Key terms in AP English Literature and Composition from the Kaplan study guide.
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| 3947053378 | allegory | a prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, or setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning or significance | 0 | |
| 3947053379 | allusion | a reference to a literary or historical event, person, or place | 1 | |
| 3947053380 | anaphora | the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses | 2 | |
| 3947053381 | archetypes | recurrent designs, patterns of action, character types, themes, or images which are identifiable in a wide range of literature | 3 | |
| 3947053382 | colloquial | ordinary language, the vernacular | 4 | |
| 3947053383 | conceit | a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature, particularly a piece of extended metaphor within a poem | 5 | |
| 3947053384 | connotation | what is suggested by a word, apart from what it implicitly describes | 6 | |
| 3947053385 | elegy | a poetic lament upon the death of a particular person, usually ending in consolation | 7 | |
| 3947053386 | exposition | that part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces or identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play | 8 | |
| 3947053387 | extended metaphor | a detailed or complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work, also known as a conceit | 9 | |
| 3947053388 | fable | a legend or short story often using animals as characters | 10 | |
| 3947053389 | falling action | that part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled; also known as the denouement | 11 | |
| 3947053390 | farce | a play or scene in a play or book that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick or physical jokes | 12 | |
| 3947053391 | foreshadowing | to hint at or to present an indication of the future beforehand | 13 | |
| 3947053392 | formal diction | language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal | 14 | |
| 3947053393 | genre | a type or class of literature such as epic or narrative poetry or belles lettres | 15 | |
| 3947053394 | hyperbole | overstatement characterized by exaggerated language | 16 | |
| 3947053395 | idyll | a short poem describing a country or pastoral scene, praising the simplicity of rustic life | 17 | |
| 3947053396 | informal diction | language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction; similar to everyday speech | 18 | |
| 3947053397 | in medias res | "in the midst of things"; refers to opening a story in the middle of the action, necessitating filling in past details by exposition or flashback | 19 | |
| 3947053398 | irony | a situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant | 20 | |
| 3947053399 | juxtaposition | the location of one thing as being adjacent or juxtaposed with another, to create a certain effect | 21 | |
| 3947053400 | limited point of view | a perspective confined to a single character, whether a first person or a third person | 22 | |
| 3947053401 | message | a misleading term for theme; the central statement or idea of a story, misleading because it suggests a simple, packaged statement that pre-exists and for the simple communication of which the story was written | 23 | |
| 3947053402 | metaphor | one thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting a likeness or analogy between them | 24 | |
| 3947053403 | metonymy | a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something: "The White House announced today," "The pen is mightier than the sword." | 25 | |
| 3947053404 | mood | a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of the piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and point of view | 26 | |
| 3947053405 | motif | a recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event | 27 | |
| 3947053406 | narrative structure | a textual organization based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework | 28 | |
| 3947053407 | narrator | the character who "tells" the story, or in poetry, the persona | 29 | |
| 3947053408 | omniscient point of view | also called unlimited focus; a perspective that can be seen from one character's view, then another's, then another's and can be moved at any time | 30 | |
| 3947053409 | oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines to apparently contradictory elements: "jumbo shrimp," "deafening silence" | 31 | |
| 3947053410 | parable | a short fictional story that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of analogy | 32 | |
| 3947053411 | paradox | a statement that seems contradictory but may actually be true: "fight for peace" | 33 | |
| 3947053412 | parallel structure | the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts: "Jane likes reading, writing, and skiing," NOT "Martha takes notes quickly, thoroughly, and in a detailed manner." | 34 | |
| 3947053413 | parody | a work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original | 35 | |
| 3947053414 | periodic sentence | a sentence that is not grammatically complete until the end: "The child, who looked as if she were being chased by demons, ran." | 36 | |
| 3947053415 | personification | treating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it were a person by endowing it with human qualities | 37 | |
| 3947053416 | persona | the voice or figure of the author who tells and structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author (e.g. adult Scout in 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Watson in 'Sherlock Holmes') | 38 | |
| 3947053417 | plot | the arrangement of the narration based on the cause-effect relationship of the events | 39 | |
| 3947053418 | protagonist | the main character in a work, who may or may not be heroic | 40 | |
| 3947053419 | quatrain | a poetic stanza of four lines | 41 | |
| 3947053420 | realism | the practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without idealism and with attention to detail | 42 | |
| 3947053421 | refrain | a repeated stanza or line(s) in a poem or song | 43 | |
| 3947053422 | rhetorical question | a question that is simply asked for stylistic effect and is not expected to be answered | 44 | |
| 3947053423 | rhyme | the repetition of the same or similar sounds, most often at the ends of lines | 45 | |
| 3947053424 | rising action | the development of action in a work, usually at the beginning | 46 | |
| 3947053425 | satire | a literary work that holds up human failings to ridicule and censure | 47 | |
| 3947053426 | setting | the time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play | 48 | |
| 3947053427 | stereotype | a characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that some aspect, such as gender, age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation, marital status, and so on, are predictable accompanied by certain character traits, action, and even values | 49 | |
| 3947053428 | Everyman character | main character that actually represents all people | 50 | |
| 3947053429 | stock character | character who appears in a number of stories or plays such as the cruel stepmother, the femme fatale, etc. | 51 | |
| 3947053430 | structure | the organization or arrangement of the various elements in a work | 52 | |
| 3947053431 | style | a distinctive manner of expression | 53 | |
| 3947053432 | symbol | a person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates itself and at the same time figuratively represents or "stands for" something else | 54 | |
| 3947053433 | syntax | the way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences | 55 | |
| 3947053434 | theme | a generalized, abstract paraphrase of the inferred central or dominant idea or concern of a work | 56 | |
| 3947053435 | tone | the attitude a literary work takes toward its subject and theme | 57 | |
| 3947053436 | tragedy | a drama in which a character (usually good and noble and of high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a superior force due to a fatal flaw in his or her character | 58 | |
| 3947053437 | turning point | the third part of plot structure, the point at which the action stops rising and begins falling or reversing; also called the climax | 59 |
