AP Literature Terms. Understandable definitions, rated A. LATEST REVIEW.

AP Literature Terms. Understandable definitions, rated A. LATEST REVIEW. Abstract - Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points. Academic - Dry and rhetorical writing; sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis. Accent - In poetry, the stressed portion of a word. Aesthetic - Appealing to the senses; a coherent sense of taste. Allegory - A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. Alliteration - The repetition of initial consonant sounds. Allusion - A reference to another work or famous figure. Anachronism - "Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting. Analogy - A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. Anecdote - A Short Narrative Antecedent - The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. Anthropomorphism - When inanimate objects are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification. Anticlimax - Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. Antihero - A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities. Aphorism - A short and usually witty saying. Apostrophe - A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman. Archaism - The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. Aside - A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage. Aspect - A trait or characteristic Assonance - The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." Atmosphere - The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene Ballad - A long, narrative poem, usually in meter and rhyme. Typically has a naive folksy quality. Bathos - Writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries too hard to be a tear jerker. Pathos - Writing evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy. Black humor - The use of disturbing themes in comedy. Bombast - Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. Burlesque - Broad parody, one that takes a style or form and exaggerates it into ridiculousness. Cacophony - In poetry, using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds. Cadence - The beat or rhythm or poetry in a general sense. Canto - The name for a section division in a long work of poetry. Caricature - A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. Catharsis - Drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play Chorus - In Greek drama, the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it. Classic - Typical, or an accepted masterpiece. Coinage (neologism) - A new word, usually one invented on the spot. Colloquialism - A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "school-book" English. Complex (Dense) - Suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words; subtleties and variations; multiple layers of interpretation; meaning both explicit and implicit Conceit (Controlling Image) - A startling or unusual metaphor, or to a metaphor developed and expanded upon several lines. Denotation - A word's literal meaning. Connotation - Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. Consonance - The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings) Couplet - A pair of lines that end in rhyme Decorum - A character's speech must be styled according to her social station, and in accordance to the situation. Diction - The words an author chooses to use. Syntax - The ordering and structuring of words. Dirge - A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy Dissonance - Refers to the grating of incompatible sounds. Doggerel - Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme, like limericks. Dramatic Irony - When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not Dramatic Monologue - When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience. Elegy - A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. Elements - Basic techniques of each genre of literature Enjambment - The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.