AP Lit 1-100

ad misericordiam

An appeal to the audience's sympathy; an attempt to persuade another, using a hard luck story rather than logic or reason. An example would be, not completing your homework and then telling me that you had a fight with your significant other

Allegory

An expression, by means of symbolic fictional characters and actions, of truths about human conduct and experience.

Alliteration

The repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rhythm, or emphasis.

Allusion

A reference in literature or in art to previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture/ current events, or the bible.

Ambiguity

Quality of being intentionally unclear; events or situations that are ambiguous can be interpreted in more than one way.

Anachronism

An element in a story that is out of its time frame; sometimes used to create a humorous or jarring effect. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare mentions caps, which the Romans did not wear

Anadiplosis

Repeating the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next clause.

Analogy

An blank clarifies or explains an unfamiliar concept or object by comparing it with one which is familiar.

Analysis

The process of examining the components of a literary work.

Anecdote

A short and often personal story used to emphasize a point, to develop a character or a theme, or to inject humor. The Great Gatsby there is the blank about Tom Buchanan’s liaison with the chambermaid during his honeymoon that speaks volumes about his character.

Antagonist

A character who functions as a resisting force to the goals of the protagonist.

Antecedent

The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers; it often precedes a pronoun in prose.

Anticlimax

An often disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn an example of an blank.

Antihero

A protagonist who carries the action of the literary piece but does not embody the classic characteristics of courage, strength, and nobility. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, Yossarian in Catch-22, and Meursault in The Stranger are considered to be this.

Antithesis

A concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented idea. In the Popular Star Wars movie trilogy, Darth Vader, of the dark side of the Force, represents ideas that are diametrically opposed to those of the Jedi Knights.

Anapest

A metrical foot of poetry consisting of two unaccented syllables, followed by one accented syllable. ex. un

Anaphora

Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines.

Anthropomorphism

Giving a human quality, emotion or ambition to a non-human object or being. All singing/dancing Disney animals are examples.

Aphorism

A terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle; sometimes considered a folk proverb.

Apostrophe

A rhetorical figure of direct address to a person, object, or abstract entity.John Donne’s sonnet, “Death Be Not Proud,” or Anthony’s address to the dead Caesar in Julius Caesar

Apotheosis

Elevating someone to the level of a god. Helen of Troy is considered the blank of beauty.

Archetype

A character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore. Character: The blank gunslinger, having been forced to kill once more, rides off into the sunset, leaving behind a town full of amazed and awestruck citizens. Situation: Just when it looks like the battle will be won by the enemy, reinforcements arrive.Symbol: The dove of peace

Aside

A short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience rather than to the other characters. In a room full of people, Macbeth uses an aside to tell the audience his plans: “ The castle of Macduff I will surprise…”

Assonance

The repeated use of a vowel sound. ex: How now brown cow?

Asyndeton

A rhetorical term for a writing style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. Poets use this to quicken the pace of the line.

Attitude

The author's feelings toward the topic he or she is writing about. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses an innocent and unjaded child narrator to express her own attitude toward prejudice.

Aubade

A poem or song about lovers who must leave one another in the early hours of the morning. (Cymbeline, Shakespeare)

Ballad

A folk song or poem passed down orally that tells a story which may be derived from an actual incident or from legend or folklore. Usually composed in four-line stanzas (quatrains) with the rhyme scheme abcb. Ballads often contain a refrain.

Bildungsroman

A novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a usually youthful main character. (ex. Great Expectations or Harry Potter)

blank verse

Unrhymed poetry of iambic pentameter (five feet of two syllables each

Cacophony

Harsh, discordant sounds, unpleasant to the ear; the sound of nails scratching a blackboard is cacophonous. Cacophony is used by poets for effect.

Caesura

A speech pause occurring within a line.

carpe diem

Latin for 'seize the day'; frequent in 16th

Catharsis

Refers to an emotional cleansing or feeling or relief, as described by Aristotle in his Poetics.

Characterization

The way an author presents characters, either through direct presentation or indirect presentation.

Chiasmus

The opposite of parallel construction; inverting the second of two phrases that would otherwise be in parallel form. ex. parallel construction: “ I like the idea; I don’t like its execution.” ex. blank: “ I like the idea; its execution, I don’t.”

Colloquial

Of or relating to slang or regional dialect, used in familiar everyday conversation.

Conceit

A far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things; an extended metaphor that gains appeal from its unusual or extraordinary comparison.

Connotation

Associations a word calls to mind, which can differ from its denotation. But home connotes warmth and security, house does not.

Consonance

Same consonant sound in words with different vowel sounds. work, stack, ark, belong, among.

Couplet

Two successive rhyming lines of the same number of syllables, with matching cadence. “Hope springs eternal in the human breast:/ Man never is, but always to be blest.” (Alexander Pope, AnEssay on Man)

Dactyl

Foot of poetry with three syllables, one stressed and two short or unstressed.“Just for a handful of silver he left us.” (Robert Browning, “The Lost Leader”)

Denotation

The dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase.

Denouement

The outcome or clarification at the end of a story or play; the winding down from climax to ending.

deus ex machina

Literally, when the gods intervene at a story's end to resolve a seemingly impossible conflict. Medea murders her children and is whisked away by a chariot of the gods.

Diction

The deliberate choice of a style of language for a desired effect or tone.

Didactic

A blank story, speech, essay or play is one in which the author's primary purpose is to instruct, teach or moralize.

Distortion

An exaggeration or stretching of the truth to achieve a desired effect. Samsa waking up as a large insect in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Elegy

A type of literature defined as a song or poem that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died. a song of mourning or lamentation that is accompanied by the flute.

Enjambment

In poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first.

Epigram

A short, clever poem with a witty turn of thought.

Epigraph

A brief quotation found at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of theme. Toni Morrison’s beloved opens with the blank: “Sixty million and more” which says volumes about slavery.

Epiphany

A sudden flash of insight; a startling discovery and/or appearance. Jocasta’s sudden realization that her husband is her son is an blank moment in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

epistolary novel

A novel in letter form written by one or more of the characters. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Epistrophe

Repetition of words at the end of a line, phrase, or clause.

Epithet

An identifying expression, like 'the polo player' for Tom Buchanan.

Essay

A short composition on a single topic expressing the view or interpretation of the writer on that topic.

Euphemism

Substitution of an inoffensive word or phrase for another that would be harsh, offensive, or embarrassing. A dishwasher calling herself a “utensil maintenance tech.

Euphony

The quality of a pleasant or harmonious sound of a word or group of words as an intended effect.

Fallacy

A mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument. Ex. the notion that the camera never lies is a blank.

Farce

A kind of comedy that depends on exaggerated or improbable situations, physical disasters, and sexual innuendo to amuse the audience. Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Brandon Thomas’ Charley’s Aunt, Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway

figurative language

Unlike literal expression, blank uses figures of speech such as a metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification, hyperbole.

first person

Point of view (POV) is vital to all works of literature---prose and poetry. A character in the story tells the story, using the pronoun I.

Flashback

Interruption of a narrative by the introduction of an earlier event or by an image of a past experience.

flat character

A simple one dimensional character who remains the same, and about whom little or nothing is revealed throughout the course of the work.

Foil

A character whose contrasting personal characteristics draw attention to enhance, or contrast with those of the main character. Tybalt serves as Romeo’s blank.

Foot

The basic unit used in the scansion or measurement of metrical verse.

Foreshadowing

Hints at what is to come, sometimes noticeable only in hindsight.

free verse

Poetry that does not have regular rhythm or rhyme.

Genre

The category into which a piece of writing can be classified

Hamartia

A tragic flaw.

heroic couplet

In poetry, a rhymed couplet written in iambic pentameter. Alexander Pope used this form almost exclusively in his poetry: “The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,/ With loads of learned lumber in his head.”

Hubris

Insolence, arrogance, or pride, often the tragic flaw in Greek tragedy.

Hyperbole

An extreme exaggeration for literary effect that is not meant to be interpreted literally.

iambic pentameter

A five foot line made up of an unaccented followed by an accented syllable. “When I have fears that I may cease to be/ Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain.” (John Keats)

Imagery

Anything that affects or appeals to the reader's senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell.

in medias res

A work that begins in the middle of the story.

interior monologue

A literary technique that reveals a character's unspoken thoughts and feelings.

internal rhyme

A rhyme that is within the line, rather than at the end.

Inversion

A switch in the normal word order, often used for emphasis or for rhyme scheme. Strong he was. (You want to think of Yoda here)

Litotes

A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. This is no small problem.

lyric poem

A fairly short, emotionally expressive poem that expresses the feelings and observations of a single speaker.

Meiosis

Understatement, the opposite of exaggeration. "You know, Einstein is not a bad mathematician."

Metamorphosis

A radical change in a character, either physical or emotional.

Metaphor

A figure of speech which compares two dissimilar things, asserting that one thing is another.

Meter

The rhythmical pattern of a poem.

Metonymy

A figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word or phrase closely associated with it.

Monologue

A long speech made by one person, often monopolizing a conversation.

Myth

A story usually with supernatural significance, explaining the origins of gods, heroes, or natural phenomena.

narrative poem

A poem that tells a story.

near, off, or slant rhyme

A rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds.

Octave

An eight-line stanza; the first eight lines of a sonnet.

Ode

A lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, placed side by side.

Paean

A hymn sung in ancient Greece in invocation of or thanksgiving to a deity.

Parable

A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

Paradox

A statement or situation that at first seems impossible or oxymoronic, but which solves itself and reveals meaning.

Parallelism

The repeated use of the same grammatical structure in a sentence or a series of sentences.

Parody

A comical imitation of a serious piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or his work.