ADVANCED PLACEMENT LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION VOCABULARY

Literary Terms

ABSTRACT-CRITICISM

UNIT 1

ABSTRACT Opposed to concrete, not quantifiable Emotions, ideals, concepts, feelings,

values… Something pleasant or pleasing is

abstract, while calling something yellow or sour is concrete.

The word domesticity is abstract, but the word sweat is concrete.

ALLEGORY Prose or verse in which the objects, events or

people are presented symbolically, so that the story conveys a meaning other than and deeper than the actual incident or characters described. Often, the form is used to teach a moral lesson.

John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678);the hero, Christian, flees the City of Destruction and travels through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castle, and finally arrives at the Celestial City.

The entire narrative is a representation of the human soul's pilgrimage through temptation and doubt to reach salvation in heaven.

ANECDOTE A short narrative detailing the particulars

of an event. The story usually consists of an

interesting biographical incident. This is seen in The Canterbury Tales. It is also seen in the beginning of Kurt

Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five when the author is speaking of how he came to write the succeeding story.

ANTITHESIS Using opposite phrases in close

conjunction. "I burn and I freeze," or "Her character is

white as sunlight, black as midnight.“ The best antitheses express their

contrary ideas in a balanced sentence. It can be a contrast of opposites: "Evil men

fear authority; good men cherish it." It can be a contrast of degree: "One small

step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind."

ARCHETYPE An original model or pattern from which

other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life.

Includes a symbol, a theme, a setting, or a character that some critics think have a common meaning in an entire culture, or even the entire human race. Recurring symbolic situations, themes,

characters, symbolic colors

ATTITUDE A judgment which an author, character or

work expresses.  To be distinguished from tone (the emotion with which views are expressed). 

Tone is emotional, attitude intellectual.  Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum

Est” expresses the attitude that efforts to glorify war in the name of patriotism are lies that distort its ugly reality.  Often in good poetry the tone is mixed and the attitude complex.

AUDIENCE The particular group of readers or

viewers that the writer is addressing.  A writer considers his or her audience

when deciding on a subject, a purpose for writing and the tone and style in which to write.

CONCRETE Opposed to abstract; quantifiable Language that describes qualities that

can be perceived with the five senses as opposed to using abstract or generalized language.

Calling a fruit "pleasant" or "good" is abstract, while calling a fruit "cool" or "sweet" is concrete.

CONFLICTProtagonist/antagonist clash

The tension or problem in the story; a struggle between opposing forces.

Three Types of Conflict

central conflict:  the dominant or most important conflict in the story.

external conflict:  the problem or struggle that exists between the main character and an outside force. (ex:  person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. nature, person vs. the supernatural, person vs. technology, etc.) 

internal conflict:  the problem or struggle that takes place in the main character’s mind (person vs. self). 

CRITICISM AKA: Critical reading Careful analysis of an essay's structure

and logic in order to determine the validity of an argument.

Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Formalist, feminist, Marxist, mythological,

biographical, psychoanalytic, historical, etc.

DEDUCTIVE-SYNTAX

UNIT 2

DEDUCTIVEReasoning from the general to the specific. Students are bad drivers. Aaron drives recklessly. Aaron hits small animals daily.

INDUCTIVEReasoning from the specific to the general. Aaron hits small animals daily.

Aaron, a student, drives recklessly.

Students are bad drivers.

DETAIL Specifically described items placed in a work for

effect and meaning. Elements the author chooses to be specific

about. In some cases, the elements the author chooses

not to be specific about. In E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake,” he gives

details about: the “tarred road” past & present The “camp on the lake” The boy “[sneaking] quietly out” past & present Omits details of anything negative

DICTION Word choice of an author

The sound of a word Denotation: dictionary meaning Connotation: all the emotions the

word elicits.plump = obesedenotation is the same

= FAT plump = pleasantly fat is the connotation obese = medically fat is the connotation

ETHOSCREDIBILITY Ethical appeal, means convincing by the

character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation

is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

LOGOSLOGICAL Persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique,

and Aristotle's favorite. Use deductive and inductive reasoning, and

discuss what makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up claims.

Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough.

PATHOSEMOTIONAL Persuading by appealing to the reader's

emotions. Language choice affects the audience's

emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

IMAGERY A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes

the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature.

It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor.

Imagery is not limited to visual imagery; it also includes: auditory (sound), tactile (touch), thermal (heat and cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic sensation (movement).

LANGUAGE The style of the sentence and

vocabulary used in conversation and written communication. Slang Formal Parental Didactic (lesson-like or “boring”) Common, etc.

SYNTAX The physical arrangement of words in a

sentence. The function of a word, phrase, or clause

within a sentence. The function of a word, phrase, or clause

within a sentence. Standard English syntax prefers a Subject-

Verb-Object pattern. Poets may tweak syntax to achieve

rhetorical or poetic effects.

ASYNDETON-POLYSYNDETON

UNIT 3

ASYNDETON Consists of omitting conjunctions between

words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account: On his return he received medals, honors,

treasures, titles, fame. If, as is the case, we feel responsibility, are

ashamed, are frightened, at transgressing the voice of conscience, this implies that there is One to whom we are responsible, before whom we are ashamed, whose claims upon us we fear. --John Henry Newman

ANALOGY The comparison of two things alike in

some respects. Purpose of explaining or clarifying some

unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. In Thomas Paine’s “The Crisis, No. 1,” he

uses the analogy of the thief breaking into a person’s home to compare with the King’s actions toward the Colonists.

ANALYSIS To separate into parts for inspection and

evaluation. A reader can examine the different literary

devices used in a text, infer information, interpret the meaning, and then synthesize for overall tone, theme, etc.

ANTIHERO A protagonist who is a non-hero or the

antithesis of a traditional hero. While the traditional hero may be dashing,

strong, brave, resourceful, or handsome, the antihero may be incompetent, unlucky, clumsy, dumb, ugly, or clownish.

BYRONIC HERO

An antihero who is a romanticized but wicked character. Conventionally, the figure is a young and attractive male with a bad reputation. He defies authority and conventional morality, and becomes paradoxically ennobled by his peculiar rejection of virtue. Byronic heroes are associated with

destructive passions, sometimes selfish brooding or indulgence in personal pains, alienation from their communities, persistent loneliness, intense introspection, and fiery rebellion.

CHARACTER Any representation of an individual being

presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation.

The reader can interpret characters as endowed with moral and dispositional qualities expressed in what they say (dialogue) and what they do (action).

Character Types

Flat: one-dimensional; built around a single idea or quality

Round: multi-dimensional; complex in temperament and motivation

Static: unchanging over the course of the narrative

Dynamic: capable of growth and change during the course of the narrative

Grotesque: induce both empathy and disgust. The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Phantom of the Opera Beauty and the Beast

CRISIS The turning point of uncertainty and

tension resulting from earlier conflict in a plot.

At the moment of crisis in a story, it is unclear if the protagonist will succeed or fail in his struggle.

The crisis usually leads to or overlaps with the climax of a story, though some critics use the two terms synonymously.

INFERENCE A judgment based on reasoning rather

than on direct or explicit statement. A conclusion based on facts or

circumstances. For example, advised not to travel alone in

temperatures exceeding fifty degrees below zero, the man in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" sets out anyway. One may infer arrogance from such an action.

IRONY In irony of situation, the result of an action is the reverse

of what the actor expected. Macbeth murders his king hoping that in becoming king he will

achieve great happiness. Actually, Macbeth never knows another moment of peace, and finally is beheaded for his murderous act.

In verbal irony, the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant. A character may refer to a plan as brilliant, while actually

meaning that (s)he thinks the plan is foolish. Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony.

In dramatic irony, the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. For example, the identity of the murderer in a crime thriller may

be known to the audience long before the mystery is solved.

MICROCOSM “Small world” representing an entire idea

through a small situation or conflict. Macrocosm and microcosm is an

ancient Greek schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos: the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-

level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-

atomic or even metaphysical-level).

MOOD/ATMOSPHERE The atmosphere or feeling created by a

literary work, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions.

A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author's treatment of the work.

MOTIF A conspicuous recurring element, such as a

type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature. For instance, the "loathly lady" who turns out

to be a beautiful princess is a common motif in folklore.

The man fatally bewitched by a fairy lady is a common folkloric motif appearing in Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci."

The motif of the "beheading game" is common in Celtic myth—Sir Gawain & the Green Knight

POLYSYNDETON The use of a conjunction between each word,

phrase, or clause, and is thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton. The rhetorical effect of polysyndeton, however, often shares with that of asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up.

[He] pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. --John Milton

When it was announced that the vending machines were going to have apples instead of Cheetos, and orange juice instead of Coke, the students cried and bawled and sobbed and complained and whined and protested.

ANAPHORA-SYNTHESIS

UNIT 4

ANAPHORA The repetition of the same word or words at the

beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism.

In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. --Richard de Bury

Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has learned?

They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money. --Richard de Bury

HYPOPHORA Consists of raising one or more questions

and then proceeding to answer them, usually at some length. A common usage is to ask the question at the beginning of a paragraph and then use that paragraph to answer it:

What behavior, then, is uniquely human? My theory is this . . . . --H. J. Campbell

But what was the result of this move on the steel industry? The annual reports for that year clearly indicate. . . .

PEDANTIC Bookish and scholarly in tone, often

boring and dull due to little interest on the part of the listener.

Using “big” words just for the sake of showing off.

PLAGIARISM Accidental or intentional intellectual

theft in which a writer, poet, artist, scholar, or student steals an original idea, phrase, or section of writing from someone else and presents this material as his or her own work without indicating the source via appropriate explanation or citation.

PLOT The structure of a story. The sequence in which the author arranges events

in a story. The structure of a five-act play often includes the

rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.

The plot may have a protagonist who is opposed by antagonist, creating what is called, conflict.

A plot may include flashback or it may include a subplot which is a mirror image of the main plot. For example, in Shakespeare's, "King Lear," the

relationship between the Earl of Gloucester and his sons mirrors the relationship between Lear and his daughters

POINT OF VIEW The way a story gets told and who tells it. It is the method of narration that

determines the position, or angle of vision, from which the story unfolds.

Point of view governs the reader's access to the story.

Points of View

First person: the narrator speaks as "I" and the narrator is a character in the story who may or may not influence events within it.

Third-person narrative: the narrator seems to be someone standing outside the story who refers to all the characters by name or as he, she, they, and so on.

Dramatic third person point of view or objective: the narrator reports speech and action, but never comments on the thoughts of other characters.

Points of View

Limited: a narrator who is confined to what is experienced, thought, or felt by a single character, or at most a limited number of characters.

Omniscient: a narrator who knows everything that needs to be known about the agents and events in the story, and is free to move at will in time and place, and who has privileged access to a character's thoughts, feelings, and motives.

Unreliable narrator: a narrator who describes events in the story, but seems to make obvious mistakes or misinterpretations that may be apparent to a careful reader. Unreliable narration often serves to characterize the narrator as someone foolish or unobservant.

REPETITION Word, sound, phrase, or idea used for

emphasis An excellent technique in persuasive

speeches. Always pay attention to repetition in

writing—the author has a point to make!

RHETORIC The art of persuasive argument through

writing or speech--the art of eloquence and charismatic language.

The earliest known studies of rhetoric come from the Golden Age, when philosophers of ancient Greece discussed logos, ethos, and pathos.

“The Flowers of Rhetoric”

Inventio: the techniques for thinking up the points to discuss.

Schemes: rhetorical devices that involve artful patterns in sentence structure.

Tropes: rhetorical devices involving shifts in the meaning or use of words.

RHETORICAL QUESTION

A question used for emphasis, not to gain information. 

The question “Do snakes have ears?” is literal, but “Hath not a Jew eyes?” (spoken by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice) is a rhetorical way of saying, “Jews are human beings with feelings, just like Christians.”

SATIRE A piece of literature designed to ridicule

the subject of the work. While satire can be funny, its aim is not to

amuse, but to arouse contempt. When people viewed the satire and saw

their faults magnified in a distorted reflection, they could see how ridiculous their behavior was and then correct that tendency in themselves.

Types of Satire

Popular cartoons such as The Simpsons and televised comedies like The Daily Show make use of it in modern media.

Formal satire involves a direct, first-person-address, either to the audience or to a listener mentioned within the work. Alexander Pope's Moral Essays

Indirect satire conventionally employs the form of a fictional narrative. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and A

Modest Proposal.

SYMBOL A word, place, character, or object

that means something beyond what it is on a literal level.

Consider the stop sign: Literally: a metal octagon painted red with

white streaks Represents the act of coming to a

complete stop.

Types of Symbols

Universal Symbol: conventionally accepted symbols that transcend space & time

Cultural Symbol: the cross as a symbol of Christianity the American flag as a symbol of

America the gold ring as a symbol of marital

commitment

Types of Symbols

Contextual Symbol: A unique or original symbol an author creates within the context of an individual work or an author's collected works. The Snopes family in Faulkner's collected works, who

together function as a symbol of the South's moral decay. The town of Castle Rock, Maine, which in Stephen King's

works functions as a microcosmic symbol of human society.

Personal Symbol: one that an individual artist arbitrarily assigns a personal meaning to. They may only be discernable in the context of one specific story or poem. Yeats' use of a gyre to symbolize the cycles of history and

the sphinx as an emblem of the Antichrist in "The Second Coming."

SYNTHESIS Involves combining two or more summaries. Combining must be done in a meaningful way

and the final essay must generally be thesis-driven. 

Commonly refers to writing about printed texts, drawing together particular themes or traits that are observed in those texts and organizing the material from each text according to those themes or traits. 

Students may be asked to synthesize their own ideas, theory, or research with those of the texts they have been assigned.

Synthesis in Every Day Life

Whenever you report to a friend the things several other friends have said about a film or CD you engage in synthesis.

People synthesize information naturally to help others see the connections between things they learn.

The Background Synthesis

The background synthesis requires that the writer/speaker bring together background information on a topic and organize it by topic rather than by source. 

Instructors often assign background syntheses at the early stages of the research process, before students have developed a thesis

A Thesis-driven Synthesis

Sometimes there is very little obvious difference between a background synthesis and a thesis-driven synthesis.

The difference will be most visible in the topic sentences to each paragraph because instead of simply introducing the material for the paragraph that will follow, they will also link back to the thesis and assert that this information is essential because... 

ALLITERATION-EUPHEMISM

UNIT 5

ALLITERATION

Used for poetic effect, a repetition of the initial sounds of several words in a group.

The following line from Robert Frost's poem “Acquainted with the Night” provides an example of alliteration: "I have stood still and stopped the sound of

feet." The repetition of the s sound creates a

sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line.

AMBIGUITY A statement which can contain two or more

meanings. Intentional ambiguity in literature leaves

something undetermined in order to open up multiple possible meanings. When the oracle at Delphi told Croesus that if he

waged war on Cyrus he would destroy a great empire, Croesus thought the oracle meant his enemy's empire.

In fact, the empire Croesus destroyed by going to war was his own.

ANACHRONISM

Placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period.

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Shakespeare writes the following lines: Brutus: Peace! Count the clock.

Cassius: The clock has stricken three (Act II, scene i, lines 193-94).

ANTAGONIST

A person or force which opposes the protagonist in a literary work.

The cold, in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" is the antagonist that defeats the man on the trail.

APHORISM A brief statement which expresses

an observation on life, usually intended as a wise observation.

Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" contains numerous examples: “Drive thy business; let it not drive

thee.” This means that one should not allow

the demands of business to take control of one's moral or worldly commitments.

CATHARSIS An emotional discharge that brings about a

moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety.

According to Aristotle, catharsis is the marking feature and ultimate end of any tragic artistic work.

He writes in his Poetics (c. 350 BCE): "Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is

serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; . . . through pity [eleos] and fear [phobos] effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions" (Book 6.2).

CONCEIT A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary

conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things. One of the most famous conceits is John

Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," a poem in which Donne compares two souls in love to the points on a compass.

Shakespeare also uses conceits regularly in his poetry. In Richard II, Shakespeare compares two kings

competing for power to two buckets in a well.

DYSTOPIA A utopia presents readers with a place where all

the citizens are happy and ruled by a virtuous, efficient, rational government, whereas a dystopia presents readers with a world where all citizens are universally unhappy, manipulated, and repressed by a sinister, sadistic totalitarian state.

This government exists at best to further its own power and at worst seeks actively to destroy its own citizens' creativity, health, and happiness.

Examples of fictional dystopias include Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

EPIPHANY Christian thinkers used this term to

signify a manifestation of God's presence in the world.

In literature, the epiphany is a revelation of such power and insight that it alters the entire world-view of the thinker who experiences it.

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night takes place on the Feast of the Epiphany, and the theme of revelation is prevalent in the work.

EUPHEMISM Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a

blunt, embarrassing, or painful one. For instance, saying "Grandfather has gone

to a better place" is a euphemism for "Grandfather has died."

The idea is to put something bad, disturbing, or embarrassing in an inoffensive or neutral light.

Frequently, words referring directly to death, unpopular politics, blasphemy, crime, and sexual or excremental activities are replaced by euphemisms.

METAPHOR-TENOR & VEHICLE

UNIT 6

METAPHOR A figure of speech in which a thing is

described as something else.  A metaphor often suggests something

symbolic in its imagery. Martin Luther wrote, "A mighty fortress is

our God, / A bulwark never failing." When we speak of "the ladder of success,"

we imply that being successful is much like climbing a ladder to a higher and better position.

METONYMY A figure of speech in which a word represents

something else which it suggests. For example in a herd of fifty cows, the herd might

be referred to as fifty head of cattle. The word "head" is the word representing the herd. In “The pen is mightier than the sword,” pen and

sword represent the printed word and military force. Journalists use metonymy to refer to the collective

decisions of the United States government as "Washington" or when they use the term "the White House" as a shorthand reference for the executive bureaucracy in American government.

OXYMORON A combination of contradictory terms, such as

used by Romeo in Act 1, scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet:“ Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness, serious vanity; Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

The richest literary oxymora seem to reveal a deeper truth through their contradictions. "without laws, we can have no freedom." Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: "Cowards die many

times before their deaths" (2.2.32).

PARALLELISM The use of similar grammatical constructions to

express related ideas. For instance, "King Alfred tried to make the law

clear, precise, and equitable." The previous sentence has parallel structure in use of adjectives.

If the writer uses two parallel structures, the result is isocolon parallelism: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." 

If there are three structures, it is tricolon parallelism: "That government of the people, by the people,

and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

PARODY A literary work that imitates the style of

another literary work. A parody can be simply amusing, or it

can be mocking in tone. Aristophanes makes use of parody in The

Frogs (in which he mocks the style of Euripides and Aeschylus).

Cervantes creates a parody of medieval romance in Don Quixote.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (spoof).

PERSONIFICATION Abstractions, animals, ideas, and

inanimate objects are given human character, traits, abilities, or reactions. Sylvia Plath's "The Moon and the Yew

Tree," in which the moon "is a face in its own right, / White as a knuckle and terribly upset. / It drags the sea after it like a dark crime."

PROTAGONIST The hero or central character of a literary work. In accomplishing his or her objective, the

protagonist is hindered by some opposing force either: human (one of Batman's antagonists is The Joker), animal (Moby Dick is Captain Ahab's antagonist in

Herman Melville's "Moby Dick"), or natural (the sea is the antagonist which must be

overcome by Captain Bligh in Nordhoff and Hall's "Men Against the Sea.“

If a single secondary character aids the protagonist throughout the narrative, that character is the deuteragonist (the hero's "side-kick").

SIMILE A metaphor using an explicit connective such as like

or as.  A poetic example from John Milton's Paradise Lost:

Anon out of the earth a Fabrick hugeRose like an Exhalation, with the soundOf Dulcet Symphony and voices sweet. (I. 710-12)

The epic simile appears in the genre of the epic, and it may be developed at great length, often up to fifty or a hundred lines. Virgil's comparison between the city of Carthage and a

bee-hive from The Aeneid Homer's comparison between Odysseus clinging to the

rocks and an octopus with pebbles stuck in its tentacles from The Odyssey

TENOR & VEHICLE Terms used when referring to a symbol. The vehicle is the physical thing or

person. The tenor is the abstraction.

vehicle = American Flag tenor = freedom vehicle = The Usher house (“The Fall of the

House of Usher”)

tenor = the ugliness & evil of the decaying family

vehicle = the black veil (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)

tenor = sin that covers the heart

AESTHETIC-DIGRESSION

UNIT 7

AESTHETIC An effect of tone, diction, and presentation in

poetry creating a sense of an experience removed from irrelevant or accidental events.

The degree of emotional involvement in a work of art.

Fiction, drama, and poetry involve the reader emotionally to different degrees. Some writers pull the reader into their work; the

reader identifies closely with the characters and is fully involved with the happenings.

Some, on the other hand, maintain a greater distance from the reader.

APOLOGY A defense and justification for some belief,

doctrine, piece of writing, cause, or action without any admission of blame with which we contemporarily associate the word.

The term comes from the Greek apologia, meaning defense. Plato recorded Socrates’ Apologia in the Fourth

Century B.C. At the end of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury

Tales, there is a retraction or apology for his work; in this case, apology means both an explanation and an expression of regret.

ARTIFICIAL SETTING In literature, setting means the scenery

within which the characters in a work exist and the story takes place.

Such scenery is both natural and artificial.

Artificial setting refers to those elements that are man-made (buildings & furniture).

Also includes the clothing in which an author chooses to dress his/her characters.

BILDUNGSROMAN AKA: coming-of-age story. A novel in which an adolescent protagonist

comes to adulthood by a process of experience and disillusionment.

This character loses his or her innocence, discovers that previous preconceptions are false, or has the security of childhood torn away, but usually matures and strengthens by this process. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

CARPE DIEM

Literally, the phrase is Latin for "seize the day."

The term refers to a common moral or theme in classical literature that the reader should make the most out of life and should enjoy it before it ends. Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much

of Time"

CONFIDANT(E)

A minor or secondary character in a play (or other literary work), in whom the protagonist confides, revealing his or her state of mind in dialogue rather than in soliloquies.

Commonly the trusted servant of the leading lady in drama has the role of confidante: Charmian, for example, in Shakespeare's Antony

and Cleopatra. Will to Grace in Will & Grace Insectosaurus to The Missing Link in Monsters vs

Aliens

CONTROLLING IMAGE An image a poet uses to carry forward the sense of the

poem. It shapes the nature and form of the work as well.

In "The Flea" John Donne uses the tiny creature to make a point to the loved one he is courting. He asks the woman to look at the flea and see that they now

share blood because this flea has bitten them both (fleas were common in English castles and houses during the 1600s).

The poem continues with references to the flea until the very end. American poet Emily Dickinson uses the controlling image of

death as a coach drive in "Because I could not stop for Death."

Not every image is a controlling one; a writer may use many images to convey an idea.

However, if only one image is used, then you may be sure you have discovered a controlling image.

DEUS EX MACHINA

An unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonist or resolve the story's conflict.

The term means "The god out of the machine," and it refers to stage machinery.

A classical Greek actor, portraying one of the Greek gods in a play, might be lowered out of the sky onto the stage and then use his divine powers to solve all the mortals' problems.

The term is a negative one, and it often implies a lack of skill on the part of the writer.

A writer might reach a climactic moment in which a band of pioneers were attacked by bandits. A cavalry brigade's unexpected arrival to drive away the marauding bandits at the conclusion, with no previous hint of the cavalry's existence, would be a deus ex machina conclusion.

Such endings mean that heroes are unable to solve their own problems in a pleasing manner, and they must be "rescued" by the writer himself through improbable means.

DIDACTIC Writing that is "preachy" or seeks overtly to

convince a reader of a particular point or lesson. Medieval homilies and Victorian moral essays are

often held up as examples of didactic literature. Sometimes, the lesson is overtly religious, as in

the case of sermons or in literature like Milton's Paradise Lost, which seeks to "justify God's ways to men."

In a more subtle way, much of Romantic literature hints at a critique of urbanized and mechanized life in 19th-century London.

DIGRESSION A section of a composition or speech that is an

intentional change of subject. In Classical rhetoric the digression was a regular part

of any oration or composition. An oratorical discourse should have five sections: prelude,

narration, argumentation, digression and conclusion. After setting out the topic of a work and establishing

the need for attention to be given, the speaker or author would digress to a seemingly disconnected subject before returning to a development of the composition's theme, a proof of its validity, and a conclusion.

In literature, the digression was a substantial part of satiric works of the 18th century.

DOPPELGÄNGER-SYLLOGISM

UNIT 8

DOPPELGÄNGER Literally means a “double goer.” The word is also used to describe the sensation

of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection.

They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck.

Dark doubles of individual identities. Doppelgängers are typically, but not always,

evil in some way.

Examples in literature

In Edgar Allan Poe's short story William Wilson, the protagonist of questionable morality is dogged by his doppelgänger most tenaciously when his morals fail.

Another variant, usually seen in science fiction, involves clones, which creates a genetically identical new being without the memories and experiences of the original.

Doubles are also seen in fiction involving time travel and parallel universes, as in the motion picture Back to the Future Part II.

HYPERBOLE A figure of speech in which an overstatement or

exaggeration occurs. In Act 2, scene 2 of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Macbeth

has murdered King Duncan. Horrified at the blood on his hands, he asks:

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.

Literally, it does not require an ocean to wash blood from one's hand. Nor can the blood on one's hand turn the green ocean red.

The hyperbole works to illustrate the guilt Macbeth feels at the brutal murder of his king and kinsman.

IN MEDIAS RES refers to a literary and artistic technique where the

narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning.

The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other.

Probably originating from an oral tradition, the technique is a convention of epic poetry. Homer's Odyssey and Iliad The Indian Mahabharata Germany's Nibelungenlied "Inferno" from Dante's Divine Comedy George Lucas's Star Wars saga

KITSCH

“Gaudy trash;” shallow, flashy art designed to have a mass appeal.

The term is considered derogatory, denoting works executed to pander to popular demand alone and purely for commercial purposes rather than works created as self-expression by an artist.

NATURAL SETTING In literature, setting means the

scenery within which the characters in a work exist and the story takes place.

Such scenery is both natural and artificial.

Natural refers to those elements of setting that exist in the natural world (mountains, streams, forests, weather, etc).

PARADOX Using contradiction in a manner that oddly

makes sense on a deeper level (more elaborate than an oxymoron).

This line from John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 14" provides an example: That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me,

The poet paradoxically asks God to knock him down so that he may stand.

What he means by this is for God to destroy his present self and remake him as a holier person.

RHETORICAL SHIFT Changing from one tone, attitude, or

distance to another. Words like “but,” “however,” “although,”

“even though,” “yet,”etc., are good markers of rhetorical shifts.

Also refers to a change or movement in a piece resulting from an epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, a character, or the reader.

RHETORICAL STRUCTURE In order to analyze, study, evaluate rhetorical

structure, one must examine images, details, and arguments.

One influential figure in the rebirth of interest in classical rhetoric was Erasmus, 1466-1536.

His 1512 work, De Duplici Copia Verborum et Rerum (also known as Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style), was widely published and became one of the basic school texts on the subject.

It provides a traditional treatment of res-verba (matter and form): its first book treats the subject of elocutio, showing the student how to use schemes and tropes.

SARCASM

A bitter expression of disapproval, sometimes intended to be harsh and hurtful.

Different levels of intensity exist.

aka: verbal irony

SYLLOGISM A formula for presenting a logical argument

assertion proof commentary

A categorical syllogism consists of three parts: the major premise, the minor premise, and the conclusion.

Aristotle says there are two types of syllogisms, perfect and imperfect. A syllogism is perfect "if it needs nothing other than what

is stated to make evident what necessarily follows.“ A syllogism is imperfect when what necessarily follows is

not immediately evident.

BEGGING THE QUESTION-NARRATIVE DEVICES

UNIT 9

BEGGING THE QUESTION Occurs when a writer simply restates the claim

in a different way; such an argument is circular. Example: His lies are evident from the untruthful nature

of his statements. Among the most common. We beg the question

when we use one unproven assertion to "prove" another.

For example: Boss: "Jean, Mark says you're bullying him. I want it

stopped."Jean: "I certainly am not bullying anyone."Boss: "Then why does Mark say so? Stop it, or I'll have to take action."

CANON An approved or traditional collection of

works. Refers to those works in anthologies

that have come to be considered standard or traditionally included in the classroom and published textbooks.

Refers to the writings of an author that generally are accepted as genuine, such as the "Chaucer canon" or the "Shakespeare canon."

CHRONOLOGICALGreek: "logic of time" The order in which events happen, especially when emphasizing a cause-effect relationship in history or in a narrative.

COLLOQUIAL The use of slang or informalities in speech or

writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing,

colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone.

Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects. Formal: "Greetings. How are my people doing?" Colloquialism: "Yo. Whassup!"

DILEMMA Greek: "double proposition" It is a problem offering at least two solutions or

possibilities, of which none are practically acceptable.

One in this position has been traditionally described as "being between a rock and a hard place.“

The dilemma is sometimes used as a rhetorical device, in the form "you must accept either A or B;" here A and B would be propositions each leading to some further conclusion. Applied in this way, it may be a fallacy, a false dichotomy.

EXPOSITORY A type of writing in which the purpose

is to inform, explain, describe, or define the author's subject to the reader.

A well-written exposition remains focused on its topic and lists events in chronological order.

Examples of this type of writing are cooking instructions, driving directions, and instructions on performing a task.

FANTASY Any literature that is removed from reality. Poems, books, or short narratives set in

nonexistent worlds, such as an elvish kingdom, on the moon, in Pellucidar (the hollow center of the earth), or in alternative versions of the historical world--such as a version of London where vampires or sorcerers have seized control of parliament.

The characters are often something other than humans, or human characters may interact with nonhuman characters.

GENERIC CONVENTIONS This term describes traditions for each genre. These conventions help to define each genre; for

example, they differentiate an essay and journalistic writing or an autobiography and political writing.

Each type of writing—editorial, biography, narrative, persuasive, etc.---uses particular conventions.

The persuasive mode of writing uses the technique of syllogism to prove a point.

On the AP language exam, try to distinguish the unique features of a writer’s work from those dictated by convention.

INVECTIVE Speech or writing that attacks,

insults, or denounces a person, topic, or institution, usually involving negative emotional language.

For example, in Henry IV, Part I, Prince Hal calls the large character of Falstaff “this sanguine coward, this bedpresser, this horseback breaker, this hugehill of flesh.”

NARRATIVE DEVICES This term describes the tools of the story

teller (also used in non fiction). Ordering events so that they build to a

climatic moment or withholding information until a crucial or appropriate moment when revealing it creates a desired effect.

On the essay exam this term may also apply to biographical and autobiographical writing. Foreshadowing, Personification, Plot

twist, Suspense or tension, Dialogue

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE-SUBPLOT

UNIT 10

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE The style of telling the "story." Concentrate on the order of events and on their

detail in evaluating a writer's technique. Flashback, general term for altering time

sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale, for instance.

Panoramic Technique: author can get necessary exposition out of the way and concentrate on the story's dramatic events. In Great Expectations and Jane Eyre, Dickens and Bronte

have similar narrative techniques. Both describe events from the point of view of a narrator remembering the past, and in both works, the narrator's present ideas concerning past events surface.

OBJECTIVE

A tone of fairness and even discussion of a subject.

It usually suggests that there is distance between the author and the subject being discussed.

This tone can be cold and impersonal.

PERSUASIVE DEVICES

Devices used in the writing mode of persuasion.

Strong connotations, order of intensity from lesser to greater, the logic of the argument.

Term Definition

bandwagon appealad that implies that

everyone is doing it, so you should too

testimonial well-known people to endorse a product

faulty cause and effect Use of product is falsely credited for a result

facts and statistics using facts to promote the product

hasty generalization

the sample is too small to support an inductive

generalization about a population

loaded words phrases chosen to appeal to your emotions

glittering generalityName Calling in reverse;

using positive words to talk about an issue

REALISM As a term in literary history, realism

refers to fiction and drama of the late nineteenth century.

Depicted ordinary middle-class existence and its daily concerns like money, society, and marriage. 

Characters are bankers, farmers and housekeepers, not swashbuckling pirates, gallant knights, or supernatural beings. 

In a more general sense, realistic refers to a manner of representing life as close to reality as possible.

RESOURCES OF LANGUAGE A general phrase for the linguistic

devices or techniques that a writer can use to produce an effect. Style Rhetoric Diction Imagery Syntax Figurative language

RHETORICAL FEATURESAll the parts of tone:

Diction Imagery Details Language Syntax

SPATIALThe distance between characters, ideas, and things within a story. A character can be close physically to another but emotionally distant.

Language (in movies and theater: body language) explains the distance.

STYLISTIC DEVICES The author's words and the characteristic way

that writer uses language to achieve certain effects.

An important part of interpreting and understanding fiction is being attentive to the way the author uses words. What effects, for instance, do word choice and

sentence structure have on a story and its meaning? How does the author use imagery, figurative devices,

repetition, or allusion? In what ways does the style seem appropriate or

discordant with the work's subject and theme? Some common styles might be labeled ornate, plain,

emotive, scientific, etc.

SUBJECTIVE Refers to a person's perspective or

opinion, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires.

It is often used casually to refer to unsubstantiated personal opinions, in contrast to knowledge and fact-based beliefs.

In philosophy, the term is often contrasted with objective.

SUBPLOT A minor or subordinate secondary plot,

often involving a deuteragonist's struggles, which takes place simultaneously with a larger plot, usually involving the protagonist.

The subplot often echoes or comments upon the direct plot either directly or obliquely.

Sometimes two opening subplots merge into a single storyline later in a play or narrative.

ANADIPLOSIS-ZEUGMA

UNIT 11

ANADIPLOSIS Repetition of the last word of one

clause at the beginning of the next clause:

"The crime was common, common be the pain." --Alexander Pope

CHIASMUSFigure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversed in the second.

“Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church?”-- T.S. Eliot

CUMULATIVE (LOOSE) SENTENCE If you put your main point at the

beginning of a long sentence, you are writing a loose sentence. I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the

privilege of living in Canada, considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters.

If you use a loose sentence with hostile readers, the readers will probably close their minds before considering any of your evidence.

PERIODIC SENTENCE If your main point is at the end of a long

sentence, you are writing a periodic sentence Considering the free health care, the cheap

tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada.

An occasional periodic sentence is not only dramatic but persuasive: even if the readers do not agree with your conclusion, they will read your evidence first with open minds.

EPISTROPHE (ANTISTROPHE) Forms the counterpart to anaphora,

because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences:

Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are subdued. --Wilson

And all the night he did nothing but weep Philoclea, sigh Philoclea, and cry out Philoclea. --Philip Sidney

EXEMPLUM Citing an example; using an

illustrative story, either true or fictitious:

Let me give you an example. In the early 1920's in Germany, the government let the printing presses turn out endless quantities of paper money, and soon, instead of 50-pfennige postage stamps, denominations up to 50 billion marks were being issued.

PARATAXIS Writing successive independent

clauses, with coordinating conjunctions, or no conjunctions:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. --Genesis 1:1-2 (KJV)

I came, I saw, I conquered (Veni, vidi, vici). --Julius Caesar

PROCATALEPSIS By anticipating an objection and answering it,

permits an argument to continue moving forward while taking into account points or reasons opposing either the train of thought or its final conclusions. It is usually argued at this point that if the government

gets out of the mail delivery business, small towns like Podunk will not have any mail service. The answer to this can be found in the history of the Pony Express . . . .

Note that procatalepsis can be combined with hypophora, so that the objection is presented in the form of a question: But you might object that, if what I say is actually true,

why would people buy products advertised illogically? The answer to that lies in human psychology . . . .

SCESIS ONOMATON Emphasizes an idea by expressing it in a

string of generally synonymous phrases or statements. While it should be used carefully, this deliberate and obvious restatement can be quite effective.

May God arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him. --Psalm 68:1 (NIV)

But there is one thing these glassy-eyed idealists forget: such a scheme would be extremely costly, horrendously expensive, and require a ton of money.

SENTENTIA Quoting a maxim or wise saying to

apply a general truth to the situation; concluding or summing foregoing material by offering a single, pithy statement of general wisdom:

But, of course, to understand all is to forgive all.

As the saying is, art is long and life is short.

For as Pascal reminds us, "It is not good to have all your wants satisfied."

ZEUGMA Grammatically correct linkage of one

subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. The linking shows a relationship between ideas more clearly.

Pride opresseth humility; hatred love; cruelty compassion. –Peacham

Fred excelled at sports; Harvey at eating; Tom with girls.

He grabbed his hat from the rack by the stairs and a kiss from the lips of his wife.