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Literary Terms Review
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Literary Terms ReviewAP Literature 2012-2013
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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.
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I. NarrativeA narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in a story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind.
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Point of View
the perspective that a narrative
takes toward the events
it describes
Set I.i Point of View
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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.i Point of View
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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.i Point of View
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Omniscient Narration
The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations
of all of the characters.
Set I.i Point of View Third Person Narration
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Limited Omniscient Narration
The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters.
Set I.i Point of View Third Person Narration
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Free Indirect Discourse
The narrator conveys
a character’s inner thoughts
while staying in third person.
Set I.i Point of View Third Person Narration
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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.i Point of View
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Unreliable Narrator
The narrator is revealed over time to be an untrustworthy source
of information.
Set I.i Point of View
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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.i Point of View
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Character
A person, animal, or any other thing with a personality that appears
in a story.
Set I.ii Character
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Protagonist
The main character around whom the story revolves.
Set I.ii Character
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Hero/Heroine
an admirable protagonist
Set I.ii Character Protagonist
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Antagonist
The primary character or entity
that acts to frustrate the goals
of the protagonist.
Set I.ii Character
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Stock Character
a common character type that recurs throughout the literature
Set I.ii Character
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Dynamic Character
A character that undergoes some kind of change because of the
action in the plot.
Set I.ii Character
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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.ii Character
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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.ii Character
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Foil Character
A character who illuminates
the qualities of another character by means of contrast.
Set I.ii Character
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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.ii Character
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Characterization
The process by which a writer reveals the personality of a
character, making that character seem real to the reader.
Set I.iii Characterization
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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.iii Characterization
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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.iii Characterization
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Setting
The location of a narrative
in time and space.
Set I.iv Setting
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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.v Plot
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Conflict
The central struggle
that moves the plot forward.
Set I.v Plot
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Rising Action
The early part of the narrative, which builds momentum and develops
the narrative’s major conflict.
Set I.v Plot
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Climax
The moment of highest tension,
at which the conflict comes
to a head.
Set I.v Plot
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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.v Plot
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Resolution
An ending that satisfactory answers all the questions raised
over the course of the plot.
Set I.v Plot
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Elements of Style
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Figures of Speech
Expressions that stretch words beyond their literal meanings.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Alliteration
The repetition of similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words/
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Apostrophe
A direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object,
quality or idea.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Assonance
The repetition
of similar vowel sounds
in a sequence of nearby words.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Cacophony
The clash of discordant sounds within a sentence or phrase.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Cliche
An expression such as
“turn over a new leaf”
that has been used so frequently
it has lost its expressive power.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Hyperbole
An excessive statement or conscious exaggeration of fact.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Metaphor
The comparison of one thing
to another that does not use
the terms “like” or “as.”
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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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.i Figures of Speech Metaphor
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Metonymy
The substitution of one term
for another that generally
is associated with it.
For example, “suits” instead of “businessman”
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Onomatopoeia
The use of words,
such as “pop,” “hiss,” and “boing,” that sounds like the thing
they refer to.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Oxymoron
The association
of two contrary terms,
such as in the expressions
“same difference” or “wise fools”
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Paradox
A statement that seems absurd
or even contradictory on its face but often expresses a deeper truth.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Personification
The use of human characteristics to describe animals, things,
or ideas.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Rhetorical Question
A question that is asked
not to elicit a response
but to make an impact or
call attention to something.
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Simile
A comparison of two things through the use of “like” or “as.”
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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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.”
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Synecdoche
A form of metonymy
in which a part of an entity
is used to refer to the whole,
for example,
“my wheels” for “my car.”
Set II.i Figures of Speech
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Literary Techniques
Whereas figures of speech work on the level of individual words or sentences,
writers also use a variety
of techniques to add clarity or intensity to a larger passage,
advance the plot in a particular way, or suggest connections
between elements in the plot.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques
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Antithesis
Definition
Set II.ii Literary Techniques
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Allusion
An implicit reference
within a literary work to a historical or literary person, place, or event.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques
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Foreshadowing
An author’s deliberate use of hints or suggestions to give a preview of
events or themes that do not develop until later in the narrative.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques
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Irony
A wide-ranging technique of detachment that draws awareness to the discrepancy between words
and the meanings, between expectation and fulfillment, or, most
generally, between what is and what seems to be.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques
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Verbal Irony
The use of a statement that, by its context implies its opposite.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques Irony
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Situational Irony
A technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast to another, usually
more prevalent, understanding of the same situation.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques Irony
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Dramatic Irony
A technique in which the author lets the audience or reader in on a character’s situation while the
character himself remains in the dark.
Set II.ii Literary Techniques Irony
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Thematic Meaning
Literature becomes universal when it draws connections between the particular and the general. Often, certain level’s of a literary work’s
meaning are not immediately evident.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning
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Imagery
Language that brings to mind sense-impressions especially via
figures of speech.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning
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Motif
A recurring structure of, contrast, or other device that develops or
informs a work’s major themes.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning
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Symbol
An object, character, figure, or color that is used to represent an
abstract idea or concept.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning
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Theme
A fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning
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Thesis
The central argument that an author makes in a work.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning
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Tone
The general atmosphere created in a story, or the narrator’s attitude
toward the story or reader.
Set II.iii Thematic Meaning