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AP Lit Terms 1 Flashcards

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9087132148AllegoryA narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even the setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning and significance. Often a universal symbol or a personified abstraction0
9087132151AlliterationThe sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants, usually in closely proximate stressed syllables1
9087135443AllusionA literary, historical, religious, or mythological reference in a literary work2
9087138305AnaphoraThe regular repetition of the same words or phrases at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses3
9087142776AntithesisThe juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas4
9087149026AphorismA concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief5
9087151303Appeals to... authority, emotion, logicRhetorical arguments in which the speaker claims to be an authority or expert in a field, or attempts to play upon the emotions, or appeals to the use of reason6
9087157077ApostropheAn address or invocation to something inanimate7
9087160765AssonanceThe repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually in successive or proximate words8
9087168377AsyndetonA syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing more rapid prose9
9087171899AttitudeThe sense expressed by the tone of voice or the mood of a piece of writing; the author's feelings toward his or her subject, characters, events, or theme. It might even be his or her feelings for the reader10
9087175530Begging the questionAn argumentative ploy where the arguer sidesteps the question or the conflict, evades or ignores the real question11
9087179963CanonThat which has been accepted as authentic12
9087184566ChiasmusA figure of speech and generally a syntactical structure wherein the order of the terms in the first half of a parallel clause is reversed in the second13
9132325909Allegory14
9132337827Chiasmus"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."15
9132340859CanonJane Austen, the Brontë family, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, Katherine Mansfield, Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, and Marianne Moore.16
9132384327Begging the questionRavens are black; therefore, white birds are not ravens.17
9132389005Attitude"And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don't know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn't the best. We complained about it. So we've got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we've got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing."18
9132410306Asyndeton"Quickly, resolutely, he strode into the bank."19
9132422892Assonance"Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds."20
9132452352Apostrophe"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."21
9132478816Appeals to... authority, emotion, logic"History has shown time and again that absolute power corrupts absolutely."22
9132490037Aphorism"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."23
9132504499Antithesis"Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man but a giant step for mankind."24
9136880952Anaphora"The wrong person was selected for the wrong job, at the wrong time, for the wrong purpose."25
9136890922Allusion"This place is like a Garden of Eden."26
9136890923AlliterationBed Bath & Beyond27

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