AP Literature Terms Flashcards

5634757541	metonymy	a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it.	0
5634757542	motif	a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work(or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme.	1
5634757543	octave	an eight-line stanza	2
5634757544	ode	A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feeling towards the subject	3
5634757545	onomatopoeia	the use of words whose sounds echo their sense	4
5634757546	oxymoron	a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase	5
5634757547	paradox	a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth	6
5634757548	parody	a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style	7
5634757549	petrarchan sonnet	octave rhyming a b b a a b b a and a sestet rhyming either c d e c d e or c d c d c d	8
5634757550	polysyndeton	Artistic device that uses conjunctions such as "and" and "or" to join lists and words instead of commas or punctuation.	9
5634757551	pun	a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words that sound alike but mean different things	10
5634757552	quatrain	a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit	11
5634757553	realism	fidelity to actuality in literature	12
5634757554	refrain	a phrase or line, usually pertinent to the central topic, which is repeated at regular intervals throughout a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.	13
5634757555	rhetoric	art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse	14
5634757556	rhetorical question	a questions asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer	15
5634757557	romanticism	style of literature that that emphasized the imagination and emotions	16
5634757558	round character	a fully developed character;	17
5634757559	sarcasm	A sharp, caustic expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt; different from irony, which is more subtle	18
5634757560	sestet	a poem of six lines, or a six lined-stanza in a poem	19
5634757561	setting	The total environment for the action in a novel or play. It includes time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spiritual circumstances	20
5634757562	situational irony	a state of affairs or events that is the reverse of what might have been expected	21
5634757563	soliloquy	a long speech made by a character who is alone on the stage in which he reveals his innermost thoughts & feelings	22
5634757564	sonnet	Lyric poem, 14 lines, iambic pentameter, 10 syllables per line, 5 pairs unstressed syllable	23
5634757565	stream of consciousness	A style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind	24
5634757566	syllogism	the underlying structure of deductive reasoning, having a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion based on logic.	25
5634757567	symbol	The use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object	26
5634757568	theme	The main idea or meaning, often an abstract idea upon which a work of literature is built	27
5634757569	thesis	a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proven.	28
5634757570	third person limited	an unknown narrator, tells the story, but this narrator zooms in focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one character	29
5634757571	third person omniscient	an omniscient or all knowing narrator tells the story, also using the third person pronouns, this narrator, instead of focusing on one character only, often tells us everything about many characters	30
5634757572	tragedy	an event causing great tragedy	31
5634757573	tragic flaw	a trait in a character that leads to his downfall	32
5634757574	verbal irony	A mode of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated, often implying ridicule or light sarcasm	33
5634765692	monologue	a long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program.	34
5634782032	mood	a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions	35
5634784619	moral	a lesson, especially one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience.	36
5634786851	parallelism	the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.	37
5634788934	pathos	a quality that evokes pity or sadness.	38
5634791028	pentameter	a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet, or (in Greek and Latin verse) of two halves each of two feet and a long syllable.	39
5634794211	persona	a role or character adopted by an author or an actor.	40
5634795814	personification	the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.	41
5634798365	point of view	the narrator's position in relation to the story being told.	42
5634800790	protagonist	the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.	43
5634803362	satire	the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.	44
5634805134	simile	a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox ).	45
5634806703	stereotype	a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.	46
5634810249	style	the technique which an individual author uses in his writing. It varies from author to author and depends upon one's syntax, word choice, and tone.	47
5634812763	syntax	the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.	48
5634813382	tone	the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.	49