AP English Literary Terms

Absurd Hero

Determined to continue living with passion and morality even though life appears to be meaningless.

Aesthetic

an adjective meaning "appealing to the senses." The plural form is the study of beauty.

Allegory

a story in which each aspect has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself.

Allusion

an indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place or artistic work that the author assumes the reader will understand.

Anachronism

an event, object, custom, person or thing that is out of its natural order of time. (Ex: A clock strikes in Julius Caesar.)

Analogy

a comparison of similar things, often to explain something unfamiliar with something familiar. (Ex: the branching of a river system is often explained using a tree and its branches.)

Anecdote

a short narrative story to illustrate a point.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to.

Anti-climax

a disappointing situation or a sudden transition in discourse from an important idea to a ludicrous or trivial one. It is frequently comic.

Anti-hero

a prominent character who is typically clumsy, unsolicited, unskilled, and has both good and bad qualities.

Aphorism

A short, usually witty statement of a principle or truth. Ex: "She knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing". OR: "Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster."

Apostrophe

a rhetorical device in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or an inanimate object or abstraction.

Archaism

The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.

Archetype

A character, ritual, symbol, or plot pattern that recurs in the myth and literature of many cultures; examples include the scapegoat or trickster (character type), the rite of passage (ritual), and the quest or descent into the underworld (plot pattern).

Aside

A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.

Atmosphere

The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene.

Bathos

When writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to create tears from every little hiccup.

Pathos

When a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy.

Bildungsroman

A formation novel that depicts the intellectual, emotional, and moral development of its protagonist from childhood into adulthood. This type of novel tends to envision character as the product of environment, experience, nurture, and education (in the widest sense) rather than of nature, fate, and so on. Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a famous example.

Black humor

Use of disturbing themes in comedy.

Bombast

Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language.

Caricature

a portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality.

Catharsis

a term drawn from Aristotle's writing on tragedy; it refers to the cleansing of emotion that an audience member experiences, having lived vicariously through the experiences presented on stage.

Chiasmus

a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect. Example: "Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you."

Chorus

In Greek drama, this is the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it.

Cliché

Any expression that has been used so often it has lost its freshness. (Sharp as a tack, the last straw, etc.)

Colloquialism

A word or phrase used in everyday conversational language that isn't a part of accepted academic language.

Connotation

what a word suggests or implies

Denotation

a word's literal meaning.

Decorum

The requirement that individual characters, their actions, and their style of speech should be matched with their social station, and in accordance with the situation and the genre in which they appear.

Deus ex machina

Any improbable, unprepared-for plot contrivance introduced late in a literary work to resolve the conflict. The term derives from the ancient Greek theatrical practice of using a mechanical device to lower a god or gods onto the stage to resolve the conflicts of the human characters.

Diatribe

a violently bitter verbal attack.

Diction

word choice

Baroque

a grand and exuberantly ornamental style

Invective

direct denunciation or name-calling

Digression

a portion of a written work that interrupts or pauses the development of the theme or plot.

Dramatic irony

when the audience knows something that the characters do not.

Dramatic monologue

When a single speaker in literature addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length.

Dynamic character

one who changes their beliefs, values, or opinions.

Epigram

a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way.

Epigraph

the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme.

Euphemism

a mild term or phrase that takes the place of one more offensive or hurtful. Ex: "passed away" instead of "died"

Figurative language

language that contains figures of speech, such as metaphor, simile, personification, etc.

Hero's Journey

Most protagonists go through these typical four stages: Innocence, Initiation, Chaos, Resolution.

Hubris

From Aristotle's discussion of tragedy, this is excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall.

Hyperbole

exaggeration for the sake of emphasis in a figure of speech not meant literally. "I've been waiting here for ages."

Imagery

a word or phrase that appeals to one or more of the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell)

In medias res

Latin for "in the midst of things." This is a hallmark of epic poetry; for example, when The Iliad begins, the Trojan war has been going on for seven years.

Interior monologue

refers to the writing that records the unspoken yet coherent thoughts inside a character's head.

Irony:

discrepancy between intent and actual meaning.

Verbal irony

a contrast between what is said and what is actually meant. Jane Austin is famous for writing descriptions that seem perfectly pleasant on the surface, but to the sensitive reader have a deliciously mean snap to them.

Situational irony

contrast between what is intended or expected and what actually occurs.

Dramatic irony

a situation in which the audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character's expectations.

Juxtaposition

placing two things close together or side by side in order to compare and contrast the two.

Kenning

a metaphoric compound word or phrase used as a synonym for a common noun. "Ring-bestower" for king; "whale-road" for sea; "candle of heaven" for the sun; "war-brand" for a sword.

Lampoon

a satire.

Litotes (LIE-toe-tees)

a figure of speech by which an affirmation is made indirectly by saying its opposite, usually with an effect of understatement. "She's not the friendliest person I know." (meaning, she's an unfriendly person)

Malapropism

the comic substitution of one word for another similar in sound, but quite different in meaning. "I would have her instructed in geometry (geography) that she might know of contagious (contiguous) countries."

Metaphor

the most important and widespread figure of speech in which one thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea or action, so as to suggest some common quality (qualities) shared by the two. "He is a ray of sunshine."

Extended metaphor

an idea sustained throughout the work

Dead metaphor

something that has been used so much it has lost its figurative meaning and is taken literally (eye of a needle, head of the class)

Mixed metaphor

a combination of two or more inconsistent metaphors in a single expression (He'll have to take the bull by the horns to keep the business afloat.)

Metonymy

a figure of speech in which a representative term is used for a larger idea. Ex: 'the White House' represents the president and his administration.

Mood

the atmosphere of the story; the feeling created in the reader by a literary work.

Motif

A distinctive idea, image, word, or phrase that is repeated throughout the literary work.

Narrative pace

the speed at which an author tells a story; the movement from one point or section to another.

Nemesis

The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty.

Non sequitur

literally means "it does not follow".

Onomatopoeia

the use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to (whack, fizz, crackle, etc.).

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression. (wise fool, living death, etc.)

Parable

As with a fable or an allegory, this is a story that instructs.

Paradox

a statement containing two diametrically opposing ideas that ultimately join together in one meaning.

Parallelism

repeated syntactical similarities used for effect.

Persona

The narrator in a non first-person novel. In a third-person novel, the reader gains some idea of the narrator's personality.

Personification

the technique by which animals, abstract ideas, or inanimate objects are referred to as if they were human. "The wind howled through the trees."

Platitude

a trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it were original or significant.

Point of View

perspective and vantage point, sometimes called narrative perspective.

First person

the story is told by one of its characters, using the pronoun "I" which does not give the reader insight into other characters' motives or thoughts.

Third person objective

the author limits him/herself to reporting what the characters say or do; he or she does not interpret their behavior or tell us their private thoughts or feelings.

Third person omniscient

the author knows all (godlike) and is free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do.

Third person limited

the author limits him/herself to a complete knowledge of one character in the narrative.

Proverb

a short saying that expresses some commonplace truth or bit of folk wisdom. "A stitch in time saves nine."

Pun

a form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings.

Satire

exposes stupidity and vice to the cold light of humor, critiquing people and institutions of power in order to improve things.

Simile

a less direct metaphor, using like or as. "He is like a ray of sunshine."

Soliloquy

a speech spoken by a character alone on stage. It is meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts, though the actor does not acknowledge the audience's presence.

Solecism

derived from Greek; means to speak incorrectly. It is a stylistic device, a grammatical mistake or intentional use of incorrect grammar in written language and speech.

Style

the distinct feel or voice of a work.

Suspension of disbelief

the demand made of readers to accept part of the plot (such as coincidences or improbable occurrences) or of a theatre audience to accept the limitations of staging.

Syllogism

A form of logical reasoning, consisting of two premises and a conclusion. Ex: All humans are mortal. Ms. Crandell is human. Therefore, Ms. Crandell is mortal.

Synecdoche (si-nek-duh-kee)

figure of speech that utilizes a part as representative of the whole. (e.g. 'hands' for manual laborers)

Synaesthesia

The description of one kind of sensation in terms of another. "He is wearing a loud shirt."

Syntax

structure and pattern of sentences (consider: are the sentences periodic, loose, simple, complex, parallel, short, long, questions, exclamations, imperative, declarative, rhetorical, fragmented, inverted?

Anastrophe

inverted syntax as in "Blessed are the meek."

Anaphora

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of two or more successive clauses, verses, or sentences, in order to create a rhetorical or poetic effect.

Loose sentence (non-periodic)

begins with the main idea and ends with subordinate details.

Periodic sentence

withholds its main idea until the end.

Polysyndeton

uses repeating coordinating conjunction such as 'and' to join phrases. Ex: We have ships and stores and men.

Stream-of-consciousness

a technique that allows the reader to see the continuous, chaotic flow of half-formed and discontinuous thoughts, memories, sense impressions, random associations, images, feelings and reflections that constitute a character's consciousness.

Tautology

needless repetition of an idea, creating a circular sort of rhetoric, without imparting additional force or clearness.