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AP English
Literary Terms
Allegory: A type of narrative in which the surface story reflects at least one other meaning. Traditional
allegory frequently employs personification, the use of human characters to represent abstract ideas. Another
type of allegory uses the surface story to refer to historical or political events and persons.
Alliteration: The repetition of stressed initial sounds in a group of words that are closely connected to one
another (e.g. “From a friendless foundling, feeble and wretched”).
Allusion: A reference within a literary text to some person, place or event outside the text.
Anagnorisis: In drama, a term describing the moment of discovery or recognition by the protagonist. In
tragedy, such a moment frequently accompanies the peripeteia, the reversal or downturn of his fortune.
Anapest: A metrical foot containing two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable (e.g. “With a turf
on my breast, and a stone on my head”),
Anaphora: A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses (e.g. "I
have a dream…")
Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which a speaker turns from the audience to address an absent person or
abstract idea.
Ballad: Originally a song associated with dance, the ballad developed into a form of folk verse narrative. The
majority of folk ballads deal with themes of romantic passion, love affairs that end unhappily, or with political
or military subjects.
Bildungsroman: A german term for a type of novel that focuses on the development of a character moving from
childhood to maturity.
Binary Opposition: A basic linguistic principle in which each of two opposing terms implies the other:
presence/absence; raw/cooked; male/female. Binary opposites invariably reveal the assumption of the
superiority of one term over the other with profound social and intellectual consequences.
Burlesque: A type of literature or drama designed to mock a serious work or an entire genre. As a form of
parody, burlesque is usually distinguished from satire by its broad comic effects and its willingness to depart
from serious criticism of its subject in favor of simple entertainment.
Cacophony: In verse or prose, a discordant, harsh sound. One form of cacophony arises from the arrangement
of words designed to make the reading of them difficult.
Caesura: In poetry written in English, a pause within a line of verse.
Caricature: A term, usually applied to drawing, for an exaggerated description of an individual. In literature,
caricature usually serves a comic purpose.
Carpe Diem: A Latin term expressing the idea of taking advantage of the present moment (lit. seize the day).
Chiasmus: In rhetoric, the inversion of words from the first half of a statement in the second half (e.g. “Ask not
what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”).
Conceit: A term for a particularly fanciful metaphor.
Couplet: In verse, a pair of contiguous lines, often rhymed. Heroic couplet is the name given to a rhymed
couplet written in iambic pentameter.
Dactyl: A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in the word
courtesy.
Denoument: The clarification of the complications of the plot in a narrative or drama. The denouement
normally occurs close to the end of the story, following its climax.
Determinism: The view that all events in the universe, including those of human history, are determined by the
conditions that produce them.
Dialectic: In philosophy, the art of arriving at the truth through debate or discussion.
Diction: The choice of words in a work of literature.
Dirge: A funeral song lamenting someone’s death.
Doggerel: Crude, shallow verse, sometimes consciously employed for comic effect.
Dramatic Monologue: A type of lyric poem in which a person speaks to a silent audience and, in the course of
doing so, reveals a critical aspect of his own character.
Elegy: A lyric poem meditating on the death of an individual or on the fact of mortality in general. The
reflection on death generally leads to a resolution in which the speaker asserts a general truth.
Enjambment: In verse, the continuation without pause from one line or couplet to the next. It is frequently
employed in blank verse drama, lending a realistic conversational rhythm to the characters’ speech.
Epigram: A witty phrase or short poem (e.g. “I can resist everything except temptation.”).
Epistemology: The study of knowledge, what it means to know something and how we acquire knowledge.
Ethos: In rhetoric, the ethical character that a speaker projects in his efforts to persuade an audience. The term
is used in literary study to refer to a governing principle in an institution, idea, or movement.
Euphony: A pleasing, agreeable sound, traditionally associated with lyric poetry.
Exposition: The part of a play or fiction that sets up the main action, introduces the characters, explains the
background, and anticipates the conflict.
Free Verse: Lines of poetry written without a regular meter and usually without rhyme.
Hamartia: An error committed by a tragic hero that leads to his downfall. The error may be a consequence of
some inherent weakness of character or the result of a lack of knowledge.
Hegemony: The ways in which people submit and remain complicit with their own oppression.
Hubris: A Greek word for excessive pride, an arrogance that invites retribution of the gods.
Hyperbole: An exaggerated or extravagant expression not meant to be taken literally.
Iamb: A metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word alone.
Ideology: In its most common sense, a system of belief or political creed.
In Medias Res: (in the middle of things): A narrative convention in which a story begins in the middle of an
important action rather than at its chronological beginning.
Irony: Refers to the technique of implying something very different from what one is ostensibly saying. The
intention of an ironic statement can range from the comically light to the ominously dark. Socratic irony is a
term used to describe Socrates’ technique of feigning ignorance by asking innocent questions that would
eventually trap his opponents in a debate. The term dramatic irony refers to any situation in which the
audience has knowledge that the character lacks.
Litotes: The assertion of an idea by denying its opposite. An ironic figure of speech, litotes, achieves its effect
by appearing to understate the case, as in “a not insignificant sum,” which implies a large figure.
Lyric: A type of poetry in which the “voice” of the poem (not necessarily that of the poet) records a specific
feeling or attitude.
Magical Realism: A term referring to fiction that integrates realistic elements with supernatural or fantastical
experiences.
Metafiction: Fiction that calls attention to its own fictionality.
Metaphor: In its narrow sense, a figure of speech in which something (A) is identified with something else (B) in
order to attribute to A a quality associated with B (e.g. “Life is but a dream”).
Metaphysical Poetry: A type of 17th-century English poetry characterized by witty, ingenious metaphors
drawn from widely disparate areas of life, an intellectually challenging mode of argument reminiscent of the
fine distinctions of scholastic philosophy, and a forceful, colloquial style. The metaphysicals primarily focus on
romantic love and religious faith.
Meter: In poetry, the regular recurrence of a rhythmic sound pattern.
Iambic: One unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.
Trochaic: One accented syllable followed by an unaccented one (e.g. Life is but an empty dream”).
Dactylic: One accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables (e.g. Hickory dickory dock)
Anapestic: Two unaccented syllables followed by one accented (e.g. And the clean ones are seldom so
comical).
A line of verse is also characterized by the number of feet it contains. The terms for poetic feet are the
following:
One foot
monometer
Two feet
dimeter
Three feet
trimeter
four feet
tetrameter
five feet
pentameter
six feet
hexameter
seven feet
heptameter
Metonymy: A figure of speech in which a word is used to apply to something conventionally associated with it
(e.g. He drank the whole bottle; She read all of Jane Austen.).
Ode: A lyric poem of any length that addresses a person or treats a theme in a dignified, serious manner.
Onomatopoeia: A word whose sound hints at its meaning, such as bang, zap, and hiss.
Paradox: An apparent contradiction that asserts a truth.
Parallelism: The principle of representing equal ideas in the same grammatical form, for example, “government
of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Parody: Imitations of a particular style or genre for the purposes of satirizing it.
Pathos: In literature and drama, the evocation in an audience of the feelings of pity and sorrow.
Personification: A figure of speech in which human qualities are attributed to an inanimate or abstract entity.
Realism: In art and literature, a term covering a broad range of views centered on the attempt to depict life as it
is usually experienced, without recourse to miraculous events, larger-than-life characters, or supernatural
intervention.
Refrain: A passage that is repeated at various points in a poem or song.
Satire: A type of literature that aims to ridicule folly or vice in a society, an institution, or individual. Satire
uses laughter as a weapon against any target that the satirist considers silly, stupid, or vicious.
Sonnet: A 14-line lyric poem usually written, for sonnets in English, in iambic pentameter. There are two
distinct rhyme schemes for the sonnet, the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. The Petrarchan sonnet is
divided into two parts: the octave (first 8 lines) with an a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a rhyme scheme and the sestet (final six
lines) with a c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-c-d-c rhyme scheme. The Shakespearean sonnet form consists of three
quatrains (a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f) and a final couplet (g-g).
Stanza: In verse, the basic division of a poem, the equivalent of a paragraph in prose. Stanzas are designated
according to the number of lines they contain:
Couplet (2 lines)
Tercet (3 lines)
Quatrains (4 lines)
Quintain (5 lines)
Sestet (6 lines)
Septet (7 lines)
Octet (8 lines)
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole or the whole for the part (e.g. We need
brave hearts and steady hands; The police are investigating the case.)
Theme: A significant idea in a literary text, sometimes used interchangeably with motif. Theme is also used to
describe a recurring idea in a number of texts.
Tone: In literature, the attitude toward the subject expressed in a work.
Villanelle: A short poem on a pastoral subject, introduced to France from Italy in the 16th century. The
original form of the villanelle was open and unrestrained, but as it developed it assumed a fixed form: a 19-line
poem consisting of five three-line stanzas and one quatrain.