Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 1 Secondary Grades 6 12 Definitions and explanations of terms can be found in Harmon & Holman s A Handbook to Literature = grade (s) where term should be learned; subsequent grades can assume students recognize and understand the term PROSE FORMS AND TYPES allegory autobiography biography drama essay fable beast fable fabliaux farce fiction and non-fiction folk tale legend myth novel regional novel (local color) novel of manners novel of initiation (bildungsroman) historical novel picaresque novel sociological novel psychological novel novella novelette parable short story BASIC LITERARY ELEMENTS characters (concept) characters (dynamic and static) conflict (man against man, man against man, man against self) mood/atmosphere CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 2 motif plot: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, denouement point-of-view setting symbol theme tone LITERARY STRUCTURES/AUTHOR TECHNIQUES characterization comic relief dialect dialogue flashback foreshadowing frame stories (framework) imagery in medias res rhetorical question suspense POETRY: FORMS AND TYPES ballad art or literary ballad folk ballad companion poems concrete/shaped poems altar poem (carmen figuratem) dramatic monologue elegy CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 3 POETRY: FORMS AND TYPES (CONTINUED) epic haiku idyll lament limerick lyric ode pastoral poem sonnet Petrarchan Shakespearean Spenserian villanelle POETRY: SOUND TERMS Alliteration assonance/consonance dissonance onomatopoeia repetition anaphora antimetabole rhyme end rhyme exact rhyme rhyme scheme half rhyme/slant rhyme internal rhyme feminine rhyme/masculine rhyme eye rhyme CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English, page 4 POETRY: SOUND TERMS (CONTINUED) rhythm & meter (concept) rhythm & meter (types of feet) iambic trochaic anapestic dactyllic spondaic pyrrhic sprung rhyme POETRY: STRUCTURAL TERMS argument Alexandrine line caesura canto octave refrain sestet stanza (concept) ballad stanza couplet closed couplet Heroic couplet distich tercet/terza rima quatrain cinquain heptastich ottava rima CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 5 POETRY: STRUCTURAL TERMS (CONTINUED) verse (concept) blank verse free verse FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE DEVICES anastrophe apostrophe hyperbole imagery metaphor extended metaphor metonomy oxymoron personification simile synechdoche TERMS FROM THE DRAMA antagonist/protagonist catharsis epilogue/prologue morality play mystery play passion play soliloquy tragedy hamartia hubris tragic flaw tragic hero CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 6 SAYINGS aphorism axiom epigram epigraph epitaph maxim proverb LITERARY MOVEMENTS/STYLES/SCHOOLS grotesque carpe diem poetry confessional poetry Harlem Renaissance Naturalism Romanticism stream of consciousness Theater of the Absurd Transcendentalism MISCELLANEOUS/GENERAL TERMS aesthetic allusion anachronism anastrophe apology archetype asyndeton audience black humor caricature CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 7 MISCELLANEOUS/GENERAL TERMS (CONTINUED) coherence colloquial/colloquialism conceit metaphysical conceit connotation/denotation controlling image diction didactic epiphany epithet Homeric epithet foil genre gothic homily imagery invective (not in A Handbook to Literature) invocation juxtaposition kitsch loose sentence/periodic sentence meiosis/litotes/understatement narrative paradox parallelism paraphrase pathos/pathetic pedantic (not in A Handbook to Literature) persona precis CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
Subject Area: AP/pre-AP English Literary Terms, page 8 MISCELLANEOUS/GENERAL TERMS (CONTINUED) prose & poetry pun rhetoric rhetorical question rhetorical shift romance scansion Satire verbal irony sarcasm situational irony dramatic irony parody Horatian & Juvenalian semantics stichomythia synaesthesia syllogism syntax trilogy utopia/dystopia vernacular wit