AP Literary Terms 1. Aesthetics - The branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of beauty and artistic taste.

2. Allegory - A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. 3. Alliteration - The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words 4. Allusion - An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing
reference. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

Anachronism - A thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, esp. a thing that is
conspicuously old-fashioned. Anagnorisis - a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery Analogy - A comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification. Anaphora - The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition. Antagonist - A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary. Antihero - A central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes Antithesis - A person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else. Aphorism - A pithy observation that contains a general truth. Apostrophe - a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and was able to reply. Archaism - A thing that is very old or old-fashioned. Archetype - A very typical example of a certain person or thing. Aside - A remark by a character in a play intended to be heard by the audience but not by the other characters. Assonance - In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables Atmosphere - The pervading tone or mood of a place, situation, or work of art Ballard - A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Bathos - An effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous Begging the question - a type of logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise Bildungsroman - A novel dealing with a person's development or spiritual education. Black comedy -comedy that employs morbid, gloomy, grotesque, or calamitoussituations in its plot. Blank verse - Verse without rhyme, esp. that which uses iambic pentameter Burlesque - A parody or comically exaggerated imitation of something, esp. in a literary or dramatic work. Cacophony - A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds Cadence - A modulation or inflection of the voice Caesura - A pause near the middle of a line. Canon - A list of literary or artistic works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality Canto - One of the sections into which certain long poems are divided Caricature - A ludicrous or grotesque version of someone or something Catharsis - The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions Characterization - word picture: a graphic or vivid verbal description Clich - A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought Cliff-hanger - An ending to an episode of a serial drama that leaves the audience in suspense Climax - The most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex Colloquialism - A word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation Comedy - A play characterized by its humorous or satirical tone and its depiction of amusing people or incidents, in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity Coming-of-age story - A novel in which an adolescent protagonist comes to adulthood by a process of experience and disillusionment Conceit - A fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor Conflict - A serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one Connotation -The implication of such ideas or feelings Consonance - Agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions

44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76.

Couplet - Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit Denotation - The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests Dues ex machine - An unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, esp. as a contrived plot device
in a play or novel Dialect - A particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group Dialogue - A discussion between two or more people or groups, esp. one directed toward exploration of a particular subject or resolution of a problem Diction - The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing Didactic - Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive Dissonance - A tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements Drama - An exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances Dramatic irony - irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play Dramatic monologue - A poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their character while describing a particular situation or series of events Elegy - A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead Ellipsis - The omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues End-stopped - Having a pause at the end of each line Enjambed - Ending partway through a sentence or clause that continues in the next Epic - Heroic or grand in scale or character Epigram - A pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way Epigraph - A short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme Epiphany - A moment of sudden revelation or insight Episode - An event or a group of events occurring as part of a larger sequence; an incident or period considered in isolation Epistle - A poem or other literary work in the form of a letter or series of letters Epitaph - A phrase or statement written in memory of a person who has died, esp. as an inscription on a tombstone Epithet - An adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned Ethos - The characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations Eulogy - A speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died Euphemism - A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing Euphony - The quality of being pleasing to the ear, esp. through a harmonious combination of words Exposition - A comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory Extended metaphor - A metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas; the analogy is conveyed by the use of a metaphorical word in place of some other word. Falling action - the fourth part of plot structure, in which the complications of the rising action are untangled. Farce - A comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations Fiction - Literature in the form of prose, esp. short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people Figurative language/figure of speech - The use of words, phrases, symbols, and ideas in such as way as to evoke mental images and sense impressions. Figurative language is often characterized by the use of figures of speech, elaborate expressions, sound devices, and syntactic departures from the usual order of literal language Flashback - A scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story

77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83.

Foil - A person or thing that contrasts with and so emphasizes and enhances the qualities of another Foot - A group of syllables constituting a metrical unit. In English poetry it consists of stressed and unstressed syllables,
while in ancient classical poetry it consists of long and short syllables Foreshadowing - Be a warning or indication of (a future event) Form - An artistic or literary genre Free verse - Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter Haiku - A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world

84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93.

Hamartia - A fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine Heroic couplet - A pair of rhyming iambic pentameters, much used by Chaucer and the poets of the 17th and 18th

centuries such as Alexander Pope Hook - A thing designed to catch people's attention Hubris - Excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis Hyperbole - Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally Idiom - A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words Idyll - An extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque episode or scene, typically an idealized or unsustainable one Image - A representation of the external form of a person or thing in sculpture, painting, etc Imagery - Visually descriptive or figurative language, esp. in a literary work In media res - a Latin phrase denoting the literary and artistic narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning 94. Interior monologue - A piece of writing expressing a character's inner thoughts 95. Invective - Insulting, abusive, or highly critical language 96. Invocation - The action of invoking something or someone for assistance or as an authority 97. Irony - The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect 98. Juxtaposition - The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect 99. Kenning - A compound expression in Old English and Old Norse poetry with metaphorical meaning, e.g., oar-steed = ship 100. Lampoon - A speech or text criticizing someone or something in this way 101. Legend - A traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated 102. Literary quality - A judgment about the value of a novel as literature. At the heart of this issue is the question of what distinguishes a great or important novel from one that is less important. 103. Litotes - Ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary 104. Logos - The principle of reason and judgment, associated with the animus 105. Lyric - Expressing the writer's emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or recognized forms 106. Madrigal - A part-song for several voices, esp. one of the Renaissance period, typically arranged in elaborate counterpoint and without instrumental accompaniment. Originally used of a genre of 14th-century Italian songs, the term now usually refers to English or Italian songs of the late 16th and early 17th c., in a free style strongly influenced by the text 107. Magical realism - an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. 108. Malapropism - the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar 109. Meiosis - a euphemistic figure of speech that intentionally understates something or implies that it is lesser in significance or size than it really is. 110. Melodrama - A sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions 111. Memoir - A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources 112. Metafiction - Fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions (esp. naturalism) and traditional narrative techniques 113. Metaphor - A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable 114. Metaphysical - the philosophical study of being and knowing 115. Meter - The rhythm of a piece of poetry, determined by the number and length of feet in a line 116. Metonymy - The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing 117. Metrical line - line consists of one or more feet and is named for the number of feet in it. 118. Monologue - A long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program 119. Mood - The atmosphere or pervading tone of something, esp. a work of art 120. Moral - A lesson, esp. one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience 121. Motif - A distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition 122. Motivation - The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way

123. Movement - The progressive development of a poem or story 124. Musical device literary devices that make poetry musical (rhyme, alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, refrain) 125. Myth - A traditional story, esp. one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events 126. Narrative poem - poetry that has a plot. 127. Narrator - A person who narrates something, esp. a character who recounts the events of a novel or narrative poem 128. Neologism - A newly coined word or expression 129. Novel - A fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism 130. Novella - A short novel or long short story 131. Novel of manners - a literary genre that deals with aspects of behaviour, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. 132. Octave - A poem or stanza of eight lines; an octet 133. Ode - A lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter 134. Onomatopoeia - The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named 135. Ottava rima - A form of poetry consisting of stanzas of eight lines of ten or eleven syllables, rhyming abababcc 136. Oxymoron - A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction 137. Paradox - A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true 138. Paralipsis - The device of giving emphasis by professing to say little or nothing about a subject. 139. Parallelism - The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc 140. Parody - An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect 141. Pastiche - An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period 142. Pastoral - A work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life 143. Pathos - A quality that evokes pity or sadness 144. Peripety - a sudden and unexpected change of fortune or reverse of circumstances 145. Persona - The aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others 146. Personification - The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form 147. Picaresque novel - a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt 148. Plot - The main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence 149. Poetic license - The freedom to depart from the facts of a matter or from the conventional rules of language when speaking or writing in order to create an effect 150. Point of view - The position from which something or someone is observed 151. Prologue - An event or action that leads to another event or situation 152. Protagonist - The leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text 153. Pulp fiction - Novels written for mass consumption, often emphasizing exciting and titillating plots 154. Pun - Make a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word 155. Quatrain - A stanza of four lines, esp. one having alternate rhymes 156. Realism - The movement or style of representing familiar things as they actually are 157. Regional novel - A novel faithful to a particular geographic region and its people, including behavior, customs, speech, and history. 158. Repetition - The action of repeating something that has already been said or written 159. Resolution - The action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter 160. Rhetorical question - a statement that is formulated as a question but that is not supposed to be answered 161. Rhyme - Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, esp. when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry

162. Rhyme scheme - The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse 163. Rhythm - A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound 164. Rhythm pattern - A sequence of events having a specific set of time intervals between the onsets of successive events. Sequences having different onset-to-onset intervals are said to have different rhythmic structures or temporal structures. 165. Roman a clef - A novel in which real people or events appear with invented names 166. Romance - A genre of fiction dealing with love in such a way 167. Romantic - Of, relating to, or denoting the artistic and literary movement of Romanticism 168. Sarcasm - The use of irony to mock or convey contempt 169. Satire - The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues 170. Scansion - The action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm 171. Sentimentality - Excessive tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia 172. Sestet - The last six lines of a sonnet 173. Sestina - A poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line-ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern, and with all six words appearing in the closing three-line envoi 174. Simile - A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid 175. Sonnet - A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line 176. Speaker - A person who delivers a speech or lecture 177. Spenserian stanza - The stanza used by Spenser in The Faerie Queene, consisting of eight iambic pentameters and an alexandrine, with the rhyming scheme ababbcbcc 178. Stanza - A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse 179. Stereotype - A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing 180. Stock character - a fictional character based on a common literary or social stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. 181. Stream of consciousness - A person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow. 182. Style - A way of painting, writing, composing, characteristic of a particular period, place, person, or movement 183. Subplot - A subordinate plot in a play, novel, or similar work 184. Symbol - A thing that represents or stands for something else, esp. a material object representing something abstract 185. Synaethesia - a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occurs when another modality is stimulated 186. Synecdoche - A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa 187. Syntax - The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language 188. Tercet - A set or group of three lines of verse rhyming together or connected by rhyme with an adjacent tercet 189. Terza rima - a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. 190. Theme - The subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic 191. Tone - A manner of expression in writing 192. Tragedy - A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, esp. one concerning the downfall of the main character 193. Tragic flaw - the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall 194. Tragic hero - the main character in a tragedy 195. Tragicomedy - A play or novel containing elements of both comedy and tragedy 196. Turning point - A time at which a decisive change in a situation occurs, esp. one with beneficial results 197. Understatement - The presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is 198. Unreliable narration - A narrating character or storyteller in a literary or other artistic worksuch as a novel, play, song, or filmwho provides inaccurate, misleading, conflicting, or otherwise questionable information to the reader or audience 199. Verisimilitude - The appearance of being true or real 200. Villanelle - A nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain