AP Literature Basics Flashcards

5966955620	allegory	story or poem that can be used to reveal a hidden meaning	0
5966955621	alliteration	beginning of same letter or sound in closely connected words	1
5966955622	allusion	This is a reference in a work to some event, person, or thing that the reader is expected to know. For example, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, "I do not approve of this quixotic idea." Quixotic,which means stupid and impractical, is derived from Cervantes's "Don Quixote," a story of a foolish knight and his misadventures.	2
5970710670	antagonist	This is the character or force in a narrative that directly opposes the protagonist.	3
5966955623	anaphora	This is the repetition in first part of a sentence or in lines of poetry; it is meant to create an artistic meaning.	4
5966955625	apostrophe	This is a figure of speech used to address someone or something that is either not present or cannot respond. For example, the speaker could be addressing an abstract concept like love, a person (dead or alive), a place, or even a thing, like the sun or the sea.	5
5966955626	approximate rhyme	These are words in a rhyming pattern that sound or appear alike. In regular rhyme, the connected words must have the same vowel sounds and final consonant sounds, such as "bug" and "mug." Approximate rhyme, or half rhyme, generally uses the same vowel sounds with different final consonants or different vowel sounds with the same final consonants. For example, a half rhyme could be "bug" with "bun" or "bug" with "bag." At times it can be subtler. For example, "rush" and "must" have the same vowel and very similar sibilant consonants. "Pun" and "fume" have the short and long versions of the "u" vowel, and both end with a nasal consonant.	6
5966955627	aside	This occurs when a character's dialogue is spoken on stage but intentionally not heard by other actors on the stage/	7
5966955628	assonance	This is the repetition of vowel sounds.	8
5966955629	blank verse	This is poetry written in meter without any ending rhyme.	9
5966955630	cacophony	This is a blend or a combination of words that sound harsh or unpleasant together, usually because they pack a lot of percussive or "explosive" consonants (like T, P, or K) into relatively little space. Think of explosive consonants as all the letters you would want to use if you were going to try to write out the sounds a frying pan would make if you threw it down a stairwell: ting, ping, clang, dong, bang, crash.	10
5966955631	caesura	This is a pause in the middle of a line of poetry. usually marked by some form of punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash.	11
5966955632	catharsis	This is the release of emotions through art/music/film/literature (an emotional cleanse).	12
5966955633	flat character	story character who have no depth, usually has one personality or characteristic	13
5966955634	round character	character who has complex or multi-faceted personality	14
5966955635	dynamic character	changes throughout the story, through major conflict	15
5966955636	static character	person who doesn't change throughout story keeps same personality	16
5966955637	characterization	process of revealing characters personality	17
5966955638	climax	the point in the plot where the protagonist has either made a decision to act or has acted in a way that irretrievably alters the plot; the point of no return	18
5966955639	comedy	a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in its tone, mostly having cheerful ending. The motif of this dramatic work is triumph over unpleasant circumstance by which to create comic effects, resulting in happy or successful conclusion.	19
5966955640	conflict	struggle between opposing forces	20
5966955641	connotation	an emotional (or secondary meaning) of a word that creates a richness of meaning and/or a greater understanding	21
5966955642	consonance	repetition of the same medial and/or final consonants in words that are close together	22
5966955643	couplet	two rhyming lines in a verse	23
5966955644	denotation	the literal meaning of a word	24
5966955645	denouement	the resolution or final outcome of the narrative	25
5966955646	deus ex machina	A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby an unsolvable conflict or point of tension is suddenly resolved by the unexpected appearance of an implausible character, object, action, ability, or event. For example, if a character fell off a cliff and a flying robot suddenly appeared out of nowhere to catch them, that would be a deus ex machina.	26
5966955647	didactic writing	writing with a primary purpose to teach or preach	27
5966955648	direct presentation of character	author telling the reader how a character is and what actions it will do further in the story	28
5966955649	double rhyme	rhyme where the repeated vowel is in the second last syllable of words involved (ex; born scorn)	29
5966955650	dramatic exposition	prose commentaries, to provide background information about the characters and their world	30
5966955651	end rhyme	rhymes occurring at the end of line	31
5966955652	end stopped line	line ending in regular punctuation	32
5966955653	English (or Shakespearean) sonnet	a sonnet rhyming ababcdcdededgg	33
5966955654	epiphany	when a character receives a psychological and/or spiritual insight into life	34
5966955655	euphony	smooth choice and arrangement of sounds; pleasing to the ear	35
5966955656	extended figure	A figure of speech sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem.	36
5966955657	falling action	Events after the climax, leading to the resolution	37
5966955658	feminine rhyme	lines rhymed by their final two syllables	38
5966955659	figurative language	Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.	39
5966955660	figure of speech	a way of saying something other than the ordinary way	40
5966955661	foot	basic unit in the scansion or measurement of verse , stressed and un stressed syllables	41
5966955662	form	external pattern or shape of a poem	42
5966955663	free verse	Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme	43
5966955664	hamartia	tragic flaw which causes a character's downfall	44
5966955665	imagery	Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)	45
5966955666	indirect presentation of character	the personality of a character is revealed by what he or she does or says	46
5966955667	internal rhyme	A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line	47
5966955668	irony	A contrast between expectation and reality	48
5966955669	verbal irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant	49
5966955670	dramatic irony	Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.	50
5966955671	irony of situation	refers to an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended	51
5966955672	Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet	A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd	52
5966955673	masculine rhyme	A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable	53
5966955674	melodrama	a play based upon a dramatic plot and developed sensationally	54
5966955675	metaphor	A comparison without using like or as	55
5966955676	meter	A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry	56
5966955677	metonymy	A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it. Examples include the Crown in place of a royal person such as Queen Elizabeth or the White House in place of the President or others who work there.	57
5966955678	motivation	In literature, "motivation" is defined as a reason behind a character's specific action or behavior. There are two types of motivation: one is intrinsic, while the other one is extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is linked to personal pleasure, enjoyment and interest, while extrinsic motivation is linked to numerous other possibilities. Extrinsic motivation comes from some physical reward such as money, power, or lust. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is inspired by some internal reward such as knowledge, pride, or spiritual or emotional peace or wellbeing, etc.	58
5966955679	narrator	Person telling the story	59
5966955680	octave	8 line stanza	60
5966955681	onomatopoeia	A word that imitates the sound it represents.	61
5966955682	hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	62
5966955683	oxymoron	A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.	63
5966955684	paradox	A contradiction or dilemma	64
5966955685	peripetia	a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances	65
5966955686	personification	A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	66
5966955687	plot	a series of carefully devised, interrelated events that progress through a struggle of opposing forces to a climax and to a conclusion (not always a resolution)	67
5966955688	point of view	the perspective from which a story is told	68
5966955689	omniscient point of view	The point of view where the narrator knows everything about the characters and their problems - told in the 3rd person.	69
5966955690	third person limited point of view	narrator tells the story from only one character's P.O.V.	70
5966955691	first person point of view	a character in the story is actually telling the story himself/herself	71
5966955692	objective point of view	a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.	72
5966955693	protagonist	the leading figure in terms of importance in the story and in terms of the ability to enlist the reader's interest and/or sympathy, whether the cause is heroic or ignoble	73
5966955694	quatrain	a four-line stanza	74
5966955696	rhyme scheme	A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem	75
5966955697	rising action	a series of complications leading up to the climax	76
5966955699	satire	a literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.	77
5966955700	scansion	analysis of verse into metrical patterns	78
5966955701	sestet	a stanza or a poem of six lines--specifically, the last six lines of an Italian sonnet	79
5966955702	setting	the context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs.	80
5966955703	simile	a comparison using "like" or "as" or "that"	81
5966955704	soliloquy	a poem, discourse, or utterance of a character in a drama that has the form of a monologue or gives the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soliloquy)	82
5966955705	sonnet	a fixed verse form consisting of 14 lines that are typically 5-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme (most commonly are Italian/Petrarchan or English/Shakespearean)	83
5966955706	stanza	a group of lines in a poem	84
5966955707	stream of consciousness	private thoughts of a character without commentary and perhaps without standard punctuation or spacing	85
5966955708	syllabic verse	Verse measured by the number of syllables rather than the number of feet per line.	86
5966955709	symbol	Something/one that represents or stands for something else	87
5966955710	synecdoche (sih-nek-duh-kee)	This is a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa. For example, "The captain commands one hundred sails" is a synecdoche that uses "sails" to refer to ships—ships being the thing of which a sail is a part. A less common form of synecdoche occurs when a whole is used to refer to a part. An example of this is when the word "mortals" is used to mean humans—"mortals" technically includes all animals and plants (anything that dies), so using "mortals" to mean humans is a synecdoche that uses a category to stand in for one of its subsets.	88
5966955711	synesthesia	a blending of the senses; describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color" or "a sweet sound")	89
5966955712	tercet	a three-line stanza	90
5966955713	terza rima	a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.	91
5966955716	tragedy	Tragedy is kind of drama that presents a serious subject matter about human suffering and corresponding terrible events in a dignified manner.	92
5966955717	truncation	Utilizing text with part of the end omitted. Truncate descends from the Latin verb truncare, meaning "to shorten," which in turn can be traced back to the Latin word for the trunk of a tree, which is truncus. Incidentally, if you've guessed that truncus is also the ancestor of the English word trunk, you are correct. Truncus also gave us truncheon, which is the name for a police officer's billy club, and the obscure word obtruncate, meaning "to cut the head or top from" (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truncate).	93
5966955718	understatement	This is the deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is; a deliberate under-emphasis. Here is a classic example: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."	94
5966955719	verse	This is a single line of poetry writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.	95
5966955720	vilanelle	This is a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.	96
10068094931	Syndecdoche versus Metonymy	Synecdoche uses part for the whole or the whole for a part. A good example is "Nice wheels!" This is a synecdoche in which "wheels" stand in for the car of which they are a part. Metonymy is a substitution where a word or phrase is used in place of another word or phrase. A good example is the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword." The word "pen" substitutes for written work, and the word "sword" substitutes for violence or warfare.	97
10068191697	Tone	The tone of a piece of writing is its general character or attitude, which might be cheerful or depressive, sarcastic or sincere, comical or mournful, praising or critical, and so on. For instance, an editorial in a newspaper that described its subject as "not even having the guts to do the job himself," has a tone that is both informal and critical.	98