AP Lit exists as a haven for me, so I hope you will feel the same walking in the room, paging through novels, plays, poems, and shorts stories, and sharing your ideas.
As with any literature class, you will be expected to have a grasp on the plethora of literary terms. Yes, that means a term handout, which you will receive on Day 1 to give you a sense of the many ways to interpret a text. Some of these terms should be quite familiar to you, and others may seem like made-up words. When I taught English II, I expected my sophomores to memorize 35 literary terms while we were studying Lord of the Flies, Taming of the Shrew (now Macbeth, which was purloined from our AP Lit class), short stories, and poetry. Before I start giving you dactyls and conceits, here are those 35 terms, which you should have down prior to class or within the first few days.
- onomatopoeia
- assonance
- simile
- allusion
- repetition
- symbol
- hyperbole
- tone
- mood
- imagery
- metaphor
- alliteration
- diction
- personification
- voice
- speaker
- sonnet
- stanza
- rhyme
- free verse
- dialogue
- protagonist
- antagonist
- static character
- dynamic character
- round character
- flat character
- third person limited
- third person omniscient
- satire
- theme
- setting
- situational irony
- verbal irony
- dramatic irony
Another literary element that will show up in almost all of your readings is the motif, a repeated literary device (often a symbol) that helps to construct a theme. For instance, in The Great Gatsby, there is a green light; in Macbeth, there is blood and lots of it - real and imaginary; in Lord of the Flies, there are Piggy's glasses and that conch shell.
See you soon. Our first week will have a bit of Poe and a bit of Fitzgerald, so I hope you like your Dark Romantic and Modern American authors.
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