AP English 12
Terms : Hide Images
| 95937021 | Allegory | An extended story which carries a deeper meaning below the surface. The story makes sense on a literal level but also conveys another more important meaning. The deeper meaning is usually spiritual, moral or political. An allegory is one dimensional: it stands for only one thing. Parables, fables, and satires are all forms of allegories. | 0 | |
| 95937022 | Alliteration | Creates interest by the recurrence of initial consonant sounds of different words within the same sentence. | 1 | |
| 95937023 | Allusion | Creates interests through a brief, indirect reference (not a quotation) to another literary work, usually for the purpose of associating the tone or theme of the one work with another. | 2 | |
| 95937024 | Analogy | A comparison between two things, or pairs of things, to reveal their similarities; sometimes expressed as a SIMILE | 3 | |
| 95937025 | Antagonist | The character in a story who opposes the hero, or protagonist | 4 | |
| 95937026 | Anthropomorphism | A literary technique in which the author gives human characteristics to non-human object. | 5 | |
| 95937027 | Aphorism | A short, pithy and instructive statement of truth. | 6 | |
| 95937028 | Apostrophe | Consists of a rhetorical pause or digression to address a person (distant or absent) directly. | 7 | |
| 95937029 | Assonance | The close repetition of similar vowel sounds, in successive or proximate words, usually in stressed syllables. | 8 | |
| 95937030 | Blank Verse | Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter. | 9 | |
| 95937031 | Caesura | A punctuation in a line that is written to be read as an audible break. | 10 | |
| 95937032 | Character | A person in a literary work. Character can also refer to the particular, unique traits of a person in a literary work. CHARACTERIZATION is the way in which an author presents and defines characters. A "flat character" is one who is stereotypical and lacks interest. A "round character" is one who is presented in greater depth, interest and detail. A character who does not undergo any change is called a "static character", while a character who undergoes some sort of trans-formation is called a "dynamic character." | 11 | |
| 95937033 | Chiasmus | Used by Homer and other writers, including some Biblical authors, in which parallel ideas are first stated in one order, and then repeated in reverse order. The most important point is placed in the middle, just before the reversal, to emphasize its importance. | 12 | |
| 95937034 | Conceit | An unusual, elaborate or startling analogy; a poetic literary device which was common among the metaphysical poets in the 17th century. | 13 | |
| 95937035 | Conflict | The struggle between opposing forces that provides the central action and interest in any literary plot. | 14 | |
| 95937036 | Connotation | A suggested, implied or evocative meaning | 15 | |
| 95937037 | Context | Anything beyond the specific words of a literary work that may be relevant to the meaning of a literary work. Contexts may be economic, religious, social, cultural, historical, literary, biographical, ect. | 16 | |
| 95937038 | Deconstruction | A movement in literary criticism which denies that literature has any objective, enduring, or universal meaning. The reduction of literary meaning to political motives, power struggles, and subjective emotions. | 17 | |
| 95937039 | Denotation | The author uses an explicit or literal meaning of a word in order to emphasize a specific, important fact. | 18 | |
| 95937040 | Denouement | From the French: "unknotting". The final outcome or unraveling of the main dramatic complications in a play, novel, or other work of literature. Is usually the final scene or chapter in which any necessary, and, as yet unmade, clarifications are made. It sometimes involves an explanation of secrets or misunderstandings. | 19 | |
| 95937041 | Deus Ex Machina | A plot device dating back to ancient Greek drama, when a conflict was resolved through a means that seems unrelated to the story (Ex: when a god suddenly appeared, without a warning, and solves everything). The term is used negatively, as a criticism, when an author's solution to a conflict seems artificial, forced, improbable, clumsy, or otherwise unjustified. From Latin: "God out of the machine" | 20 | |
| 95937042 | Dialogue | The lines which are spoken by, or between, the characters in a narrative. Is important to reveal their characterization and/or advance the PLOT. May take place in a play, essay, story, or novel. Some take the form of such a discussion. In plays, it often includes references to changes in the setting. Noticing such details is particularly important in classical drama in Shakespeare's plays since explicit directions are often missing. | 21 | |
| 95937043 | Diction | The distinctive vocabulary of a particular author. "Concrete diction" refers to a use of words which are specific and "show" the reader a mental picture. "Abstract diction" refers to words which are general and "tell" something, without a picture. | 22 | |
| 95937044 | Digression | Where an author creates a temporary departure from the main subject or narrative in order to focus on a related matter. | 23 | |
| 95937045 | Double-Entendre | From the French:"double-meaning". Consists of a double meaning, esp when the second meaning is impolite or risque. | 24 | |
| 95937046 | Elegy | A meditative poem in the classical tradition of certain Greek and Roman poems, which deals with more serious subjects (ex:Justice, Fate, Providence). It often begins with an appeal to a muse for inspiration and includes ALLUSIONS to classical mythology. Other literary works may include elegiac motifs, reminding the reader of the transitory nature of life. | 25 | |
| 95937047 | Epic | A long, grand, narrative (story-telling) poem about the brave, exemplary deeds of ancient heroes. A "primary" epic he oldest type, based on oral traditions; a "literary" epic is written down from the start. | 26 | |
| 95937048 | Epistolary Novel | A novel which takes the form of letters which pass between the main characters. | 27 | |
| 95937049 | Epithet | A picturesque tag or nickname associated with a certain character. They can serve as a mnemonic device to remember and distinguish different characters. | 28 | |
| 95937050 | Epigram | A short, witty saying containing not so much wisdom as humor. | 29 | |
| 95937051 | Epiphany | A realization made by a character in a work of fiction that creates new psychological possibilities for the character. | 30 | |
| 95937052 | Eponym | The person for whom something is named, such as the central characters of Hamlet and King Lear, from whom those plays take their titles. | 31 | |
| 95937053 | Figurative Language | Descriptive language in which one thing is associated with another, through the use of SIMILE, METAPHOR, or PERSONIFICATION. | 32 | |
| 95937054 | Foreshadowing | Hints of future events through unusual circumstances in the present. | 33 | |
| 95937055 | Frame Story | Creating a larger story for the purpose of combining a number of shorter stories. | 34 | |
| 95937056 | Free Verse | A type of poetry which avoids the patterns of regular rhyme or meter. Rhyme may be used, but with great freedom. There is no regular meter or line length. The poet relies instead upon DICTION, IMAGERY, SYNTAX, to create a coherent whole. | 35 | |
| 95937057 | Genre | A distinct classification in literature. A classification according to what different works have in common, in their structure and treatment of a subject. | 36 | |
| 95937058 | Heroic Couplet | One of the most common forms of English poetry. It consists of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter which together express a compete though. | 37 | |
| 95937059 | Hyperbole | From the Greek. Exaggeration for effect | 38 | |
| 95937060 | Imagery | The use of words to create a picture. May involved all senses, but usually involves the sense of sight. | 39 | |
| 95937061 | Image-As-Text | The use of pictures to convey a message. Refers to the power of pictures and symbols to persuade a reader to accept a certain point of view or to elicit a response. | 40 | |
| 95937062 | Irony | Using a word or situation to mean the opposite of its usual or literal meaning, usually done in humor, sarcasm, or disdain. A contradiction between what something appears to mean and what it really means. | 41 | |
| 95937063 | Verbal (rhetorical) Irony | When a character says one thing and means something else. | 42 | |
| 95937064 | Dramatic Irony | When an audience perceives something that a character in the literature does not know. | 43 | |
| 95937065 | Juxtaposition | The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development. | 44 | |
| 95937066 | Litote | A form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. The opposite of hyperbole. | 45 | |
| 95937067 | Lyric | A type of poem which was originally a song meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, the lyre. It was associated with songs of celebration and dancing. | 46 | |
| 95937068 | Malapropism | A comic misuse of common words. | 47 | |
| 95937069 | Metaphor | A figure of speech in which one thing is equated with something else. A comparison of different things by speaking of them directly, as if they were the same. | 48 | |
| 95937070 | Meter | Repeated patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry (from the Greek, "metron": "measure"). | 49 | |
| 95937071 | Iambic | With measures of 2 syllables, in which the first is unaccented and the second is accented | 50 | |
| 95937072 | Dactylic | With measures of 3 syllables, in which the first is accented, the other 2 are not. | 51 | |
| 95937073 | Trochaic | With measures of 2 syllables, in which the first is accented and the second is not | 52 | |
| 95937074 | Anapestic | With measures of 3 syllables, with the only accent on final syllable | 53 | |
| 95937075 | Spondaic | With measures of 2 syllables, both of them accented. | 54 | |
| 95937076 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something is referred to by one of its distinct characteristics. | 55 | |
| 95937077 | Modernism | A literary movement in the early 20th century which prided itself on its novelty in breaking away from established rules and traditions. | 56 | |
| 95937078 | Mood | The atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience. May be created by sets, music, setting, voice, tone, theme. | 57 | |
| 95937079 | Motif | One of the key ideas or literary devices which supports the main THEME of a literary work. It may consist of a character, a recurrent image or verbal pattern. | 58 | |
| 95937080 | Narrator or Persona | The speaker in a work of prose or the speaker in a work of poetry. Maybe an animal or an inanimate object. | 59 | |
| 95937081 | Novel | An extended piece of prose fiction; a major category in literature. | 60 | |
| 95937082 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words which wound like what they describe. | 61 | |
| 95937083 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite qualities in a single term. | 62 | |
| 95937084 | Parable | A brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human characters. It is a type of analogy. | 63 | |
| 95937085 | Paradox | A statement that appears to be contradictory, but which reveals a deeper (or higher) truth. | 64 | |
| 95937086 | Parallelism | Comes from Greek roots meaning "beside one another." Refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. Usually act as an organizing force to attract the reader's attention, add emphasis and organization, or simply provide a musical rhythm. | 65 | |
| 95937087 | Parody | A literary technique which imitates and ridicules (usually through exaggeration) another author or literary genre. | 66 | |
| 95937088 | Personification | Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects, to animals, things or ideas | 67 | |
| 95937089 | Plagiarism | Accidental or intentional intellectual theft in which a writer, poet, artist, scholar, or student steals an original idea, phrase, or section, of writing from someone else and presents this material as his or her own work without indicating the source via appropriate explanation or citation. | 68 | |
| 95937090 | Plot | The author's plan or scheme to accomplish some purpose. The unified structure of events and incidents (usually including "conflict," "climax" and "denouement") which expresses the author's purpose for writing. According to Aristotle, it the the most important factor in any story; must include a beginning, middle and an end; its events be unified in a closely related whole. A catalyst is necessary. | 69 | |
| 95937091 | Poetry | A type of literature that emphasizes metaphor and other figures of speech in lines which are arranged for emotional effect, usually according to meter. It is one of the two most basic types of literature. | 70 | |
| 95937092 | Post-Modernism | A term used for the pessimistic, contemporary worldview which began in the 1960s, rejecting tradition, resisting authority, and denying any final or enduring meaning and purpose in life. Tends to focus upon the way in which institutions and traditions use their power to deny individuals and minorities of their freedom. | 71 | |
| 95937093 | Polysyndeton | Sentence constructions wherein the same word begins each sentence construction. | 72 | |
| 95937094 | Prose | The ordinary use of language, without the artistic embellishments of rhythm, meter, or rhyme. Any form of language, written or spoken, which is not poetry. | 73 | |
| 95937095 | Protagonist | The central character in a literary work. | 74 | |
| 95937096 | Pun | A humorous use of words that sounds alike. | 75 | |
| 95937097 | Punctuation | The distinctive use of punctuation by different authors. | 76 | |
| 95937098 | Satire | A literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric attack. | 77 | |
| 95937099 | Setting | The locale, time, and CONTEXT in which the ACTION of a literary work takes place. | 78 | |
| 95937100 | Simile | A comparison of different things by speaking of them as "like" or "as" the same. | 79 | |
| 95937101 | Soliloquy | An extended speech in which a lone character expresses his or her thoughts; a dramatic monologue which allows the audience to "hear" what the character is "thinking." From the Latin:"to speak alone" | 80 | |
| 95937102 | Sonnet | A 14-line lyric poem in predominantly iambic pentameter, with a formal rhyme scheme. | 81 | |
| 95937103 | Stream of Consciousness | A literary style which was first used by James Joyce in his novel, Ulysses. The writer expresses a character's thoughts and feelings as a chaotic stream, with no apparent order or logic. The text is held together through psychological association and realistic characterization. | 82 | |
| 95937104 | Symbolism | The use of words or objects to stand for or represent other things. | 83 | |
| 95937105 | Synecdoche | From the Greek:"to receive from; sense; interpretation" A figure of speech by which a part of something refers to the whole. | 84 | |
| 95937106 | Syntax | An author's distinctive form of sentence construction. Long sentences, short sentences, parallelism, and repetition of key words or phrases. | 85 | |
| 95937107 | Tone | The writer's attitude, mood or moral outlook toward the subject and/or readers. | 86 | |
| 95937108 | Understatement | A statement which says less than is really meant. It is a figure of speech which is the opposite of HYPERBOLE. Minimizes | 87 | |
| 95937109 | Viewpoint | The intellectual or emotional perspective held by a NARRATOR or PERSONA in connection with story. | 88 | |
| 95937110 | First Person Participant | The story is narrated by one of the main characters in the story | 89 | |
| 95937111 | First Person Observer | The story is narrated by a minor character, someone plays only a small part in the plot | 90 | |
| 95937112 | First Person Omniscient | The story is narrated not by a character, but by an impersonal author who sees and knows everything | 91 | |
| 95937113 | Third Person Limited | The story is narrated by the author, but he/she focuses on the thinking and actions of a particular character | 92 | |
| 95937114 | Objective | The story describes only what can be seen, as a newspaper reporter | 93 | |
| 95937115 | Voice | An author's distinctive literary style, basic vision and general attitude toward the world. | 94 |
