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Literary Terms Review. AP Literature 2012-2013. Overview.
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Literary Terms Review AP Literature 2012-2013
Overview This is not a conclusive list of literary terms for AP Literature; students should be familiar with these terms at the beginning of the year. Please review the terms and ensure that you know each definition and could identify an example by Tuesday, September 11/Wednesday, September 12.
I. Narrative A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in a story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind.
Set I.iPoint of View Point of View the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes
Set I.iPoint of View First Person Narration A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as “I.”
Set I.iPoint of View Third Person Narration The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.”
Set I.iPoint of View Third Person Narration Omniscient Narration The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters.
Set I.iPoint of View Third Person Narration Limited Omniscient Narration The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters.
Set I.iPoint of View Third Person Narration Free Indirect Discourse The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts while staying in third person.
Set I.iPoint of View Objective Narrator A style in which the narrator reports neutrally on the outward behavior of the characters but offers no interpretation of their actions or their inner states.
Set I.iPoint of View Unreliable Narrator The narrator is revealed over time to be an untrustworthy source of information.
Set I.iPoint of View Stream-of-Consciousness Narration The narrator conveys a subject’s thoughts, impressions, and perceptions exactly as they occur, often in a disjointed fashion and without the logic, and grammar of typical speech and writing.
Set I.iiCharacter Character A person, animal, or any other thing with a personality that appears in a story.
Set I.iiCharacter Protagonist The main character around whom the story revolves.
Set I.iiCharacter Protagonist Hero/Heroine an admirable protagonist
Set I.iiCharacter Antagonist The primary character or entity that acts to frustrate the goals of the protagonist.
Set I.iiCharacter Stock Character a common character type that recurs throughout the literature
Set I.iiCharacter Dynamic Character A character that undergoes some kind of change because of the action in the plot.
Set I.iiCharacter Flat Character A character that embodies one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be readily described in a brief summary. These are not psychologically complex characters and therefore are readily accessible to readers.
Set I.iiCharacter Round Character Characters that are more complex than flat or stock characters, and often display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in most real people. They are more fully developed, and therefore are harder to summarize.
Set I.iiCharacter Foil Character A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast.
Set I.iiCharacter Confidant/Confidante A character who is not integral to the action but who receives the intimate thoughts of the protagonist without the use of an omniscient narrator.
Set I.iiiCharacterization Characterization The process by which a writer reveals the personality of a character, making that character seem real to the reader.
Set I.iiiCharacterization Direct Characterization The author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the character for the reader. For example, the narrator may tell the reader directly what the character’s personality is like: humble, ambitious, vain, gullible, etc.
Set I.iiiCharacterization Indirect Characterization The author presents a character’s talking and acting and lets the reader infer what kind of person the character is.
Set I.ivSetting Setting The location of a narrative in time and space.
Set I.vPlot Plot The arrangement of the events in a story, including the sequence in which they are told, the relative emphasis they are given, and the casual connections between events.
Set I.vPlot Conflict The central struggle that moves the plot forward.
Set I.vPlot Rising Action The early part of the narrative, which builds momentum and develops the narrative’s major conflict.
Set I.vPlot Climax The moment of highest tension, at which the conflict comes to a head.
Set I.vPlot Falling Action The latter part of the narrative, during which the protagonist responds to the events of the climax and the various plots elements introduced earlier in the plot.
Set I.vPlot Resolution An ending that satisfactory answers all the questions raised over the course of the plot.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Figures of Speech Expressions that stretch words beyond their literal meanings.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Alliteration The repetition of similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words/
Set II.iFigures of Speech Apostrophe A direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality or idea.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Assonance The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Cacophony The clash of discordant sounds within a sentence or phrase.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Cliche An expression such as “turn over a new leaf” that has been used so frequently it has lost its expressive power.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Hyperbole An excessive statement or conscious exaggeration of fact.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Metaphor The comparison of one thing to another that does not use the terms “like” or “as.”
Set II.iFigures of Speech Metaphor Mixed Metaphor A combination of metaphors that produces a confused or contradictory image, such as “The company’s collapse left mountains of debt in its wake.”
Set II.iFigures of Speech Metonymy The substitution of one term for another that generally is associated with it. For example, “suits” instead of “businessman”
Set II.iFigures of Speech Onomatopoeia The use of words, such as “pop,” “hiss,” and “boing,” that sounds like the thing they refer to.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Oxymoron The association of two contrary terms, such as in the expressions “same difference” or “wise fools”
Set II.iFigures of Speech Paradox A statement that seems absurd or even contradictory on its face but often expresses a deeper truth.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Personification The use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Rhetorical Question A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to make an impact or call attention to something.
Set II.iFigures of Speech Simile A comparison of two things through the use of “like” or “as.”
Set II.iFigures of Speech Synaesthesia The use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another, such as the line “Heard melodies are sweet” in John Keats’s “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”
