4749527071 | Allegory | A prose or poetic narrative in which the characters' behavior, and even the setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning and significance. often allegory is a universal symbol or personified abstraction such as Death portrayed as a black-cloaked "grim reaper" with a scythe and hourglass. | 0 | |
4749527340 | Alliteration | The sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants, usually heard in closely proximate stressed syllables. Does not have to be directly next to each but must be close and in the same like. Ex: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. | 1 | |
4749527341 | Allusion | A reference to a literary or historical event, person, or place. | 2 | |
4749527753 | Anachronism | The misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom, or idea in time. | 3 | |
4749527754 | Anaphora | The regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. | 4 | |
4749528649 | Antithesis | The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas. | 5 | |
4749528650 | Aphorism | A concise expression of insight or wisdom. | 6 | |
4749529687 | Apostrophe | An address or invocation to something that is inanimate - such as an angry lover who might scream at the ocean in his or her despair. | 7 | |
4749529879 | Archetype | Recurrent designs, patterns or action, character types, themes or images which are identifiable in wide range of literature. | 8 | |
4749529880 | Attitude | The sense expressed by the tone of voice and/or the mood of piece of writing; the feelings the author holds towards his narrative, the events, the setting or even the theme. | 9 | |
4749530123 | Catharsis | A cleansing of purification of one's emotions through art. | 10 | |
4749530124 | Colloquial | Ordinary language, the vernacular | 11 | |
4749530328 | Connotation | What is suggested by a word, apart from what it explicitly describes. | 12 | |
4749530329 | Denotation | A direct and specific meaning, often referred to as the dictionary meaning of a word. | 13 | |
4749530604 | Dialect | The language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, religion, or group of people. | 14 | |
4749530605 | Diction | The specific word choice an author uses to persuade or convey tone purpose or effect. | 15 | |
4749531486 | Didactic | Intended to instruct or to educate. | 16 | |
4749531876 | Dramatic Monologue | A monologue set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience. | 17 | |
4749531877 | Epic | A poem that celebrates, in a continuous narrative, the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines. | 18 | |
4749532377 | Exposition | That part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces and identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play. | 19 | |
4749532960 | Fable | A legend or short moral story often using animals as characters. | 20 | |
4749532961 | Farce | A play or scene in play or book that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick and physical humor. | 21 | |
4749532962 | Foil | A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast. | 22 | |
4749533677 | Foreshadowing | To hint at or to present an indication of the future beforehand. | 23 | |
4749533678 | Formal Diction | Language that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal. | 24 | |
4749563894 | Flashback | Retrospection, where an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronology of the narrative. | 25 | |
4749534116 | Hyperbole | Overstatement characterized by exaggerated language. | 26 | |
4749534117 | Imagry | Broadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work. | 27 | |
4749534282 | Informal Diction | Language that is not as lofty or impersonal as formal diction. | 28 | |
4749534283 | In Medias Res | "In the midst of things." Refers to opening a story in the middle of the action. | 29 | |
4749534896 | Irony | A situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. | 30 | |
4749539056 | Verbal (Irony) | Use of statement that means its opposite | 31 | |
4749539345 | Situational (Irony) | One understanding of situation stands in sharp contrast to different more prevalent understanding of the same situation | 32 | |
4749539346 | Dramatic/Tragic (Irony) | Author lets the reader in on a character's situation while the character remains in the dark. The character's words and actions carry a significance that he/she is not aware of. | 33 | |
4749540723 | Cosmic (Irony) | The depiction of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering, which creates a painful contrast between a character's purposeful activity and its ultimate meaningless. | 34 | |
4749540900 | Limited Point of View | A perspective confined to a single character, whether a first person or a third person. | 35 | |
4749540901 | Litote | A figure of speech that emphasizes its subject by conscious understatement. | 36 | |
4749541279 | Message | A misleading term for "theme;" the central idea of statement of a story, or area of inquiry or explanation. | 37 | |
4749541280 | Mood | A feeling of ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and point of view. | 38 | |
4749541281 | Motif | A recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event. | 39 | |
4749541537 | Narrative Structure | A textual organization based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework. | 40 | |
4749541538 | Omniscient Point of View | Also called unlimited focus; a perspective that can be seen from one character's view, then another's, then another's; or can be moved in or out of the mind of any character at any time. | 41 | |
4749541874 | Overstatement | Exaggerated language; also called hyperbole | 42 | |
4749541875 | Pastoral | Work that describes the simple life of county (country) folk. | 43 | |
4749542016 | Persona | The voice or figure of the author who tells the structures the story and who may or may not share the values of the actual author. | 44 | |
4749542017 | Plot | The arrangement of the narration based on the cause-effect relationship of the events. | 45 | |
4749542018 | Protagonist | The main character in a work, who may or may not be heroic. | 46 | |
4749542019 | Similie | Seriously, if you need this definition, you should rethink taking AP Literature, yeah you, Tom! | 47 | |
4749542336 | Soliloquy | A monologue in which the character in a play is alone and speaking to himself or herself. | 48 | |
4749542647 | Stock Character | One who appears in a number of stories or plays such as the cruel stepmother, etc. | 49 | |
4749542648 | Style | A distinctive manner of expression; each author's style is expressed through his or her, rhythm, imagery, and so on. It's a writer's typical way of writing. | 50 | |
4749542649 | Symbolism | A person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary work that designates itself and at the same time figuratively represents or "stands for" something else. | 51 | |
4749542650 | Syntax | The way words are put together to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is sentence structure and how it influences the way the reader receives a particular piece of writing. | 52 | |
4749543021 | Theme | A generalized, abstract, paraphrase of the inferred central or dominant idea or concern of a work. | 53 | |
4749543022 | Tone | Tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. | 54 | |
4749543591 | Tragedy | A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. | 55 | |
4749543592 | Turning Point | A moment when the course of events is changed: the turning point of his career. Or a point at which there is a change in direction or motion. | 56 |
AP Literature Vocab 2016 Flashcards
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