AP Literature Terminology Flashcards

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4788507294	Allegory	A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one	0
4788507295	Alliteration	use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse	1
4788507296	Allusion	a reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize	2
4788507297	Ambiguity	An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way.	3
4788507298	Anachronism	something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred	4
4788507299	Analogy	drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect	5
4788507300	Anaphora	repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses	6
4788507301	Antithesis	the juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas to give a feeling of balance	7
4788507302	Apostrophe	address to an absent or imaginary person	8
4788507303	Archetype	A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response	9
4788507304	Assonance	the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words	10
4788507305	Asyndeton	When the conjunctions (such as "and" or "but") that would normally connect a string of words, phrases, or clauses are omitted from a sentence	11
4788507306	Catharsis	a release of emotional tension	12
4788507307	Characterization	the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character	13
4788507308	Comedy of Manners	Deals with the relations and intrigues of gentlemen and ladies living in a polished and sophisticated society; it evokes laughter mainly at the violations of social conventions and decorum and relies on the wit and humor of the dialogue for its effect.	14
4788507309	Comic Relief	An amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into serious or tragic elements, as in a play, in order to provide temporary relief from tension, or to intensify the dramatic action.	15
4788507310	Connotation	refers to the implied or suggested meanings associated with a word beyond its dictionary definition	16
4788507311	Consonance	repetition of consonant sounds	17
4788507312	Diction	a writer's or speaker's choice of words	18
4788507313	Didactic	having the primary purpose of teaching or instructing	19
4788507314	Dramatic Irony	(theater) irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play	20
4788507315	Elegy	a mournful poem, esp. one lamenting the dead	21
4788507316	Epigraph	a quotation at the beginning of some piece of writing	22
4788507317	Epithet	a term used to point out a characteristic of a person. Homeric epithets are often compound adjectives ("swift-footed Achilles") that become an almost formulaic part of a name. Epithets can be abusive or offensive but are not so by definition. For example, athletes may be proud of given epithets ("The Rocket").	23
4788507318	Euphemism	the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt	24
4788507319	Explication	The art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text. It usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.	25
4788507320	Exposition	The introductory material which gives the setting, creates the tone, presents the characters, and presents other facts necessary to understanding the story.	26
4788507321	Farce	(n.) a play filled with ridiculous or absurd happenings; broad or far-fetched humor; a ridiculous sham	27
4788507322	Figurative Language	Writing or speech that is used to create vivid impressions by setting up comparisons between dissimilar things, [examples are metaphor, simile, and personification.	28
4788507323	Flat Character	a character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop in the course of a story	29
4788507324	Foil Character	a character who is used as a contrast to another character; the contrast emphasizes the differences between the two characters, bringing out the distinctive qualities in each	30
4788507325	Genre	a kind of literary or artistic work	31
4788507326	Hubris	excessive pride	32
4788507327	Hyperbole	a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	33
4788507328	Imagery	the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, thing, place, or experience	34
4788507329	Litotes	understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary)	35
4788507330	Metaphor	a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity	36
4788507331	Extended Metaphor	A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.	37
4788507332	Metonymy	A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it	38
4788507333	Mood	the overall emotion created by a work of literature	39
4788507334	Motif	a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work	40
4788507335	Onomatopoeia	using words that imitate the sound they denote	41
4788507336	Oxymoron	conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence')	42
4788507337	Parable	a short moral story (often with animal characters)	43
4788507338	Paradox	a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.	44
4788507339	Parallelism	phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other	45
4788507340	Parody	a work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner	46
4788507341	Periodic Sentence	a complex sentence in which the main clause comes last and is preceded by the subordinate clause	47
4788507342	Personification	representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature	48
4788507343	Point of View	the perspective from which a story is told	49
4788507344	Polysyndeton	using several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted (as in 'he ran and jumped and laughed for joy')	50
4788507345	Protagonist	the principal character in a work of fiction	51
4788507346	Pun	a humorous play on words	52
4788507347	Repetition	the repeated use of the same word or word pattern as a rhetorical device	53
4788507348	Round Character	this character is fully developed - the writer reveals good and bad traits as well as background	54
4788507349	Satire	form of literature in which irony, sarcasm, and ridicule are employed to attack human vice and folly	55
4788507350	Sarcasm	harsh, cutting language or tone intended to ridicule	56
4788507351	Setting	the state of the environment in which a situation exists	57
4788507352	Simile	Comparison using "like" or "as"	58
4788507353	Situational Irony	occurs when the outcome of a work is unexpected, or events turn out to be the opposite from what one had expected	59
4788507354	Soliloquy	in drama, a character speaks alone on stage to allow his/her thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience	60
4788507355	Monologue	speech you make to yourself	61
4788507356	Stock Character	a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality manner of speech and other characteristics. Stock characters are instantly recognizable to members of a given culture.	62
4788507357	Stream of Consciousness	the continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience	63
4788507358	Style	a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period	64
4788507359	Symbol	something that stands for something else	65
4788507360	Synecdoche	A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).	66
4788507361	Syntax	the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language	67
4788507362	Theme	a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work	68
4788507363	Tone	the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author	69
4788507364	Tragedy	A work in which the protagonist, a person of high degree, is engaged in a significant struggle and which ends in ruin or destruction	70
4788507365	Hamartia	the error, frailty, mistaken judgment, or misstep through which the fortunes of the hero of a tragedy are reversed	71
4788507366	Understatement	the opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.	72
4788507367	Verbal Irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant	73
4788507368	Static Character	a character that does not change from the beginning of the story to the end	74
4788507369	Dynamic Character	A character who grows, learns, or changes as a result of the story's action	75
4788507370	Catalyst	a person, thing, or agent that speeds up or stimulates a result, reaction, or change	76
4788507371	Anapest	a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables	77
4788507372	Ballad	a type of poem that is meant to be sung and is both lyric and narrative in nature	78
4788507373	Ballad Stanza	A four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, consisting of alternating eight- and six-syllable lines.	79
4788507374	Blank Verse	unrhymed verse (usually in iambic pentameter)	80
4788507375	Colloquial Diction	characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation	81
4788507376	Pedantic Diction	marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning especially its trivial aspects	82
4788507377	Cosmic Irony	Type of irony where it seems that God or fate is manipulating events so as to inspire false hopes, which are inevitably dashed.	83
4788507378	Couplet	Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.	84
4788507379	Dactyl	a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables	85
4788507380	Dimeter	A metrical line containing two feet	86
4788507381	End Rhyme	Rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry	87
4788507382	End-Stopped Line	a line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation	88
4788507383	Shakespearean Sonnet	a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg	89
4788507384	Enjambent	the continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet of a poem to the next.	90
4788507385	Epic Poem	a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds	91
4788507386	Epigram	a witty saying expressing a single thought or observation	92
4788507387	Eye Rhyme	rhyme that appears correct from spelling but does not rhyme because of pronunciation	93
4788507388	Exact Rhyme	perfect rhyme, such as buzz and fuzz	94
4788507389	Fixed Form	a traditional pattern that applies to whole poem (sonnet, limerick)	95
4788507390	Foot	a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm	96
4788507391	Free Verse	Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme	97
4788507392	Heptameter	a verse line containing seven feet	98
4788507393	Heroic Couplet	a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentamenter and written in an elevated style	99
4788507394	Hexameter	a metrical line containing six feet	100
4788507395	Iambic	one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable	101
4788507396	Internal Rhyme	a word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line	102
4788507397	Italian Sonnet	a poem that falls into two parts: an octave of eight lines and a sestet of six; the octave rhyme pattern is "abba abba" (two sets of four lines); the sestet's lines are more variable: "cde cde"; or "ced ced"; or "cd cd cd".	103
4788507398	Limerick	a kind of humorous verse of five lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, form a rhymed couplet	104
4788507399	Lyric Poem	a short poem of songlike quality	105
4788507400	Masculine Ending	a stressed syllable ending a verse line	106
4788507401	Meter	(prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse	107
4788507402	Monometer	a metrical line containing one foot	108
4788507403	Narrative Poem	a poem that tells a story and has a plot	109
4788507404	Near Rhyme	A rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds.	110
4788507405	Octameter	A metrical line containing eight feet	111
4788507406	Ode	a poem usually addressed to a particular person, object or event that has stimulated deep and noble feelings in the poet	112
4788507407	Open Form	A type of structure or form in poetry characterized by freedom from regularity and consistency in such elements as rhyme, line length, and metrical pattern.	113
4788507408	Pentameter	a metrical line containing five feet	114
4788507409	Quatrain	a stanza of four lines	115
4788507410	Sestina	a lyric form that consists of six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three-line conclusion or envoy; this form requires a strict pattern of repetition of six key words that end the lines of the first stanza	116
4788507411	Sonnet	a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme	117
4788507412	Tercet	a three line stanza	118
4788507413	Tetrameter	a metrical line containing four feet	119
4788507414	Villanelle	highly structured poem consisting of six stanzas: five tercets and a quatrain; first and third line are repeated throughout	120