Ap English Lit Terms Biatch

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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 : Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey.
• the genre to which such works belong.
• a symbol.

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alliteration

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the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

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allusion

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noun
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference : an allusion to Shakespeare | a classical allusion.
• the practice of making such references, esp. as an artistic device.

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anapest

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a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable.

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apostrophe

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noun Rhetoric
an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person (typically one who is dead or absent) or thing (typically one that is personified).

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aside

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1 a remark or passage by a character in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.
• a remark not intended to be heard by everyone present : “Does that make him a murderer?” whispered Alice in an aside to Fred.

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aubade

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aubade |ōˈbäd|
noun
a poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning.
ORIGIN late 17th cent.: from French, from Spanish albada, from alba ‘dawn.’

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ballad

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noun
a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.
• a slow sentimental or romantic song.

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blank verse

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verse without rhyme, esp. that which uses iambic pentameter.

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cacophony

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a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds : a cacophony of deafening alarm bells | figurative a cacophony of architectural styles | songs of unrelieved cacophony.
DERIVATIVES

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caesura

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noun
(in Greek and Latin verse) a break between words within a metrical foot.
• (in modern verse) a pause near the middle of a line.
• any interruption or break : an unaccountable caesura: no deaths were reported in the newspapers.

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character

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a person in a novel, play, or movie.
• a part played by an actor.
• [with adj. ] a person seen in terms of a particular aspect of character : he was a larger-than-life character | shady characters.
• informal an interesting or amusing individual : he's a real character.

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comic relief

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noun
comic episodes in a dramatic or literary work that offset more serious sections.
• a character or characters providing this.
• comical episodes that serve to release tension in real life.

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connotation

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noun
an idea or feeling that a word invokes person in addition to its literal or primary meaning : the word “discipline” has unhappy connotations of punishment and repression.
• the implication of such ideas or feelings : the work functions both by analogy and by connotation.
• Philosophy the abstract meaning or intension of a term, which forms a principle determining which objects or concepts it applies to. Often contrasted with denotation .

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denotation

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noun
the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests : beyond their immediate denotation, the words have a connotative power.
• the action or process of indicating or referring to something by means of a word, symbol, etc.
• Philosophy the object or concept to which a term refers, or the set of objects of which a predicate is true. Often contrasted with connotation .

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couplet

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two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit.

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dactyl

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noun Prosody
a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables or (in Greek and Latin) one long syllable followed by two short syllables.

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denouement

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the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.
• the climax of a chain of events, usually when something is decided or made clear : I waited by the eighteenth green to see the denouement.

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fable

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noun
a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
• a story, typically a supernatural one incorporating elements of myth and legend.
See note at fiction .
• myth and legend : the unnatural monsters of fable.
• a false statement or belief.

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diction

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diction |ˈdik sh ən|
noun
1 the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing : Wordsworth campaigned against exaggerated poetic diction.

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enjambment

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noun
(in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

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epic

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noun
a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation.
• the genre of such poems : the romances display gentler emotions not found in Greek epic.
• a long film, book, or other work portraying heroic deeds and adventures or covering an extended period of time : a Hollywood biblical epic.

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epigram

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• a short poem, esp. a satirical one, having a witty or ingenious ending.

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euphony

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noun ( pl. -nies)
the quality of being pleasing to the ear, esp. through a harmonious combination of words.
• the tendency to make phonetic change for ease of pronunciation.
DERIVATIVES

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exposition

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• the part of a play or work of fiction in which the background to the main conflict is introduced.

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foot

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4 Prosody a group of syllables constituting a metrical unit. In English poetry it consists of stressed and unstressed syllables, while in ancient classical poetry it consists of long and short syllables.

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free verse

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poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter. Also called vers libre .

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form

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form of a literary work, type

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hyperbole

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exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

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iamb

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a metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.

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idyll

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• a short description in verse or prose of a picturesque scene or incident, esp. in rustic life.

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imagery

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visually descriptive or figurative language, esp. in a literary work : Tennyson uses imagery to create a lyrical emotion.
• visual images collectively : the impact of computer-generated imagery on contemporary art.
• visual symbolism : the film's religious imagery.

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impressionism

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• a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.

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irony

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• (also dramatic or tragic irony) a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.

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lyric poetry

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idk

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magical realism

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idk

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metaphor

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a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable : “I had fallen through a trapdoor of depression,” said Mark, who was fond of theatrical metaphors | her poetry depends on suggestion and metaphor.
• a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract : the amounts of money being lost by the company were enough to make it a metaphor for an industry that was teetering.
DERIVATIVES

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metaphysical poetry

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a group of 17th-century poets whose work is characterized by the use of complex and elaborate images or conceits, typically using an intellectual form of argumentation to express emotional states. Members of the group include John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and Andrew Marvell.

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meter

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the rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by the number and length of feet in a line : the Horatian ode has an intricate governing meter | unexpected changes of stress and meter.
• the basic pulse and rhythm of a piece of music.

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metonymy

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the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

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monologue

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a long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program.
• the form or style of such speeches : the play oscillates between third-person narration and monologue.
• a long and typically tedious speech by one person during a conversation : Fred carried on with his monologue as if I hadn't spoken.

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motif

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• a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition : the nautical motif of his latest novel.

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narrative poem

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a spoken or written account of connected events; a story : the hero of his modest narrative.
• the narrated part or parts of a literary work, as distinct from dialogue.

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octave

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2 a poem or stanza of eight lines; an octet.

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ode

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noun
a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.
• historical a poem meant to be sung.
DERIVATIVES

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onomatopoeia

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noun
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle).
• the use of such words for rhetorical effect.

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oxymoron

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noun
a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true).

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parable

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a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.

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pathos

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a quality that evokes pity or sadness : the actor injects his customary humor and pathos into the role.

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parallel structure

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the state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way.
• the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.
• the use of parallel processing in computer systems.

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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 : the movie is a parody of the horror genre | his provocative use of parody. See note at caricature .
• an imitation or a version of something that falls far short of the real thing; a travesty : he seems like a parody of an educated Englishman.

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personification

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the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
• a figure intended to represent an abstract quality : the design on the franc shows Marianne, the personification of the French republic.

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point of view

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a particular attitude or way of considering a matter : I'm trying to get Matthew to change his point of view.
• (in fictional writing) the narrator's position in relation to the story being told : this story is told from a child's point of view.
• the position from which something or someone is observed : certain aspects are not visible from a single point of view.

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quatrain

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a stanza of four lines, esp. one having alternate rhymes.

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protagonist

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noun
the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.
• the main figure or one of the most prominent figures in a real situation : in this colonial struggle, the main protagonists were Great Britain and France.