AP Literature 2nd Half Terms

Maxim

A concise statement expressing a principle or rule of conduct

Metaphor

A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things

Mock Epic

A concise literary form that treats a trivial subject in the grand, heroic style of the epic.

Motif

A recurring feature in a work of literature (name, image, phrase)

Myth

A story often about immortals and sometimes connected with religious rituals that is intended to give meaning to the mysteries of the world

Narrator

one who narrates, or tells, a story

Naturalism

An extreme form of realism.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms.

Paradox

A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although aat first to be self-contradicory and untrue.

Parallelism

The use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar or complementary in structure or in meaning.

Parody

The humour imitation of a work of literature, art, or music.

Pastoral

A type of poem that deals in an idealized way with shephers and rustic life.

Pathos

The quality in a work of literature or art that arouses the readers feelings of pity, sorrow, or compassion for a character.

Personification

A figure of speech in which something nonhuman is given human qualities.

Plot

The sequence of events or actions in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem.

Point of view

The vantage point from which a narrative is told.

Protagonist

The central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem.

Pun

The use of a word or phrase to suggest two or more meanings at the same time.

Realism

The attempt in literature and art to represent life as it really is, without sentimentalizing or idealizing it.

Romance

Any imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deal with heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters.

Romanticism

A movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and atr in western culture during most of the nineteenth century.

Satire

A kind of writing that holds up ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general

Setting

The time and place in which the events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.

Simile

A comparison made between two things through the use of a specific word of comparison

Soliloquy

In drama an extended speech delivered by a character alone onstage

Stereotype

a commonplace type or character that appears so often in literature that his or her nature is immediately familiar to the reader

Stream of consciousness

The style of writing that attempts o imitate the natural flow of a characters thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images as the character experiences them.

style

an authors characteristic way of writing, determined by the choice of words, the arrangement of words in sentences, and the relationship of the sentences to one another.

suspense

the quality of a story, novel, or drama that makes the readers or audience uncertation or tense about the outcome of events.

symbol

any object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, an attitude, belief, or a value.

Theme

The general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express in a literary work.

tone

the attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, or audience

Tragedy

in general, a literary work in which the protagonist Mets an unhappy or disastrous end

parable

a simple story ued to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson

Persona

the aspect of someones character that is presented to or perceived by others

prose

written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure

omniscient narrator

an "all-knowing" god-like, third-person storyteller who exists outside the story's action

syntax

the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language