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Literary Terms - AP Literature Flashcards

Terms : Hide Images
5734758054OxymoronJumbo Shrimp0
8574551558Omniscient NarratorThird person point of view where the narrator is like god, can see into all the characters' minds and knows what is going on.1
8574568110Doggerel"There was an Old Man of Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket. His daughter, called Nan, Ran away with a man, And as for the bucket, Nantucket."2
8574575819Dramatic Irony*Bob gets murdered* Steve, Bob's friend in a later scene: Oh boy, I can't wait to see my friend Bob alive and well!3
8574588199AnalogyJust as a dog chases squirrels until it has it up a tree, the police chase criminals until they have the criminals caught.4
8574598907Gothic NovelMary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein"5
8574613645HyperboleI could eat a horse right about now6
8574618250GenreScience Fiction, Romance, Mystery, etc.7
8574622139HubrisThe excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall (Another term from Aristotle's discussion of tragedy).8
8574633816Dramatic MonologueWhen a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience.9
8574649986DirgeA song for the dead. Typically slow, heavy, and melancholy.10
8574655797ApostropheBill turned to the mop and said, "Wow, you've been working really hard, I can't believe we mopped this whole floor. You need to take a break, I'll set you up against the wall. I', glad I'm the only one home or else people would think that I'm crazy for talking to an inanimate object."11
8574675761ColloquialismWhat are these phrases examples of? go nuts - go insane or be very angry to bamboozle - to deceive gonna - going to12
8574680754CaricatureWhat is this an example of? Her eyes were lasers, boring a hole through me. Her ears were smoking, and her hair was on fire. Mom was mad.13
8574690086EuphemismWhat is this an example of? We are sorry to say that your grandfather passed away earlier today14
8574708914EpicsWhat are these examples of? The Odyssey, the Iliad, and Paradise Lost.15
8574715008MetonymWhat is this an example of? "Could you lend me a hand?" (Instead of "Could you help me?")16
8574724496NemsisVoldemort is THIS to Harry Potter17
8574740295MelodramaCheesy theater (hero is very good, villain is mean and rotten)18
8574752481Simile/MetaphorBoth are a comparison or analogy; One uses like or as, and the other says something is something else.19
8574767581Neologism/CoinageNew/invented word on the spot.20
8574783290IronyWhat is this an example of? An ambulance driver speeds to the scene of a road accident. The victim isn't badly hurt until the ambulance driver whips around a corner and runs over the victim's legs, not realizing she'd crawled to the center of the road.21
8574789867LamentWhat is this an example of? Summer's thousand shades of green Roses cruel scent Show no sorrow at your death22
8574792409ImplicitSomething that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly.23
8574800376Interior MonologueWriting that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head24
8574804797InversionSwitching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase.25
8574809420LampoonA satire.26
8574820067AnticlimaxOccurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect.27
8574824393ArchaismThe use of deliberately old-fashioned language.28
8574829995AntecedentThe word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to.29
8574835959AnthropomorphismWhen inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation.30
8574843520AphorismShort and usually witty saying.31
8574849346AnachronismMisplaced in time.32
8574868250Black HumorWhat is this an example of? "The Truman Show" finding comedy in completely exploiting someone's life or "American Psycho" discovering the humorous parts of the life of a psychopath. Serious topics but with comedic factors.33
8574873405BombastWhat is this an example of? Words like alacrity, ebullient, embezzlement, evanescent are all pretentious, and exaggerated speech. " I'm very fractious today." Someone using this kind of language is said to be...34
8574889311Bathos/PathosWhat is this an example of? The movie Marley and Me would evoke strong emotions in the viewer/reader.35
8574903530ForeshadowingWhat is this an example of? They clipped along nicely on the tiny, fixer-upper of a boat, but there was a storm brewing on the horizon.36
8574909467Free VerseWhat is this an example of? Foiled again. Rough weather on the horizon. Elect a nice lady. Enact a small play of words. Very Cold. Extremities fall off. Raise kids. Silence. End37
8574912631FarceExtremely broad humor.38
8574918833Feminine RhymeRhyming the last two syllables of words.39
8574925901FootBasic rhyming unit of poetry, usually two to three syllables.40
8574936644First Person NarratorNarrator is speaking from a first person point of view, usually a character in the story.41

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