R13 - R15 Vocabulary (AP Lit)

Hyperbole

A deliberate exaggeration or overstatment

Kenning

A metaphorical phrase used on Anglo-Saxon poetry to replace a concrete noun

Metaphor

A comparison not using like or as (extended, mixed, and dead)

Fiction

Prose writing about imaginary characters and events

Mock Epic

A poem about a trivial matter written like a serious epic

Gothic

A term used to describe literary works that make extensive use of primitive, medieval, wild, mysterious, or natural elements

Miracle Plays

First dramas in England; told Biblical stories

Irony

The opposite of intended; situational, verbal, and dramatic

Lyric Poem

A poem expressing the observations and feelings of a single speaker; presents an experience, not the full story (elegy, ode, sonnet)

Figurative Language

Writing used to enhance imagery; paint vivid word pictures; such as, similes, metaphors, personification

Metonymy

A figure of speech that substitutes something closely related for the thing actually meant

Journal

A daily autobiographical account of events and personal reactions

Image

A word or phrase that appeals to the five senses

Metaphysical Poetry

17th century English poets; intellectual playfulness, argument, irony, conceits, rhythms of ordinary speech

Folklore

Works produced orally; stories, legends, myths, ballads, riddles

Meter

The rhythmical pattern of a poem; stressed and unstressed syllables

Narrative Poem

A poem that tells a story in verse (ballads, epics, and metrical romances)

Legend

A widely told story about the past; reflects a person’s identity or cultural values; more historical truth than myth

Free Verse

Poetry not written in a regular rhythmical pattern or meter

Imagery

The descriptive language used in literature to re-create sensory experiences; enriches writing - more vivid; setting a tone; emotions and guiding readers’ reactions

Myth

A fictional tale with religious significance; explains the actions of gods or heroes or causes of natural phenomena

Modernism

Describes an international movement in the arts during the 20th century; used images as symbols; presented human experiences in fragments - new form of poetry and fiction

Narration

Writing that tells a story; the act of telling

Monologue

A speech given entirely by one character

Mood

The feeling created in the reader

Naturalism

A literary movement end of 19th century; depict life in its grimmer details and viewed people as hopeless victims of natural laws

Neoclassicism

A literary movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries; turned to classical Greek and Roman literary models and standards

Nonfiction

Prose writing that is real/true

Novel

An extended work of fiction; complicated plot; major and minor characters, themes, setting

Ode

A long, formal lyric poem with a serious theme; honor people, events and respond to natural scenes; stanzas grouped in three

Onomatopoeia

The use of words that imitate sounds