AP Lit: Literary Terms (Prose and Drama)

Ad Misericordiam

An appeal to the audience’s sympathy; an attempt to persuade another, using a hard-luck story rather than logic or reason.  

Alliteration

The repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rhythm, or emphasis.

Allusion

A reference in literature or in art to previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture/current events, or the Bible. 

Ambiguity

Quality of being intentionally unclear.  Events or situations that are ________ can be interpreted in more than one way.  This device is especially beneficial in poetry, as it tends to grace the work with the richness and depth of multiple meanings.

Anachronism

An element in a story that is out of its time frame; sometimes used to create a humorous or jarring effect.  Beware:  This can also occur because of careless or poor research on the author’s part.

Analogy

clarifies or explains an unfamiliar concept or object, or one that cannot be put into words, by comparing it with one which is familiar.  By explaining the abstract in terms of the concrete, they may force the reader to think more critically about a concept.  They tend to appear more often in prose than in poetry.  They enliven writing by making it more interesting, entertaining, and understandable. 

* similes and metaphors are two specific types

Analysis

The process of examining the components of a literary work.

Anecdote

A short and often personal story used to emphasize a point, to develop a character or a theme, or to inject humor.

Antagonist

A character who functions as a resisting force to the goals of the protagonist. often a villain, but in a case where the protagonist is evil (for example, in Macbeth), may be virtuous (i.e., Macduff).

Anticlimax

An often disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation.

Antihero

A protagonist who carries the action of the literary piece but does not embody the classic characteristics of courage, strength, and nobility.

Antithesis

A concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented ideas.

Aphorism

A terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle; sometimes considered a folk proverb.

Apotheosis

Elevating someone to the level of a god.

Archetype

A character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore. 

Aside

A short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience rather than to the other characters, who do not hear him or her.  Shakespeare’s characters often share their thoughts with the audience in this way.

Attitude

The author’s feelings toward the topic he or she is writing about. often used interchangeably with “tone,” is usually revealed through word choice.

Catharsis

In his Poetics, Aristotle wrote that a tragedy should “arouse pity and fear in such a way as to accomplish a _______ of such emotions in the audience.”  The term refers to an emotional cleansing or feeling of relief.

Chiasmus

The opposite of parallel construction; inverting the second of two phrases that would otherwise be parallel in form.

Colloquial

Of or relating to slang or regional dialect, used in familiar everyday conversation.  In writing, an informal style that reflects the way people spoke in a distinct time and/or place.

Comic Relief

Humor that provides a release of tension and breaks up a more serious episode.

Connotation

Associations a word calls to mind.  House and home have the same denotation, or dictionary meaning—a place to live.  But home connotes warmth and security; house does not.  The more ________ a piece is, the less objective its interpretation becomes.  Careful, close reading often reveals the writers intent.

Conventional Character

A character with traits that are expected or traditional.  Heroes are expected to be strong, adventurous, and unafraid.  _______ female characters often yearn for a husband, or once married, stay at home and care for their children; _______ men are adventurers.  If married they tend to “wear the pants in the family.”

Denotation

The dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase.  Compare to connotation.

Dénouement

The outcome or clarification at the end of a story or play; the winding down from climax to ending.

Deus ex Machina

Literally, when the gods intervene at a story’s end to resolve a seemingly impossible conflict.  Refers to an unlikely or improbable coincidence; a cop-out ending.

Diction

The deliberate choice of a style of language for a desired effect or tone.  Words chosen to achieve a particular effect that is formal, informal, or colloquial.

Didactic

A story, speck, essay, or play in which the author’s primary purpose is to instruct, teach, or moralize.

Distortion

An exaggeration or stretching of the truth to achieve a desired effect.

Epigraph

A brief quotation found at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of the theme.

Epiphany

Eureka!  A sudden flash of insight.  A startling discovery and/or appearance; a dramatic realization.

Epistolary Novel

A novel in letter form written by one or more of the characters.  The novelist can use this technique to present varying first-person points of view and does not need a narrator.

Essay

A short composition on a single topic expressing the view or interpretation of the writer on that topic.  The word comes from the French *essayer* (to attempt, or to try).  It is one of the oldest prose forms.

Euphemism

Substitution of an inoffensive word or phrase for another that would be harsh, offensive, or embarrassing.  A euphemism makes something sound better than it is but is usually more wordy than the original.

Farce

A kind of comedy that depends on exaggerated or improbable situations, physical disorders, and sexual innuendo to amuse the audience.  Many situation comedies on television today might be called this.

Figurative Language

Unlike literal expression, uses figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification, and hyperbole. appeals to one’s sense.  Most poetry contains this.

First Person

A character in the story tells the story, using the pronoun I.  This is a limited point of view since the narrator can relate only events that he or she sees or is told about.

Flashback

Interruption of a narrative by the introduction of an earlier event or by an image of a past experience.

Flat Character

A simple, one-dimensional character who remains the same, and about whom little or nothing is revealed through out the course of the work. may serve as symbols of types of people, similar to stereotypical characters.

Foil

A character whose contrasting personal characteristics draw attention to, enhance, or contrast with those of the main character.  A character who, by displaying opposite traits, emphasizes certain aspects of another character.

Foreshadowing

hints at what is to come.  It is sometimes noticeable only in hindsight, but usually it is obvious enough to set the reader wondering.

Genre

The category into which a piece of writing can be classified—poetry, prose, drama.  Each has its own conventions and standards.

Hubris

Insolence, arrogance, or pride.  In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s ______ is usually the tragic flaw that leads to his or her downfall.

Hyperbole

An extreme exaggeration for literary effect that is not meant to be interpreted literally.

Metamorphosis

A radical change in a character, either physical or emotional.

Metaphor

A figure of speech which compares two dissimilar things, asserting that one thing *is* another thing, not just that one is *like* another.  Compare with analogy and simile.

Metonymy

A figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word or phrase closely associated with it.  Similar to synecdoche (many authors do not distinguish between the two).

Myth

A story usually with supernatural significance, that explains the origins of gods, heroes, or natural phenomena.  Although ______ are fictional stories, they contain deeper truths, particularly about the nature of humankind.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, placed side by side:  *bitter sweet, wise fool, living death*.

Parable

A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

Paradox

A statement or situation that at first seems impossible or oxymoronic, but which solves itself and reveals meaning.

Parallelism

The repeated use of the same grammatical structure in a sentence or a series of sentences.   This device tends to emphasize what is said and thus underscores the meaning.  Can also refer to two or more stories within a literary work that are told simultaneously and that reinforce one another.

Parody

A comical imitation of a serious piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or his work.

Pastoral

A poem, play, or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses.  This highly conventional form was popular until the 18th century.  The term has also come to refer to an artistic work that portrays rural life in an idyllic or idealistic way.

Pathos

The quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the reader’s or viewer’s emotions—especially pity, compassion, and sympathy. is different from the pity one feels for a tragic hero in that the pathetic figure seems to suffer through no fault of his or her own.

Periodic Sentence

A sentence that delivers its point at the end; usually constructed as a subordinate clause followed by a main clause.

Personification

The attribution of human characteristics to an animal or to an inanimate object.

Point of View

Perspective of the speaker or narrator in a literary work.

Protagonist

The main or principal character in a work; often considered the hero or heroine.

Pun

Humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings.

Rhetorical Question

A question with an obvious answer, so no response is expected; used for emphasis to make a point.

Satire

The use of humor to ridicule and expose the shortcomings and failings of society, individuals, and institutions, often in the hope that change and reform are possible.

Shift

In writing, a movement from one thought or idea to another; a change.

Simile

A comparison of unlike things using the word *like, as,* or *so*.

Soliloquy

A character’s speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed.  A monologue is a ______ only if the character is alone on the stage.

Stock Character

A stereotypical character; a type.  The audience expects the character to have certain characteristics.  Similar to conventional character and flat character.

Stream of Consciousness

A form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works.  Ideas are presented in random order, thoughts are often unfinished.  (Also see *interior monologue*.)

Structure

The particular way in which parts of a written work are combined.

Style

The way a writer uses language.  Takes into account word choice, diction, figures of speech, and so on.  The writer’s “voice.”

Symbol

A concrete object, scene, or action which has deeper significance because it is associated with something else, often an important idea or theme in the work.

Synechdoche

A figure of speech where one part represents the entire object, or vice versa.

Syntax

The way in which words, phrases, and sentences are ordered and connected.

Theme

The central idea of a literary work.

Tone

Refers to the author’s attitude toward the subject, and often sets the mood of the piece.

Tongue in cheek

Expressing a thought in a way that appears to be sincere, but is actually joking.

Tragic Flaw

Traditionally, a defect in a hero or heroine that leads to his or her downfall.

Transition/segue

The means to get from one portion of a poem or story to another; for instance, to another setting, to another character’s viewpoint, to a later or earlier time period.  It is a way of smoothly connecting different parts of a work.