ENGLISH AP LITERATURE TERMS

accent

the stressed portion of a word

allegory

an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric

alliteration

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another; for example, "beautiful blossoms blooming between the bushes"

allusion

a reference to another work or famous figure assumed to be well known enough to be recognized by the reader

anachronism

an event, object, custom, person, or thing that is out of order in time; some anachronisms are unintentional, such as when an actor performing Shakespeare forgets to take off his watch; others are deliberately used to achieve a humorous or satiric effect, such as the sustained anachronism of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

analogy

a comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump

anecdote

a short, simple narrative of an incident

aphorism

a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life

apostrophe

usually in poetry (not grammar, but sometimes in prose) the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction either to begin a poem or to make a dramatic break in thought somewhere within the poem

aside

a brief speech or comment that an actor makes to the audience, supposedly without being heard by the other actors on stage; often used for melodramatic or comedic effect

assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in neigh/fade

ballad

a long narrative poem that presents a single dramatic episode, which is often tragic or violent; the two types of ballads are: • folk ballad: one of the earliest forms of literature, a folk ballad was usually sung and was passed down orally from singer to singer; its author (if a single author) is generally unknown, and its form and melody often changed according to a singer's preference • literary ballad: also called an art ballad, this is a ballad that imitates the form and spirit of the folk ballad, but is more polished and uses a higher level of poetic diction

blank verse

poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter; a favorite form used by Shakespeare

burlesque

broad parody; whereas a parody will imitate and exaggerate a specific work, such as Romeo and Juliet, a burlesque will take an entire style or form, such as pastoral poetry, and exaggerate it into ridiculousness

cacophony

harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony

caricature

descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of appearance or a facet of personality

catharsis

the emotional release that an audience member experiences as a result of watching a tragedy

chorus

in Greek drama, a group of characters who comments on the action taking place on stage

classicism

the principles and styles admired in the classics of Greek and Roman literature, such as objectivity, sensibility, restraint, and formality

colloquialism

a word or phrase used in everyday conversation and informal writing that is sometimes inappropriate in formal writing

conceit

an elaborate figure of speech in which two seemingly dissimilar things or situations are compared

consonance

the repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowel sounds, as in boost/best; can also be seen within several compound words, such as fulfill and ping-pong

conundrum

a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; may also be a paradox or difficult problem

description

the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse

diction

word choice; also called syntax

discourse

spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion

dissonance

the grating of sounds that are harsh or do not go together

elegy

a formal poem focusing on death or mortality, usually beginning with the recent death of a particular person

end rhyme

a rhyme that comes at the end of lines of poetry; for example: Her voice, soft and lovely when she sings, Came to me last night in a dream.

epic

a long narrative poem about a serious or profound subject in a dignified style; usually featuring heroic characters and deeds important in legends; two famous examples include the Iliad and the Odyssey, both written by the Greek poet Homer

epigram

a concise, witty saying in poetry or prose that either stands alone or is part of a larger work; may also refer to a short poem of this type

euphony

a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony

exemplum

a brief tale used in medieval times to illustrate a sermon or teach a lesson

exposition

the immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse

farce

a light, dramatic composition characterized by broad satirical comedy and a highly improbable plot

figurative language

language that contains figures of speech such as similes and metaphors in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal

figures of speech

expressions such as similes, metaphors, and personifications that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations

foil

a character who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another character

folklore

traditional stories, songs, dances, and customs that are preserved among a people; folklore usually precedes literature, being passed down orally between generations until recorded by scholars

foot

the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that makes up the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry

anapest

two unstressed followed by one stressed syllable, as in in-ter-rupt

dactyl

one stressed followed by two unstressed syllables, as in beau-ti-ful

iamb

one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable, as in dis-turb

spondee

two successive stressed syllables, as in hodge-podge

trochee

one stressed followed by one unstressed syllable, as in in-jure and con-stant

foreshadowing

the use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs later in the work

free verse

poetry that is written without a regular meter, usually without rhyme

genre

a type of literary work, such as a novel or poem; there are also subgenres, such as science fiction novel and sonnet, within the larger genres

gothic

referring to a type of novel that emerged in the eighteenth century that uses mystery, suspense, and sensational and supernatural occurrences to evoke terror

hubris

the excessive pride or ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impending doom, eventually causing his or her downfall

humor

anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end of the Renaissance, humor meant a person's temperament

hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis

idyll

a short descriptive narrative, usually a poem, about an idealized country life; also called a pastoral

imagery

words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture

interior monologue

writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head

internal rhyme

a rhyme occurring within a line of poetry, as in Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven'.

inversion

reversing the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase; used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question: "Are you going to the store/" Often used ineffectively in poetry, making it look artificial and stilted, "to the hounds she rode, with her flags behind her streaming"

irony

a situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected

loose sentence

a sentence that is grammatically complete before its end, such as "Thalia played the violin with an intensity never before seen in a high school music class"; the sentence is grammatically complete after the word violin

lyric

a type of melodious, imaginative, and subjective poetry that is usually short and personal, expressing the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker rather than telling a story

metaphor

a figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another; for example, "my love is a fragile flower"

meter

the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry; meters found in poetry include: monometer: one foot (rare), dimeter: two feet (rare), trimeter: three feet, tetrameter: four feet, pentameter: five feet, hexameter: six feet, heptameter: seven feet (rare)

metonymy

a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to a monarch

mode

the method or form of a literary work; a manner in which a work of literature is written

mood

similar to tone, mood is the primary emotional attitude of a work

myth

one story in a system of narratives set in a complete imaginary world that once served to explain the origin of life, religious beliefs, and the forces of nature as supernatural occurrences

narration

the telling of a story in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama; one of the four modes of discourse

naturalism

a literary movement that grew out of realism in France, the United States, and England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; it portrays humans as having no free will, being driven by the natural forces of heredity, environment, and animalistic urges over which they have no control

objectivity

an impersonal presentation of events and characters

ode

a long lyric poem, usually serious and elevated in tone; often written to praise someone or something

onomatopoeia

the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as hiss and boom

oxymoron

a figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool"

parable

a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory

paradox

a statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning, as in this quotation from Henry David Thoreau: "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."

parallelism

the technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side to side and making them similar in form

parody

a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements

pastoral

a poem about idealized rural life, or shepherds, or both; also called an idyll

periodic sentence

a sentence that is not grammatically complete until its last phrase, such as, "Despite Glenn's hatred of his sister's laziness and noisy eating habits, he still cared for her."

personification

the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or an inanimate object

persuasion

one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion; also called argument

Petrarchan sonnet

one of the most important types of sonnets, composed of an octave with an abba abba rhyme scheme, and ending in a sestet with a cde cde rhyme scheme; also called an Italian sonnet

point of view

the perspective from which a story is presented; common points of view include: first person narrator: a narrator, referred to as "I," who is a character in the story and relates the actions through his or her own perspective, also revealing his or her own thoughts; stream of consciousness narrator: like a first person narrator, but instead placing the reader inside the character's head, making the reader privy to the continuous, chaotic flow of disconnected, half-formed thoughts and impressions as they flow through the character's consciousness; omniscient narrator: a third person narrator, referred to as "he," "she," or "they," who is able to see into each character's mind and understands all the action; limited omniscient narrator: a third person narrator who only reports the thoughts of one character, and generally only what that one character sees; objective narrator: a third person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera; thoughts and feelings are only revealed if a character speaks of them

protagonist

the main character of a literary work

realism

a nineteenth-century literary movement in Europe and the United States that stressed accuracy in the portrayal of life, focusing on characters with whom middle-class readers could easily identify; in direct contrast with romanticism

refrain

a line or group of lines that are periodically repeated throughout a poem

regionalism

an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot

rhyme

a similarity of accented sounds between two words, such as sad/mad; rhymes can be masculine or feminine: masculine: the rhyme sound is the last syllable of a line, i.e. profound/bound; feminine: the accented syllable is followed by an unaccented syllable, i.e. banding/landing

romanticism

a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that began in the eighteenth century as a reaction against neoclassicism; the focal points of the movement are imagination, emotion, and freedom, stressing subjectivity, individuality, the love and worship of nature, and a fascination with the past

sarcasm

harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony

simile

a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities; for example, "the sky looked like an artist's canvas"

soliloquy

a speech spoken by a character alone on stage, giving the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts; perhaps the most famous example is Hamlet's speech beginning "To be, or not to be"

sonnet

a fourteen-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter

speaker

the voice of a poem; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious character

stanza

a group of lines in the formal pattern of a poem; types of stanzas include: couplet: the simplest stanza, consisting of two rhymed lines; tercet: three lines, usually having the same rhyme; quatrain: four lines; cinquain: five lines; sestet: six lines; octave: eight lines

stereotype

a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and lacks individuality

stock character

a standard character who may be stereotyped, such as the miser or the fool; or universally recognized, like the hard-boiled private eye in detective stories

style

an author's characteristic manner of expression

subjectivity

a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions

suspension of disbelief

the demand made of a theater audience to provide some details with their imagination and to accept the limitations of reality and staging; also, the acceptance of the incidents of the plot by a reader or audience

symbolism

the use of symbols, or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance