AP Language and Composition Final Lit Terms

Lit Terms 81-112

Metonymy

Figure of speech in which a person, place or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it

Mood

Atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the detail selected

Motif

Recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object or situation used throughout a work (or several works by one author), unifying work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme

Motivation

Reasons for a character’s behavior

Onomatopoeia

Use of words whose sounds echo their sense

Oxymoron

Figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase

Prabale

Relatively short story that teachers a moral or lesson about how to lead a good life

Paradox

Statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth

Koan

Paradox used in Zen Buddhism to gain intuitive knowledgeand provoke deeper thought.

Parallel Structure (Parallelism)

Repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures

Paratactic Sentence

Simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences

Periodic

Sentence that places main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements

Personification

Figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts or attitudes

Plot

Series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline

Exposition

Introduces characters, situation and setting

Rising Action

Complications in conflicts and situations (may introduce new ones as well)

Climax

Point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense or interest; also called turning point

Resolution

Conclusion of a story, when all or most of the conflicts have been settled; often called the denouement

Point of View

Vantage point from which the writer tells the story

First Person Point of View

One of the characters tells the story

Third Person Point of View

Unknown narrator tells the story, but this narrator zooms in to focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one character

Omniscient Point of View

Omniscent or all knowing narrator tells the story, also uses the third person pronouns; instead of focusing on one character, often tells us everything about many characters

Objective Point of View

Narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story with no comments on any characters or events

Polysyndenton

Sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series (i.e. X and Y and Z instead of X, Y and Z)

Protagonist

Central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action; usually hero or anti-hero

Pun

“Play on words” based on mulitple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things

Quatrain

Poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit

Refrain

Word, phrase, line or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem

Rhythm

Rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language

Rhetoric

Art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse

Romance

In general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful

Satire

Type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about change

Similie

Comparison using like or as

Soliloquy

Long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage

Stereotype

Fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social or racial prejudices

Steam of Consciousness

Style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character’s mind

Style

Distinctive way in which a writer uses language: writer’s distinctive use of diction, tone and syntax

Suspense

Feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a story

Symbol

Person, place, thing or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself

Synecdoche

Figure of speech in which a part represents the whole (i.e. wheel represents whole car)

Syntactic Fluency

Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length

Syntactic Permutation

Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved; often difficult for a reader to follow

Tall Tale

Outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable

Telegraphic Sentence

Sentence shorter than five words in length

Theme

Insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work

Tone

Attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization

Tragedy

In general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end

Tricolon

Sentences of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses

Understatement

Statement that says less than what is meant

Unity

Unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle; unity dependent on coherence

Vernacular

Language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality

Impressionism

19th century movement in literature and art which advocated a recording of the artist’s personal impressions of the world, rather than a strict representation of reality

Modernism

Term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that wept the arts during the first third of the twentieth century

Naturalism

19th century literary movement that was an extension of realism and that claimed to portray life exactly as it was

Plain Style

Writing style that stresses simplicity and clarity of expressions (but will utilize allusion and metaphors), and was the main form of the Puritan writers

Puritianism

Writing style of America’s early English-speaking colonists; emphasizes obedience to God and consists mainly of journals, sermons and poems

Rationalism

Movement that began in Europe in the 17th century, which held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying on the authority of the past, on the authority of the Church, or an institution (also called neoclassism and age of reason)

Realism

Style of writing, developed in the 19th century, that attempts to depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it

Regionalism

Literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and that reproduces the speech, behavior and attitudes of the people who live in that region

Romanticism

Revolt against rationalism that affect literature and other arts, beginning in the late 18th century and remaining strong throughout most of the 19th century

Surrealism

Movement in art and literature that started in Europe during the 1920s; surrealists wanted to replace conventionalism realism with the full expression of the unconscious mind, which they considered to be more real than the ‘real’ world of appearances

Symbolism

Literary movement that originated in late 19th century France, in which writers rearranged the world of appearances in order to reveal a more truthful version of reality

Transcendentalism

19th century movement in Romantic tradition, which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition, which transcends reasons and sensory experience