AP Literature Flashcards

4671421208	abstract	a piece of writing summarized, usually at the beginning of an essay	0
4671424052	adage	a short, pointed and memorable saying based on facts, and is considered a veritable truth by the majority of people	1
4671424053	allegory	a literary work in which charcters, objects, or actions represent abstractions	2
4671424279	alliteration	the use of repeated consonants in neighboring words	3
4671425969	allusion	a reference to something literary mythological, or historical that the author assumes the reader will recognize	4
4671502654	ambiguity	when words, sentences and texts have more than one meaning	5
4671502655	anachronism	something which is too early or too late for the given time	6
4671503158	analogy	a comparision of two different things that are similar in some way	7
4671503159	annotation	a critical or explanatory note or body of notes added to a text	8
4671503419	antagonist	the character in a drama or novel, who is the main opponent of the protagonist	9
4671503426	antithesis	a statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced	10
4671503898	aphorism	a concise statement that expresses succinctly a general truth or idea, often using rhyme or balance	11
4671505574	apostrophe	a figure of speech where an object or abstract entity is addressed	12
4671505575	archetype	an original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life	13
4671507271	assonance	repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in stressed syllables of adjacent words	14
4671507272	ballad	a poem which tells a story, usually in the form of four-line stanzas or quatrains	15
4671507273	bard	an ancient Celtic poet,singer and harpist who recited heroic poems by memory, or more generally, in modern usage, a synonym for any poet	16
4671507738	bibliography	a compilation of books, articles, essays and other written materials, on a particular author or subject	17
4671507739	blank verse	unrhymed iambic pentameter	18
4671508667	burlesque	a term applied to writing which sets out to satirise a subject, work or literary style by making a deliberate mismatch between the manner and the matter	19
4671509480	caesura	a natural pause in a line of verse, sometimes roughly midway and usually denoted by punctuation	20
4671509481	canon	the concept of an accepted list of great literature which constitutes the essential tradition of English	21
4671509799	caricature	a style of writing (or drawing) which intentionally amplifies particular features of its subject or charcter, usually for and/or satirical effect	22
4671509800	carpe diem	a Latin term coined by the poet Horace, which means 'seize the day'	23
4671510230	catharsis	an emotional release felt by an audience or reader as they observe the fate of a tragic hero	24
4671510411	classical/classicism	the term in Western culture is usually used in reference to the art, architecture, drama, philosophy, literature, and history surrounding the Greeks and Romans between 1000 BCE and 410 BCE. Works created during the Greco-Roman period are often called classics	25
4671511614	climax	generally, the arrangement of words, phrases, or causes in an order of increasing important, often in parallel structure	26
4671512238	coming-of-age-story/novel	a story with the central theme of growing up or making the transition from childhood to adulthood	27
4671512239	conceit	a metaphor, often extravagant or fantastic	28
4671512672	connatation	the implied or associative meaning of a word	29
4671513148	consonance	repetition of the same consonant sounds before and after a different vowel	30
4671513149	couplet	a pair of rhyming lines in verse	31
4671513281	denotation	the literal meaning of a word	32
4671513620	denouement	the final resolution of a plot, especially in a drama or narrative	33
4671513621	diction	the word choices made by a writer	34
4671514333	Dionysian	of or relating to the sensual, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of human nature	35
4671514334	dramatic irony	where a charcter is unaware of the irony of his or her words, or situation, and other characters on stage or, more especially, the audience is conscious of this	36
4671514587	elegy	a poem that mourns the death of an individual	37
4671514588	ellipsis	the omision of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context	38
4671515761	elliptical construction	a construction that lacks an element that is recoverable or inferable from the context	39
4671515762	empathy	the imaginative projection into another's feelings, a state of total identification with another's situation, condition, and thoughts	40
4671515778	end-stopped	in poetry, this is a line ending in a full pause	41
4671516138	enjambment	a line in poetry which does not have end punctuation, or a pause, but which continues uninterrupted into the next line	42
4671516139	epic	this is a type of classical poetry, generally recounting heroic achievements	43
4671516140	epigram	a brief, pithy, and often paradoxical saying	44
4671516605	epithet	the use of an adjective, or adjectival phrase, to portray a specific trait of a person or object	45
4671516606	euphemism	using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, embarrassing, or painful one	46
4671517095	euphony	a pleasant or agreeable sound effect	47
4671517096	explication	not a paraphrase, nor a summary, nor a rewording (though it may include succinct paraphrase), but a commentary revealing the meaning of the work	48
4671518568	expose	a journalistic or literary revelation or exposure--especially of something discreditable or scandalous	49
4671518569	exposition	where the scene is outlined through setting, in a play or story	50
4671518917	extended metaphor	a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem	51
4671518918	fable	a brief narrative illustrating human tendencies through the depiction of animal characters	52
4671519107	falling action	occurs right after the climax, when the main problem of the story resolves	53
4671521202	fantasy	fiction with a large amount of imagination in it	54
4671521203	farce	a form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations	55
4671521703	figure of speech/figurative language	a phrase or expression which uses words not in their literal sense; language where literary or poetic techniques and devices, such as metaphors and similes, are used to produce a meaning beyond the literal surface meaning	56
4671521898	first-person narrative	this type of narrative is often written from the first-person singular or first-person plural perspective; using I and we	57
4671521899	flashback	a method of narration in which the present action is temporarily interrupted, to relive an episode in the character's past	58
4671522356	foil	of a character, to be used as a contrast	59
4671522357	foot	a basic unit of meter, comprising of a set number of strong stresses and light stresses	60
4671522377	foreshadowing	suggesting, hinting and indicating what will occur later in a narrative	61
4671522750	frame	this is a narrative technique where there is a principal story, around which there are other narratives to set the scene or interest the audience/reader	62
4671522751	free verse	poetry that is based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather, than the artificial and fixed constraints of rhyme or metrical feet	63
4671524056	genre	a lterary type or form	64
4671524057	Gothic novel	a novel incorporating the main of the Gothic; mysteries, murder, villainy, supernatural, castles, churches	65
4671524530	harangue	a long and intense verbal attack or a long and passionate speech	66
4671524909	heroic couplet	two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter, where the second line is usually end-stopped	67
4671524910	hubris	all consuming pride or arrogance	68
4671526447	humanism	a philosophical belief that rejects religious belief and emphasizes science, human endeavour in the natural world and reason	69
4671527993	hyperbole	intentional exaggeration to create an effect	70
4671528463	idyll	a work that represents an idealized setting of happiness and innocence	71
4671528464	image	a word or phrase in a literary text that appeals directly to the reader's taste, touch, hearing, sight, or smell	72
4671528819	indirect quotation	when the meaning but not the exact words of something someone spoke is referred to	73
4671532746	irony	the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; or, incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs	74
4671532747	kenning	a phrase used poetically instead of the regular word for a noun	75
4671532748	lampoon	a crude and sometimes bitter satire that ridicules the appearance or personality of a person	76
4671533394	light verse	poetry that attempts to be humorous	77
4671534033	litotes	a type of understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite	78
4671536067	loose sentence	a sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the succesive addition of modifying clauses or phrases	79
4671536465	lyric poetry	a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state	80
4671536466	maxim	a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage	81
4671536869	melodrama	traditionally this is a play with a musical accompaniment to heighten the emotional aspect of the drama	82
4671536870	metaphor	a direct comparison of two different things	83
4671537612	metaphysical poetry	poetry which uses logic and reason to construct an 'argument' and draws on other fields such as science, law, philosophy and exploration to describe emotion, often love	84
4671537613	meter	a recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress.	85
4671537911	metonymy	substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it	86
4671537928	Middle English	English language during the years 1100-1500	87
4671538711	mock epic	draws heavily on the technique of satire, which means that it uses irony, exaggeration, and sarcasm to mock its original subject, usually in an undignified and grandiose manner	88
4671539007	mode	an unspecific critical term usually identifying a broad but identifiable literary method, mood, or manner that is not tied exclusively to a particular form or genre	89
4671539332	montage	a literary, musical, or artistic composite of juxtaposed more or less heterogeneous elements	90
4671539738	mood	the emotional atmosphere of a work	91
4671539739	moral	a message conveyed or a lesson learned from a story, a poem, or an event	92
4671540197	motif	a standard theme, element, or dramatic situation that recurs in various works	93
4671540198	muse	a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist	94
4671540199	myth	a message conveyed or a lesson learned from a story, a poem, or an event	95
4671540856	narrative	a story or account	96
4671540857	naturalism	a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings	97
4671541262	novella	an extended fictional prose narrative that is not quite as long as a novel, but longer than a short story	98
4671541263	ode	a relatively long, often intricate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes, dealing with a solemn subject matter and considering it reverently	99
4671541752	Old English	a Germanic language that was introduced to the British Isles by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in a series of invasions in the fifth century, it is thus regarded as the language that existed between 449AD and 1066 (when the Norman Conquest occurred); Anglo-Saxon	100
4671542006	omniscient narrator	this is a narrator who is 'all knowing'	101
4671542019	onomatopoeia	the application of sounds that are comparable to the noise they represent for an artistic effect	102
4671542592	oxymoron	the use of contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level	103
4671543143	parable	a short narrative intended to disclose allegorically some religious principle, moral lesson or general truth	104
4671543144	paradox	an apparently contradictary statement that actually contains some truth	105
4671543390	parody	a humorous imitation of a serious work	106
4671543391	paraphase	to restate a text or speech in one's own words	107
4671544026	pastoral	traditionally this term means 'to do with shepherds', thus it gestures towards any work which draws a pleasing, idealised rural life in the countryside	108
4671544275	pathetic fallacy	a device used mainly during the19th century, where human qualities or emotions were described through the weather or nature	109
4671544276	pathos	the quality in a work that prompts the reader to feel pitty	110
4671544631	pentameter	when a poem has five feet in each line, it is said to be written in pentameter	111
4671544941	periodic sentence	a sentence with the main clause or predicate at the end	112
4671544942	persona	either a narrator, or an external portrayal of oneself which might or might not accurately reveal one's self	113
4671545465	personification	endowing non-human objects or creatures with human qualities or characteristics	114
4671545466	picaresque novel	A narrative which recounts the escapades of a rogue, whose character does not develop throughout the plot, but who is nevertheless likeable	115
4671545930	plot	the writer's structure and the relationship of actions, characters and events in a fictional work. The organization of the narrative	116
4671545931	point of view	the method a story is told and who tells it	117
4671546245	protagonist	the main character in a narrative or poetry	118
4671546618	pseudonym	a fictitious name assumed by an individual to conceal his or her identity	119
4671546965	pulp fiction	poor quality or sensational writing, originally printed on low-grade paper	120
4671546966	pun	a play on two words, which are similar in sound but different in meaning; paronomasia	121
4671547350	quatrain	Also sometimes used interchangeably with "stave," a quatrain is a stanza of four lines, often rhyming in an ABAB pattern	122
4671547351	realism	a literary, or artistic, depiction of life in an accurate, straightforward, unidealised manner	123
4671547988	rhetoric	the art of presenting ideas in a clear, effective, and persuasvive manner	124
4671548762	rhetorical stance	the role or behavior of a speaker or writer in relation to his or her subject, audience, and persona	125
4671548763	rhyme	the matching similarity of sounds in two or more words, especially when their accented vowels and all succeeding consonants are identical	126
4671548764	rhyme scheme	the pattern of rhyme	127
4671549080	rhythm	the varying speed, movement, intensity, loudness, pitch, and expressiveness of speech, especially in poetry	128
4671549081	roman a clef	novel with a key, used to mean a novel in which real people are described but under false names	129
4671549441	romance	traditionally, a long fictional prose narrative about unlikely events involving characters that are very different from ordinary people	130
4671549442	sarcasm	harsh, cutting language or tone intended to ridicule	131
4671549619	satire	the use of humor to emphasize human weakness or imperfections in social institutions	132
4671549620	scan	the process of analyzing a poem's meter	133
4671549821	sentiment	exhibition or manifestation of feeling or sensibility, or appeal to the tender emotions	134
4671549822	sentimental	ealing with feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia, typically in an exaggerated and self-indulgent way	135
4671549842	setting	the place or period within which a narrative or play is located	136
4671550190	simile	a comparison of two things not usually paired, made by using the adverbs like or as	137
4671550191	sonnet	a poem of fourteen lines, typically in iambic pentameter, with regular rhyme	138
4671550781	stanza	sections of arranged lines within a poem	139
4671550799	stream of consciousness	a technique characterized by the continuous unedited flow of conscious experience throught the mind recorded on paper. Often used in "interior monologue" when the reader is privy to a charcter or narrator's thoughts	140
4671550999	style	the choice a writer makes; the combination of distinctive features of a literary work	141
4671551000	subplot	a second plot in a play or narrative that adds to or parallels the main plot	142
4671551019	subtext	the unspoken or less obvious meaning or message in a literary composition, drama, speech, or conversation	143
4671553433	symbolism	a person, place or object which has a meaning in itself but suggests other meanings	144
4671553434	synedoche	using one part of an object to represent the entire object	145
4671553435	syntax	the manner in which words are arranged into sentences	146
4671554038	theme	a central idea of a work	147
4671554259	title character	a fictional character whose name or a short description is present in the title of the work where the character appears	148
4671554260	tone	the attitude of a writer, usually implied, toward the subject or audience	149
4671554491	tragedy	a serious play where the protagonist experiences a succession of misfortunes leading to a concluding, disturbing catastrophe - usually for the protagonist	150
4671554492	trope	a recurring theme, image, character type, or plot element	151
4671554802	verbal irony	the speaker or character says one thing, yet means another	152
4671554803	verse	a line of metrical text, a stanza, or any text written in meter	153
4671556266	verisimilitude	a story that is believable, resembles reality, or seems to reflect the truth	154
4671556267	versification	the making of verse	155
4671556666	villanelle	A versital genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five tercets and a concluding quatrain	156
4671556667	voice	a writer's unique use of language that allows a reader to hear a human personality in his or her writing	157
4671557674	wit	a form of intellectual humour	158