AP Literature Vocab #3 (with literary terms)

Prudent (adj.)

Exercising good judgment or common sense | Syn: sensible

Serene (adj.)

Calm | Syn: Peaceful

Staid (adj.)

Unemotional; serious | Syn: reserved

Stoic (adj.)

Indifferent to pleasure or pain; impassive | Syn: unflinching

Condemn (v.)

To express strong disapproval of; denounce | Syn: denounce

Discredit (v.)

To cause to be doubted | Syn: undermine

Disparage (v.)

To speak of in a slighting way or negatively; to belittle | Syn: belittle

Pejorative (adj.)

Describing words or phrases that belittle or speak negatively of someone | Syn: derogatory

Plagiarism (adj.)

The act of passing off the ideas or writing of another as one's own | Syn: copying

Vilify (v.)

To make vicious statements about | Syn: defame

Brusque (adj.)

Rudely abrupt | Syn: curt

Caustic (adj.)

Bitingly sarcastic or witty | Syn: cutting

Fractious (adj.)

Quarrelsome; unruly | Syn: contentious

Incorrigible (adj.)

Unable to be reformed | Syn: irredeemable

Ingrate (n.)

An ungrateful person | Syn: ingrate

Insolent (adj.)

Insulting in manner or speech | Syn: disrespectful

Notorious (adj.)

Known widely and usually unfavorably; infamous | Syn: infamous

Pugnacious (adj.)

Combative; belligerent | Syn: aggressive

Reprehensible (adj.)

Worthy of blame | Syn: blameworthy

Brittle (adj.)

Easily broken when subjected to pressure | Syn: fragile

Deleterious (adj.)

Having a harmful effect; injurious | Syn: detrimental

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama, with many subdivisions within each.

Allegory

A story with two levels of meaning: the surface story and a deeper symbolic meaning represented by its characters, events, and plot. Allegories may be political, religious, historical, or philosophical.

Bildungsroman

a literary genre that follows the growth and development of a single individual within a defined social order, often presenting a quest for meaningful existence within society.

Epistolary Novel

A novel in which the narrative is carried forward through letters written by one or more characters.

Frame Story

A story that contains another story within it, usually involving two or more narrators.

Parable

A short, simple tale from which a moral lesson is drawn.

Parody

A work that closely imitates the style or content of another work for comic effect and/or ridicule, often exaggerating or distorting distinctive features of the original.

Prose

one of the major divisions of genre, referring to fiction and nonfiction written in ordinary language that most closely resembles everyday speech. Technically, anything that is not poetry or drama is prose.

Satire

a work that targets human vices, follies, social institutions, or conventions for reform or ridicule. Satire may use irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, understatement, and sarcasm.

Tragedy

a branch of literature that addresses the sorrowful downfall of a protagonist in a serious manner. Classical tragedy often features a tragic hero whose character flaw and fate contribute to the hero's ruin; later tragedy may instead emphasize human powerlessness in the face of modern challenges.