Ap literature, AP Literature Terms, AP Literature Terms Flashcards

5261338055	allegory	story or poem that can be used to reveal a hidden meaning	0
5261338056	alliteration	beginning of same letter or sound in closely connected words	1
5261338057	allusion	indirect of passing reference	2
5261338058	anaphora	repetition in first part of a sentence , to have an artistic meaning	3
5261338059	antagonist	a hostile person who is opposed to another character	4
5261338060	apostrophe	figure of speech used to adresss an imaginary character	5
5261338061	approximate rhyme	words in rhyming pattern that sound alike	6
5261338062	aside	when a character's dialogue is spoken but not heard by other actors on the stage	7
5261338063	assonance	repetition of vowel sounds	8
5261338064	blank verse	poetry written in meter without an ending rhyme	9
5261338065	cacophony	blend of unharmonious sounds	10
5261338066	caesura	pause in the middle of a line	11
5261338067	catharsis	the release of emotions through art (emotional cleanse)	12
5261338068	flat character	story character who have no depth, usually has one personality or characteristic	13
5261338069	round character	character who has complex personality: contradicted person	14
5261338070	dynamic character	changes throughout the story, through major conflict	15
5261338071	static character	person who doesn't change throughout story keeps same personality	16
5261338072	characterization	process of revealing characters personality	17
5261338073	climax	point where conflict hits its highest point	18
5261338074	comedy	drama that is amusing or funny	19
5261338075	conflict	struggle between opposing forces	20
5261338076	connotation	secondary meaning to a word	21
5261338077	consonance	repetition of same consonant in words close together	22
5261338078	couplet	two rhyming lines in a verse	23
5261338079	denotation	the literal meaning of a word	24
5261338080	denouement	final outcome of the story	25
5261338081	deus ex machina	resolution of a plot by chance or coincidence	26
5261338082	didactic writing	writing with a primary purpose to teach or preach	27
5261338083	direct presentation of character	author telling the reader how a character is and what actions it will do further in the story	28
5261338084	double rhyme	rhyme where the repeated vowel is in the second last syllable of words involved (ex; born scorn)	29
5261338085	dramatic exposition	prose commentaries, to provide background information about the characters and their world	30
5261338086	end rhyme	rhymes occurring at the end of line	31
5261338087	end stopped line	line ending in regular punctuation	32
5261338088	English sonnet	a sonnet rhyming ababcdcdededgg	33
5261338089	epiphany	when a character receives a spiritual insight into they life	34
5261338090	euphony	smooth choice and arrangement of sounds	35
5261338091	extended figure	A figure of speech sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem.	36
5261338092	falling action	Events after the climax, leading to the resolution	37
5261338093	feminine rhyme	lines rhymed by their final two syllables	38
5261338094	figurative language	Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.	39
5261338095	figure of speech	a way of saying something other than the ordinary way	40
5261338096	foot	basic unit in the scansion or measurement of verse , stressed and un stressed syllables	41
5261338097	form	external pattern or shape of a poem	42
5261338098	free verse	Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme	43
5261338099	hamartia	tragic flaw which causes a character's downfall	44
5261338100	imagery	Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)	45
5261338101	indirect presentation of character	the personality of a character is revealed by what he or she does or says	46
5261338102	internal rhyme	A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line	47
5261338103	irony	A contrast between expectation and reality	48
5261338104	verbal irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant	49
5261338105	dramatic irony	Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.	50
5261338106	irony of situation	refers to an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended	51
5261338107	italian sonnet	A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd	52
5261338108	masculine rhyme	A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable	53
5261338109	melodrama	a play based upon a dramatic plot and developed sensationally	54
5261338110	metaphor	A comparison without using like or as	55
5261338111	meter	A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry	56
5261338112	metonymy	A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it	57
5261338113	motivation	A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior	58
5261338114	narrator	Person telling the story	59
5261338115	octave	8 line stanza	60
5261338116	onomatopoeia	A word that imitates the sound it represents.	61
5261338117	hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	62
5261338118	oxymoron	A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.	63
5261338119	paradox	A contradiction or dilemma	64
5261338120	paraphrase	A restatement of a text or passage in your own words.	65
5261338121	personification	A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	66
5261338122	plot	Sequence of events in a story	67
5261338123	point of view	The perspective from which a story is told	68
5261338124	omniscient point of view	The point of view where the narrator knows everything about the characters and their problems - told in the 3rd person.	69
5261338125	third person limited point of view	narrator tells the story from only one character's pov	70
5261338126	first person point of view	a character in the story is actually telling the story himself/herself	71
5261338127	objective point of view	a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.	72
5261338128	protagonist	Main character	73
5261338129	quatrain	A four line stanza	74
5261338130	rhythm	A regularly recurring sequence of events or actions.	75
5261338131	rhyme scheme	A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem	76
5261338132	rising action	Events leading up to the climax	77
5261338133	sarcasm	the use of irony to mock or convey contempt	78
5261338134	satire	A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.	79
5261338135	scansion	Analysis of verse into metrical patterns	80
5261338136	sestet	6 line stanza	81
5261338137	setting	The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs.	82
5261338138	simile	A comparison using "like" or "as"	83
5261338139	soliloquy	A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage	84
5261338140	sonnet	14 line poem	85
5261338141	stanza	A group of lines in a poem	86
5261338142	stream of consciousness	private thoughts of a character without commentary	87
5261338143	syllabic verse	Verse measured by the number of syllables rather than the number of feet per line.	88
5261338144	symbol	A thing that represents or stands for something else	89
5261338145	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa	90
5261338146	synesthesia	describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")	91
5261338147	tercet	3 line stanza	92
5261338148	terza rima	a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.	93
5261338149	theme	Central idea of a work of literature	94
5261338150	tone	Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character	95
5261338151	tragedy	A serious form of drama dealing with the downfall of a heroic or noble character	96
5261338152	truncation	Utilizing a melody with part of the end omitted.	97
5261338153	understandment	the deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is; a deliberate under-emphasis	98
5261338154	verse	A single line of poetry writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme	99
5261338155	vilanelle	a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.	100
5261338156	anaphora	the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of two or more successive phrases or clauses.	101
5261338157	chiasmus	a reversal in the word order of words in two otherwise parallel sentences	102
5261338158	apostrophe	the direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea.	103
5261338159	hyperbole	a rhetorical figure in which emphasis is achieved through exaggeration	104
5261338160	metaphor	figurative language that describes something as though it actually were something else	105
5261338161	metonymy	the substitution of one term for another that is generally associated with it. (ex. the crown declared that the man would be executed.)	106
5261338162	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole (ex. all hands on deck)	107
5261338163	onomatopoeia	the use of words that sound like a noise	108
5261338164	paradox	a statement or expression so surprisingly self-contradictory but ends up being true on some level	109
5261338165	parallelism	the use of similar grammatical structures or word order.	110
5261338166	personification	the use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas.	111
5261338167	point of view	the perspective that a narrator takes toward the events it describes	112
5261338168	protagonist	the central character in a story	113
5261338169	pun	a witty word-play which reveals that words with different meanings have similar or even identical sounds	114
5261338170	satire	writing that ridicules or holds up to contempt the faults of individuals or groups	115
5261338171	polysyndeton	the repetition of conjunctions in a sentence	116
5261338172	asyndeton	the omission of conjunctions in a sentence	117
5261338173	archetype	a symbol found in many cultures	118
5261338174	dramatic irony	a situation where the audience knows something that the characters on stage are not aware of	119
5261338175	allusion	a reference to a piece of literature, character, historical figure that the author assumes the reader will recognize	120
5261338176	dramatic climax	the turning point in a Shakespearean tragedy where the action turns against the protagonist	121
5261338177	diction	the word choices made by a writer	122
5261338178	didactic	having the primary purpose of teaching or instructing	123
5261338179	flat (static) character	a character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop in the course of a story	124
5261338180	dynamic (round) character	a character who undergoes a change or transformation in the course of a story	125
5261338181	exposition	the beginning portion of Freytag's pyramid where the background information, characters and setting are introduced	126
5261338182	exciting force	the spark or complication that "gets the action going" in the play the event that sets the plot into motion	127
5261338183	rising action	Events leading up to the climax	128
5261338184	denouement (catastrophe)	The final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work or the outcome of a complicated sequence of events	129
5261338185	omniscient narrator	a narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all, including the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters	130
5261338186	theme	Central idea of a work of literature	131
5261338187	tone	A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.	132
5261338188	deus ex machina	an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel	133
5261338189	anaphora	the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of two or more successive phrases or clauses.	134
5261338190	chiasmus	a reversal in the word order of words in two otherwise parallel sentences	135
5261338191	apostrophe	the direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea.	136
5261338192	hyperbole	a rhetorical figure in which emphasis is achieved through exaggeration	137
5261338193	metaphor	figurative language that describes something as though it actually were something else	138
5261338194	metonymy	the substitution of one term for another that is generally associated with it. (ex. the crown declared that the man would be executed.)	139
5261338195	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole (ex. all hands on deck)	140
5261338196	onomatopoeia	the use of words that sound like a noise	141
5261338197	paradox	a statement or expression so surprisingly self-contradictory but ends up being true on some level	142
5261338198	parallelism	the use of similar grammatical structures or word order.	143
5261338199	personification	the use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas.	144
5261338200	point of view	the perspective that a narrator takes toward the events it describes	145
5261338201	protagonist	the central character in a story	146
5261338202	pun	a witty word-play which reveals that words with different meanings have similar or even identical sounds	147
5261338203	satire	writing that ridicules or holds up to contempt the faults of individuals or groups	148
5261338204	polysyndeton	the repetition of conjunctions in a sentence	149
5261338205	asyndeton	the omission of conjunctions in a sentence	150
5261338206	archetype	a symbol found in many cultures	151
5261338207	dramatic irony	a situation where the audience knows something that the characters on stage are not aware of	152
5261338208	allusion	a reference to a piece of literature, character, historical figure that the author assumes the reader will recognize	153
5261338209	dramatic climax	the turning point in a Shakespearean tragedy where the action turns against the protagonist	154
5261338210	diction	the word choices made by a writer	155
5261338211	didactic	having the primary purpose of teaching or instructing	156
5261338212	flat (static) character	a character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop in the course of a story	157
5261338213	dynamic (round) character	a character who undergoes a change or transformation in the course of a story	158
5261338214	exposition	the beginning portion of Freytag's pyramid where the background information, characters and setting are introduced	159
5261338215	exciting force	the spark or complication that "gets the action going" in the play the event that sets the plot into motion	160
5261338216	rising action	Events leading up to the climax	161
5261338217	denouement (catastrophe)	The final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work or the outcome of a complicated sequence of events	162
5261338218	omniscient narrator	a narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all, including the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters	163
5261338219	theme	Central idea of a work of literature	164
5261338220	tone	A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.	165
5261338221	deus ex machina	an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel	166