AP Literature Study Guide

Allegory - A story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meanings.

Anachronism - A word derived from the Greek that literally means 'misplaced in time.'

Anaphora - The repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive lines or sentences
Ex: In the poem of Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou, the phrase "Phenomenal Woman" is a repetition.

Antecedent - The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers. It often precedes a pronoun in prose or in poetry.
EX: Tom wants to study Political Science; he finds it interesting

Anthropomorphism - In literature, when inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior or motivation. Often used with animal to give them human characteristics.
EX: The chronicle of Narnia is a great example of a movie that has Anthropomorphism of animals talking.

Anticlimax - An often disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation.

Aphorism - A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation.

Apostrophe - Figure of speech in which one directly addresses an imaginary person or some abstraction.

Archaism - The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.

Archetype - A character, situation or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion or folklore.

Ballad - A story in poetic form, often about tragic love and usually sung. Ballads were passed down from generation to generation by singers.

Black Humor - The use of disturbing themes in comedy.

Blank Verse - A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Cacophony/ Euphony - Cacophony is an unpleasant combination of sounds. Euphony, the opposite, is a pleasant combination of sounds. These sound effects can be used intentionally to create an effect, or they may appear unintentionally.

Canto - A subdivision of an epic poem.

Chiasmus - A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed.

Colloquialism - A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of the accepted 'formal' English.
EX: Soft Drink is referred to as Soda or Pop

Conceit - An unusual metaphor or metaphor that is developed in detail in a paragraph (for a novel) or over several lines (for poetry).

Connotation - The associations a word calls to mind.
The more connotative a literary work is, the less objective its interpretation becomes.

Denotation - The dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase.

Denouement - The outcome or clarification at the end of a story that follows the climax and leads to the resolution.

Didactic - A didactic story, speech, essay or play is one in which the author's primary purpose is to instruct, teach or moralize.

Enjambment - The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.

Epigram - A short, clever poem or statement with a witty turn of thought.

Epigraph - A brief quotation found at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of the work's theme.

Epistolary novel - A novel in letter form written by one or more of the characters. The novelist can use this technique to present varying first person viewpoints and does not need a narrator.

Euphemism - A mild word of phrase which substitutes for another word or phrase which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, harsh, or offensive.

Exposition - The presentation of essential information regarding what has occurred prior to the beginning of the work.

Farce - A kind of comedy that depends on exaggerated or improbable situations, physical disasters, and sexual innuendo to amuse the audience.

Hubris - Insolence, arrogance or pride

Hyperbole - A wild exaggeration or an overstatement for literary effect that is not meant to be interpreted literally.

Inference - A judgment based on reasoning rather than on direct or explicit statement.

Inversion - A reversal of normal word order

Irony - Situational: situation that is the opposite of what you'd expext
Verbal: when a writer or speaker says one thing, but really means something completely different.
Dramatic: when the reader or audience knows something that the character does not. There is a contrast between what the character says, thinks or does and the true situation.
Tragic: dramatic irony that occurs in a tragedy

Litotes - A type of understatement in which the speaker or writer uses a negative of a word ironically, to mean the opposite

Metonym - Substituting the name of one object for another closely associated with it

Parable - A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

Paradox - A statement or situation that at first seems impossible, but on closer inspection solves itself and reveals meaning.

Parody - A literary work that imitates the style of another literary work. A parody can be simply amusing or it can be meant to ridicule the author or his work.

Pastoral - A poem, play or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses. The form was popular until the late 18th century.

Pathos - The quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the reader's or viewer's emotions—especially pity, compassion and sympathy.

Pun - Humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings.

Saga - A story of the exploits of a hero, or the story of a family told through several generations.

Structure - Refers to how the parts of a work are organized and arranged

Syllepsis - • A construction in which one word is used in two different senses.
• The meaning of a verb cleverly changes halfway through a sentence but remains grammatically correct.

Synecdoche - A figure of speech where one part of something represents the whole thing.

Syntax - The way in which words, phrases and sentences are ordered and connected. Syntax results in various sentence types used for a variety of rhetorical effects.