AP Literature Terms & Literary Terms/Devices
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Get definitions and examples online: Virtual Salt/Online Literary Terms Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms by Jack Lynch, Rutgers University The Virtual Classroom Glossary of Literary Terms, Cambridge University All American: Glossary of Literary Terms, University of North Carolina, Pembroke |
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Literary Terms, Devices, and Elements (These
are the class room definitions; for more in-depth study and understanding,
I recommend visiting the sights above) Allusion
- A
reference in a work of literature to something outside the work,
especially to a well-known historical event, person, or work. Lorraine
Hansberry’s title A raisin in the Sun is an allusion to a phrase
in a poem by Langston Hughes. When
T.S. Elliot writes, “To have squeezed the universe into a ball”
in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” he is alluding to the lines
“Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one
ball” in Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.”
In Hamlet, when Horatio says, “ere the mightiest Julius fell,”
the allusion is to the death of Julius Caesar. Diction
- Word
Choice. Nearly all essay questions on a passage of prose or a poem will
ask you to talk about “techniques” that include diction. Any word that is important to the meaning and the effect of a
passage can be used in your essay. Often
several words with a similar effect are worth discussion, such as George
Eliot’s use in Adam Bede if “sunny afternoons,” “slow
wagons,” and “bargains” to make the leisure of bygone days
appealing. These words are also details. Devices
of Sound -
The techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry.
Among devices of sound are rhyme, alliteration, assonance,
consonance, and onomatopoeia. These
are defined below under metrical terms.
The devices are used for many reasons including to create a general
effect of pleasant or of discordant sound, to imitate another sound or to
reflect a meaning. Resources
of Language -
A general phrase for the linguistic devices or techniques that a writer
can use. A question calling
for the “resources of language” invites a student to discuss the style
and rhetoric of a passage. Such
topics as diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery are all
examples of resources of language. Narrative
Techniques -
The method involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of
stories or accounts. Narrative
techniques is a general term (like “devices,” or “resources of
language”), which asks you to discuss the procedures used in the telling
of a story. Examples of the
techniques you might use are point of view, manipulation of time,
dialogue, or interior monologue. Internal
Rhyme -
Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.
“God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!-
Why look’st thou so?”-With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross. Line
three contains the internal rhyme of “so” and “bow”. Iamb
- A
two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented
syllable. The iamb is the
most common foot in English poetry. Free
Verse-
Poetry is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical.
The poetry of Walt Whitman is perhaps the best-known example of
free verse. Epigram-
A pithy saying, often using contrast. The epigram is also a verse form,
usually brief and pointed. Parable
- A
story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a
question. Parables are
allegorical stories. Didactic
-
Explicitly instructive. A
didactic poem or novel may be good or bad.
Pope’s “Essay on Man” is didactic; so are the novels of Ayn
Rand. Lyrical-
Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination. Heroic
Couplet -
Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc, with the
thought usually completed in the two-line unit.
When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
And all those tresses shall be laid in the dust,
This lock, the Muses shall consecrate to fame,
And ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name. Rhyme
Royal -
A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer
and other medieval poets. Rhetorical
Techniques -
The devices used in effective or persuasive language. The number of rhetorical techniques, like that of the
resources of language, is long and runs from apostrophe to zeugma.
The more common examples include devices like contrast,
repetitions, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical question. Attitude
- A
speaker’s, author’s, or character’s disposition toward or opinion of
a subject. For example,
Hamlet’s attitude toward Gertrude is a mixture of affection and
revulsion, changing from one to the other within a single scene.
Jane Austen’s attitude toward Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice
combines respect for his wit and intelligence with disapproval of his
failure to take sufficient responsibility for the rearing of all of his
daughters. Irony
- A
figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ,
characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of
words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning.
The term irony implies a discrepancy.
In verbal irony (saying the opposite of what one means), the
discrepancy is between statement and meaning.
Sometimes, irony may simply understate, as in “Men have died from
time to time...” When Mr. Bennet, who loathes Whickham, says he is
perhaps his “favorite” son-in-law, he is using irony. Tone
- The
manner in which an author expresses his of her attitude; the intonation of
the voice that expresses meaning. Tone is described by adjectives, and the
possibilities are nearly endless.
Often a single adjective will not be enough, and tone may change
from chapter to chapter or even from line to line.
Tone is the result of allusion, diction, figurative language,
imagery, irony, symbol, syntax, and style to cite only the relevant words
on this list. In the
Wordsworth passage on the 1992 exam, the tone moves from quiet to
apprehensive to confident to exuberant to terrified to panic to uncertain
to restive in only twenty-five lines. Strategy
(or Rhetorical Strategy) - The management of language for a specific effect.
The strategy or rhetorical strategy of a poem is the planned
placing of elements to achieve an effect.
For example, Shakespeare’s sonnet 29, “When in disgrace with
fortune and men’s eyes,” spends the first nine lines describing the
speaker’s discontent, then three describing the happiness the thought of
the loved-one brings, all in a single sentence.
The effect of this contrast is to intensify the feelings of relief
and joy in lines 10-12. The
rhetorical strategy of most love poems is deployed to convince the
loved-one to return the speaker’s love.
By appealing the loved-one’s sympathy (“If you don’t return
my love, my heart will break.”), or by flattery (“How could I not love
someone as beautiful as you?”), or by threat (“When you’re old,
you’ll be sorry you refused me.”), the lover attempts to persuade the
loved-one to love in return. Syntax-
The structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. A discussion of syntax in essay could include such
considerations as the length or brevity of the sentences, the kinds of
sentences (questions, exclamations, declaratives sentences, rhetorical
questions- or periodic or loose; simple, complex, or compound).
Syntax is often and issue on the English language exam.
It has also been used frequently in recent essay questions on the
AP literature exams, since it is clear that many students are not prepared
to write about syntax. Until this defect has been repaired, syntax questions will
continue to appear regularly in both the multiple-choice and essay
sections of the test. Satire
-
Writing that seeks to arouse a reader’s disapproval of an object by
ridicule. Satire is usually
comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly.
A classical form, satire is found in the verse of Alexander Pope or
Samuel Johnson, the plays of Ben Jonson or Bernard Shaw, and the novels of
Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, or Joseph Heller. Structure
- The
arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a
work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work.
The most common principles od structure are series (A, B, C, D, E),
contrast (A vs. B, C vs. D, E vs. A) and repetition (AA, BB, AB). The most
common units of structure are-play: scene, act; novel: chapter; poem:
line, stanza. Theme
- The
main thought expressed by a work. Essay
questions may ask for discussion of the theme or themes of a work or may
use the words “meaning” or “meanings.”
The open question frequently asks you to relate a discussion on one
subject to a “meaning of the work as a whole.”
When preparing the novels and plays you might use on the open
question, be sure to consider what theme or themes you would write about
if you are asked to talk about a “meaning of the work.”
The question is much harder to answer for some works than others.
I’m not sure what I would say is the meaning of Hamlet,
Wuthering Heights, or Waiting for Godot.
But I have much less trouble defining a theme in works like Brave
New World or Animal Farm. Setting
- The
background to a story; the physical location of a play, story, or novel.
The setting of a narrative will normally involve both time and
place. The setting of A
Tale of Two Cities is London and Paris at the time of the French
Revolution, but the setting of Waiting for Godot is impossible to
pin down specifically. Simile
- A
directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects,
usually with “like,” “as,” or “than.” It is easier to
recognize a simile than a metaphor because the comparison is explicit: my
love is like a fever; my love is deeper than a well; my love is as dead as
a doornail. The plural of
“simile” is “similes” not “similies.” Details
(Choice of Details) - Details are items or parts that make up a larger picture or story.
Chaucer’s “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales is
celebrated for its use of a few details to bring the characters to life.
The miller, for example, is described as being brawny and
big-boned, able to win. Figurative
Language -
Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or
that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, simile,
and irony. Figurative
language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning. “The black bat night has flown” is figurative, with the
metaphor comparing night and a bat. “Night
is over” says the same thing without figurative language.
No real bat is or has been on the scene, but night is like a bat
because it is dark. Metaphor
- A
figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the
use of a comparative term like “as,” “like,” or “than.” A simile would say, “night is like a black bat”; a
metaphor would say, “the black bat night.”
When Romeo says, “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” his
metaphors compare her window to the east and Juliet to the sun. Omniscient
Point of View -
The vantage point of a story in which the narrator can know, see, and
report whatever he or she chooses. The
narrator is free to describe the thoughts of any of the characters, to
skip about in time or place, or to speak directly to the reader.
Most of the novels of Austen, Dickens, or Hardy employ the
omniscient point of view. Point
of View -
Any of several possible vantage points from which a story is told.
The point of view may be omniscient, limited to that of a single
character, or limited to that of several characters.
And there are other possibilities.
The teller may use the first person (as in Great Expectations
or Wuthering Heights) or the third person (as in The Mayor of
Casterbridge or A Tale of Two Cities).
Faulkner’s As I lay Dying uses the point of view of all of
the members of the Bundren family and others as well in the first person,
while in Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood tells us the story that
Nelly Dean tells him, a first-person narration reported by a second
first-person narrator. Jargon
- The
special language of a profession or group.
The term jargon usually has pejorative associations, with the
implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to
outsiders. The writings of
the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to jargon. Literal
- Not
figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete. Oxymoron
- A
combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms.
Romeo’s line “feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick
health” has four examples of the device. Thesis
- The
theme, meaning, or position that a writer undertakes to prove or support. Syntax
- The
structure of a sentence. See syntax, page 130. Ambiguity
-
Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings
that ate incompatible. Blank
Verse -
Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o’er the crystal battlements: from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve. Blank
verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as that of
Milton’s Paradise Lost. Dactyl
- A
metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two
unaccented syllables. Parallel
Structure – A
similar grammatical structure within a sentence or within a paragraph.
Winston Churchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landings grounds, we shall fight in the fields” speech or
Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech depend chiefly on the
use of parallel structure. Symbol
–
Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else.
Winter, darkness, and cold are real things, but in literature they
are also likely to be used as symbols of death.
A paper lantern and a light bulb are real things, but in A
Streetcar Named Desire, They are also symbols of Blanche’s attempt
to escape from reality and reality itself.
Yorick’s skull is a symbol of human morality, and Melvilles’s
white whale is certainly a symbol, but exactly what it symbolizes has yet
to be agreed upon. Style
- The
mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of
an author. Many elements
contribute to style, and if a question calls for a discussion of style or
of “stylistic techniques,” you can discuss diction, syntax, figurative
language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, and tone, using the
ones that are appropriate. Notice
that there are several phrases used in the essay questions that invite you
to choose among several possible topics: “devices of style,”
“narrative techniques,” “rhetorical techniques,” “stylistic
techniques,” and “resources of language” are all phrases that call
for a consideration of more than one technique but do not specify what
techniques you must discuss. Usually
one of the two essay questions on a set passage will use one of these
phrases, while the other questions will specify the tasks by asking for
“diction, imagery, and syntax” or a similar three or four topics. Syllogism
– A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion
is drawn from them. A
syllogism begins with a major premise (“All tragedies end unhappily.”)
followed by a minor premise (“Hamlet is a tragedy.”) and a conclusion
(Therefore, “hamlet end unhappily.”). End-stopped
– A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period comma,
colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark are end-stopped
lines. Imperative
– The
mood of a verb that gives an order. “Eat your spinach” uses an
imperative verb. Antecedent
– That
which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a
pronoun refers. In the sentence “The witches cast their spells,” the
antecedent of the pronoun “their” in the noun “witches.” Apostrophe
– Direct
address, usually to someone or something that is not present. Keats’s
“Bright star! would I were steadfast” is an apostrophe to a star, and
“To Autumn” is an apostrophe to a personified season. Terza
Rima
– A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc. Dante’s Divine Comedy
is written in terza rima. Convention
– A
device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a
recognized means of expression. For
example, a lover observing the literary love conventions cannot eat or
sleep and grows pale and lean. Romeo,
at the beginning of the play is a conventional lover, while an overweight
lover in Chaucer is consciously mocking the convention. Periodic
Sentence – A
sentence grammatically complete only at the end. A loose sentence is
grammatically complete before the period. The following are (1) periodic
and (2) loose sentences.
Periodic
sentences complete the important idea at the end, while loose sentences
put the important idea first. Neither
is a better sentence. Good
writers use both. Tetrameter
– A
line with four feet. Ellipsis
– The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete
construction that is still understandable.
“If rainy, bring an umbrella” is clear though the words “it
is” and “you” have been left out. Assonance
- The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
“A land laid waste with all its young men slain” repeats the
same “a” sound in “laid,” “waste,” and “slain.” Alliteration
– The
repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the
beginning of words. “Gnus
never know pneumonia” is an example of alliteration, since despite the
spellings, all four words begin with the “n” sound. Stereotype
– A conventional pattern, expression, character, or idea.
In literature, a stereotype could apply to the unvarying plot and
characters of some works of fiction (those of Barbara Cartland, for
example) or to the stock characters and plots of many of the greatest
stage comedies. Soliloquy
– A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts
aloud. A monologue also has a
single speaker, but the monologist speaks to others who do not interrupt. Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” and “O! what a rogue
and peasant slave am I” are soliloquies.
Browning’s “My Last Duchess” and “Fra Lippo Lippi” are
monologues, but the hypocritical monk of his “Soliloquy of the Spanish
Cloister” cannot reveal his thoughts to others. Rhetorical
Question
- A question asked for
effect, not in expectation of a reply.
No reply is expected because the question presupposes only one
possible answer. The lover of
Suckling’s “Shall I wasting in despair / Die because a lady’s
fair?” has already decided the answer is no. Denotation
– The
dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation. Ballad
Meter –
A four-line stanza rhymed abcb with four feet in lines one and three and
three feet in lines two and four.
O mother, mother make my bed.
O make it soft and narrow.
Since my love died for me today,
I’ll die for him tomorrow. Modify
– To restrict or limit in meaning.
In the phrase “large, shaggy dog,” the two adjectives modify
the noun; in the phrase “very shaggy dog,” the adverb “very”
modifies the adjective “shaggy,” which modifies the noun “dog.” Clause
– A
group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a
complete sentence. In the
sentence “When you are old, you will be beautiful,” the first clause
(“When you are old”) is a dependent clause and not a complete
sentence. “You will be
beautiful” is an independent clause and could stand by itself. Allegory
- A story in which people, things, and events have another meaning.
Examples of allegory are Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress,
Spencer’s Faerie Queene, and Orwell’s Animal Farm.
A symbolic story that serves as a distinguished representation for
meanings other than those indicated on the surface. The characters are embodiments of moral qualities and other
abstractions. Sonnet
– Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem.
The conventional Italian, or Petrachan, sonnet is rhymed abba,
abba, cde, cde; the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet is rhymed abab,
cdcd, efef, and gg. Pentameter
– A
line containing five feet. The
iambic pentameter is the most common line in English verse written before
1950. Onomatopoeia
– The
use of words whose sound suggests their meaning.
Examples are “buzz,” “hiss,” or “honk.” Hexameter
– A line containing six feet. Stanza
– Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter
and rhyme scheme. Hyperbole
– Deliberate
exaggeration, overstatement. As
a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being
accepted literally. “The
strongest man in the world” or “a diamond as big as the Ritz” are
hyperbolic. Grotesque – Characterized by distortions or incongruities.
The fiction of Poe or Flannery O’Conner is often described as
grotesque. Euphemism – A figure of speech using indirection to avoid
offensive bluntness, such as “deceased” for “dead”: or
“remains” for “corpse.” Reliability – A quality of some fictional narrators whose word
the reader can trust. There
are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is, tellers of a story
who should not be trusted. Most
narrators are reliable (Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway, Conrad’s Marlow),
but some are clearly not to be trusted (Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart,”
several novels by Nabokov). And
there are some about whom readers have been unable to decide (James’s
governess in The Turn of the Screw, Ford’s The Good Soldier). Personification - A figurative use of language which endows
the nonhuman (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human
characteristics. Keats
personifies the nightingale, the Grecian urn, and autumn in his major
poems. Parody – A composition that imitates the style of another
composition normally for comic effect.
Fielding’s Shamela is a parody of Richardson’s Pamela.
A contest for parodies of Hemingway draws hundreds of entries each year. Paradox – A statement that seems to be self-contradicting
but, in fact, is true. The
figure in Donne’s holy sonnet that concludes I never shall be “chaste
except you ravish me” is a good example of the device. Digression
– The
use of material unrelated to the subject of a work. The interpolated
narrations in the novels of Cervantes or Fielding may be called
digressions, and Tristram Shandy includes a digression on
digressions.
Connotation
– The
implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning
(denotation). Both China and
Cathay denote a region in Asia, but to a modern reader, the associations
of the two words are different. Imagery
– The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the
figurative language of a work. Imagery
has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual,
auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the
images that figurative language evokes.
When an AP question asks you to discuss the images or imagery of a
work, you should look especially carefully at the sensory details and the
metaphors and similes of a passage. Some
diction (word choice) is also imagery, but not all diction evokes sensory
responses.
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