Ap Literary Terms

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Allegory

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A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

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Allusion

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An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

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Analogy

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A comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

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Anaphora

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The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

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Anecdote

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a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.

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Antagonist

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a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

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Antihero

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a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

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Aphorism

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a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”

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Apostrophe

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When the speaker addresses someone/something that is absent, dead, or cannot understand or hear.

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Asyndeton

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the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

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Indirect Characterization

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the process by which the personality of a fictitious character is revealed through the character's speech, actions, appearance, etc.

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Direct Characterization

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the process by which the personality of a fictitious character is revealed by the use of descriptive adjectives, phrases, or epithets.

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Static Character

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a literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop.

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Dynamic Character

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a literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude:

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Flat Character

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an easily recognized character type in fiction who may not be fully delineated but is useful in carrying out some narrative purpose of the author.

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Round Character

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a character in fiction whose personality, background, motives, and other features are fully delineated by the author.

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Cliche

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a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

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Colloquialism

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a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation.

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Conceit

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a fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor.

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Conflict

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The main problem in a story.

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External Conflict

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struggle between a literary or dramatic character and an outside force such as nature or another character, which drives the dramatic action of the plot:

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Internal Conflict

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psychological struggle within the mind of a literary or dramatic character, the resolution of which creates the plot's suspense:

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Connotation

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an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

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Deus Ex Machina

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an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.

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Dialect

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a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.

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Denotation

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the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.

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Diction

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style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words:

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Epic

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a long narrative poem, often written about a hero or heroines.

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Epigraph

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a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.

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Epistrophe

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the repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences.

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Epithet

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an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.

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Fable

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a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters

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Farce

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a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.

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Figurative Language

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language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation.

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Flashback

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a scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story.

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Foil

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when used to describe a character, it means that that character serves to highlight one or more attributes of another character, often the protagonist, by providing a contrast.

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Foreshadowing

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a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

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Hyperbole

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exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

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Imagery

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visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work

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Irony

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the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

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Verbal Irony

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when what is said is the opposite of the literal meaning.

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Situational Irony

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when incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead.

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Dramatic Irony

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irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.

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Juxtaposition

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the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.

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Metaphor

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The comparison of two unlike things.

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Implied Metaphor

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a type of metaphor that compares two unlike things, but it does so without mentioning one of them. Instead, it implies the comparison by using a word or phrase that describes the unmentioned term and makes the comparison in that way.

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Extended Metaphor

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a metaphor introduced and then further developed throughout all or part of a literary work

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Metonymy

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the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing mean

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Mood

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mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions.

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Motif

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a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition.

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Oxymoron

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a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction

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Parable

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a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson

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Paradox

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a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.

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Parody

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an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

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Personification

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a figure of speech where human qualities are given to animals, objects or ideas.

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Plot

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a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part of a story

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Point of View

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(in fictional writing) the narrator's position in relation to the story being told.

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Polysyndeton

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a stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect

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Protagonist

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the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

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Pun

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a form of word play that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.

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Satire

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the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

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Simile

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The comparison of two unlike things using the words "as" or "like".

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Soliloquy

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an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.

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Stream of Consciousness

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a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow.

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Symbol

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a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

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Synecdoche

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a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa

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Theme

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The main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.

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Tone

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shows the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work

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Understatement

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the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.

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Onomatopoeia

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A word that represents the sound it makes.

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Alliteration

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Repetition of consonant sounds in nearby words.

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Assonance

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Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words.

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Euphony

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Pleasing to the ear--musical combinations of words.

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Cacophony

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Lines that are discordant or difficult to pronounce.

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Eye Rhyme

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Spellings are similar, but pronunciations are not.

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End Rhyme

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Rhyme at the ends of lines.

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Internal Rhyme

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Rhymed words within lines.

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Masculine Rhyme

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Rhyming single-syllable words.

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Feminine Rhyme

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Rhyming multi-syllabic words.

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Slant Rhyme

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Near rhyme--words almost sound alike.

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Rhythm

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Recurrence of stressed and unstressed sounds.

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Meter

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Rhythmic patterns of stresses.

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Prosody

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All the metrical elements in a poem make up it's prosody.

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Scansion

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The act of measuring the stresses in a line of poetry to determine its metrical pattern.