Ap Literature, Literary Terms 1

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attitude

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a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state

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character

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a person, or an animal or inanimate object given human qualities, depicted in a narrative

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character, flat

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a character that represents only one or two ideas and lacks character development

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character, round

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a character exhibiting a range of emotions and who evolves over the course of the story

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characterization

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the method by which the author builds, or reveals, a character

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characterization, direct

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a narrator tells the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of a character

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characterization, indirect

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the author shows rather than tells what the character is like through what the character says, does, or thinks, or what others say about the character

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dialogue

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the written depiction of conversation between characters

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diction

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a writer's choice of words

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figurative language

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language that uses figures of speech including simile, metaphor, personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement (litotes), and irony

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imagery

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a description of how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds; the verbal expression of a sensory experience

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narrator

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a speaker through whom an author presents a narrative, often but not always a character in the work

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narrator, objective

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a narrator who recounts only what characters say and do, offering no insight into their thinking or analysis of events

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narrator, unreliable

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a narrator who is biased and doesn't give a full or accurate picture of events in a narrative, possibly because of youth, inexperience, madness, intentional or unintentional bias, or even a lack of morals

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personification

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a figure of speech in which an animal or inanimate object is imbued with human qualities

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point of view

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the perspective from which a narrative is told

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point of view: first person

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told by a narrator who is a character in the story and who refers to himself or herself as "I"

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point of view: second person

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told by a narrator that address the audience through the pronoun "you," which casts the reader as a character in the story

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point of view: third person, limited

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told by a narrator who uses pronouns such as "he," "she", and "it," with a knowledge that is usually restricted to the feelings and thoughts of a single character

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point of view: third person, omniscient

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told by a narrator who uses pronouns such as "he," "she", and "it," and assumes the vantage point of an all-knowing narrator who can reliably and accurately recount the action of the work and who has a knowledge of the feelings and thoughts of any character in the work

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purpose

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a result or effect that is intended or desired; an intention

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speaker

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another name for narrator

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style

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the way in which a literary work is written including the devices—such as diction, syntax, imagery, and details—the author uses to express his or her thoughts and convey the work's subject matter

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symbol

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a setting, object, or event in a story that carries more than literal meaning and therefore represents something significant to understanding the meaning of a work of literature

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syntax

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the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences in a prose passage

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theme

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underlying issues or ideas of a work expressed as a statement that the text seems to be making about its subject matter

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tone

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a speaker's attitude as exposed through stylistic choices