Literary Terms Advanced/AP Literature Flashcards

5865031379	Caesura	A break or pause within a line of poetry indicated by punctuation and used to emphasize meaning.	0
5865033810	Allusion	A brief reference to a person, place, event, or work which the author assumes the reader will recognize.	1
5865036711	Epigram	A brief witty poem. Pope often utilizes this form for satiric commentary.	2
5865039098	Flashback	A device that enables a writer to refer to past thoughts, events, and/or episodes.	3
5865041875	Epic	A lengthy, elevated poem that celebrates the exploits of a hero. Beowulf is a prime example.	4
5865044900	Elegy	A poem that laments the dead or a loss.	5
5865048860	Idyll	A type of lyric poem which extols the virtues of an ideal place or time.	6
5865052136	Dramatic Monologue	A type of poem that presents a conversation between a speaker and an implied listener.	7
5865054227	Allegory	A work that functions on a symbolic level.	8
5865058299	Catharsis	According to Aristotle, the release of emotion that the audience of a tragedy experiences.	9
5865062534	Irony	An unexpected twist or contrast between what happens and what was intended or expected to happen.	10
5865065383	Apostrophe	Direct address in poetry. Yeats' line "Be with me Beauty, for the fire is dying" is a good example.	11
5865067394	Hyperbole	Extreme exaggeration. In "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose," Burns speaks of loving "until all the seas run dry."	12
5865079582	Foreshadowing	Hints of future events in a literary work.	13
5865082280	Free Verse	Poetry without a defined form, meter, or rhyme scheme.	14
5865084860	Diction	The author's choice of words.	15
5865087693	Kenning	The first figure of speech; it employs the use of compound words to suggest a quality or characteristic. There are many examples of these in Beowulf.	16
5865092563	Comic Relief	The inclusion of a humorous character or scene to contrast with the tragic elements of a work, thereby intensifying the next tragic event.	17
5865095495	Connotation	The interpretive level of a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning.	18
5865097689	Denotation	The literal or dictionary meaning of a word.	19
5865111346	Alliteration	The repetition of initial consonant sounds.	20
5865113055	Imagery	The total effect of related sensory images in a work of literature.	21
5865114731	Couplet	Two lines of rhyming poetry	22
5865116562	Blank Verse	Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Most of Shakespeare's plays are in this form.	23
5865118427	Aside	Words spoken by an actor intended to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on stage.	24
5865122720	Sonnet	A 14-line poem with a prescribed rhyme scheme in iambic pentameter.	25
5865125144	Parody	A comic imitation of a work that ridicules the original.	26
5865127862	Metaphor	A direct comparison between dissimilar things. "Your eyes are stars" is an example.	27
5865131339	Metonymy	A figure of speech in which a representative term is used for a larger idea. ("The pen is mightier than the sword.")	28
5865133300	Synecdoche	A figure of speech that utilizes a part as a representative of a whole. ("All hands on deck" is an example.)	29
5865137582	Ode	A formal, lengthy poem that celebrates a particular subject.	30
5865140798	Satire	A mode of writing based on ridicule, which criticizes the foibles and follies of society without necessarily offering a solution.	31
5865142491	Pun	A play on words.	32
5865145335	Narrative	A poem that tells a story.	33
5865147238	Rhetorical	A question that does not expect an explicit answer.	34
5865149103	Soliloquy	A speech in a play which is used to reveal the character's inner thoughts to the audience. During this speech, the character is alone on stage.	35
5865151220	Lyric	A type of poetry characterized by emotion, personal feelings, and brevity.	36
5865168944	Tragic Hero	According to Aristotle, a basically good person of noble birth or exalted position who has a fatal flaw or commits an error in judgment which leads to his downfall.	37
5865171267	Oxymoron	An image of contradictory terms (bittersweet, pretty ugly, giant economy size).	38
5865174469	Simile	An indirect comparison that uses the words "like" or "as" to link the differing items in the comparison.	39
5865245090	Prose	Every day, ordinary language.	40
5865248029	Symbol	Something in a literary work that stands for something else.	41
5865250591	Pathos	The aspects of a literary work that elicit pity from the audience.	42
5865252253	Personification	The assigning of human qualities to inanimate objects or concepts.	43
5865256572	Tone	The author's attitude toward his subject.	44
5865259445	Understatement	The opposite of exaggeration. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor where one writes or says less than intended.	45
5865261895	Theme	The underlying ideas that the author illustrates through characterization, motifs, language, plots, etc.	46
5865264187	Style	The unique way an author presents his ideas.	47
5865266100	Naturalistic	Type of writing which stresses the fatalistic aspects of life. Beowulf is a good example.	48
5865268240	Onomatopoeia	Words that imitate a sound (hiss, gurgle, bang).	49