Terms to memorize before taking AP Literature
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| 192554861 | shift | movement from one thought or idea to another change in writing | |
| 192554862 | parable | short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson | |
| 192554863 | paradox | statement or situation that at first seems impossible or oxymoronic, but which solves itself and reveals meaning | |
| 192554864 | lyric poem | fairly short, emotionally expressive poem that expresses the feelings and observations of a single speaker | |
| 192554865 | symbol | concrete object, scene, or action which has deeper significance because it's associated with something else, often an important idea or theme in the work | |
| 192554866 | synecdoche | figure of speech where one part represents the entire object, or vice versa | |
| 192554867 | simile | comparison of unlike things using the word Like, as, or so | |
| 192554868 | syntax | way in which words, phrases, and sentences are ordered and connected | |
| 192554869 | stanza | grouping of poetic lines; deliberate arrangement of lones of poetry | |
| 192554870 | periodic sentence | sentence that delivers its point at the end; usually constructed as a subordinate clause followed by a main clause | |
| 192554871 | personification | atttribution of human characteristics to an animal or to an inanimate object | |
| 192554872 | protagonist | main or principal character in a work, often considered the hero or heroine | |
| 192554873 | pun | humorous play on words that have several meanings words that sound the same but have different meanings | |
| 192554874 | tragic flaw | traditionally, a defect in a hero or heroine that leads to his or her downfall | |
| 192554875 | transition/segue | getting from one portion of a poem or story to another. setting change, change of point of view, a way of smoothly connecting parts of a work | |
| 192554876 | style | way a writer uses language, takes into account word choice, diction, figures of speech, and so on | |
| 192554877 | hyperbole | extreme exaggeration for literary effect that isn't meant to be interpreted literally | |
| 192554878 | alliteration | repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rythm, or emphasis | |
| 192554879 | anachronism | element in a story that is out of its time frame can be used to create a humorous/jarring effect or reflect carelessness/poor research of the author | |
| 192554880 | analysis | process of examining the components of a literary work | |
| 192554881 | epigram | short, clever poem with a witty turn of thought | |
| 192554882 | soliloquy | charater's speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed, only a monologue if the character is alone on the stage | |
| 192554883 | epigraph | brief quotation found at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of theme | |
| 192554884 | anapest | poetic foot that follows the pattern: unaccented, unaccented, accented the poet is usually trying to convey a rollicking, moving rythm | |
| 192554885 | analogy | explains an unfamiliar concept or object or abstraction with something familiar may force a reader to think more critically, enliven writing by making it more interesting, understandable, or entertaining | |
| 192554886 | conceit | far fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things, an extended metaphor that gains appeal from its unusual or extraordinary comparison | |
| 192554887 | aubade | poem or song about lovers who must leave one another in the early hours of morning | |
| 192554888 | epistolary novel | novel in letter form written by one or more of the characters novelist can use this technique to present varying first person points of vies and doesn't need a narrator | |
| 192554889 | essay | short composition on a single topic expressing the view or interpretation of the writer on that topic, one of the oldest prose forms | |
| 192554890 | euphemism | substitution of an inofffensive word or phrase for one that would be offensive, harsh, or embarassing, makes something sound better than it is, often wordy | |
| 192554891 | euphony | quality of a pleasant or harmonious sound of a word or groups or wors as an intended effect, often achieved through lon vowels and some consonants | |
| 192554892 | first person | character in the story who tells the story using the pronoun I, this is a limited view since the narrator can only relate to events he or she experiences or is told about | |
| 192554893 | metamorphosis | radical change in a character, either physical or emotional | |
| 192554894 | metaphor | figure of speech which compares two disimilar things, asserting that one thins is another thing, not just that one is like another | |
| 192554895 | paralleism | repeated use of the same grammatical structure in a sentence or a series of sentences emphasizes what is said, underscoring the meaning or two plus stories within a literary work told simultaneously and reinforce each other | |
| 192554896 | genre | category in which a piece of writing can be classified, each category has its own conventions and standards | |
| 192554897 | interior monologue | literary technique used in poetry and prose that reveals a charcters unspoken thoughts and feelings, may be presented directly by the character or through a narrator | |
| 192554898 | heroic couplet | in poetry, a rhymed couplet written in iambic pentameter | |
| 192554899 | farce | type of comedy that depends on exaggerated or improbbable situations, physical disasters, and sexual innuendo to amuse the audience | |
| 192554900 | distortion | exaggeration or stretching of the truth to achieve a desired effect | |
| 192554901 | enjambment | in poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza into the next iwthout stopping at the end of the first | |
| 192554902 | carpe diem | expresses the idea you only go around once Latin for seize the day, frequent in 16th and 17th century court poetry | |
| 192554903 | ballad | folk song or poem passed down orally that tells a story which may be derived from an actual incident from legend or folklore usually composed in four-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme: abcb, often has a refrain | |
| 192554904 | apotheosis | elevating someone to the level of a god | |
| 192554905 | archetype | character, situation, or sybol that is familiar to people of all cultures because it frewquently occurs in religion, mythm folklore, or literature | |
| 192554906 | blank verse | unrhymed poetry of iambic pentameter, five feet of two syllables each-unstresssed and stressed | |
| 192554907 | cacophony | harsh, discordant sounds, unpleasant to the ear, used by poets for effect some sounds are: sq, ck, ft, st, k, sc,t, ch | |
| 192554908 | aside | short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience rather than to the caracters who don't hear him or her | |
| 192554909 | assonance | repeated use of a vowel sound | |
| 192554910 | diction | deliberate choice of a style fo language for a desired effect or tone. Words chosen to have a desired effect that is formal, informal, or colloquial | |
| 192554911 | didactic | authors primary purpose is to instruct, teach, or moralize | |
| 192554912 | conventional character | character with traits that are expected or traditional | |
| 192554913 | attitude | authors feeling toward the topic he or she is writing about, often used inerchangeably with tone and is usually revealed through word choice | |
| 192554914 | ambiguity | quality of being intentionally unclear events or situations can be interpreted in many ways, this deice works well with poetry because it gives the work richness and depth | |
| 192554915 | quatrain | four line stanza | |
| 192554916 | refrain | repetition of a line, stanza, or phrase | |
| 192554917 | chiasmus | opposite of parallelism, inverting the second of two phrases which would otherwise be in parallel form | |
| 192554918 | anecdote | short often personal story used to emphasize a point, to develop a character or theme, or to inject humor | |
| 192554919 | satire | use of humor to ridicule and expose the shortcomings and failings of society, individuals and institutions, often in the hope that change and reform are possible | |
| 192554920 | couplet | two successive rhyming lines of the same number of syllables, with matchin cadence | |
| 192554921 | flat character | simple one-dimensional character who remains the same and about whom little or nothing is revealed throughout the course of the work may serve as symbols of types of po=eople, similar to stereotypical characters | |
| 192554922 | sonnet, English or Shakespearean | traditonally, a 14 line love poem in iambic pentameter, but in contemporary poetry, themes and forms vary conventional Shakespearean sonnet's rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg, with the final couplet(gg) summing up or resolving the situation | |
| 192554923 | pastoral | poem, play, or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses popular until the late 18th century refers to an artistic work that portrays rral life in an idyllic or idealistic way | |
| 192554924 | dactyl | foot of poetry with three syllables, one stressed and two short or unstressed | |
| 192554925 | connotation | associations aa word calls to mind, interpretation isn't objective | |
| 192554926 | consonance | same consonant sounds in a word with different vowel sounds | |
| 192554927 | catharsis | emotional cleansing or feeling of relief | |
| 192554928 | allusion | reference in literature or art to previous literature, history, art, the Bible, mythology, or modernity | |
| 192554929 | colloquial | slang or regional dialect, used in familiar everyday conversation, in writing it's an informal style that reflects the dialect of people from a distinct time or location | |
| 192554930 | comic relief | humor that provides a release of tension and breaks up a more serious episode | |
| 192554931 | anticlimax | often disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation | |
| 192554932 | antihero | protagonist who carries the action of a lierary piece but doesn't have the classic hero characteristics: courage, strength, and or nobility | |
| 192554933 | antithesis | concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented idea | |
| 192554934 | aphorism | terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle | |
| 192554935 | apostrophe | rhetorical figure of direct address to a person, object, or abstract entity | |
| 192554936 | pathos | quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the reader's pr viewer's emotions especially pity, compassion, and sympathy | |
| 192554937 | meter | rythmical pattern of a poem, just as all words are pronounced with eccented syllables and unaccented syllables, lines of poetry have similar rythms | |
| 192554938 | internal rhyme | rhyme that is within the line, rather than at the end | |
| 192554939 | inversion | witch in the normal word order, often used for emphasis or rhyme scheme | |
| 192554940 | myth | a story usually with supernatural signnificance taht explains the origins of gods, heroes, or natural phennomena, although fictional, these stories contain ddep truths often about the nature of humankind | |
| 192554941 | foil | character whose contrasting personal characteristics draw attention to enhance or contrast with those of the main character | |
| 192554942 | foreshadowing | hints at what is to come sometimes only noticeable in hidsight but usually obvious enough to make the reader wonder | |
| 192554943 | Italian(Petrarchan) Sonnet | fourteen line poem divided into two parts the first is 8 lines abbaabba, the second is 6 lines cdcdcd or cdecde | |
| 192554944 | litotes | affirmation of an idea by using a negative or understatement | |
| 192554945 | iambic pentameter | five-foot line made up of an unaccented syllbale followed by an accented syllable the most common metric foot in English language poetry | |
| 192554946 | deus ex machina | intervention of the gods at a story's end to resolve an impossible conflict, an unlikely or impossible coincidence, a cop-out ending | |
| 192554947 | imagery | anything that affects or appeals to the reader's senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, or touch | |
| 192554948 | epiphany | sudden flash of insight, startling discovery and or appearance, dramatic realization | |
| 192554949 | denotation | dictionary or literary meaning of a word or phrase | |
| 192554950 | denouement | outcome or clarification at the end of a story or play, the winding down from climax to ending | |
| 192554951 | free verse | poetry that doesn't have a regulat rythm or rhyme | |
| 192554952 | antagonist | character who functions as a resisting force to the goals of the protagonist, usually a villian, but if the protagonist is evil, it will be virtuous | |
| 192554953 | antecedent | word or phrase to which a pronoun refers, often preceded a pronoun in prose | |
| 192554954 | figurative language | appeals to one's senses through the use of metaphors, similes, metonymy, personification, and hyperbole. | |
| 192554955 | theme | central idea of a literary work | |
| 192554956 | tone | author's attitude toward the subject, often sets the mood of the piece | |
| 192554957 | tongue in cheek | expressing a though in a way that appears to be sincere but is actually joking | |
| 192554958 | sestet | six line stanza of poetry; also the last six lines of a sonnet | |
| 192554959 | parody | comical imitation of a serios piece with the intent of ridiculing the author or the author's work | |
| 192554960 | metonymy | figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word or phrase closely associated with it | |
| 192554961 | rhetorical question | question with an obvious answer, so no response is expected, used for emphasis or to make a pint | |
| 192554962 | stock character | stereotypical character, the audience expects the character to have certain characteristics | |
| 192554963 | stream of consciousness | form of writing which replicates the way the human mind works, ideas are presented in random order and thoughts are often unfinished | |
| 192554964 | structure | particular ways in which a part of a work is combined with other parts | |
| 192554965 | in medias res | a work of literature that begins in the middle of the story | |
| 192554966 | near, off, or slant rhyme | rhyme based on an imperfect or oncomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds | |
| 192554967 | flashback | inerruption of a narrative by the introduction of an earlier event or by an image of a past experience | |
| 192554968 | oxymoron | figure of speech that combines two contradictory words placed side by side | |
| 192554969 | narrative poem | poem that tells a story | |
| 192554970 | onomatopoeia | words that imitate sounds | |
| 192554971 | repetition | word or phrase used more than once to emphasize an idea | |
| 192554972 | point of view | perspective of the speaker or narrator in a literary work | |
| 192554973 | hubris | insolence, arrogance, or pride usually a character's tragic flaw that leads to his or her downfall in Greek tragedies |
