AP Literature Terms Flashcards

6000584852	Allegory	story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities	0
6000612386	Alliteration	repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together	1
6000634921	Allusion	reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature etc.)	2
6000619751	Analogy	Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike	3
6000625820	Anaphora	Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row	4
6000651943	Anecdote	Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual	5
6000660606	Antagonist	Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story	6
6000664006	Antithesis	Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.	7
6000669859	Aphorism	Brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth.	8
6000676618	Apostrophe	calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personifies abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called invocation	9
6000690173	Assonance	the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together	10
6000695644	Cliche	is a word or phrase, often a figure os speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse.	11
6000700964	Conceit	an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor	12
6000704537	Connotation	the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word of phrase, in addition to it's strict dictionary definition	13
6000712373	Couplet	two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry	14
6000719480	Diction	a speaker or writers choice os words	15
6000721886	Elegy	a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died	16
6000725597	Epithet	an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. ie: "Father of our country"	17
6000734304	Farce	a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations	18
6000754187	Figurative Language	Words in which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. ie: Similes and Metaphors	19
6000761183	Flashback	a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time	20
6000770916	Foil	a character who acts as contracts to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero	21
6000781388	Foreshadowing	the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in the plot	22
6000786331	Hyperbole	a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. "If I've told you once I've told you a million times"	23
6000792184	Imagery	the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience	24
6000797623	Inversion	the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase	25
6000801572	Irony	a discrepancy between appearances and reality	26
6000807145	Verbal Irony	occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else	27
6000809024	Situational Irony	takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happens	28
6000817870	Dramatic Irony	is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but that audience or reader knows better	29
6000828176	Juxtaposition	Device in which normally unassociated ides, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit	30
6000835135	Lyric Poem	a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker	31
6000842887	Metaphor	a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, an, than, or resembles	32
6000907018	Extended Metaphor	is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it	33
6000909251	Metonymy	a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it. ie: "We asked for the support of the crown to fund us." - the crown being the monarchy	34
6000909252	Mood	an atmosphere created by a writers diction and the details selected	35
6000909253	Motif	a reoccurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author) unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme	36
6000909254	Onomatopea	the use of words whose sounds echo their sense ie: "pop" "zap"	37
6000911389	Oxymoron	a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. ie: "pretty ugly"	38
6000911390	Paradox	a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that revels a certain kind of truth	39
6000913110	Parallel Structure	(parallelism) the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures	40
6000914408	Personification	a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	41
6000915928	Pun	a "play on words" based on the multiple meanings of a single world or on words that sound alike but mean different things	42
6000915929	Refrain	a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in the poem	43
6000915930	Rhythum	a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language	44
6000917926	Rhetorical Question	a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer	45
6000919219	Satire	a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about change	46
6000920679	Simile	a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as, than, or resembles	47
6000920680	Soliloquy	a long speech made by a character in a play whole no other characters are on stage	48
6000923135	Style	a distinctive way in which a writer uses language ie: diction, tone, syntax	49
6000923136	Symbol	a person, place, or event that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something more thanitself	50
6000924510	Synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole	51
6000926309	Theme	the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work	52
6000926310	Tone	the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization	53
6000927696	Understatement	a statement that says less than what is meant	54