200 TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW FOR THE AP LITERATURE EXAM.
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Transcript of 200 TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW FOR THE AP LITERATURE EXAM.
200 TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW
FOR THE AP LITERATURE
EXAM
RHETORICAL TERMS REVIEW
The narrator of a poem or the voice assumed by the writer in a
work of prose.
speaker
The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its
figurative or associated meanings.
denotation
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
anaphora
A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made
between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.
metaphor
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered
offensively explicit.
euphemism
The most common sentence in modern usage, begins with the
main point (an independent clause), followed by one or more
subordinate clauses.
loose sentence
A rhetorical strategy that recounts a sequence of events, usually in
chronological order.
narration
The choice and use of words in speech or writing.
diction
The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or
presents information
point of view
The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words,
phrases, or clauses.
parallelism
The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
alliteration
A sentence that gives a command or makes a request. Usually ends
with a period.
imperative sentence
Any misconception resulting from incorrect or flawed reasoning.
logical fallacy
A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood.
argument
The connection between two parts of a piece of writing, contributing
to its coherence.
transition
A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful
speech, deliberately used in place of standard terms for added
raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect.
slang
A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author.
essay
The main idea in a work of literature.
theme
The ordinary, everyday speech of a particular geographic location.
vernacular
The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal
meaning, also known as “sarcasm”.
verbal irony
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely
associated.
metonymy
The repetition of conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical
effect.
polysyndeton
A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory
terms appear side by side.
oxymoron
The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, order, or
significance.
figures of speech
A writer's attitude toward the subject and audience, primarily conveyed through diction, point
of view, and syntax.
tone
The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or
other group, often meaningless to outsiders.
jargon
Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings
that lie outside the text.
allegory
The point of view through which a subject or its parts are mentally
perceived.
perspective
A statement or type of composition intended to give
information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject,
method, or idea.
exposition
A rhetorical strategy in which a writer examines similarities
and/or differences between two people, places, ideas, or objects.
comparison
A group of literary works commonly regarded as
authoritative or central to the literary tradition.
canon
A conversation between two or more speakers.
dialogue
The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses.
epistrophe
A theme, motif, symbol, or stock character that holds a familiar
place in a culture’s consciousness.
archetype
Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively.
didactic
The circumstances which define the way a text is presented to the
reader.
context
Following the established rules or conventions of writing.
formal
One of the types of literature, such as short stories, poetry,
drama, or novels. Also one of the categories within those types, such as romance or science
fiction.
genre
A design or pattern in a literary work used to achieve a particular
effect.
narrative device
An expression of strong feeling that ends with an exclamation
point.
exclamatory sentence
An instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once
in a short passage.
repetition
A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical
words to suggest different meanings.
pun
The emotional quality of the setting.
atmosphere
The quality in literature of being true to life. Details seem realistic and believable, even if the setting
is supernatural.
verisimilitude
In a written work, the attempt to arouse the audience’s feelings and
sympathies.
emotional appeal
The moment of greatest intensity in a plot, usually when the central
conflict is resolved.
climax
In grammar, a word, phrase or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun.
antecedent
A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event that
can be real or fictional.
allusion
The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for
the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect,
suspense, or character development.
juxtaposition
A method of argument in which a premise is supported with the
premise rather than a conclusion.
circular reasoning
A passage or section of a literary work that departs from the central
theme or basic plot.
digression
The final outcome or unraveling of the main dramatic
complications in a play, novel, or other work of literature.
denouement
A sentence composed of at least two independent clauses.
compound sentence structure
Any sentence that ends in a period.
declarative sentence
A brief account of some interesting or entertaining and
often humorous incident
anecdote
Information about a character conveyed to the reader or
audience through thoughts, comments, action, or description.
indirect characterization
A speech in a play used to reveal the character’s inner thoughts to
the audience.
soliloquy
Latin for “God from a machine”, it refers to any artificial or
improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot.
deus ex machina
Harsh or discordant sounds within a literary work.
cacophony
A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and
corresponding structure
isocolon
A type of sentence in which the main idea is expressed at the end.
periodic sentence
A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of
an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule.
parody
An expression that, while an odd or incorrect use of the language, has a meaning that is understood
even though it is not clearly derived from the words that form
it.
idiom
Language in which figures of speech (such as metaphors,
similes, and hyperbole) freely occur.
figurative language
The ways in which information is presented in a text.
modes of discourse
A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.
analogy
A point of view in which the narrator knows all the actions, feelings, and motivations of all
the characters.
third person omniscient narration
A novel about the education or psychological growth of the
protagonist.
Bildungsroman
The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a
personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a
speech or composition.
apostrophe
Refers to language appropriate for everyday, casual, or familiar
conversation or writing.
informal
A tragic or fatal character flaw that causes the downfall of a
person of high status.
hamartia
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis
or effect; an extravagant statement.
hyperbole/overstatement
An elaborate parallel between two seemingly dissimilar objects or
ideas.
conceit
A conclusion reached by reasoning from the general to the
specific.
deduction
A term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing
(considered more patronizing than didactical writing).
pedantic
A psychological process whereby one kind of sensory stimulus
evokes the subjective experience of another.
synesthesia
An episodic novel that features a character who wanders from one
adventure to another.
picaresque novel
An apparently perfect society in which the value of human life is
clearly diminished.
dystopian
A statement that asks a question and ends with a question mark.
interrogative sentence
The dramatic effect achieved by leading an audience to understand an incongruity between a situation and the accompanying speeches, while the characters in the play
remain unaware of the incongruity.
dramatic irony
A sentence that contains an independent clause and at least
one dependent clause.
complex sentence structure
A protagonist who is not admirable or who challenges our
notions of what should be considered admirable.
anti-hero/anti-heroine
A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.
rhetorical question
A point of view in which the narrator conveys the internal
thoughts and feelings of just the protagonist.
third person limited point of view
A figure of speech in which the order of the terms in the first of
two parallel clauses is reversed in the second
chiasmus
A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by
means of contrast.
foil
A story narrated through letters.
epistolary novel
The time and place in which a narrative takes place.
setting
A cleansing or purification of one’s emotions (usually used in reference to the experience of an
audience during a tragedy).
catharsis
A rhetorical strategy using sensory details to portray a
person, place, or thing.
definition
A point of view in which the narrator tells the story from
his/her perspective and refers to himself/herself as “I”
first person narration
The liberty authors sometimes take with ordinary rules of syntax
and grammar in order to strengthen a passage or writing.
poetic license
A sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life changing
realization that a character reaches in an otherwise ordinary
or everyday moment.
epiphany
A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a
phrase introduced by "like" or "as."
simile
An author’s personal way of using language to reflect his/her
personality and/or ideology.
voice
The overall character, moral makeup, or guiding beliefs of an individual, group, or institution.
ethos
Latin for “in the middle of things”; refers to the technique of starting a narrative in the middle
of the action.
in media res
The emotions evoked in the reader by the author’s chosen
tone.
mood
A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance,
or convention) represents something other than itself.
symbol
The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words
although its use may be grammatically or logically correct
with only one.
zeugma (zoog-mah)
In writing and literature, an author’s exaggeration or
distortion of certain traits or characteristics of an individual.
caricature
The emotional implications and associations that a word may
carry.
connotation
A figure of speech in which a writer deliberately makes a
situation seem less important or serious than it is.
understatement
The narrator is revealed over time to be an untrustworthy source of
information.
unreliable narrator
French for a novel in which actual people are thinly disguised as
fictional characters.
roman à clef
Presenting ideas, images, events or comments that hint at future
events in the story.
foreshadowing
A technique in which the author steps outside the story, speaking directly to the reader to reveal an
attitude, purpose or meaning.
aside
Indicated by a series of three periods, this punctuation mark shows some material has been
omitted.
ellipsis
Usually a religious sermon, but can any refer to any serious
speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.
homily
A conclusion reached by deriving general principles from particular
facts or instances.
induction
A type of sentence that has only one independent clause, no
dependent clauses, and is limited to one subject and one predicate
simple sentence structure
A person, scene, event, or other element in a work of literature
that fails to correspond with the time or era in which the work is
set.
anachronism
The use of insincere or overdone sentimentality.
bathos
Any work of literature that deals with rural life.
pastoral
The narrator uses the pronoun “you” to make immediate
connection with the reader (very rarely used in fiction).
second person narration
A prayer or statement that calls for help from a god or goddess.
invocation
A pleasing arrangement of sounds.
euphony
The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated
with the objects or actions to which they refer.
onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or
the whole for a part.
synecdoche
A quotation placed at the beginning of a piece of literature
that provides the reader with ideas about the content or thematic intent of the selection (also a short, humorous poem, often
written in couplets, that makes a satiric point).
epigram
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
antithesis
A text or performance that uses irony, ridicule, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or
stupidity.
satire
Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal
spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English.
colloquial language/colloquialism
The depiction of fate or of the universe in general as indifferent
to human suffering and/or existence which creates the
suggestion that life is ultimately meaningless.
cosmic irony
A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph
or lines in a poem.
extended metaphor
A type of sentence characterized by parallel structure. Two or
more parts of the sentence have the same form, emphasizing similarities or differences.
balanced sentence
Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the
senses.
imagery
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or
abilities.
personification
The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or
clauses.
asyndeton
A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an
affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
litotes (lie-toe-tez)
From the Greek work for “feeling”; the quality in a work of
literature that evokes high emotion, most commonly sorrow,
pity or compassion
pathos
In this verb form, the subject of the sentence receives the action denoted by the verb. Always
consists of a form of the verb “to be” plus the past participle of the
verb.
passive voice
The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form
phrases, clauses, and sentences; it also refers to the arrangement of
words in a sentence.
syntax
Denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts
blame on somebody or something.
invective
An incongruity between what might be expected and what
actually occurs.
situational irony
A type of sentence that appears to follow the inner working of the
mind by mimicking the rambling, associative syntax of thought.
running style
A recurring idea, structure, contrast, or device that develops or informs the major themes of a
work of literature.
motif
A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory. The
literal and symbolic meanings correspond clearly and directly to
one another.
parable
A statement that appears to contradict itself.
paradox
A logical fallacy that assumes as true the very thing that one is
trying to prove
begging the question
A sentence with at least two independent clauses and one or
more dependent clauses.
compound-complex sentence structure
The juxtaposition of two dissimilar elements within a
literary work for the purpose of highlighting their differences.
ironic contrast
Multiple meanings, intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase,
sentence or passage.
ambiguity
An imaginary story that has become an accepted part of a
cultural or religious tradition of a group or society.
myth
A statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one
before.
non sequitur
A figure of speech combining inconsistent or incongruous
metaphors.
mixed metaphor
A work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque
imitation.
burlesque
A sentence containing a deliberate omission of words.
elliptical construction
To write evasively; to discuss a topic without saying anything
concrete about it.
circumlocution
A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle.
aphorism
POETRY REVIEW
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up
a line of poetry
rhythm or meter
A unit of stressed and unstressed syllables used to determine the
meter of a poetic line.
foot
A metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by an stressed syllable ( U U / )
anapest/anapestic
A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables ( / / U )
dactyl/dactyllic
A metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by an stressed one ( U / ). This is the most common poetic foot in
the English language.
iamb/iambic
A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one
unstressed syllable ( / U ).
trochee/trochaic
A metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables ( / / ). This
type of foot is so rare it is hardly ever used.
spondee/spondaic
A line of poetry containing a single foot.
monometer
A line of poetry containing two feet.
dimeter
A line of poetry containing three feet.
trimeter
A line of poetry containing four feet.
tetrameter
A line of poetry containing five feet.
pentameter
A line of poetry containing six feet.
hexameter
A line of poetry containing seven feet.
heptameter
A line of poetry containing eight feet.
octameter
A group of two or more lines of poetry arranged together by the author for a specific purpose.
stanza
A two-line stanza
couplet
A three-line stanza
tercet
A four-line stanza
quatrain
A five-line stanza
cinquain
A six-line stanza
sestet
A seven-line stanza
septet
An eight-line stanza
octave
Two rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter (e.g. the final
two lines of a sonnet).
heroic couplet
Poetry that has rules about numbers of lines, meter and/or
rhyme schemes.
fixed form
A traditional Japanese fixed-form poem. It consists of three lines with 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 in the second.
haiku
A complicated French form of poetry consisting of six six-line
stanzas followed by a tercet, which is called an “envoy”.
sestina
A poem containing fourteen lines of iambic pentameter – three
quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme is
abab cdcd efef gg.
Shakespearean sonnet
A poem containing fourteen lines of iambic pentameter – three
quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme is
abab bcbc cdcd ee.
Spenserian sonnet
A sonnet consisting of one octave which presents a problem,
followed by a sestet which either gives the solution or signals a
shift in tone.
Italian/Petrarchan sonnet
A fixed form of poetry consisting of 19 lines composed of five
tercets and a concluding quatrain. Lines one and three serve as
refrains and are repeated again in the final two lines.
villanelle
A simple narrative poem that tells a story. It is often written in
quatrains with an ABCD rhyme scheme.
ballad
A poem in which the subject is the death of a person or, in some
cases, an idea
elegy
A lengthy, adventurous tale told on a grand scale that celebrates
the exploits of a hero.
epic
A serious lyric poem, often of significant length, that usually
conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
ode
Personal, reflective poetry that reveals the speaker’s thoughts and
feelings about the subject.
lyric poem
Unrhymed verse that lacks a consistent metrical pattern
free verse
A poem in which a speaker addresses either the reader or an
internal listener at length.
dramatic monologue
A type of poetry that uses elaborate conceits to express the
complexities of love and life.
metaphysical poetry
A parody of traditional epic form poetry.
mock epic
A break or pause within a line of poetry indicated by punctuation and used to emphasize meaning.
caesura
The running of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the
next without a break.
enjambment
Rhyme of the terminal syllables of lines of poetry.
end rhyme
Rhyme that occurs within a line of verse
internal rhyme
Rhyme that matches only one syllable, usually at the end of
respective lines.
masculine rhyme
Rhyme that matches two or more syllables, usually at the end of
respective lines.
feminine rhyme
Words at the end of lines of poetry that sound the similar but
are not exact rhymes.
slant rhyme
Words that appear to rhyme due to similar spelling but do not
rhyme when pronounced.
eye rhyme
Repetition of vowels without repetition of consonants used as an alternative to rhyme in verse.
assonance
Recurrence or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables without the
similar correspondence of vowels
consonance