English 12: AP Literature and Composition
School Year 2011-2012
Ms. Tewksbury
All Quarters
Literary Term Glossary
A capable AP Literature student has a command of the vocabulary necessary to discuss
an author’s craft in poetry and prose. To assist you in developing and employing an
appropriate literary criticism vocabulary, you will be completing an ongoing personal
literary term glossary.
You must have FORTY entries completed by the end of the year…..that would be a
minimum of TEN entries each quarter. Or you may certainly do them ahead. It all
depends on what works for you. Please ONLY use the terms given to you on your literary
terms handout. Ideally, you are choosing words of which you do NOT already know the
definition.
As we read poetry and prose for class, you will recognize examples of the terms eligible
for your glossary assignment. You may also encounter examples in our class novels as
well. When you note an example, use it for an entry in your glossary.
Guidelines:
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All entries must follow the correct format and be typed to be graded.
NUMBER your entries all the way to FORTY (40)!!!
Entries not following the correct format or containing errors in convention will
receive the KOD award (Kiss of Death). In this case you will be unable to receive
full credit for the glossary in your portfolio. Ideally, you will pass them in to me
BEFORE the portfolio is due for a revision. If not, you hand them in at your own
risk.
Plagiarism will be result in an irreversible zero for the full Literary Term Glossary
assignment with significant consequences for your final grade.
Format: Three parts
Term
Definition of the literary device (in your own words)
Example
Give a quotation from a literary work, followed by source,
including title, page/line number using MLA format!
Function
Explain the author’s purpose in employing this language resource
at this point in the work. How does this particular device enhance
what the writer is attempting to convey? You may wish to provide
commentary on theme, character, setting, or some other issue in
explaining how this device functions in your example and the
larger work. Make sure to include author and title here. *See
below for more info on how to write this section.
Remember:
Follow the correct conventions (MLA format).
Include the page number for a novel, the line number for a poem, and the
act/scene/line number for a play. The author and title must be included within the
FUNCTION section of your entry. Put quotation marks around the entire quotation,
but not around the citation. Follow MLA format.
Proofread carefully!!!!!
Entries not following the correct format or containing errors in convention will
receive the KOD award (Kiss of Death). In this case you will be unable to receive
full credit for the glossary in your portfolio. Ideally, you will pass them in to me for a
revision BEFORE the portfolio is due. If not, you hand them in at your own risk.
<evil grin>. 
Your FUNCTION discussion will be more effective if you include the three C’s.
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Context: Provide context for your quotation. This does not mean PLOT
SUMMARY (!), but rather the general circumstances introducing the
quotation. Assume the reader has a passing familiarity with your text.
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Concept: Specifically address the device you are examining and what it is
doing in the quotation. Use present tense and active voice in referring to the
device.
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Connection: Provide the commentary explaining how the literary device
works in the passage/novel/poem and how this contributes to the meaning of
the work as a whole. Consider why the author elected to use this device ad
how it advances some artistic purpose in the work. Beware of using general
specifics. Effective discussion will begin with the WHAT and proceed very
quickly and perceptively to the HOW and WHY.
Literary Term Glossary Example:
(And NO you may not use this as one of your own…that would be plagiarism, right?) ;-)
#1
Aside:
An actor’s speech, directed to the audience, which is not supposed to be
heard by other actors on stage. An aside is used to let the audience know
what a character is about to do or what he/she is thinking.
Example:
“A little more than kin and less than kind.”
(Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet”. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1992. 1.2.145).
Function:
In the first act of the play “Hamlet” by Shakespeare, the new king
Claudius is speaking to his subjects. The content of his speech – affairs of
state and recognition of his recent marriage – suggest this is one of his first
official speeches. When he addresses Hamlet, he refers to him as both his
“cousin” and his “son”. This aside is Hamlet’s reaction to Claudius.
Hamlet touches upon two important aspects in terms of how he views the
King. When Hamlet declares he is “[a] little more than kin,” he is
referring to the hasty marriage between Claudius and his mother, Queen
Gertrude. Hamlet disapproves of the marriage and is loathe to accept
Claudius as a father figure. He mocks the fact that Claudius is now more
than kin, as he only has become king by pushing himself on Gertrude at a
vulnerable time for both her and the entire kingdom. Hamlet despises
both Claudius’ opportunism and the fact that he has the gall to openly
refer to him as “son.”
When he goes on to refer to Claudius as being “less than kind”, he
emphasizes the distaste he holds for him in two ways. First Hamlet
suggests that Claudius is cold-hearted and callous. There is a second
meaning to “kind”, however, that is also significant. In Elizabethan
England, “kind” meant natural. Given that denotation, Hamlet is
suggesting that Claudius is unnatural, even an aberration. The
combination of these two definitions revel Hamlet’s immense dislike for
his former uncle – now technically his father – Claudius.
The aside ultimately allows Hamlet to state his feelings without saying
anything to Claudius directly, as if he is muttering under his breath, and
only the audience hears it. This gives the audience insight to Hamlet’s
true feelings and motivations while keeping them hidden from other
characters, especially Claudius. His venom is thus revealed to the
audience, while kept carefully hidden from the man who could dispatch
him in a moment. The aside also shows that Hamlet is not yet ready to
fully confront the king, whether due to fear or perhaps some general
distaste for direct confrontation, which would ultimately necessitate
action. Finally, this aside, which are his first words in the play, begin to
build a tight private relationship between Hamlet and the audience; one on
which those who sit in the theater are the only ones who really see all
sides of this complex character.