AP Literature – Summer Assignment #2
Literary Terms Glossary
Please define the following literary terms. You will also need to include an example and explanation for
10 of these terms – your choice. Explain the examples! Where appropriate, use works of literary merit
for your examples. Include parenthetical reference when quoting directly. Think back on books you’ve
read in school, or, certainly, use The Catcher in the Rye for examples. You would be wise to include
poetry in your examples as well.
50 points possible (1 pt. each for definition, example, explanation)
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Allegory
Alliteration
Antagonist
Ballad
Connotation
Denotation
Hyperbole
Imagery
Motif
Oxymoron
Protagonist
Theme
Metonymy
Allusion
Ambiguity
Verbal irony
Dramatic irony
Polysyndeton
apostrophe
commercial fiction
onomatopoeia literary fiction
Enjambment
sonnet
prose
paradox
symbol
Example:
Term: Antagonist: Any force in a story or play that is in conflict with the protagonist. An antagonist may
be another person, an aspect of the physical or social environment, or a destructive element in the
protagonist’s own nature.
Example: “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve/For daws to peck at. I am not what I am” (Othello,
1.1.70-71).
Explanation: Iago, angry with Othello’s decision to promote Cassio instead of him, hatches an evil plot to
destroy Othello through trickery, all the while maintaining outward loyalty to his boss, Othello. Along
the way, Iago destroys many lives.