ap lit terms

7062126	Allegory	story which has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself; i.e. fables
7062127	alliteration	the repetition of initial consonant sounds
7062128	allusion	reference to another work or famous figure
7062129	anachronism	derived from Greek meaning "misplaced in time"; e.g. actor w/a Rolex playing Caesar
7062130	anthropomorphism	inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena have human characteristics, behavior, or motivation
7062131	anticlimax	occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect
7062132	antihero	protagonist who is markedly unheroic
7062133	aphorism	short and usually witty saying; e.g. "Classic? A book which people praise and don't read." --Mark Twain
7062134	Apostrophe	figure of speech where the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman
7062135	archaism	use of deliberately old-fashioned language
7062136	aside	a speech made by an actor to the audience as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage
7062137	assonance	repeated use of vowel sounds; e.g. Old king Cole was a merry old soul.
7062138	Atmosphere	the emotional tone or background that surrounds a scence
7062139	Bathos, Pathos	when the writing of a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity & sympathy, pathos is at work;when writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup=bathos
7062140	black humor	the use of disturbing themes in comedy
7062141	bombast	this is pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language
7062142	burlesque	a borad parody, one that takes a style or a form, and exaggerates it into ridiculousness
7062143	cacophony	in poetry, using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds
7062144	cadence	beat or rhythm of poetry
7062145	canto	name for a section division in a long poetry work
7062146	catharsis	cleansing of emotion an audience experiences, having lived vicariously through the experiences presented on stage
7062147	neologism/coinage	new work, invented on the spot
7062148	colloquialism	word or phrase used in everyday conversational English
7062149	conceit, controlling image	refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or to a metaphor developed & expanded upon over several lines; when the image dominates & shapes the entire work, it's called a controlling image
7062150	denotation	literal meaning of a word; e.g. dark forest = little light
7062151	connotation	implications of a word; e.g. dark forest = danger
7062152	consonance	repetition of consonant sounds within words
7062153	couplet	pair of lines that end in rhyme
7062154	diction	author's choice of words; wept vs. cried for example
7062155	syntax	refers to the structuring of words; greedily i devoured the cheese pizza vs. the pizza was cheese; I devoured it greedily.
7062156	dirge	song for the dead
7062157	dissonance	grating of incompatible sounds
7062158	dramatic irony	when the audience know something that the characters in the drama do not.
7062159	dramatic monologue	when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience
7062160	elegy	poem meditating on death or mortality seriously
7062161	enjambment	continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause
7062162	euphemism	word or phrase tha takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant reality; ex. "passed away"=died
7062163	euphony	sounds blend harmoniously
7062164	feminine rhyme	lines rhymed by their final two syllables; running and gunning
7062165	foil	secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character usually by contrast
7062166	foreshadowing	event or statement in a narrative that suggests a larger event that comes later
7062167	hyperbole	exaggeration or deliberate overstatement
7062168	interior monologue	recording the mental talking inside a character's head; novels and poetry
7062169	inversion	switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase
7062170	irony	statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean
7062171	masculine rhyme	rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable; regular old rhyme
7062172	metaphor	comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another
7062173	simile	comparison or analogy using LIKE or AS
7062174	nemesis	protagonist's archenemy
7062175	onomatopoeia	words that sound like what they mean
7062176	opposition	a pair of elements that contrast sharply
7062177	oxymoron	phrase composed of opposites
7062178	paradox	situation or statement that seems to contradict itself but does not
7062179	parallelism	repeated syntactical similarities used for effect
7062180	parenthetical phrase	phrase set off by commas that adds commentary or detail
7062181	personification	giving an inanimate object human qualities or form
7062182	limited omniscient narrator	narrator reports only what one chara. sees and thinks
7062183	omniscient narrator	narrator who sees into each chara's mind and understands all
7062184	objective/camera-eye narrator	narrator only reports on surface events; no insight to thoughts
7062185	first person narrator	narrator is a chara and tells his/her point of view
7062186	satire	attempts to improve things by pointing out mistakes
7062187	soliloquy	speech spoken by a character alone on stage; character's thoughts; unlike an aside, does not imply the actor acknowledges the audience
7062188	stanza	group of lines in a verse
7062189	symbolism	literary device where an object represents an idea
7062190	technique	the methods, the tools of the author
7062191	theme	main idea of the work
7062192	travesty	grotesque parody