Ap English Literary Terms

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Allegory

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narrative which demonstrates multiple levels of meaning and significance

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Alliteration

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sequential repetition of a similar initial sound
"She sells sea shells by the sea shore"

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Allusion

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literary, historical, religious, or mythological reference

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Anaphora

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regular repetition of the same words at the beginning "it takes a family, it takes teachers, it takes clergy"

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Antithesis

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sharply contrasting ideas in a balanced statement "To err is human, to forgive divine"

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Apostrophe

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An address or invocation to something inanimate

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Assonance

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Repetition of identical or similar vowel sound "She s<e>lls sea sh<e>lls by the s<e>a"

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Asyndeton

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Omitting conjunctions in a series "I came, I saw, I conquered"

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Attitude

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sense expressed by tone, voice, etc.

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Chiasmus

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first half of parallel is reversed in second half "He thinks I am but a fool. A fool, perhaps I am"

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Colloquial

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Common, ordinary language

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Conceit

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Comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out with a literature

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Connotation

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implied word meaning

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Elegy

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meditates upon the death of a person

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Flashback

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Earlier event is inserted into normal chronology

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Genre

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Type or class of literature

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Hyperbole

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Overstatement

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Imagery

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Sensory detail

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Jargon

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specialized language of a group

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Juxtaposition

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side by side

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Litote

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Understatement

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Loose sentence

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long sentence starts with its main clause, followed by several dependent clauses. "The child ran, frenzied and ignoring all hazards, as if being chased by demons."

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Metaphor

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Comparison without like or as

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Metonymy

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commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something "Buckingham Palace announced today"

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Mood

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feeling resulting from tone

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Onomatopoeia

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sounds like the word

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Oxymoron

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Two apparently contradictory elements "deafening silence"

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Paradox

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Statement that seems contradictory, but might be true. "fight for peace"

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Parallel structure

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use of similar forms in writing. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

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Personification

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Giving a non human object human characterstics

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Realism

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Attempting to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail

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Rhetorical Question

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Question asked for the sake of stylistic effect

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Sarcasm

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Form of verbal irony, in which apparent praise is actually critical

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Satire

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Holds up human failings to ridicule and censure

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Simile

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Direct, explicit comparison of one thing using like or as

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Style

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manner in which author arranges words

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Symbolism

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something that represents something else

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Synecdoche

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Part represents a whole. "100 heads of cattle"

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Syntax

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Way words are put together to from phrases

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Theme

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central or dominant idea

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Tone

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Attitude the writer takes toward a subject

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Zeugma

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Grammatically correct construction in which a word is applied to two or more nouns without repetition "the thief took my walled and the Fifth avenue bus"

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Anapestic

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two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed. Ex: "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house / Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse"

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Anecdote

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A brief story or tale told by a character in a piece of literature

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Antagonist

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Any force that is in opposition to the main character

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Archetype

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Recurrent designs, patterns of action, character types, themes or images which are found in a wide range of literature

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Ballad

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A narrative poem that is, or originally was, meant to be sung. Repetition and refrain (recurring phrases) characterize the ballad

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Ballad Stanza

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A common stanza form, consisting of a quatrain (a stanza of four lines) that alternates four beat (tetrameter, lines 1 and 3) and three beat (trimeter, lines 2 and 4). Ex: "In Scarlet Town, where I was born / There lived a fair maid dwellin'; / Made many a youth cry well-a-day / And her name was Barbara Allen"

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Blank Verse

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most resembles common speech, consists of un-rhymed lines in iambic pentameter

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Caesura

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a pause or line of verse, indicated by natural speech patterns
Ex: "Alas how changed! || What sudden horrors rise!"

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Caricature

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a depiction in which a character's characteristics or features are so deliberately exaggerated as to render them absurd

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Consonance

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The repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowel. Ex: "pitter-patter, pish-posh"

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Couplet

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Two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter that together present a single idea or connection

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Dactylic

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Two stressed syllables followed by one unstressed. Ex: "Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas tonight / Christmas in lands of fir tree and pines"

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Denotation

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Direct and specific meaning of a word

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Dialect

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the language and speech of a specific region, or group of people

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Diction

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The specific word choice an author uses

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Dramatic Monologue

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A monologue set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience

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Enjambment

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The continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet of a poem to the next

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Epic

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A poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines

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Extended Metaphor

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A detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work

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Fable

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A legend or a short moral story generally using animals as characters

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Falling Action

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The part where the complications of the rising action are untangled. Also denouement

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Farce

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A play or scene that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick humor and physical humor

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Foreshadowing

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To hint at the future beforehand

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Formal diction

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language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal

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Free Verse

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Poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and non rhyming lines

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Iambic

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A metrical foot in poetry that consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Ex: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate"

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Informal Diction

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Everyday speech

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In medias res

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"in the midst of things"; refers to opening a story in the middle of action

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Irony

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A significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant

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Limited Point of View

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A perspective confined to a single character, whether a first person or a third person

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Lyric

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Any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation

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Message

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Not THEME; the central idea or statement of a story; or area of inquiry and explanation

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Meter

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The more or less regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

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Motif

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A recurrent device, or situation

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Narrative Structure

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Organizing the work in straightforward, chronological framework

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Narrator

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The person who tells the story

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Occasional poem

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A poem written about or for a specific occasion

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Ode

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A lyric poem that is somewhat serious in subject and treatment. Written to praise and exalt a person or object

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Omniscient Point of View

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The reader has access to the thoughts of all the characters in the story

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Overstatement

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Exaggerated language; hyperbole

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Parable

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A short fiction that illustrates a moral lesson through the use of analogy

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Parody

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A work that imitates another work

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Pastoral

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Country-folk, shepards

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Periodic Sentence

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A sentence that is not grammatically complete until the end. Ex: "The child, who looked as if she were being chased by demons, ran"

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Persona

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The voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story

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Petrarchan Sonnet (Italian Sonnet)

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A sonnet form that divides the poem into section of eight lines (octave) and a section of six lines (sestet) usually following the abba abba cde cde rhyme scheme

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Plot

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What's happening in the story

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Protagonist

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Main character

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Quatrain

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A poetic stanza of four lines

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Refrain

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A repeated stanza or line(s) in a poem or song

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Rising Action

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The development of the action in a work

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Rhyme

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The repetition of the same or similar sounds, most often at the end of lines

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Rhythm

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The modulation of weak and strong (stressed and unstressed) elements in the flow of speech

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Scansion

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The analysis of verse to show its meter

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Setting

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The time and place of the action in a story

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Shakespearean Sonnet (English sonnet)

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Divides the poem into three units of four lines each, and a final unit of two lines usually abab cdcd efef gg

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Shaped Verse

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Poetry that is shaped to look like an object

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Soliloquy

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A monologue in which the character in a play is alone and speaking only to himself or herself

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Speaker

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The person, not necessarily the author, who is the voice of a poem

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Stanza

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A section of a poem indicated by extra line spacing

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Stereotype

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Characterization based on assumption

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Stock character

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One who appears in a number of stories or plays such as cruel stepmother, etc.

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Structure

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the organization or arrangement of the various elements in a work

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Terza Rima

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A verse form consisting of three-line stanzas in which the second line of each rhymes with the first and third of the next. a b a b c b

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Tragedy

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A drama in which a character (usually high and noble) is brought to a disastrous end

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Trochaic

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Opposite of iambic. first syllable is stressed, and second is not. Ex; "By the shores of Gitchee Gumee / By the shining Big-Sea-Water"

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Turning Point

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The point at which the action stops rising and begins falling. Aka Climax

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Villanelle

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A verse form consisting of nineteen lines divided into six stanzas - five tercets (three-line stanzas) and one quatrain (four-line stanza)

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Voice

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The person telling the story, the source of words of the story