AAC English II Literary Terms (Vocabulary Flashcards)

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key literary terms and concepts from the lecture notes.

Archetype

A character, action, or situation that serves as a prototype or pattern that recurs across literature (e.g., quest, initiation, hero, mentor, trickster).

Setting

The time and place in which the events of a literary work occur.

Flat character

A person or animal in whom the author emphasizes a single important trait.

Round character

A complex, fully developed, three-dimensional personality.

Static character

A character who changes very little over the course of the work; events happen to them rather than they change.

Dynamic character

A character who undergoes significant internal or external change due to the story’s events.

Antagonist

The character or force pitted against the protagonist; may have evil qualities but isn’t necessarily entirely bad; if completely evil, often called a villain.

Protagonist

The main or leading character in a work; often the hero, who can have both good and bad qualities.

Foil

A character whose contrasts with the main character highlight the latter’s distinctive qualities.

Stock character

A familiar, stereotyped character type who regularly appears in certain literary forms (e.g., femme fatale, mentor, damsel in distress).

Conflict

The tension between opposing forces in a work of literature.

External conflict

A struggle against an outside force (person vs. person, nature, society).

Internal conflict

A struggle within a character, between opposing needs, desires, or emotions.

Diction

Word choice intended to convey a specific effect or tone.

Denotation

The literal dictionary definition of a word.

Connotation

The feelings and attitudes associated with a word beyond its literal meaning.

Dialect

Regional variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary; language peculiar to a group or social class.

Dialogue

The spoken exchange between two or more characters; reveals voice and relationships.

Euphemism

The use of a milder or less direct term instead of a harsh or blunt one.

Idiom

An expression whose meaning is not predictable from the literal meanings of its words.

Formal diction

Polysyllabic, typically without contractions; scholarly language.

Colloquial diction

Conversational, informal language; contractions and casual phrasing.

Vernacular

Language or dialect of a particular group or region.

Slang

Very informal language that is not standard.

Jargon

Specialized language used by a particular occupation or group.

Standard

Language accepted as the norm; used in most school writing.

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.

Mood

The atmosphere or predominant emotion that a work evokes in the reader.

Plot

The sequence of events or actions in a story.

Freytag’s Pyramid

A diagram describing the typical dramatic pattern: Exposition, Inciting incident, Rising action, Climax, Falling action, Denouement.

Exposition

The part of the plot that sets the scene and background.

Inciting incident

An event that introduces the central conflict and starts the action.

Rising action

The series of events that builds tension and develops the conflict.

Climax

The point of greatest tension and turn in the story.

Falling action

Events following the climax; resolving consequences and leading toward resolution.

Denouement (resolution)

The conclusion where the conflict is resolved.

Flashback

A scene that interrupts the action to show a previous event.

Foreshadowing

Hints or clues about what will happen later in the narrative.

Subplot

A secondary plot that develops separately from the main plot.

Parallel plot

Two or more narratives linked by a common character, event, or theme.

Point of view

The perspective from which a narrative is told.

First Person

Narrator is a character in the story and uses I.

Third Person Limited

Narrator is not a character and focuses on the thoughts/feelings of one (or a few) characters.

Third Person Omniscient

Narrator is not a character but can disclose thoughts/feelings of many characters and events elsewhere.

Third Person Objective

Narrator reports what characters say and do without revealing thoughts or feelings; camera-like narration.

Rhetorical shift (turn)

A change in a piece resulting from an insight or epiphany.

Epiphany

A sudden insight or understanding of the essence of something.

Setting

The time and place where the events occur.

Structure

The framework or organization of a literary work (plot, acts/scenes, chapters, or form).

Style

The writer’s distinctive manner of using language.

Suspense

The quality that makes readers uncertain or tense about the outcome.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence.

Theme

The central idea or message the author conveys about the subject; expressed as a general statement.

Tone

The author’s or speaker’s attitude toward a subject, conveyed through diction, POV, imagery, detail, and syntax.

Apostrophe

A form of personification in which the absent or dead are addressed as if present, or the inanimate as if animate.

Metaphor

A comparison of two unlike things without using like or as.

Metonymy

A form of metaphor where the name of one thing is applied to something closely associated with it.

Oxymoron

A paradoxical expression that combines two opposite terms.

Paradox

A statement whose elements contradict each other yet reveal a hidden truth.

Personification

A kind of metaphor that gives human characteristics to nonhuman things.

Pun

A play on words that are similar in sound but have different meanings; can be humorous or serious.

Simile

A comparison using like or as.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole, or vice versa.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of nearby words; not just initial sounds.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sounds they describe.

End rhyme

Rhyme occurring at the end of lines.

Internal rhyme

Rhymes occurring within a single line.

Rhyme scheme

Pattern of end rhymes in a poem (e.g., ABAB).

Meter

Rhythmic pattern in poetry; the measure of a verse.

Allegory

A narrative with two levels of meaning: a surface story and a deeper moral, political, or religious meaning.

Allusion

A reference to a mythic, literary, or historical person, place, or thing.

Hyperbole

Deliberate, extravagant exaggeration for effect.

Irony (verbal)

A contrast between what is said and what is meant.

Irony (situational)

A discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

Irony (dramatic)

A situation in which the audience knows more than the characters about the meaning or outcome.

Sarcasm

A form of verbal irony intended to mock or convey contempt.

Motif

A recurring pattern or strand of imagery or symbolism in a work.

Satire

The use of humor, irony, understatement, or exaggeration to critique human folly or societal problems; aims to provoke change.

Symbolism

The use of objects, people, places, or actions that have both a literal meaning and a larger meaning; universal or contextual types.

Understatement

A form of irony that presents something as less significant than it really is.

Most common things characters have conflict with

Person, Fate, Self, Nature, Society

Readers learn about characters from:

Dialogue, actions, interior monologue, what others say about them, and the author’s direct statement