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AP Lit Terms
A StudyStack for terms in my AP Literature and Composition class.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Allegory | The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form. e.g. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Animal Farm by George |
| Allusion | A reference to canonical literature. |
| Alliteration | Repetition of the same consonant sound at first letter in several words in succession. |
| Ambiguity | Intentional vagueness to let the audience figure out certain details themselves. |
| Anaphora | Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or phrases for emphasis. |
| Anecdote | A short story or joke usually told at the beginning of a speech to gain the audience’s attention and illustrate an intended moral. |
| Antagonist | A character the protagonist is in conflict with. |
| Apostrophe | When a character speaks to a character or object that is not present or is unable to respond. This can mean addressing inanimate objects or the natural world. e.g. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, How I wonder what you are!” |
| Assonance | The repetition of the same vowel sound in a phrase or line of poetry. ex. Hop-scotch, between trees |
| Bildungsroman | a novel of coming-of-age, formation, growth, change. The story follows a young protagonist as they grow and develop. |
| Blank verse | Poetry that is unrhymed but consistent iambic pentameter. (An iamb is a metrical foot in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter = five iambs per line = ten syllables) |
| Caesura | A brief pause in poetry for the purpose of dramatic effect or suspense; are based on a poet’s understanding of breath and the natural rhythm of speech and language. |
| Catharsis | Relief–the emotional release of the audience by experiencing vicariously the suffering of the characters. e.g. The relief you feel after watching a scary movie that you’re still alive or the reason so many murderous shows are popular. |
| Climax | The turning point in the story. |
| Colloquialism | Informal or conversational speech |
| Connotation | Meanings or ideas that are suggested by or associated with a word or thing; not dictionary definition e.g. Bat/Snake=evil. |
| Convention | An understanding between a reader and a writer about certain details of a story that does not need to be explained, e.g. When the hero meets a “damsel in distress,” he will eventually save her |
| Consonance | A repetition of consonants in a phrase or a line of poetry. |
| Couplet | Two rhyming lines in poetry. |
| Deus ex machina | A character or force that appears at the end of a story or play to help resolve conflict. |
| Diction | Word choice; words are chosen to reflect and change the tone of the text, thus changing the intended response from the audience. e.g. “I hate Billy with every fiber of my being” vs. “Billy is not always the easiest to get along with” |
| Denouement | The final resolution. (pronounced: day-new-mon) |
| Doppelganger | A “second half” of another character. The alter ego of a character or the suppressed side of one’s personality that is usually unaccepted by society. |
| Double entendre | a word of phrase open to two interpretations, one of them is usually risque, offensive, or sexual in nature |
| Dynamic character | A character that changes and develops throughout a work of literature. |
| Elegy | A poem for a deceased person. Ex. “Oh Captain, Oh Captain!” |
| Elison/Elided | the omission of certain letters to maintain rhythm, create colloquialisms or dialogue, or simply for effect. |
| Emotive language | Deliberate use of language by a writer to instill a feeling or visual. e.g. “Black and beautiful, you the one I'm choosin' / Hair long and black and curly like you're Cuban” (Snoop Dogg, “Beautiful”). |
| Enjambment | The continuation of reading one line of a poem to the next with no pause, a run-on line. e.g. "I got the cultivating music that be captivating he / who listens, to the words that I speak” (Snoop Dogg). |
| Epic | A story in elevated or dignified language featuring a legendary or traditional heroic character. |
| Epigraph | An introductory quote at the beginning of the story. |
| Epilogue | An ending chapter to explain what happened after the last chapter in a novel. A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a song or play. |
| Epiphany | A sudden realization or enlightenment (not inherently religious) usually attained while doing everyday mundane activities. |
| Epistolary | Used to describe a novel that tells its story through letters written from one character to another. e.g. the first four “chapters” of Frankenstein. |
| Epistrophe | the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of sentence or clause to emphasize or create rhetorical rhythm (contrast with anaphora). i.e. “Where now? Who now? When now?” -Samuel Beckett, The Unnameable |
| Euphemism | A word or phrase that means something different (often taboo). The act of substituting a harsh, blunt, or offensive comment for a more politically accepted or positive one. |
| Expansion | Adds an unstressed syllable and/or a contraction or elision removes an unstressed syllable in order to maintain the rhythmic meter of a line. e.g. o’er in place of over, and ‘tis or ‘twas in place of it is or it was. |
| Fable | A story with fantastical animals speaking in a human language and acting in human-like ways to teach a certain “moral” or “lesson,” often for the viewing of children. |
| Feminine ending | Refers to French origins; Term that refers to an unstressed extra syllable at the end of a line of poetry. If most lines have five beats, a feminine ending has six. |
| Figurative language | Non-literal language used in order to achieve a special effect or meaning using “figures of speech.” |
| Flashback | A (brief) scene where a character recalls certain memories important to the story/plot. |
| Flat character | A character with no development or complexity. |
| Foil | A character with the purpose of being a (complete) opposite to another; creates contrast |
| Folklore | The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally. e.g. most religious texts |
| Foot | A way of describing the stressed syllables within a line of poetry. |
| Iamb | A foot that has two syllables. The first is unstressed and the second is stressed. This foot is the most common in English poetry. e.g. the word “iamb"; “i” is unstressed, “-amb” is stressed. |
| Foreshadowing | Hints of certain developments to later occur in the plot. |
| Free verse | Poetry that don't follow any typical convention commonly found in verse. Type of verse that contains a variety of line lengths, is unrhymed, and lacks traditional meter. Free from both meter and rhyme. |
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TheMaple_Dusk
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