AP ENG IV VOCAB WEEK 2

Decorum

a character's speech that must be styled according to their social station, and in accordance with the occasion. (A princess speaking like a posh rich person in a delicate way)

Diction, syntax

The author's choice of words is diction. Syntax is the way those words are ordered.

dirge

a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. Typically slow, heavy, and melancholic

dissonance

The grating of incompatible sounds

doggerel

A crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama don't

Dramatic Monologue

When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience

elegy

a mournful poem; a lament for the dead

elements

The basic techniques of each genre of literature (Short story: characters, plot, setting, theme, etc.)

enjambment

the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of verse into the next line without a pause

Epic

A very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style. Typically deals with glorious or profound subject matter. (War, heroic journey, fall of man)

epitaph

Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. Usually a line or handful of lines. Can be serious and religious or comedic and irrelevant.

euphemism

A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality

Euphony

When sounds blend harmoniously

explicit

To say or write something directly and clearly

Farce

In modern terms: Extremely broad humor
In past terms: A funny play, a comedy

Feminine Rhyme

Lines rhymed by their final two syllables (running and gunning). The penultimate syllables are stressed and the final ones are unstressed.

First person narrator

Narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from their perspective.

Foil

A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the main character qualities, usually via contrast

Foot

The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry. Formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or destressed.

Foreshadowing

An event or statement that suggests a larger, more important event comes later.

Free Verse

Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern

Genre

A sub-category of literature. Science-Fiction and detective stories are fiction _____s.

Gothic, gothic novel

The sensibility derived from gothic novels

Hubris

the excessive pride or ambition that leads to a character's downfall

hyperbole

exaggeration or deliberate overstatement

Implicit

To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly

In media res

Latin for "in the midst of things". One of the conventions of epic poetry.

interior monologue

Term used for novels and poetry, not dramatic literature. Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head. Related but not identical to stream of consciousness

Inversion

Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase.

Irony

A statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean

Lament

A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss

Lampoon

A satire

Loose and periodic sentences

Loose: Complete before its end
Periodic: Not grammatically complete until its end

Lyric

A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world.

Masculine Rhyme

A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable

Means, Meaning

Discovering what makes sense, what is important. There is literal and emotional meaning

Melodrama

A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain is evil and rotten, and the heroine is true an pure.

Metaphor and simile

Metaphor: Comparison or analogy that says one thing is another.
Simile: A metaphor but simplifies thing by usually uses like or as