AP ENGLISH IV
LITERARY TERMS:
from allegory to zeugma
Allegory
A story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects take on symbolic meanings.
Allusion
A reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work.
Anapest
In a line of poetry, two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable forming the pattern for the line or perhaps for the entire poem. The following example is by Robert Frost:
Anaphora
Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines
Anecdote
A very short tale told by a character in a literary work.
Antihero
A protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. He or she may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. Often what antiheroes learn, if they learn anything at all, is that the world isolates them in an existence devoid of God and absolute values.
Antithesis
opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction
Anthropomorphism
The ascription of human characteristics to nonhuman objects. Whereas anthropomorphism is the conceptual presentation of some nonhuman entity in human form, personification is the much more limited rhetorical presentation of some nonhuman entity in figuratively human or with figuratively human qualities. Ex. Zeus as “all-father” with human qualities and features = anthropomorphic; Zeus as “Father Time” with scythe and hourglass = personification
Aphorism
A brief statement which expresses an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation.
Apotheosis
elevation to divine status (deification), the perfect example (quintessence)
Aposiopesis
a form of ellipse by which a speaker comes to an abrupt halt, seemingly overcome by passion (fear, excitement, etc.) or modesty
Apostrophe
A figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman.
Archetype
A term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious responses in a reader. In literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences, regardless of when or where they live, are considered archetypes. Common literary archetypes include stories of quests, initiations, scapegoats, descents to the underworld, and ascents to heaven.
Aside
A device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech which is heard by the audience but not by other characters in the play.
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in a literary work, especially in a poem.
Asyndeton
A deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses (Ex: I came, I saw, I conquered.”—Julius Caesar)
Blank Verse
A poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Cacaphony/Euphony
Cacaphony 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.
Caesura
A pause within a line of poetry which may or may not affect the metrical count (see #62. meter). In scansion, a caesura is usually indicated by the following symbol (//). Here's an example by Alexander Pope:
Know then thyself,//presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind//is Man
Carpe Diem
A Latin phrase which translated means "Sieze (Catch) the day," meaning "Make the most of today."
Catalogue
a complete enumeration of items arranged systematically with descriptive details
Catastrophe
The scene in a tragedy which includes the death or moral destruction of the protagonist.
Catharsis
Meaning "purgation," catharsis describes the release of the emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy. In his Poetics, Aristotle discusses the importance of catharsis. The audience faces the misfortunes of the protagonist, which elicit pity and compassion. Simultaneously, the audience also confronts the failure of the protagonist, thus receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties. Ultimately, however, both these negative emotions are purged, because the tragic protagonist’s suffering is an affirmation of human values rather than a despairing denial of them.
Chiaroscuro
Contrasting light and shade, often with symbolic implications
Chiasmus
A pattern in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed, as in Coleridge’s line, “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike.”
Conceit
A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things.
Connotation and Denotation
The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition. The word wall, therefore, denotes an upright structure which encloses something or serves as a boundary. The connotation of a word is its emotional content. In this sense, the word wall can also mean an attitude or actions which prevent becoming emotionally close to a person
Consonance
The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry.
Dactyl
In poetry, a metrical pattern consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables as in the following example from "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Lord Tennyson:
Note that the metrical pattern in the fourth foot consists of one stressed and one unstressed syllable, rather than the one stressed and two unstressed syllables necessary to qualify the foot as dactyllic. A metrical pattern need not be consistent throughout a line or poem for the work to be labeled as composed in an identifiable meter. However, if enough of the work is written in an identifiable metrical pattern for the reader to get a sense of a dominant pattern, then the reader is justified in labeling the pattern.
Deus ex Machina
The employment of some unexpected and improbable incident to make things turn out right.
Diction - An author's choice of words. Since words have specific meanings, and since one's choice of words can affect feelings, a writer's choice of words can have great impact in a literary work. The writer, therefore, must choose his words carefully.
Doggerel
A derogatory term used to describe poetry whose subject is trite and whose rhythm and sounds are monotonously heavy-handed.
Double Entendre
A statement that is deliberately ambiguous, one of whose possible meanings is risqué or suggestive of some impropriety.
Dramatic Monologue
In literature, the occurrence of a single speaker saying something to a silent audience. Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is an example wherein the duke, speaking to a non-responding representative of the family of a prospective new duchess, reveals not only the reasons for his disapproval of the behavior of his former duchess, but aspects of his own personality as well.
Elegy
A lyric poem lamenting death.
End-stopped line
A poetic line that has a pause at the end. End-stopped lines reflect normal speech patterns and are often marked by punctuation. Thefirst line of Keats’s "Endymion" is an example of an end-stopped line; the natural pause coincides with the end of the line, and is marked by a period: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
Enjambment
In poetry, when one line ends without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning. This is also called a run-on line.
Epic
A long narrative poem, told in a formal, elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation.
Epigraph
A brief quotation which appears at the beginning of a literary work.
Epistrophe
The repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses
(Ex: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies
within us.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Epithet
In literature, a word of phrase preceding or following a name which serves to describe the character.
Euphemism A mild word of phrase which substitutes for another which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or offensive.
Exposition
A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances. Exposition explains what has gone on before, the relationships between characters, the development of a theme, and the introduction of a conflict.
Farce
A type of comedy based on a humorous situation such as a bank robber who mistakenly wanders into a police station to hide. It is the situation here which provides the humor, not the cleverness of plot or lines, nor the absurdities of the character, as in situational comedy.
Foil
A character in a play who sets off the main character or other characters by comparison.
Foot
The basic unit of measurement in a line of poetry. In scansion, a foot represents one instance of a metrical pattern and is shown either between or to the right or left of vertical lines, as in the following:
The meter in a poem is classified according both to its pattern and the number of feet to the line. Below is a list of classifications:
monometer = one foot to a line
Dimeter = two feet to a line
Trimeter = three feet to a line
Tetrameter = four feet to a line
Pentameter = five feet to a line
Since the line above is written in iambic meter, four feet to the line, the line would be referred to as iambic tetrameter.
Free Verse
Also called open form poetry, free verse refers to poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza. Free verse uses elements such as speech patterns, grammar, emphasis, and breath pauses to decide line breaks, and usually does not rhyme. (vers libre – 19th century French poetic movement)
Hamartia
A term coined by Aristotle to describe "some error or frailty" that brings about misfortune for a tragic hero. The concept of hamartia is closely related to that of the tragic flaw: both lead to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy. Hamartia may be interpreted as an internal weakness in a character (like greed or passion or hubris); however, it may also refer to a mistake that a character makes that is based not on a personal failure, but on circumstances outside the protagonist’s personality and control.
Horatian Satire
The voice is indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty. The speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the absurdities and follies of human beings.
Hubris or Hybris
Excessive pride or self-confidence that leads a protagonist to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law. In tragedies, hubris is a very common form of hamartia.
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs.
Iamb
A metrical pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. The following is an example:
Idyll
A type of poem which extols the virtues of an ideal place or time.
Imagery
A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work.
Irony
Irony takes many forms. In irony of situation, the result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected. Macbeth murders his king hoping that in becoming king he will achieve great happiness. Actually, Macbeth never knows another moment of peace, and finally is beheaded for his murderous act. In dramatic irony, the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. For example, the identity of the murderer in a crime thriller may be known to the audience long before the mystery is solved. In verbal irony, the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant. A character may refer to a plan as brilliant, while actually meaning that (s)he thinks the plan is foolish. Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony.
Juvenalian Satire
formal satire in which the speaker attacks vice and error with contempt and indignation
Leitmotif
A recurrent repetition of some words, phrase, situation, or idea, such as tends to unify a work through its power to recall earlier occurrences
Litotes
Understatement, for intensification, by denying the contrary of the thing being affirmed (Sometimes used synonymously with meiosis.)
*A few unannounced quizzes are not inconceivable.
Lyric Poem
A short poem wherein the poet expresses an emotion or illuminates some life principle. Emily Dickinson's "I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died" is a lyric poem wherein the speaker, on a deathbed expecting death to appear in all its grandeur, encounters a common housefly instead.
Malapropism
The usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context
Meter
A regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line or lines of poetry. Below is an illustration of some commonly used metrical patterns:
Melodrama
A term applied to any literary work that relies on implausible events and sensational action for its effect. The conflicts in melodramas typically arise out of plot rather than characterization; often a virtuous individual must somehow confront and overcome a wicked oppressor. Usually, a melodramatic story ends happily, with the protagonist defeating the antagonist at the last possible moment. Thus, melodramas entertain the reader or audience with exciting action while still conforming to a traditional sense of justice.
Metonymy
A figure of speech in which a word represents something else which it suggests. For example: the white house for the president or the crown for the king
Non-sequitur
Latin for “it does not follow.” When one statement isn’t logically connected to another.
Ex. John went to the store to buy shoes. John’s mother owns a motorcycle.
Octave
A poetic stanza of eight lines, usually forming one part of a sonnet.
Ode
A relatively lengthy lyric poem that often expresses lofty emotions in a dignified style. Odes are characterized by a serious topic, such as truth, art, freedom, justice, or the meaning of life; their tone tends to be formal. There is no prescribed pattern that defines an ode; some odes repeat the same pattern in each stanza, while others introduce a new pattern in each stanza.
Oedipus complex
A Freudian term derived from Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King. It describes a psychological complex that is predicated on a boy’s unconscious rivalry with his father for his mother’s love and his desire to eliminate his father in order to take his father’s place with his mother. The female equivalent of this complex is called the Electra complex.