AP Lit - Terms Used in Multpile-Choice Questions
About this set
Created by:
lgoodfellow on September 22, 2009
Subjects:
AP English Literature and Composition
Classes:
Maggie L. Walker Governor's School
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25 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 allegory | A story in which people, things, and events have another symbolic meaning |
| ambiguity | Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible |
| apostrophe | Direst address, usually to someone or something that is not present |
| connotation | the implication of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning |
| 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 and lean. |
| denotation | the dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation |
| didactic | explicitly instructive |
| digression | The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work |
| epigram | A pithy saying, often using contrast |
| euphemism | A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness |
| grotesque | Characterized by distortion or incongruities |
| hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally |
| jargon | The special language of a profession or group |
| literal | Not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete. |
| lyrical | songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination |
| oxymoron | A combination of oppositives; the union of contradictory terms. Romeo's line "feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health" has four example of the device. |
| parable | A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. Parables are allegorical stories. |
| paradox | A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true. |
| personification | A figurative use of language which endows the nonhuman (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human characteristics. |
| reliability | A quality of some fictionary narrator whose word the reader can trust. There are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is, tellers of a story who should or should not be trusted. |
| rhetorical question | A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply. |
| 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 monologuist speaks to others who do not interrupt. |
| stereotype | A conventional pattern, expression, character, or idea. |
| syllogism | A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from the. 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 ends unhappily.") |
| thesis | The theme, meaning, or position that a write undertakes to prove or support. |
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