Literary Terms used in AP Literature Exams

Look on Quizlet for more info. Recommended for studying.

Allusion

A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work.

Attitude

A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject.

Details (or choice of details)

They are items or arts that make up a larger picture or story.

Devices of Sound

The techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry, such as rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

Diction

Word of choice.

Figurative Language

Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual of specifically denoted) such as metaphor, smile, and irony. It uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.

Imagery

The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. It has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes.

Irony

A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ, characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning. This term implies a discrepancy.

Metaphor

A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like "as," "like," or "than."

Narrative Techniques

The methods involved in telling a story; the procedure used by a writer of stories or accounts. It is a general term (like "devices," or "resources of language") which asks you to discuss the procedures used in the telling of a story. [Examples of the techniques you might use are point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.]

Omniscient Point of View

The vantage point of a story in which the narrator can know, see, and report whatever he or she chooses. The Narrator is free to describe the thoughts of any of the characters, to skip about in time or place, or to speak directly to the reader.

Point of View

Any of several possible vantage points form which a story is told. It may be omniscient, limited to that of a single character, or limited to that of several characters. The teller may use first person or the third person.

Resources of Language

A general phrase for the linguistic devices or techniques that a writer can use. A question calling for the "resources of language" invites a student to discuss the style and rhetoric of a passage. Such topics as diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery are all examples of resources of language.

Rhetorical Techniques

The devices used in effective or persuasive language. Examples would be devices such as contrast, repetitions, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical question.

Satire

Writing that seeks to arouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule. It is usually comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly.

Setting

The background to a story; the physical location of a play, story, or novel. This narrative will normally involve both time and place.

Simile

A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than."

Strategy (or Rhetorical Strategy)

The management of language for a specific effect. A poem is the planned placing of element to achieve an affect.

Structure

The arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of work.

Style

The mode of expression in language; the characteristics manner of expression of an author. It contains elements such as diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection detail, sound effects and tone.

Symbol

Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else.

Theme

The main thought expressed by a work.

Syntax

The structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. This discussion could include such considerations as the length or brevity of the sentences, the kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions - or periodic or loose; simple, complex, or compound).

Tone

The manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning. it is the result of allusion, diction, figurative language, imagery, irony, symbol, syntax, and style.

Allegory

A story in which people, things, and events have another symbolic meaning.

Ambiguity

Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible.

Apostrophe

Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present.

Connotation

The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning.

Convention

A device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression.

Denotation

The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation.

Didactic

Explicitly instructive.

Digression

The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work.

Epigram

A pithy saying, often using contrast. It is also a verse form, usually brief and pointed.

Euphemism

A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness.

Grotesque

Characterized by distortion or incongruities.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, it is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally.

Jargon

The special language of a profession or group.

Literal

Not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete.

Lyrical

Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination.

Oxymoron

A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms.

Parable

A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. They are allegorical stories.

Paradox

A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true.

Personification

A figurative use of language which endows the nonhuman (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human characteristics.

Reliability

A quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust. There are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is, tellers of a story who should or should not be trusted.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply.

Soliloquy

A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud. A monologue also has a single speaker, but the monologuist speaks to other who do not interrupt.

Stereotype

A conventional pattern, expression, character, or idea.

Syllogism

A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. It begins with a major premise, followed by a minor premise, and a conclusion.

Thesis

The theme, meaning, or position that a writer undertakes to prove or support.

Alliteration

The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Ballad Meter

A four-line stanza rhymed ABCD with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in liens two and four.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Dactyl

A metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.

End-stopped

A line with a pause at the end (punctuation).

Free Verse

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhymical.

Heroic Couplet

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed AA,BB,CC with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit.

Hexameter

A line containing six feet.

Iamb

A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning.

Pentameter

A line containing five feet.

Rhyme Royal

A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ABABBCC, used by Chaucer.

Sonnet

Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem.

Stanza

Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme.

Terza Rima

A three-line stanza rhymed ABA, BCB, CDC.

Tetrameter

A line of four feet.

Antecedent

That which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.

Clause

A group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a complete sentence.

Ellipsis

The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable.

Imperative

The mood of a verb that gives an order.

Modify

To restrict or limit in meaning.

Parallel Structure

A similar grammatical structure within a sentence or with a paragraph.

Periodic Sentence

A sentence grammatically complete only at the end. A loose sentence is grammatically complete before the period.