Test this Thursday
on these literary
terms!
Learning Target: I can define and give
examples of literary terms.

Test (100 pts) this Thursday on AP terminology.

Select an Independent Reading book off the AP list by
next Wednesday. Our library has an extensive
collection.

Mock AP test starting this week (3 essays and a
multiple choice section.) Worth 400 points!
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Friday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Poetry essay
Fiction essay
Multiple choice
Free response essay
1.
Read the question, circling specific points being
asked. What is the topic and how can it be proven?
2.
Think before you write. Plan your response. It is
not easy for the reader to pick over an essay in an
attempt to decipher sentences. A little
organization will help you avoid extensive editing.
3.
Make a strong first impression. Build your
introduction. Don’t parrot the prompt word for
word. The reader knows it from memory.
Allegory: a story in which characters, things, and
events represent qualities or concepts. The
interaction of these characters, things, events is
meant to reveal an abstraction or truth.
Example: Animal Farm written by George Orwell,
uses animals on a farm to describe the
overthrow of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the
Communist Revolution of Russia before WW II.
The actions of the animals on the farm are used
to expose the greed and corruption of the
revolution.
Ambiguity: an event or situation that may be
interpreted in more than one way.
Example: Hamlet is a morally ambiguous
character. He kills to avenge his father’s
murder.
Anachronism: assignment of something to a
time when it was not in existence.
Example: In Antony and Cleopatra by William
Shakespeare, Cleopatra wants to play
billiards. The game was first invented almost
1500 years after the timeline of Antony and
Cleopatra.
Anaphora: Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause
at the beginning of two or more sentences in a
row.
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Example: It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the
season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it
was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair…
(A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)
Antithesis: a balancing of two opposite words,
phrases, or clauses
Example: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a
bee.” M uhammad Ali
Archetype: repeated experiences in the lives
of our ancestors and stored in the “collective
unconscious” of the human race.
Example: The hero’s journey as
depicted in Beowulf.
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Aside: in drama when a character directly
addresses the audience but it is not heard by
other actors on the stage.

Example from Macbeth: (aside) Glamis, and
thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind. (to
ROSS and ANGUS) Thanks for your pains.
Asyndeton: series of words separated by
commas with no conjunction.
Example: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
Caesar
Julius
Chiasmus: Arrangement of repeated thoughts
in a pattern of XYYX.
Example: “Ask not what your country can do
for you; ask what you can do for your
country.”
Comic Relief: humorous incidents/speeches
that occur in the midst of tragedy.
Example: The porter’s speech following the
murder of Duncan in Macbeth.
Conceit: A complicated analogy or comparison
Example:
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be;
Thou knowest that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead.
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered, swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do...
By John Donne
CONNOTATION
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Implied meaning that
carries an emotional
impact
Example: A snake is a
person who can’t be
trusted and will hurt you if
you let him.
DENOTATION

Dictionary definition of a
word

Example: A snake is a
reptile.
Didactic: a term used to describe literature that
teaches a lesson or provides a moral model.
Example: John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”
describes a religious and spiritual journey of a
man on the way to deliverance. The poem
describes an ordinary sinner “Christian” who
leaves the City of Destruction and travels
towards Celestial City, where God resides, for
salvation. On his way, he finds a companion
“Faithful” who helps him.
Elegy: A formal sustained poem lamenting the death of
a person
Example: “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman
O CAPTAIN! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies . . .
Upon the death of Abraham Lincoln
Hyperbole: an exaggeration used for effect
Examples:
 “She is so dumb, she thinks Taco Bell is a
Mexican phone company”

“My backpack weighs a ton!”
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Litotes—Opposite of hyperbole; litotes
intensifies an understatement by stating
through the opposite.

Example: "It wasn't my best day" instead of
"It was my worst day."

Angst—A term used in existential criticism to
describe the feeling of anxiety, dread, or
anguish present in the works of writers like
Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

In John Gardner’s Grendel, the creature is
filled with angst as he struggles to find the
meaning of life.

Dramatic Irony—When the audience is aware
of something that a character in the play
does not know.

In Act I Duncan rides up to Macbeth’s castle
and claims, “This castle hast a pleasant seat.”
The audience has just listened to the
Macbeths plotting Duncan’s murder and we
know there is going to be nothing pleasant
about this place for him.

Ennui—A persistent feeling of weariness
which afflicts existential man, often
manifesting as boredom.

Daisy Buchanan, complains that "I've been
everywhere and seen everything and done
everything."

Epiphany—A character's moment of realization
or awareness.
I turned to go home. Street lights winked down the street all the
way to town. I had never seen our neighborhood from this angle.
There were Miss Maudie’s, Miss Stephanie’s–there was our house,
I could see the porch swing–Miss Rachel’s house was beyond
us, plainly visible. I could even see Mrs. Dubose’s…Atticus was
right. One time he said you never really know a man until you
stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the
Radley proch was enough…
(“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee)
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Euphemism—The use of a word or phrase
that is less direct, but is also considered less
distasteful or less offensive than another.

Example: "He is at rest" instead of "He is
dead."
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Explication—The act of interpreting or
discovering the meaning of a text. Explication
usually involves close reading and special
attention to figurative language.
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Exposition—Background information
provided by a writer to enhance a reader's
understanding of the context of a fictional or
nonfictional story.

Farce—A type of comedy in which onedimensional characters are put into ludicrous
situations; ordinary standards of probability
and motivation are freely violated in order to
evoke laughter.

Think Dumb and Dumber and Hot Tub Time
Machine!
FLAT CHARACTERS

A character constructed
around a single idea or
quality; a flat character is
often a stereotype.

Tom Buchanan in The Great
Gatsby remains the
stereotypical brute
throughout the novel.
ROUND CHARACTERS

A character that is multidimensional and who
experiences change as a
result of events in the
novel.

Nick Calloway inThe Great
Gatsby develops a
cynicism as he watches the
way Daisy and Tom hurt
people .

Foil—A character whose traits are the
opposite of another and who thus points up
the strengths and weaknesses of the other
character.

Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza
are foils. Laertes and Hamlet are foils.
Personification: giving an animal or object
human characteristics
Example:
The run down house
appeared depressed.
Paradox: a statement that seems to contradict
itself but is, in fact, true.
Examples:
"Je ne parle pas Français."
(Bart Simpson, The Simpsons)
"War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."
(George Orwell, 1984)
Apostrophe: a figure of speech that addresses
(talks to) a dead or nonpresent person, or an
object.
Example:"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle
toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee! I have thee not,
and yet I see thee still.“
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Metonymy: a figure of
speech that replaces the
literal thing with a more vivid,
but closely related thing or
idea.
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Metonymy
Example: Instead of saying "give me your attention," Mark
Antony says to the Romans gathered for Caesar’s funeral,
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.”
Understatement: the opposite of hyperbole, an
understatement makes something that is a big
deal seem not very important. It's often used for
humor.
Example: "The boat had been
ripped apart by the storm and now a
dozen hungry sharks began circling
the captain. 'This isn't great,' he told
his wife.“
Idiom: a word or phrase which means
something different from what it says. Idioms
are common phrases or terms whose
meaning is not real, but can be understood by
their popular use.
Example: A Drop in the Bucket:
Meaning: A very small part of something big or whole
Get out of my face!
Meaning: Stop bothering me!
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Pun: A play on words which suggests two or
more meanings
A pessimist's blood type is
B-negative.
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Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which
apparently contradictory terms appear
together
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Friendly argument
Imagery: any description that
appeals to the sense of sound,
taste, smell, sight or touch
Example: "Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And
sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" - T.S. Eliot
imagery
Alliteration: Repetition of the initial consonant
sound
Assonance: repetition of a vowel sound in nearby
words
Example: “Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is
among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no
man knows how and why the first poems came.”
Carl Sandburg “Early Moon”
Onomatopoeia: words that imitate the sounds
associated with the objects or actions they
refer to.
Theme: a statement of universal truth that
emerges in a work of literature
Example of theme in The Hunger Games: Anyone that
wishes to survive in a harsh environment needs the
necessary skills and an ability to assess risk and make
decisions based on possible consequences and outcomes.
Tone: the author’s
attitude toward his/her
subject
Examples of ironic tone in The Kite Runner:

Isn't it ironic that Baba also betrayed his friend even though
he talks big about honor and principles?

Isn't it ironic that Assef finally loses his eye?
Mood: emotions a reader feels while reading
Example: The dark fatalistic mood in Poe’s short story "The Cask of
Amantillado" is established through the setting.

The time, the last night of Mardi Gras, hints at the deprivation and "end
of the party" to come.

Fortunato's costume suggests his foolish mistakes as he is lured into his
final gruesome end.

He is buried alive in a wall at the end of a long, dank, musty, corridor.

The torch lighting, and crumbling walls remind the reader that it is a dark
and unvisited place. A place where no one will ever find the unfortunate
Fortunato
Allusion: a figure of
speech that makes a reference to another
literary work, myth, or works of art
Example: In The Hunger Games the term “starcrossed lovers” is used to describe Peeta and
Katniss. This is an allusion to Romeo and Juliet
Juxtaposition: The arrangement of two or
more ideas side-by-side for the purpose of
comparison or contrast
Example: a love-sick Romeo and a hotheaded Tybalt are juxtaposed or contrasted
to make their ultimate confrontation more
dramatic.
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Point of view: the way the author allows the
reader to "see" and "hear" what's going on.

Example: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is told
from the point of view of Scout, a young child.
 She doesn't grasp the complex racial and
socioeconomic relations of her town.
 Scout's innocence reminds the reader of a simple, "it's-
not-fair" attitude that contrasts with the
rationalizations of other characters.
Foreshadowing: a literary device in which an author
suggests plot developments that might come later in the
story.
Example: Romeo foreshadows his own death on his way to
the Capulet ball.
. . . my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
Synecdoche—Part of
something is used to
stand for the whole
Example: "threads" for
clothes; "wheels" for
cars.