AP English Literary Terms

215006261	Allegory	story/poem in which characters/settings/events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. example: animal farm, lord of the flies.
215006262	Alliteration	repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.
215006263	allusion	indirect reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science or another branch of culture.
215006264	ambiguity	deliberately suggesting two or more different and sometimes conflicting meanings in a work. an event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way- this is done on purpose by the other, when it is not done on purpose it is vagueness.
215006265	analogy	comparison made between two things to show how they are alike
215006266	anaphora	repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent.
215006267	anastrophe	inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. fancy word for inversion.
215006268	anecdote	brief story told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something. often shows character of an individual.
215006269	antagonist	opponent who struggles against the protagonist
215006270	antimetabole	repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. "one should eat to live, not live to eat" called chiasmus in poetry.
215006271	antithesis	balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.
215006272	antihero	central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes
215006273	anthropomorphism	attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object (personification)
215006274	aphorism	brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. also called maxim, epigram.
215006275	apostrophe	calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place of thing, or a personified abstract idea. not the same as invocation which is when a person calls out to a god/goddess for inspiration.
215006276	apposition	placing an immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first.
215006277	assonance	the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together.
215006278	asyndeton	commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words... instead of x,y, and z the writer uses x,y,z
215006279	balance	constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance. sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special effect as well.
215006280	caesura	a break or beat written into a line of poetry
215006281	characterization	process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character
215006282	static character	one who does not change much in the course of a story
215006283	dynamic character	one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action
215006284	flat character	has only one or two personality traits. one dimensional, like cardboard. can be summed up in one phrase.
215006285	round character	has more dimensions to their personalities, they are as complex as real people.
215006286	chiasmus	in poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. "flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike." called antimetabole in prose
215006287	cliche	a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse.
215006288	colloquialism	a word or phrase in everyday use and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. "gonna"
215006289	comedy	a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters
215006290	conceit	an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. often an extended metaphor.
215006291	connotation	the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.
215006292	couplet	two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry
215006293	dialect	a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain geographical area
215006294	diction	a speaker/writer's choice of words
215006295	didactic	form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
215006296	elegy	poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died.
215006297	epic	a long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society.
215006298	epigraph	a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.
215006299	epithet	an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. "Father of our country"
215006300	essay	short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject
215006301	fable	a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life.
215006302	farce	type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched conversations.
215006303	figurative language	words which are inaccurate if interpreting literally, but are used to describe.
215006304	flashback	a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.
215006305	foil	character who acts in contract to another character
215006306	foreshadowing	use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot
215006307	free verse	poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme
215006308	hyperbole	figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration
215006309	imagery	use of language to evoke a picture or concrete sensation of a person, thing, place or experience
215006310	inversion	the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase
215006311	irony	discrepancy between appearances and reality
215006312	verbal irony	when someone says something but means something else
215006313	situational irony	when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what really does happen
215006314	dramatic irony	when a character things one thing is true but the audience/reader knows it isn't
215006315	juxtaposition	poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit.
215006316	litotes	form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form.
215006317	local color	term applied to fiction/poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs., clothing, dialect and landscape
215006318	lyric poem	poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker.
215006319	metaphor	makes comparison of two unlike things without like or as
215006320	extended metaphor	a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it
215006321	dead metaphor	metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid
215006322	mixed metaphor	metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible.
215006323	metonymy	a figure of speech in which a person, place or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it
215006324	mood	an atmosphere created by a writers diction and the details selected
215006325	motif	recurring image, word, phrase , action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work, unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones.
215006326	motivation	the reasons for a characters behavior.
215006327	oxymoron	figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase "pretty ugly" "jumbo shrimp"
215006328	parable	relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life.
215006329	paradox	statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth.
215006330	parallel structure	repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures
215006331	parody	a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style
215006332	personification	a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes
215006333	plot	series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline
215006334	point of view	vantage point from which the writer tells the story
215006335	first person POV	one of the characters tells the story
215006336	third person POV	unknown narrator tells the story
215006337	omniscient POV	third person, all knowing narrator tells the story
215006338	objective POV	narrator who is totally impersonal or objective tells the story with no comment on any characters or events
215006339	polysyndeton	sentences that uses no commas to separate the items in a series X and Y and Z instead of x,y and z
215006340	protagonist	central character in a story
215006341	pun	play on words
215006342	quatrain	poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered a unit
215006343	refrain	a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem
215006344	rhythm	rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a language
215006345	rhetorical question	question asked for an effect, not actually requiring an answer
215006346	romance	a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful
215006347	satire	type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about change
215006348	simile	comparing two unlike things using like or as
215006349	soliloquy	long speech made by a character in a play when no other characters are on stage
215006350	stereotype	a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not allow for any individuality
215006351	stream of consciousness	style of writing that portrays the inner workings of a character's mind
215006352	style	distinctive way in which a writer uses language
215006353	symbol	a person, place, or thing that has meaning in itself and also stands for something more than itself
215006354	synedoche	figure of speech in which a part represents a whole "if you don't drive properly, you will lose your wheels"
215006355	tone	attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience
215006356	understatement	a statement that says less than what is meant
215006357	unity	unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing principle.
215006358	vernacular	language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality.
215006359	syntax	refers to the sentence choice of the writer