AP LITERARY TERMS

The only actual literary terms and definitions you need to know for the AP exam

ALLEGORY

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities.

EXAMPLES: Animal Farm; Dante’s Inferno; Lord of the Flies

ALLITERATION

repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.

EXAMPLE: “When the two youths turned with the flag they saw that much of the regiment had crumbled away, and the dejected remnant was coming slowly back.” –Stephen Crane (Note how regiment and remnant are being used; the regiment is gone, a remnant remains…)

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.).

AMBIGUITY

deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. This is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness and detracts from the work.

ANALOGY

Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike

ANECDOTE

Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual

ANTAGONIST

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

ANTIHERO

Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples.

ASSONANCE

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

CHARACTERIZATION

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

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the 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 characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action.

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

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

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 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.

ROUND CHARACTER

has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just a real people are.

CHIASMUS

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike.”

CLICHE

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. (That cliché is intended.)

CONCEIT

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

CONFESSIONAL POETRY

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

CONNOTATION

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

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.

ELEGY

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died.

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.

EXPOSITION

one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or “set forth.”

NARRATIVE

the form of discourse that tells about a series of events.

FABLE

a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life.

HYPERBOLE

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”

IMAGERY

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

FLASHBACK

a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.

IRONY

a discrepancy between appearances and reality.

VERBAL IRONY

occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.

SITUATIONAL IRONY

takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.

DRAMATIC IRONY

is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.

JUXTAPOSITION

when normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit. Ezra Pound: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.”

Juxtaposition is also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas, images, or metaphors. Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

LITOTES

is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form: Hawthorne--- “…the wearers of petticoat and farthingale…stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng…”

LOOSE SENTENCE

one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units. Hawthorne: “Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him, and show the wavering track of this footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.”

LYRIC POEM

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. A ballad tells a story.

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 by something closely associated with it. “We requested from the crown support for our petition.” The crown is used to represent the monarch.

MOTIF

a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses “So it goes” throughout Slaughterhouse-Five to remind the reader of the senselessness of death.

ONOMATOPOEIA

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

OXYMORON

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. “Jumbo shrimp.” “Pretty ugly.” “Bitter-sweet”

PARABLE

a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life.

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 the writer’s style.

PERSONIFICATION

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

QUATRAIN

a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit.

RHYTHM

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

RHETORICAL QUESTION

a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer.

SIMILE

a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles.

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.

METONYMY

When a word associated with something is used to refer to the thing itself.