Glossary
Author's motivations and goals
The underlying reasons, intentions, and purposes an author has for writing a particular text, which shape its message and artistic choices.
Example:
Understanding Virginia Woolf's personal experiences and feminist beliefs helps reveal her author's motivations and goals in challenging traditional gender roles in A Room of One's Own.
Close reading
A careful, detailed analysis of a text, focusing on specific words, phrases, literary devices, and patterns to uncover deeper meanings and nuances.
Example:
A close reading of a poem by Robert Frost might involve scrutinizing his use of enjambment and colloquial language to understand the speaker's contemplative tone.
Common Pitfalls
Frequent mistakes or errors that students often make on the exam, such as making vague statements or failing to provide sufficient textual support.
Example:
A Common Pitfall in literary analysis is summarizing the plot instead of analyzing its deeper meaning or the author's use of literary techniques.
Critical lenses
Different theoretical frameworks or perspectives used to analyze and interpret a text, each highlighting distinct aspects of its meaning, structure, or societal implications.
Example:
Applying various critical lenses to The Great Gatsby—such as a Marxist lens or a psychological lens—can reveal different insights into the American Dream and its characters' desires.
Ecological Lens
A critical approach that examines the relationship between humans and the natural world as depicted in a text, often focusing on environmental themes, settings, and human impact on nature.
Example:
Using an Ecological Lens, a student might explore how the destruction of the natural landscape reflects the moral decay of society in Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Feminist Lens
A critical approach that examines how gender is portrayed in a text, focusing on power dynamics between men and women, societal expectations, and the representation of female characters.
Example:
Through a Feminist Lens, one might analyze how Edna Pontellier's struggle for independence in Kate Chopin's The Awakening challenges the restrictive gender roles of the late 19th century.
Free Response Questions (FRQs)
Essay-based exam questions that require in-depth analysis, a well-developed argument (thesis), and extensive textual evidence to support a complex interpretation of a literary work.
Example:
A common FRQ might prompt you to analyze how a novel's narrative structure contributes to its central themes, requiring a multi-paragraph essay with detailed examples.
Historical and societal contexts
The specific time period and social environment in which a text was created, which significantly influences its content, themes, and meaning.
Example:
To fully appreciate The Crucible, one must understand the historical and societal contexts of the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy era, which Arthur Miller critiques through the play.
Marxist Lens
A critical approach that analyzes a text through the framework of class struggle, economic systems, and power imbalances related to wealth, labor, and social status.
Example:
A Marxist Lens applied to Charles Dickens's Hard Times would focus on the exploitation of the working class and the dehumanizing effects of industrial capitalism.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
A type of exam question where students select the best answer from a given set of options, often testing comprehension, literary device identification, or contextual understanding.
Example:
An MCQ on the AP Lit exam might ask you to identify the primary literary device used in a specific stanza of a poem or the most accurate interpretation of a character's motivation.
Short Answer Questions (SAQs)
Exam questions that require concise, direct responses, often demanding specific textual evidence to support a brief explanation or interpretation.
Example:
An SAQ might ask you to briefly explain how a specific symbol contributes to the mood of a scene, requiring you to cite a relevant detail from the text.
Strategies for Challenging Questions
Techniques or approaches used to tackle difficult or complex exam questions, such as breaking them down, identifying known elements, or trusting instincts.
Example:
When faced with a complex FRQ, a good Strategy for Challenging Questions is to first identify the core literary concept being tested and then brainstorm relevant examples from the text before writing.
Textual evidence
Specific details, quotes, paraphrases, or summaries from a literary work used to support claims, interpretations, or arguments made in an analysis.
Example:
When arguing that a character is unreliable, you must provide textual evidence such as their contradictory statements or biased descriptions of events.
Themes
The central, recurring ideas or messages explored in a literary work, often abstract concepts like love, ambition, identity, or the human condition.
Example:
One of the prominent themes in Shakespeare's Hamlet is the pervasive nature of revenge and its destructive consequences for individuals and society.
Thesis statement
A concise, arguable statement that presents the main argument or controlling idea of an essay, typically appearing in the introduction.
Example:
A strong thesis statement for an essay on Frankenstein might argue that Victor's isolation and ambition ultimately lead to his downfall and the monster's creation.
Time Management
The strategic allocation of time during an exam to ensure all sections and questions are adequately addressed within the given time limit.
Example:
Effective Time Management during the AP Lit exam means allocating specific minutes for reading passages, outlining essays, and reviewing answers to avoid rushing.