AP Literature Terms: Term 1 Week 5

Enjambment

A poetic technique in which one line ends without a pause and must continue on to the next line to complete its meaning; also referred to as a "run-on line."

Epigram

A short, witty statement designed to surprise an audience or a reader.

Epigraph

A quotation preceding a work of literature that helps set the text's mood or suggests its themes.

Epiphany

A character's transformative moment of realization. James Joyce, often credited with coining this as a literary term, defined it as the "sudden revelation of the whatness of a thing," the moment in which "the soul of the commonest object . . . seems to us radiant . . . a sudden spiritual manifestation [either] in the vulgarity of speech or of a gesture or in a memorable phrase of the mind itself."

Eulogy

A poem, speech, or other work written in great praise of something or someone, usually a person no longer living.

Exposition

In a literary work, contextual and background information is told to readers (rather than shown through action) about the characters, plot, setting, and situation.

Falling action

In a plot diagram, this is the result (or fallout) of the climax or turning point. In this phase, the conflict is being resolved.

Farce

A dramatic form marked by wholly absurd situations, slapstick, raucous wordplay, and sometimes innuendo.

Figurative Language

Language that uses figures of speech; nonliteral language usually evoking strong images. Sometimes referred to as metaphorical language, most of its forms explain, clarify, or enhance an idea by comparing it to something else; the comparison can be explicit (simile) or implied (metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, and irony.

Flashback

A scene in a narrative that is set in an earlier time than the main action.