Literary Terms/ AP Terms

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Literary Terms/AP Terms

• AP Terms
• -Define the following terms. These terms will
  help you to analyze literary passages and to
  prepare for the AP test. Make sure to choose the
  definition that refers to the literary meaning of
  the word.

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allegory

• form of extended metaphor, in which objects,
  persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated
  with the meanings that lie outside the narrative
  itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social,
  religious, or political significance, and
  characters are often personifications of abstract
  ideas as charity, greed, or envy.Thus an
  allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal
  meaning and a symbolic meaning.
• EXAMPLE Animal Farm Dantes Inferno Lord of
  the Flies

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Alliteration

• Repetition of the beginning consonant sound
• ExampleWordsworth And sings a solitary song
  That whistles in the wind.

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Allusion

• Indirect reference to a well-known person, place,
  thing or event
• Historical-refers to an event in history
• Literary-refers to something in a work of
  literature (novels, peoms, etc.)
• Biblical-refers to something from the Bible

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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 author, when it is not
  done on purpose, it is vagueness,and detracts
  from the work.

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Anachronism

• Anything out of its proper historical time

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Analogy

• The inference that certain resemblances imply
  further similarity
• Examplehot is to cold as fire is to ice OR
  hotcoldfireice

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Anaphora

• Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the
  beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This
  is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make
  the writers point more coherent.

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ANECDOTE

• Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve
  as an example of something,
• often shows character of an individual

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ANTHROPOMORPHISM

• attributing human characteristics to an animal or
  inanimate object (Personification)

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Antecedent

• The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers

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Antithesis

• Contrasting ideas in the same (or a neighboring)
  sentence
• Establishes a clear, contrasting relationship
  between 2 ideas by joining them together or
  juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure
• Give me liberty or give me death!-Patrick Henry
• It was the best of times. It was the worst of
  times. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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Aphoristic statements (aphorism)

• A concise statement of truth
• Examples
• Emerson Imitation is suicideFranklin Lost
  Time is never Found again.

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Apostrophe

• An absent person, an abstract concept, or an
  important object is directly addressed
• Speaking to someone or something that is not
  there
• Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll!
  Lord Byron, The Sea

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COLLOQUIALISM

• a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation
  and informal writing but is inappropriate for
  formal situations.
• Example Hes out of his head if he thinks Im
  gonna go for such a stupid idea.

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Comedy

• A type of drama that celebrates or satirizes the
  follies of characters

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Conflict

• the struggle found in fiction
• may be internal or external and is best seen in
  (1) Man in conflict with another Man (external
  conflict) (2) Man in conflict in Nature
  (external conflict) (3) Man in conflict with
  self (Internal conflict).

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Connotation

• Connotation is an implied meaning of a word.
  Opposite of denotation.
• ExampleGood night, sweet prince, and flights of
  angels sing thee to thy rest (burial)

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Context

• The parts just before and after a passage, that
  determines its meaning

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Denotation

• Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, the
  dictionary meaning. Opposite of connotation.
• ExampleGood night, sweet prince, and flights of
  angels sing thee to thy rest (sleep).

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DIDACTIC

• form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a
  specific lesson or moral or provides a model of
  correct behavior or thinking.

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Euphemism

• A word or phrase that uses inoffensive language
  to express something offensive or unpleasant
• Security breach is a euphemism for theft

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Figurative language

• Also called figures of speech
• Language that communicates ideas beyond the
  literal meaning of the words
• Can make descriptions or unfamiliar or difficult
  ideas easier to understand
• Ex. Simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole

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FOIL

• A character who acts as contrast to another
  character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing
  hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

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Foreshadowing

• use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen
  later in literature

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Hyperbole

• An overstatement or exaggeration that is used for
  emphasis, often used for a humorous effect
• Im so hungry I could eat a horse!

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Imagery

• The words and details that create images and
  impressions in the readers mind
• Our five senses and beyond
• The trees clash in vain their naked swords
  against the door Adah Isaacs Menken, Answer Me

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Inference

• To conclude by reasoning something known or
  assumed

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Irony

• IRONY a discrepancy between appearances and
  reality.
• VERBAL IRONY occurs when someone says one thing
  but really means
• something else.
• SITUATIONAL IRONY takes place when there is a
  discrepancy between what is expected to happen,
  or what would be appropriate to happen, and what
  really does happen.
• DRAMATIC IRONY is so called because it is often
  used on stage. A character in the play or story
  thinks one thing is true, but the audience or
  reader knows
• better.

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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.
• Juxtaposition is also a form of contrast by
  which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas
  or images or metaphors.
• Martin Luther King Injustice anywhere is a
  threat to justice everywhere.

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Litotes (lahy-tuh-teez)

• A figure of speech in which the speaker
  emphasizes the magnitude of the statement by
  denying its opposite it is a deliberate
  understatement
• Hitler was no angel (Means Hitler was very
  bad.)

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Malapropism

• A ludicrous misuse of words that sound alike,
  usually has a comic effect

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Metaphor

• A comparison of two unlike things without using
  like or as
• Usually more subtle than a simile
• All the worlds a stage,/And all the men and
  women merely players/They have their exits and
  their entrances. William Shakespeare, As You
  Like It

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Metonymy

• Refers to a person or a thing by naming one
  aspect, not the whole
• A sneaky type of figurative language b/c an
  object or a concept is used to refer to something
  that is closely associated with it
• The White House issued a new policy on health
  care.

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Oxymoron

• Use of two contradictory words for a special
  effect
• Color blind
• Icy hot
• Act naturally
• Near future
• Educated guess

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Mood

• The emotions created in the audience through the
  reading of a story.
• ( Mood Me)

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MOTIF

• a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea,
  object, or situation used throughout a work (or
  in several works by one author), unifying the
  work by tying the current situation to previous
  ones, or new ideas to the theme.
• Kurt Vonnegut uses So it goes throughout
  Slaughterhouse-Five to remind the reader of the
  senselessness of death.

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Paradox

• A statement that seems to contradict itself but
  actually makes sense
• Longer than an oxymoron and suggests a situation
  that appears impossible but works within the
  context of the poem or story
• Sometimes it proves the highest understanding
  not to understand.
• -Baltasar Gracian

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Parallel structure

• The principle of representing equal ideas in the
  same grammatical form
• Ex. government of the people, by the people, and
  for the people.
• Produces a sense of balance and order frequently
  employed as a feature of the periodic sentence

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Periodic structure

• A sentence in which the main clause or its
  predicate is withheld until the end
• for example, Despite heavy winds and nearly
  impenetrable ground fog, the plane landed safely.

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Personification

• Giving human characteristics to nonhuman things
  helps reader identify more closely with a subject
• The vicious hail pounded angrily on our car
  window.

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Purpose

• A writer usually writes for one or more of these
  purposesto inform, to entertain, to express
  himself/herself, to persuade others to believe or
  to do something

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Repetition

• Functions as a form of emphasis

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Rhetorical question

• A questions asked for effect and not meant to be
  answered

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Simile

• A comparison using like or as
• Blind as a bat
• Slept like a log

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Subordination

• To give unequal emphasis to 2 or more ideas

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Syllogistic reasoning

• A deductive argument that has a major premise (a
  general statement), a minor premise ( a more
  specific statement), and a conclusion (drawn from
  the premises)
• Ex. A- All Olympic runners are fast.
• B- Jesse Owens was an Olympic runner.
• C- Jesse Owens was fast.

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Symbolic (symbol)

• An object used to represent an idea a symbol
  often represents something that cannot be seen
• A dove stands for peace (a dove can be seen and
  peace cannot)

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Synecdoche

• Using a part of something to represent the whole,
  or the whole of something to represent the part
• In Shakespeares Julius Caesar, Mark Antony
  says, Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your
  ears.
• He wants for than his audiences ears he wants
  their full attention.

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Tone

• the attitude a writer takes towards a subject or
  character serious, humorous, sarcastic, ironic,
  satirical, tongue-in-cheek, solemn, objective
  (tone them)

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Tragedy

• Aristotelian Definition of Tragedy Aristotelean
  defined tragedy as "the imitation of an action
  that is serious and also, as having magnitude,
  complete in itself." It incorporates "incidents
  arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish
  the catharsis of such emotions."

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Understatement

• This device is used to understate the obvious. On
  a day of extreme weather, like it is really
  really hot, one might say, "Is it warm enough for
  you?" or on a very very cold day one might say,
  "Balmy out isn't it?"
• Opposite of Hyperbole

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Verisimilitude

• The appearance of being true or real