Ap Lit. Study Guide

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Convention

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Any widely accepted literary device, style or form.

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Style

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A writer's distinctive manner of arranging words to suit his or her ideas and purpose for writing.

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Diction

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The selection and arrangement of words in a literary work.

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Jargon

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Language that is used or understood by only a select group of people.

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Idiom

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A word construction or verbal expression that cannot be explained using the literal meaning. (ie. "a piece of cake" - that's easy)

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Figurative Language

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A technique in writing in which the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particual effect.

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Figures of Speech

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Writing that differs from customary conventions for constuction, meaning, order, or significance for the purpose of special meaning or effect.

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Genre

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A category of literary work. May refer to both the context of a given work and to its form.

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Setting

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The TOTAL enviornment for the action of a fictional work.

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Ideology

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A manner of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture.

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Verisimilitude

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How fully the characters and actions in a work of fiction conform to our sense of reality.

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Allusion

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A reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood.

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Anthropomorphism

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The presentation of animals or objects in human shape or with human characteristics. The tern is derived from the Greek word for "human form."

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Epiphany

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A sudden revelation of truth inspired by a seemingly trivial incident.

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Universal Symbol

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Those symbols that carry complex associations of meaning no matter what their contexts

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Contextual Symbol

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Those symbols that derive their suggestive meaning from their functions in specific literary works.

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Mood

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The atmosphere or feeling created in a work of literature by the author.

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Deus ex machina

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"god from a machine"

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Archetype

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Patterns of expectable, typical human experience; universal patterns or motifs in religions, mythologies, legends, fairytales.

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Existentialist Novel

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A novel written from an existentialist viewpoint, often pointing out the absurdity and meaninglessness of existence.

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Frame Narrative

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A narrative structure that provides a setting and exposition for the main narrative in a novel. Help's control the reader's perception of the work.

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Allegory

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A narrative in a verse of prose in which the literal events consistently point to a parallel sequence of symbolic ideas.

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Bildungsroman

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Coming-of-age story

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Black Humor

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(Black Comedy)- Writing that places grotesque elements side by side with humorous ones in an attempt to shock the reader, forcing him or her to laugh at the horrifying reality of a disordered world.

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Burlesque

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Any literary work that uses exageration to make its subjecct appear ridiculous, either by treating a trivial subject with profound seriousness or by treating a dignified subject frivolosly.

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Grotesque

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Describes a work/style characterized by exaggeration, deformity, freakishness, or disorder.

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Foil

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A character whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character, such contrast highlights the distinctive temperament of each character.

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Allegorical character

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This type of character has a symbolic role beyond his/her function in the work.

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Stock Character

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A character who exists only because the plot demands it.

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Antihero

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A protagonist who lacks the traditional attributes of a hero.

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Doppelganger

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(The Double) A "duplicate" character/ or a character divided into 2 distinct, usually oppoisite personalities. (ie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

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Freytag's Pyramid

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Intro (exposition), complication, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement (conclusion)

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Epilogue

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A concluding statement or section of a literary work.

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Low Comedy

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Comdey that relies on slapstick and horseplay. Usually focuses on everday life of lower class. Generally physical.

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Farce

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Low comedy intended to make us laugh by means of series of exaggerated, unlikely sit. that depend less on plot and character than on gross absurdities, slapstick humor, and corse dialouge.

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High Comedy

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Comedy that relies on wit and subtle irony or sarcasm.

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Satire

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Literary art of ridiculing a folly or vice in order to expose or correct it.

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Tragic Irony

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Oedipus, the king, searches for the person responsible for the plague that ravishes his city; ironically he ends up hunting himself.

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Cosmic Irony

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Occurs when a writer uses God, destiny, or fate to dash the hopes and expectations of a character or humankind.

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Reversal

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A point in a story when the protagonist's fortunes turn in an unexpected direction.

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Inversion

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A reversal of position, order, form, or relationship.

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Invective

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Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks. It can be directed agianst a person, cause, idea, or system. Employs heavy use of negative emotive language.

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Hamartia

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The event or act that leads to the downfall of the hero/heroine.

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Hubris

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The most common tragic flaw; an excessive PRIDE.

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Catharsis

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Emotional reaction produced by observing the events in a tragedy.

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Melodrama

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Play in which the typical plot is a conflict btwn. characters who personify extreme good and evil. Usually end happy.

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Assonance

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The deliberate repetition of internal vowel sounds to create rhythm, mood, and emphasis on certain words.

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Consonance

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Words haev similar consonant sounds, but have vowel sounds that differ.

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End-stopped line

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A line of verse that ends with a grammatical break such as a comma, colan, semi-colan, or full stop...etc...

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Enjambment

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Breaking of a syntactic unit by the end of a line or between two versus.

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Caesura

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An audible pause that breaks up a line of verse.

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Cadence

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Natural rhythm of language cased by the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables.

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Perfect or Exact Rhyme

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Occurs when differing consonant-sounds are follwed by identically stressed vowel-sounds.

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Slant Rhyme

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Occurs when only the final consonant sounds of the words are identical.

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Masculine Rhyme

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Occurs when the rhyming sounds falls in a single accented syllable.

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Feminine Rhyme

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A rhyme of 2 syllables, one stressed, and one unstressed.

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Terza rima

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An interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: aba, bcb, cdc, ded...etc...

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U

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Represents light stress

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/

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Represents a heavier stress

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Foot

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The smallest unit of rhythm in a line of poetry. Typically one accented syllable combined with one or two accented syllables.

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Iamb

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U/

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Trochee

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/U

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Anapest

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UU/

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Dactyl

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/UU

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Spondee

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//

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Pyrrhic

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UU

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Prosody

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The overall metrical structure of a poem.

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Scansion

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Process of measuring the stresses in a line of verse in order to determine the metrical pattern of the line. To "scan" a poem.

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Conceit

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Clever and fanciful metaphor, usually expressed through elaborate and extended comparison, that presents a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things.

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Synesthesia

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Corss-sensory metaphors; for example, 'a deafening yellow'

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Synecdoche

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A figure of speech that prsents a kind of metaphor in which: a part of something is used for the whole, the whole is used for a part.

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Metonymy

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A type of metaphor in which the name of 1 object is substituted for that of another closely related.

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Chiasmus

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A rhetorical construction in which the oder of the words in the second of the two paired phrases is the reverse of the order in the first.

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Connotation

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The impression that a word gives beyond its defined meaning.

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Denotaion

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The definition of a word, apart from the imprssions or feelings it creates in the reader.

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Inversion

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Change in normal word order, such as placing the verb before its subject.

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Juxtaposition

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The act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side.

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Epic

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Long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero of great historic or legendary importance.

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in medias res

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Latin phrase meaning, "in the middle of things"

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Lyric Poetry

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Type of poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of single speaker.

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Elegy

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A mournful, contemplative lyric poem written to commemorate someone who is dead.

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Haiku

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Poem that presents an intense emotion or vivid image of nature, leading to spiritual insight.

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Ode

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Lengthy lyric poem that expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style.

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Sonnet

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A fixed form of lyric poetry that consists of 14 lines, usually written in iambic pentameter.

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Italian Sonnet

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Divided into an octave, which typically rhymes abbaabba, and a sestet, which has varying rhyme. Very often, the octave presents a sit. or problem and the sestet comments upon or resolves.

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English Sonnet

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3 quatrians and a couplet, which typically rhyme abab cdcd efef gg.

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Didactic Poetry

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Poetry designed to teach an ethical, moral, or religous lesson.

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Concrete Poetry

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Poetry in which visual elements play a large part in the poetic effect. Punctuation marks, letters, or words are arranged on a page to form a visual design.

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Doggerel

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A derogatory term used to describe poetry whose subject is trite and whose rhyme and sounds are monotonously heavy-handed.

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Blank Verse

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A type of poetry that has regular meter but has no rhyme.

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Fixed Form

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A poem that may be categorized by the pattern of its lines, meter, rhythm, or stanza.

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Sestina

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Consits of 36 lines of any length divided into 6 sestes and a 3 line concluding stanza called an envoy.

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Limerick

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A light, humorous style of fixed-form poetry. Usual form consits of 5 lines with the rhyme scheme aabba; lines 1, 2 and 5 contain 3 feet, while lines 3 and 4 contain 2 feet.

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Epigram

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Brief, pointed, and witty poem that usually makes a satiric or humorous point.

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Epitaph

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An inscription on a tomn or tombstone. Or a verse written on the occasion of a person's death.