AP LITERARY TERMS

ALLEGORY

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

reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.).

ANTAGONIST

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

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object (Personification)

APOSTROPHE

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation

ASSONANCE

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together.

CHARACTERIZATION

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

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.

CONCEIT

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.

CONFLICT

the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.

COUPLET

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry.

DIALECT

a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area.

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.

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 contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

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.

IMAGERY

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

IRONY

a discrepancy between appearances and reality

JUXTAPOSITION

is a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors.

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.

METONYMY

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

MOOD

An atmosphere, created by a writer's diction and imagery, for the reader to experience. (Often the characters experience this/these feeling(s) as well.)

MOTIF

a recurring image that in some way relates to the universal insight(s) a work of literature explores.

MOTIVATION

the reasons for a character's behavior.

ONOMATOPOEIA

the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. "Pop." "Zap."

PARADOX

a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth.

PARODY

a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of thewriter's style.

PERSONIFICATION

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

FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW

one of the characters tells the story.

THIRD PERSON OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW

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

THIRD PERSON LIMITED 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.

THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW

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

PUN

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

REFRAIN

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

RHYTHM

a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.

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

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. "If you don't drive properly, you will lose your wheels." The wheels represent the entire car.

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.

TRAGEDY

in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end.

UNDERSTATEMENT

a statement that says less than what is meant.

UNIVERSAL IDEA

an abstract concept—that in some way relates to the majority of humanity—that a literary work focuses on. Universal ideas are single words such as fear, love, justice, vengeance, isolation, conformity, etc

UNIVERSAL INSIGHT

a specific insight about a universal idea, usually presented as a didactic statement. This is the author's specific message in relation to the universal idea.