied.

Allusion

reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, biblical reference, artwork, or music.

Ambiguity

technique by which a writer deliberately suggests two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings.

Hyperbole

a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration.

Imagery

sensory details of a work.

Visual Imagery

descriptions of images that can be seen.

Auditory Imagery

descriptions that can be heard

Tactile Imagery

descriptions of the texture or touch of something

Kinesthetic Imagery

descriptions of motion or movement.

Olfactory Imagery

descriptions of smells

Gustatory Imagery

descriptions of tastes

Metaphor

a comparison of two things or ideas where one becomes the other. Often introduced by “is.”

Extended Metaphor (Controlling Image)

a metaphor developed using several words or phrases on the same subject as a comparison.

Oxymoron

a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression.

Paradox

statement that appears contradictory at first, but actually presents a truism.

Personification

giving human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas

Simile

a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words like, as, or resembles.

Comedy

dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion.

Tragedy

type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, suffering awaits many of the characters, especially the hero.

Tragic Hero

privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and/or fate, suffers a fall from a higher station in life into suffering.

Tragic Flaw

weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.

Hubris

negative term implies both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall.

Soliloquy

a moment when a character is alone and speaks his or her thoughts aloud. Unlike an aside, a soliloquy is not meant to imply that the actor acknowledges the audience’s presence.

Aside

device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech that is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play.

Epic

long narrative poem, which in dignified and elevated style, tells of the mighty deeds of a great hero.

Ballad

simple, narrative verse, which tells a story to be sung or recited.

Lyric Poetry

poetry which expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of its speaker; it is subjective and emotional, imaginative, and melodious.

Ode

a lyric poem that treats a serious subject thoughtfully and emotionally and which is marked by a dignified style and a complex metrical pattern; it is usually a tribute to a person or thing.

Sonnet

a fourteen-line lyric poem written in iambic pentameter.

English or Shakespearean Sonnet

consists of three quatrains rhymed abab cdcd efef and a concluding couplet rhymed gg; the three quatrains develop a single thought, and the couplet usually comments on them.

Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet

has eight lines (the octave) for the development of a single thought, and six lines (the sestet) for a comment on, a solution to, or an application of the thought; rhyme scheme is abbaabba in the octave, and cdecde in the sestet.

Elegy

a poem that laments the dead.

Free Verse

poetry with irregular meter and usually without rhyme, but definitely not the regular rhythm of traditional poetry.

Verse

a single line of poetry.

Stanza

a unit of poetry consisting of a group of related verses generally with a definite metrical pattern and rhyme scheme.

Couplet

a pair of successive verses which rhyme.

Tercet

a stanza of three lines, usually all rhyming.

Quatrain

a stanza of four lines; the most common in English.

Quintain (Quintet)

a five-line stanza.

Sestet

a six-line stanza or the last six lines of an Italian sonnet.

Heptastich

seven line stanza.

Octave (Octet)

a stanza of eight lines, probably the second most common in English.

Canto

a division of a long poem, comparable to chapters in a book

Refrain

a group of words or lines that recurs regularly at the end of successive stanzas.

Repetition

the repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis; the same phrase, however, is not repeated regularly throughout the poem as in the refrain.

Rhythm

the recurring rise and fall of sounds in a line of poetry.

Meter

the pattern of rhythm in a line of poetry, counted by the number and type of feet in a line.

Foot

a portion of a line of poetry, usually consisting of one accented and either one or two unaccented syllables.

End-stopped Line

break in the meter; meaning; pause in reading

Enjambment

no pause or stop at the end of the line

Rhyme

the similarity between the sounds of words or syllables.

End Rhyme

rhyme between the sounds of words at the ends of lines.

Internal Rhyme

rhyme of words in the same line or between a word in the line and one with the next.

Exact Rhyme

use of identical rhyming sound.

Slant Rhyme / Imperfect Rhyme

the use, where rhyme is expected, of words that do not strictly rhyme.

Assonance

the agreement of vowel sounds without repetition of consonant sounds.

Alliteration

the rhyme of initial consonant sounds.

Consonance

the agreement of ending consonant sounds when the vowel sounds differ

Cacophony / Dissonance

harsh & inharmonious sounds (worse than slant rhymes); a harsh, unpleasant combination of sounds.

Onomatopoeia

the imitation of sounds by words either directly or suggestively.

Diction

The word choices made by the writer.

Elevated, Formal, or Scholarly Diction

Language that creates an elevated tone, free of slang and colloquialisms; contains polysyllabic words and sophisticated syntax.

Colloquial Diction

The language of everyday use that is relaxed and conversational, including common words, idioms, slang, and contractions.

Denotation

The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion or color.

Connotation

The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning; the emotional associations.

Tone

The attitude a speaker or writer takes toward a subject, a character, or the reader.

Dialect

Nonstandard subgroup of a language with its own vocabulary and grammatical features, often regional or indicative of social class.