AP Literature and Composition Terms Flashcards

2823630898	Alliteration	A literary device in which words are linked together by having the same initial or beginning consonant	0
2823630899	Allusion	A reference in literature to person, place, or event in another passage of literature	1
2823630900	Anapest	A foot or unit of poetry consisting of two light syllables followed by a single stressed syllable	2
2823630901	Anaphora	Repetition of a word or words in a systematic way for effect	3
2823630902	Apostrophe	Act of addressing some obstruction or personification that is not physically present	4
2823630903	Assonance	A literary device in which words are linked together by having similar vowel sounds	5
2823630904	Ballad	A narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter	6
2823630905	Blank verse	Unrhymed lines of 10 syllables each with the even number syllables bearing accents	7
2823630906	Bildungsroman	German term for a coming of age story	8
2823630907	Cacophony	The use of harsh, discordant sounds or words for effects	9
2823630908	Caesura	A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry	10
2823630909	Catharsis	The release of emotional tension during the resolution of the work of tragedy. There's always an element of grief	11
2823630910	Colloquialism	A word or phrase used in plain and relaxed speech but rarely found in formal writing	12
2823630911	Conceit	A comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out within a piece of literature, in particular an extended metaphor within a poem	13
2823630912	Connotation	An additional meaning a word carries beyond it's strict definition	14
2823630913	Consonance	Alliteration in which the repeated consonants are marked by changes in intervening vowels	15
2823630914	Convention	A common feature that has become traditional or expected	16
2823630915	Couplet	Two lines of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit	17
2823630916	Dactyl	A three syllable foot consisting of a heavy stress and light stresses	18
2823630917	Diction	The choice of a particular word as opposed to others	19
2823630918	Didactic	Writing that seeks to overly convince a reader of a particular point or lesson	20
2823630919	Dramatic monologue	A poem in which a poetic speaker dresses either the reader or an internal listener	21
2823630920	Dialogue	The literary device that occurs when character speak to one another	22
2823630921	Denotation	A word's dictionary definition	23
2823630922	Euphemism	A milder term for something explicit and inappropriate	24
2823630923	Euphony	The opposite of cacophony. It employs the use of soothing, pleasant words for effect	25
2823630924	Elegy	A poem dealing with the subject matter common to early Greco-Roman poems	26
2823630925	Explication	The act of making clear or removing obscurity for the meaning of a word or symbol	27
2823630926	Foil	A character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize the opposing traits in another character	28
2823630927	Foot	A basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of strong stresses and light stresses	29
2823630928	Formulaic	Constituting or containing a verbal formula or set form of words	30
2823630929	Free verse	Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than constraints of meter	31
2823630930	Hubris	Implying arrogance or excessive self pride	32
2823630931	Hyperbole	Exaggeration or overstatement	33
2823630932	Lamb	A unit or foot of poetry that consist of a lightly stressed syllable followed by heavy stressed syllable	34
2823630933	Lambic pentameter	A lightly stress syllable followed by heavily stressed syllable, 5 feet long	35
2823630934	Imagery	Sensory perceptions referred to through description, allusion, simile, and metaphor	36
2823630935	Internal rhyme	A poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with the word at the end	37
2823630936	Intrusive narrator	And omniscient narrator who reports on the events of the story and further comments on it	38
2823630937	Irony	Saying one thing and meaning another	39
2823630938	Leitmotif	Used to designate a musical theme associated with a particular object, character, or emotion	40
2823630939	Literal	A passage, story, or text intended only as a factual account of a real historical event	41
2823630940	Litotes	A form of understatement using a negative statement	42
2823630941	Metaphor	A comparison stated in a way as to imply that one object is like another one	43
2823630942	Meter	A recognizable, varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress	44
2823630943	Metonymy/synecdoche	A specific physical object used as a vague so just a symbol for a more general idea	45
2823630944	Monologue	A character speaking aloud to himself, narrating an account for the audience alone	46
2823630945	Mood	A feeling, emotional state, or disposition of mind	47
2823630946	Motif	A conspicuous recurring elements such as an incident, device, references, or verbal formula	48
2823630947	Narrator	The voice that speaks or tells a story	49
2823630948	Ode	A long, elaborate poem of varying line lengths with a serious subject matter	50
2823630949	Onomatopoeia	The use of sounds that are similar to the noise they represent for rhetorical or artistic effect	51
2823630950	Oxymoron	A compressed paradox containing two contradictory ideas	52
2823630951	Parable	A short narrative or story designed to reveal allegorically some religious principle, lesson, or truth	53
2823630952	Paradox	A self-contradictory statement this is somehow still true	54
2823630953	Paraphrase	A brief restatement in one's own words of all or part of a literary or critical work	55
2823630954	Parody	It imitates the manner and characteristic features of a particular work in order to mock it	56
2823630955	Pathos	Elements used to inspire and emotional reaction	57
2823630956	Persona	External representation of oneself which might or might not accurately reflect one's inner self	58
2823630957	Personification	A literary device through which animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human characteristics	59
2823630958	Prosody	The mechanics of verse poetry - sounds, rhythms, meter, alliteration, rhyme	60
2823630959	Pun	A play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning	61
2823630960	Quatrain	A stanza of four lines	62
2823630961	Refrain	A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem, repeated at regular intervals	63
2823630962	Rhyme	A matching similarity of sounds in two or more words	64
2823630963	Scansion	The action of scanning a poem to determine its meter	65
2823630964	Sestet	Six lines that rhyme with a varying pattern	66
2823630965	Soliloquy	A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes to be alone	67
2823630966	Sonnet	A lyric poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arrange according to pattern	68
2823630967	Spondee	A metrical foot consisting of two successive strong beats	69
2823630968	Stanza	An arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem	70
2823630969	Stress	The emphasis, length, and loudness that mark one syllable as more pronounced than another	71
2823630970	Syntax	The standard word order and sentence structure of a language	72
2823630971	Theme	A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work	73
2823630972	Tone	The means of conveying an attitude or mood	74
2823630973	Trochee	A two syllable unit or foot of poetry consisting of a heavy stress followed by a light stress	75
2823630974	Simile	A comparison of two different objects using like or as	76
2823630975	Allegory		77