AP Lit Terms and Eras

Classical Era

The Classical Era (c. 1250 BCE–455 CE) includes works from Ancient Greece and Rome that inspired later neoclassical literature. Key authors: Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Ovid.

Medieval Era

(400s–1400s) Literature from the fall of Rome to the printing press; includes Old English works like Beowulf and Middle English works like Canterbury Tales and The Divine Comedy; features knights, monsters, and religious allegory.

Renaissance

(1400–1600) A rebirth of learning and humanism; includes the Elizabethan Era (1558–1603) with writers like Marlowe, Kyd, and Shakespeare.

Enlightenment

(1660–late 18th century) Emphasizes logic, reason, and equality; rejects superstition; tied to democratic ideals and the American Revolution.

Romantic Era

(1789–1832) Emphasizes imagination, individuality, emotion, and nature; key poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron; American version is Transcendentalism.

Gothic Era

(1790–1890) Explores dark emotions and psychological tension; rebellious against social restrictions; think Edgar Allan Poe.

Victorian Era

(1832–1901) Focuses on society, morality, and class; writers include Charles Dickens and George Eliot.

Realism

19th-century movement depicting ordinary life truthfully and objectively; authors include Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Henry James.

Modernism

(1914–1945) Experimental literature expressing fragmentation, uncertainty, and chaos of modern life; authors: Joyce, Conrad, Faulkner.

Postmodernism

(1945–1990s) Highly experimental, playful literature including magical realism, nonlinear structures, mixed genres, and satire; authors include Marquez and Vonnegut.

Contemporary

Post-1945 literature; broad, diverse, and generally less experimental than Postmodernism.

Allegory

Story in which characters/events symbolize abstract ideas; e.g., Animal Farm.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds.

Allusion

Reference to something well-known from culture, history, religion, or literature.

Anaphora

Repetition at the beginning of clauses or sentences.

Anastrophe

Inversion of typical word order.

Antimetabole

Repetition and reversal of words (“Eat to live, not live to eat”).

Aphorism

Short, witty statement expressing a general truth.

Apostrophe

Addressing an absent person or personified idea.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds.

Asyndeton

Series without conjunctions (“X, Y, Z”).

Ballad

Narrative poem with musical rhythm; often includes a refrain.

Bildungsroman

Coming-of-age story.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Byronic Hero

Moody, rebellious, intelligent antihero with dark or self-destructive tendencies.

Caesura

Strong pause within a poetic line.

Chiasmus

Reversal of structure (“Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike”).

Colloquialism

Informal conversational expression.

Conceit

Elaborate, surprising extended metaphor.

Confessional Poetry

Poetry using intimate personal experience.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or ends of words.

Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines.

Deus Ex Machina

Sudden, artificial plot resolution.

Diction

Author’s word choice.

Didactic

Intended to teach a moral or lesson.

Dramatic Monologue

Poem where a character speaks to a silent listener and reveals their character.

Elegy

Poem of mourning.

End-Stopped Line

Line of poetry ending with punctuation.

Enjambment

Line of poetry that carries over without pause.

Epanalepsis

Repetition at beginning and end of a clause.

Epic

Long narrative poem about a hero representing cultural values.

Epigram

Short, witty, clever statement.

Epistolary Novel

Novel told through letters.

Epistrophe

Repetition at the ends of clauses or lines.

Epithet

Descriptive phrase highlighting a quality (“rosy-fingered dawn”).

Eulogy

Speech praising someone who has died.

Euphemism

Mild phrase replacing a harsh one (“passed away”).

Farce

Silly, exaggerated comedic situation.

Flashback

Scene set in a time earlier than the main narrative.

Foil

Character who contrasts another.

Free Verse

Poetry without regular meter or rhyme.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration.

Iamb

Unstressed syllable followed by stressed.

Imagery

Language appealing to the senses.

In Medias Res

Beginning a narrative in the middle of the action.

Irony

Contrast between expectation and reality.

Juxtaposition

Placing two unlike things together for effect.

Litotes

Understatement via negation (“not bad”).

Lyric Poem

Poem expressing emotion rather than telling a story.

Metaphor

Comparison without “like” or “as.”

Metonymy

Substitution of something closely related (“the crown” for the monarchy).

Mood

Atmosphere created by an author.

Motif

Recurring element that unifies a work.

Ode

Poem praising someone or something.

Onomatopoeia

Word imitating sound (“buzz”).

Oxymoron

Contradictory terms together (“jumbo shrimp”).

Parable

Short story teaching a moral lesson.

Paradox

Apparent contradiction containing truth.

Parody

Humorous imitation of another work.

Pastoral

Literature idealizing rural life.

Personification

Giving human traits to nonhuman things.

Point of View

Perspective from which a story is told (1st, 2nd, 3rd limited, 3rd omniscient).

Free Indirect Discourse

Third-person narration blended with a character’s thoughts.

Stream of Consciousness

Writing capturing chaotic inner thoughts.

Polysyndeton

Repetition of conjunctions (“X and Y and Z”).

Pun

Play on words.

Quatrain

Four-line stanza.

Refrain

Repeated line or group of lines in a poem.

Rhythm

Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Romance

Story with idealized hero on a successful quest.

Satire

Writing that ridicules flaws to encourage change.

Scansion

Analysis of poetic meter and rhyme.

Simile

Comparison using “like,” “as,” “than,” or “resembles.”

Soliloquy

Long speech by a character alone on stage.

Sonnet

14-line poem in iambic pentameter (Shakespearean or Petrarchan).

Symbol

Something that represents more than itself.

Synecdoche

Part representing the whole (“a thousand sails”).

Syntax

Sentence structure.

Terza Rima

Three-line interlocking rhyme scheme (aba bcb cdc).

Theme

Complete-sentence insight about life in a literary work.

Tone

Author’s attitude toward subject or audience.

Understatement

Saying less than what is meant; opposite of hyperbole.