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AP Literature Style Flashcards

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7734595811ApostropheA figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed0
7734595812AntithesisUsing opposite phrases in close conjunction. Examples might be, "I burn and I freeze," or "Her character is white as sunlight, black as midnight." It can be a contrast of opposites: "Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it." Alternatively, it can be a contrast of degree: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind."1
7734595813AsyndetonThe artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect. "He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac." (Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957)2
7734595814ChiasmusAn author introduces words or concepts in a particular order, then later repeats those terms or similar ones in reversed order to achieve particular effects. It involves taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out. For example: "By day the frolic, and the dance by night." "I lead the life I love; I love the life I lead." "Naked I rose from the earth; to the grave I fall clothed."3
7734595815ConnotationWhat a word suggests beyond its basic definition; a word's overtones of meaning4
7734595816DenotationThe basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word5
7734595817EkphrasisThe poetic representation of a painting or sculpture in words6
7734595818Epigram(1) A short, witty poem expressing a single thought or observation. (2) A concise, clever, often paradoxical statement.7
7734595819Extended Figure(AKA sustained figure) A figure of speech (usually metaphor, simile, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem8
7734595820Figurative LanguageLanguage employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally9
7734595821Figure of SpeechBroadly, any way of saying something other that the ordinary way; more narrowly (and for the purposes of this class) a way of saying one thing and meaning another10
7734595822InversionCreated by alteration of the standard English word order S-V-O in a sentence. Often used to call attention to something, perhaps to emphasize a point or an idea by placing it in the initial position, or to slow the pace with unusual order; common in Shakespeare as he 'inverts' sentence order for rhythmic effect as in Twelfth Night when Orsino says "...so full of shapes is fancy."11
7734595823JuxtapositionPositioning opposites next to each other to heighten the contrast12
7734595824MetaphorA figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike13
7734595825MetonymyA figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience14
7734595826OnomatopoeiaThe use of words that supposedly mimic their meaning in their sound (for example, boom, click, plop).15
7734595827PersonificationA figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept16
7734595828RhythmAny wavelike recurrence of motion or sound17
7734595829SentimentalityUnmerited or contrived tender feeling; that quality in a story that elicits or seeks to elicit tears through an oversimplification or falsification of reality18
7734595830SimileA figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. The comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase as like, as, than, similar to, resembles, or seems19
7734595831SynecdocheA figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole. In this class it is subsumed under the term Metonymy.20
7734595832SyntaxWord organization and order21

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