Weekly AP Lit Terms

(The) Absurd

An avant-garde style in which structure, plot and characterization are disregarded or garbled in order to stress the lack of logic in nature and man’s isolation in a universe which has no meaning or value

Aesthetics

(also spelled esthetics) means the study of emotions and the mind in relation to their sense of beauty in literature and other fine arts, but separate from moral, social, political, practical, or economic considerations. This area of study is concerned with the appreciation and criticism of what is considered beautiful or ugly. It is sometimes referred as “art for art’s sake”

Affective Fallacy

The error of judging a literary work by its emotional effect upon readers or a confusion between the work itself and its results

Allegory

An extended metaphor in which a person, abstract idea, or event stands for itself and for something else. It usually involves moral or spiritual concepts which are more significant than the actual narrative.

Alliteration

(sometimes called initial rhyme) - Common in poetry and occasionally in prose, this is the repetition of an initial sound in two or more words of a phrase, line, or sentence. It is usually a consonant and marks the stressed syllables in a line of poetry or prose. 

Allusion

A reference, usually brief, often casual, occasionally indirect to a person, event, or condition thought to be familiar (but sometimes actually obscure or unknown) to the reader. This holds true especially for the characters and events of mythology, legends, and history.

Ambiguity

A doubtfulness or uncertainty about the intention or meaning of something. It usually refers to a statement that is subject to more than one interpretation. The term is used for words that suggest two or more meanings or that convey both a basic meaning and complex overtones of that meaning.

Anachronism

An error in chronology, or placing an event, person, item, or language expression in the wrong period.

Analogy

The relationship of similarity between two or more entities or a partial similarity on which a comparison is based. An example is between the heart and the pump

Antagonist

The character who strives against another main character. This character opposes the hero or protagonist in drama. The term is also used to describe one who contends with or opposes another in a fight, conflict, or battle of wills. 

Anticlimax

A drop, often sudden and unexpected from a dignified or important idea or situation to a trivial one or descent from something sublime to something ridiculous

Antithesis

Contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. It is the juxtaposition of two words, phrases, clauses, or sentences contrasted or opposed in meaning in such a way as to give emphasis to their contrasting ideas.

Aphorism

A brief, pithy usually concise statement or observation of a doctrine, principle, truth, or sentiment. Usually not anonymous.

Apocalyptic

Connected with revelation. The term is also used to describe literature that provides a prophecy or revelation. In contemporary usage, this refers to any literary selection that reveals and predicts the future.

Apology

A defense and justification for some belief, doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action without any admission of blame with which we contemporary usage, this refers to any literary selection that reveals and predicts the future. 

Arbitrary

Lacking any natural basis or substantial justification; determined by whim  with little thought

Archetype

(also called prototype) the original model or pattern from which copies are made or from which something develops. It is also a symbol, theme, setting, or character that is thought to have some universal meaning and recurs in different times and places in myth.

Ballad

A short, narrative folk song that fixes the most dramatic part of a story, moving to its conclusion by means of dialogue and a series of incidences. 

Bard

One of an ancient Celtic order of versifiers, especially one who was highly trained as a composer, singer, and harpist who recited heroic and adventurous poems 

Bibliography

A list of reading on a particular subject. Included in the list are authors, titles, editions, and dates and places of publication. 

Black Comedy

Often considered perverted and morbid, it depicts situations normally thought as tragic or grave as humorous

Blank Verse

(also called unrhymed iambic pentameter) unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents. Best for dramatic verse in English

Bombast

Originally, cotton or any soft material used for padding to produce clothes in the fashion of the Sixteenth Century. It has come to mean a high flown unnatural style, rather inflated and insincere, pretentious, ranting, and using extravagant language. 

Canon

A standard of judgement or a criterion. It is also approved list of books belonging in the Christian Bible, in addition to being the accepted list of any given order, and the list of books accepted as Scripture.

Canto

One of the main or larger divisions of a long poem. It is also used to denote a singing or chanting section a poem, or a subdivision of an epic or narrative.

Catharsis

Any emotional discharge which brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety. The usual intent is for an audience to leave feeling this relief from tension or anxiety after having viewed a play. 

Character

An aggregate of traits and features that form the nature of some person or animal. It also refers to moral qualities and ethical standards and principles. In literature, character refers to a person represented in a story, novel, play, etc.

Characterization

The creation of the image of imaginary persons in drama, narrative poetry, the novel and the short story.

Chorus

A group of singers distinct from the principal performers in a dramatic or musical performance, also, the song or refrain thatt they sing 

Chronicle

(also called history) A detailed and continuous record of events, usually systematic account or narration of events that contain little or no interpretation or analysis.

Climax

The moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis comes to its point of greatest intensity and is resolve. It is also the peak of emotional response from a reader or spectator, and it usually represents the turning point in the action.

Closure

The sense of completion or resolution at the end of a literary work or part of a work. In literary criticism, it is the reduction of a work’s meanings to a single and complete sense that excludes the claims of other interpretations.

Colloquialism

A word or phrase used in an easy, informal style or writing or speaking. It is usually more appropriate in speech than formal writing. Usually more appropriate in speech than formal writing.

Comedy

A ludicrous and amusing event or series of events designed to provide enjoyment and produce smiles or laughter usually written in a light, familiar, bantering, or satirical style. Opposite of tragedy

Comic Relief

(Also called an episode and interlude) A humorous scene, incident, or remark occurring in the midst of a serious or tragic literary selection and deliberately designed to relieve emotional intensity. 

Conceit

Describing a person or idea by use of an analogy which often seems farfetched but proves surprisingly apt in pointing out parallels between the two being compared. May be considered an extravagant metaphor making an analogy between totally dissimilar things 

Connotation

Suggestions and Associations which surround a word as opposed to its bare, literal meaning. It is the opposite of denotation. 

Content

(also called subject matter or substance) Things or substances in an enclosed space such as topics, ideas, statements, or facts in a book, document, letter, etc. 

Context

The part of a written (or spoken) statement which leads up to, follows, and specifics the meaning of that statement. 

Couplet

A pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhymes, that are of the same metrical length, and form a single unit. The term is also used for lines that express a complete thought or form a separate stanza. 

Denouement

Refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events. It is the final outcome or unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel, or other work of literature.

Device

A term used to describe any literary technique deliberately employed to achieve a specific effect such as: in medias res in novels.

Dialect

The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. It encompasses the sounds, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either geographically or socially. 

Dialogue

Is a conversation, or literary work in the form of a conservation, that is often used to reveal characters and to advance the plot. 

Digression

A passage or section of writing that departs from the central theme or basic plot, usually within the framework of the piece of writing rather than added at the end or prefaced at the beginning 

Drama

A composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving conflict and usually designed for presentation on a stage.

Elegy

A mournful, melancholy poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead or a personal, reflective poem

Ellipsis/Ellipse

The omission of a word or words that a reader must supply for full understanding, or a mark or marks to indicate the omission or suppression of words, phrases, etc.

Epic

“Heroic Poem” A lengthy narrative poem in which the action, characters, and language are on a heroic level and style is exalted and even majestic

Epigram

A witty, ingenious, and pointed saying that is tersely expressed.

Figure of Speech

The expression use of language in which words are used in other ways than their literal senses so as to suggest and produce picture or images in a reader or hearer’s mind, bypassing lofic and appealing directly to the imagination in order to give particular emphasis to

First-person Narrative

Personal point of view of the first person, usually the author participant if the writer assumes the point of view of a character

Folklore

The long-standing and traditional beliefs, legends, and customs of a people. It is a general term for the verbal, spiritual, and material aspects of any culture that are transmitted orally.

Folk tale

A traditional legend or narrative originating among a people, usually part of an oral tradition and subject.

Formula

A fixed and conventional method of developing a plot in films, television, and western stories, there are several stock formulas.

Free Verse

Verse that lacks regular meter and line length but relies upon natural rhythms

Genre

A category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, style, or content

Hagiography

A sub type of biography dealing with the lives and legends of saints and the critical study of these lives and legends.

Haiku

Japanese verse usually employing allusions and comparisons. These are usually composed of three lines containing a fixed number of syllables

Hero

the principal character of a play, novel, etc…

Homily

A moralizing discourse or sermon explaining some part of the Bible with accompanying instruction for the congergation

Epithet

An adjective which expresses a quality or attribute considered characteristic of a person or thing. It is also an appellation or descriptive term which is common historical titles such as “Catherine the Great”

Essay

A short literary composition on a particular theme or topic, usually in prose and generally thoughtful and interpretative. This type of writing is devoted to the presentation of the writer’s own ideas and generally addresses a particular aspect of the subject

Euphemism

The use of an indirect, mild, delicate, inoffensive, or vague word or expression for one thought to be coarse, sordid, or otherwise unpleasant, offensive, or blunt

Exegesis

A critical interpretation and explanation of a literary work, but usually applied to an analysis of an unusually difficult passage in poetry or prose.

Exposition

A form of discourse that explains, defines, and interprets. The word is also applied to the beginning portion of a plot in which background information about the characters and situation is set forth.

Fable

A short, simple story, usually with animals as characters, designed to teach a moral truth.

Fantasy

Extravagant and unrestrained imagination. In writing, it is used to denote a literary work in which the action occurs in a non-existent and unreal world

Fiction

Any imagined and invented literary composition fashioned to entertain and possibly instruct. While it makes its reader think, its primary purpose is to make its readers feel.