AP Lit Devices

20699564	adage	wise saying; proverb; saying
20699565	allegory	literary work in which characters, events, objects, and ideas have a secondary or symbolic meaning
20699566	alliteration	repetition of consonant sounds
20699567	allusion	reference to a historical event, mythology, or literature
20699568	anadiplosis	figure of speech in which a word or phrase at the end of a sentence, clause, or line of verse is repeated at or near the beginning of the next sentence, clause, or line of verse
20699569	anagnorisis	a moment of epiphany, time of revelation when a character discovers his true identity
20699570	anaphora	repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of a word groups occurring one after the other
20699571	anecdote	a little story, often amusing, inserted in an essay or a speech to help reinforce the thesis
20699572	antagonist	character in a story or poem who opposes the main character (protagonist)
20699573	antithesis	placement of contrasting or opposing words, phrases, clauses, or sentences side by side
20699574	assonance	repetition of vowel sounds preceded and followed by different consonant sounds
20699575	ballad	poem that tells a story about people of a particular region and culture; usually meant to be sung
20699576	caesura	a pause in a line of verse shown in scansion by two vertical lines or large spaces
20699577	catharsis	a purification of emotions; used by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, to describe the effect on the audience of a tragedy acted out on stage
20699578	classicism	a tradition espousing the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome; where the writer restrains his emotions and his ego while writing in clear, dignified language with carefully structured plots
20699579	cliche	an overused expression
20699580	diction	word choice; the quality of the sound of a speaker or singer
20699581	enjambment	carrying the sense of one line of verse over to the next line without a pause
20699582	epic	long poem in a lofty style about the exploits of heroic figures
20699583	epigraph	quotation inserted at the beginning of a poem, a novel, or any literary work; a dedication of a literary work; words inscribed or painted on a monument, building, trophy, tombstone
20699584	epilogue	a short address spoken by an actor at the end of a play that comments on the meaning of the events in the play or looks ahead to expected events; an afterword in any literary work
20699585	expressionism	a writing approach, process, or technique in which a writer depicts a character's feelings about a subject (or the writer's own feelings about it) rather than the objective surface reality of the subject
20699586	flashback	device in which a writer describes significant events of an earlier time or actually returns the plot to an earlier time
20699587	foil	a secondary or minor character in a literary work who contrasts or clashes with the main character; a secondary or minor charaacter with personal qualities that are the opposite or different from another character; the antagonist in a play or another literary work
20699588	genre	type or kind, as applied to literature and film
20699589	hyperbole	exaggeration; overstatement
20699590	inversion	arrangement of sentence parts out of their normal order to achieve a lyrical effect, as in poetry or verse
20699591	jargon	vocabulary understood by members of a profession or trade but usually not by other members of the general public
20699592	kenning	compound expression, often hyphenated, representing a single noun (whale-road=sea, ocean)
20699593	machine	armlike device in an ancient Greek theater that could lower a "god" onto the stage from the heavens; deus ex machina; a contrived event
20699594	malapropism	unintentional use of an inappropriate word similar in sound to the appropriate word, often with humorous effect
20699595	metonymy	substitution of one word or phrase to stand for a word or phrase similar in meaning (White House=government; President)
20699596	motif	recurring theme in a literary work
20699597	mock-epic	work that parodies the serious, elevated style of the classical epic poem to poke fun at human follies; a type of satire; treats petty humans or insignificant occurrences as if they were extraordinary or heroic
20699598	naturalism	an extreme form of realism that developed in France in the 19th Century; applies the principles of scientific and economic determinism to literature to depict a detailed picture of everyday life
20699599	ode	in ancient Greece, a long poem on a serious subject that develops its theme with dignified language intended to be sung
20699600	Old English Versification	unrhyming verse, without stanzas, with a caesura in the middle of each line, representing everyday speech; each line is divided into two parts (hemistich--half a line) and (stich--complete line) with two stressed syllables and a varying number of unstressed syllables
20699601	paradox	contradictory statement that may actually be true; similar to an oxymoron, but does not place opposing words side by side
20699602	philippic	speech that bitterly denounces, blames, accuses, or insults a person; speech that viciously attacks a person or his ideas
20699603	quatrain	a four-lined stanza; usually with a rhyme scheme of abab, abba, or abcb
20699604	realism	a movement in literature that stressed the presentation of life as it is, without embellishment or idealization
20699605	rhetoric	art of effectively using words in speech and writing; the study of language and its rules
20699606	satire	literary work that attacks or pokes fun at vices and imperfections; political cartoon that does the same
20699607	style	the way an author writes a literary work through diction, phrases, the structure of sentences, length of paragraphs, tone of the work, etc.
20699608	syncope	omitting letters or sounds within a word
20699609	synecdoche	substitution of a part to stand for the whole, or the whole to stand for a part (wheels=car)
20699610	thespian	an actor or actress
20699611	Transcendentalism	the belief that every human being has inborn knowledge that enables him to recognize and understand moral truth without benefit of knowledge obtained through the physical senses; with this inborn knowledge, an individual can make a moral decision without relying on information gained through everyday living, education, and experimentation
20699612	verse	a collection of lines that follow a regular, rhythmic pattern
20699613	figispicity	being so specific that even Fig is impressed