AP Literature Flashcards

4173937593	abstract	an abstract style is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its points	0
4173939287	academic	dry and theoretical writing (when a piece seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis)	1
4173941036	accent	in poetry, accent refers to the stressed portion of a word. In "To be, or not to be," accents fall on the first "be" and "not".	2
4173943859	aesthetic	(adj. )appealing to the senses. Aesthetic judgement is a phrase synonymous with artistic judgement. (noun) an aesthetic is a coherent sense of taste; the plural noun aesthetics is the study of beauty	3
4173947902	allegory	a story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself	4
4174021188	alliteration	the repetition of initial consonant sounds	5
4174022148	allusion	a reference to another work or famous figure (topical allusion-current events; popular allusion- pop culture)	6
4174024059	anachronism	misplaced in time	7
4174025782	analogy	a comparison. usually involve two or more symbolic parts and are employed to clarify an action or relationship	8
4174028122	anecdote	a short narrative	9
4174028478	antecedent	the word, phrase, or clause that a pronoun refers to or replaces	10
4174029438	anthropomorphism	when inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation (confused with personification-nonhuman qua lit takes on a human SHAPE)	11
4174031540	anticlimax	when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect; frequently comic	12
4174032927	antihero	a protagonist (main character) who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities	13
4219346882	aphorism	a short and usually witty saying	14
4219347755	apostrophe	an address to someone not present or to a personified object or idea	15
4219348591	archaism	the use of deliberately old-fashioned language	16
4219349260	aside	a speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience as though stepping outside of the action on stage	17
4219351316	aspect	a trait or characteristic	18
4219352355	assonance	the repeated use of vowel sounds	19
4219354645	atmosphere	the emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene	20
4219355659	ballad	a long, narrative poem usually in very regular meter ad rhyme; typically has a naive folksy quality	21
4219357530	bathos, pathos	bathos: writing that strains for grandeur it can's support and tries to elicit tears from every hiccup; pathos: writing that evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy	22
4219361133	black humor	use of disturbing themes in comedy	23
4219362594	bombast	pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language; when one tries to be eloquent using the largest, most uncommon words	24
4219364803	burlesque	broad parody, one that takes a style or a form such as tragic drama and exaggerates it into ridiculousness	25
4219368412	cacophony	(in poetry) using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds	26
4219369550	cadence	the beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense	27
4219381389	canto	the name for a section division in a long work of poetry, similar to the way chapters divide a novel	28
4219383159	caricature	a portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality	29
4219384105	catharsis	cleansing of emotion an audience member experiences having lived (vicariously) through the experiences presented on stage	30
4219385679	chorus	group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it	31
4219386299	classic	typical or an accepted masterpiece	32
4219387460	classical	the arts of ancient greece and rome and the qualities of those arts	33
4219434307	coinage (neologism)	a new world, usually one invented on the spot	34
4219437311	colloquialism	a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted schoolbook English	35
4219438417	complex, dense	suggest that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words (image, idea, opposition); there are subtleties and variation, multiple layers of interpretation; the meaning is both explicit and implicit	36
4219609515	conceit, controlling image	a startling or unusual metaphor, or one developed and expanded upon over several lines. when the image dominates and shapes the entire work, it's called a controlling image	37
4219611329	connotation	everything that the word suggests or implies	38
4219611330	denotation	the word's literal meaning	39
4219612683	consonance	the repetition of consonant sounds within words (not at beginning)	40
4219613109	couplet	a pair of lines that end in rhyme	41
4219613408	decorum	when a character's speech is styled according to her social station and in accordance with the occasion	42
4219614825	diction	the author's choice of words	43
4219615196	syntax	the ordering and structuring of the words	44
4219616203	dirge	a song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy	45
4219616770	dissonance	the grating of incompatible sounds	46
4219617127	doggerel	crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme	47
4219617536	dramatic irony	when the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not	48
4219617878	dramatic monologue	when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience	49
4219618409	elegy	a type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner	50
4219619420	enjambment	the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause	51
4219621166	epic	a very long narrative poem on a serious them and in a dignified style; typically deal with glorious or profound subject matters. mock-epic: parody form that deals with mundane events and treats them as being worthy of epic poetry	52
4219623499	epitaph	lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place	53
4219624568	euphemism	a word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality	54
4219625463	euphony	when sounds blend harmoniously	55
4219625845	explicit	to say or write something directly and clearly	56
4219626521	farce	a funny play, a comedy	57
4219626868	feminine rhyme	lines rhymed by their final two syllables	58
4219627812	foil	a secondary character whose purpose s to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast	59
4219628360	foot	the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry; formed by a combination of two or three syllables	60
4219629074	foreshadowing	an event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later	61
4219629622	free verse	poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern	62
4219630155	genre	a subcategory of literature	63