AP Language and Composition Literary Terms 2

Words 21-40

Indirect Characterization

the author reveals to reader what character is like by describing how character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the character effect on other people, or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature.

Direct Characterization

the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied on this more heavily.

Static Character

is one who does not change much in the course of a story

Dynamic Character

is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s actions

Flat Character

has only one or two personality tradits, one dimension, summed up in one phrase

Round Character

has more dimensions to their personalities—they are complex like real people

Chiasmus

in poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second parts reversed, in prose called antimetabole.

Cliche

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse like the plague.

Colloquialism

Word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but it is inappropriate for formal situations.

Comedy

in general, story that ends w happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters

Conceit

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different, often an extended metaphor

Confesoinal Poetry

a 20th century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet’s life

Conflict

the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story

External Conflict

conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society

Internal Conflict

a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person’s mind

Connotation

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definitions

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

Diction

a speaker or writer’s choice of words

Didactic

form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking