AP Literature Terminology Flashcards

5610709965	Metaphor	When one thing is pictured or described as though it were something else, suggesting likeness through an implied comparison. A _________________ can be extended, controlling, or mixed	0
5610722531	Narrator	The character who tells the story. The ________________ in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a young girl named Scout	1
5610731686	Theme	The central or dominant idea or focus of a work of literature. The central ______________ in the novel Things Fall Apart would involve the subjugation of a native culture	2
5610738320	Diction	Specific word choice used to persuade or convey a tone. The striking ___________________ in the author's sentence structure involves his use of striking modifiers	3
5610744953	Personification	A figure of speech in which human qualities are given to an abstract idea or nonhuman object. Shakespeare once used _______________ to describe jealousy in the play Othello, "Beware of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster that mocks the meat it feeds on."	4
5610753670	Allegory	A narrative with multiple, highly symbolic levels of meaning. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is clearly an ___________________.	5
5610761602	Hyperbole	A deliberate overstatement using exaggerated language. It would be _______________ to say that Jackie's book bag weighed a ton	6
5610767769	Voice	The source of the words in a story: the narrative ___________ that speaks directly to the reader.	7
5610774548	Irony	A contrast between what is said and what is meant. There are different forms of _______________: situational, dramatic, cosmic, tragic, and fatalistic	8
5610782228	Parody	A work that imitates another for comic effect by using exaggeration and adapting the content of the original. The movie Meet the Spartans is a ____________ of the film 300.	9
5610788438	Paradox	Seemingly contradictory statements that may, in fact, be true. "The child is father of the man" a line by William Wordsworth is clearly a _________________.	10
5610795258	Motif	A recurrent device, formula, or situation serving as a signal for the appearance of a character or event. The use of serpents in literature often serves as a __________________ for evil entering an environment.	11
5610801947	Rhythm	The modulation of strong and weak syllables or beats in speech or line of poetry. ________________ is easy to feel in music, but somewhat more difficult to detect in poetry.	12
5610808639	Antagonist	The force opposing the main character in a work of literature. The ___________________ of Antigone is clearly King Creon of Thebes.	13
5610815453	Symbolism	Elements in a literary work that figuratively stand for something else. An example of ____________________ in literature is forests, which often represent danger or uncertainty.	14
5610825228	Persona	The voice or figure who tells the story and who may not share the values of the actual author. Samuel Clemons' ____________________ was represented by the audacious Mark Twain.	15
5610831140	Exposition	The introduction to a story that includes the identification of the characters and dramatic situation at the beginning of a story or play. The ___________________ is a key element of plot.	16
5610837381	Parable	A short fictional story illustrating a moral lesson through analogy. The _________________ of "The Good Samaritan" teaches one to take pity on the poor and downtrodden.	17
5610844994	Pastoral	A literary work, often poetic in nature, which describes the simple life of county folk. Christopher Marlowe's "A Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a well-known ________________ about a shepherd's attempt to win the heart of his lover.	18
5610852414	Ode	A lyric poem with elaborate structure that praises a person, characteristic, quality, or object. Percy Byshe Shelley's "_______ to the West Wind" is a famous example of this type of poetry.	19
5610858980	Juxtaposed	To place two words or concepts side by side for the basis of comparison. Black and white photos were ______________ with color images.	20
5610867385	Tone	The attitude a literary work takes toward its subject or theme. The ___________ of a work may be described as humorous, satirical, or coldly realistic.	21
5610874150	Soliloquy	A dramatic monologue in which a character is alone speaking to himself or herself. "To be or not to be that is the question" Hamlet, a famous ___________.	22
5610880910	Plot	An arrangement of narration based on cause and effect, consisting of the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. Most book reports are little more than a _______________ summary.	23
5610888297	Fable	A legend or short moral story that often uses animals as characters. A modern ______________ would be George Orwell's Animal Farm—the ancient form perfected by Aesop himself.	24
5610895617	Archetype	Recurrent patterns of action, themes, images, and characters in a wide range of literature. The following list of character types serve to remind us of the ________________: the child, the hero, the wise old man, the trickster, the devil, the great mother, the scarecrow, and so on . . . .	25
5610905086	Foreshadowing	This occurs when an author hints at something that has yet to occur in a story. ___________________ is a powerful narrative technique many writers employ to "hook" a reader.	26
5610912429	Style	A writer's distinctive manner of expression. Poe's writing _________________ differs greatly from Mark Twain's.	27
5610918653	Mood	The feeling or ambiance that a writer creates as a result of tone, attitude, and point of view. The ______________ of many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's works can best be described as gloomy and grim.	28
5610930873	Couplets	Two paired, often rhyming, lines of poetry. Sonnets often end with a rhyming ___________________.	29
5610937476	Simile	A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison using the words "like" or "as." "His skin was as smooth as a baby's bottom" certainly contains a __________________.	30
5610943323	Enjambment	The continuation of a sentence running from one line of a poem to the next. Notice the ____________________ present in the following lines, "My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky."	31
5610949080	Imagery	The use of figurative language to evoke a feeling or idea in describing an object. You can detect ________________ that plays on our senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell.	32
5610955716	Lyric	A short poem with intense personal emotion, rather than a description of a situation. The word _________________ has become synonymous with modern music.	33
5610963129	Satire	A literary work that ridicules human weakness, foolishness, and failings. A famous example of _______________ would be Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.	34
5610969609	Allusion	A reference to a literary, historical, religious, or mythological work. "The final game was John's Waterloo" is an example of an ______________ to the battle in which Napoleon was defeated.	35
5610975525	Meter	A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Shakespeare's _____________ was traditionally iambic pentameter.	36
5610981414	Protagonist	The main character in a work of literature, who may or may not be heroic. In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is the novel's ________________________.	37
5610987811	Tragedy	A dramatic work in which the main character is brought to a disastrous end, often as a result of a tragic flaw. The play Hamlet is a famous ___________ by William Shakespeare.	38
5610995130	Ballad	A narrative poem originally meant to be sung. A modern example of a ____________ would be John Cougar Mellancamp's "Jack and Diane."	39
5611000646	Realism	Writers in this tradition attempt to describe nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail. Two famous writers of ___________ include Joseph Conrad and James Joyce.	40
5611008889	Oxymoron	A figure of speech combining two apparently contradictory elements, often for a humorous effect. Some examples of ___________ include: jumbo shrimp, working vacation, military intelligence, student athlete, and definite maybe.	41
5611016487	Genres	A class or type of literature. Common ___________________ include fiction, nonfiction, plays, poetry, and folktales.	42
5611021915	Stanza	A section of a poem, roughly equivalent to a paragraph in prose. The rhyme scheme in the 1st _______________ was a,b,b,a,c,c.	43
5611030393	Connotation	The meaning suggested by a word, apart from its denotation, or explicit definition. The word "pig headed" certainly carries with it a negative _________________.	44
5611041031	Elegy	A poetic lament upon the death of a particular person. Walt Whitman's famous _____________ "O Captain! My Captain!" was written about Abraham Lincoln.	45
5611048502	Synecdoche	A figure of speech in which a part is used to signify a whole. "All hands of deck" is an example of ___________________.	46
5611054616	Syntax	Used to describe the word order of a sentence, or the way words are used to form phrases, clauses and sentences. The _________________ found in Shakespeare's poems are brilliant.	47
5611064379	Onomatopoeia	A word that sounds like what it describes, such as "buzz" or "hiss."	48
5611071264	Refrain	The hallmark of a ballad, this poetic device appears in the form of a repeated stanza or line in a poem or song. The ____________ repeated in Edgar A. Poe's poem "The Raven" is Nevermore.	49
5611076828	Anecdote	A very brief story or tale. Mr. Romine told an amusing ____________ about how his son wanted to marry his mother.	50
5611083459	Colloquial	Used to describe ordinary, common language, also known as the vernacular. "That ain't funny!" is an example of ___________________ language.	51