AP Literature Literary Terms Flashcards

6688185292	malapropism	the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with an unintentionally amusing effect	0
6688185293	palindrome	a word, phrase, or sentence that is read the same forwards and backwards	1
6688185294	epigraph	a short quotation at the beginning of a text that suggests the theme or mood of what's to come.	2
6688185295	deus ex machina	"god of the machine"; a god introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot	3
6688185296	understatement	the presentation of something as smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is	4
6688185297	magical realism	a genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy	5
6688185298	imagery	the use of language to describe objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses	6
6688185299	enjambment	the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, stanza, or couplet	7
6688185300	sibilance	strongly stressed consonants, typically "s", created deliberately by producing air from vocal tracts through the use of lips and tongue	8
6688185301	irony	the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous effect	9
6688185302	allegory	a work of art in which the characters, images, or events act as symbols of deeper meanings, a moral or spiritual truth, or political or historical situation	10
6688185303	paradox	a seemingly contradictory statement that when investigated may prove to be well founded or true	11
6688185304	heroic couplet	rhyming pairs of verse in iambic pentameter	12
6688185305	epic	a long, narrative poem that is usually used to tell a story about a very courageous and brave person	13
6688185306	anastrophe	the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses	14
6688185307	idyll	a simple descriptive episode or scene often found in poetry or prose compositions suggesting a mood of peace and happiness, typically picturesque, idealized, and unsustainable	15
6688185308	archetype	a typical character, an action or a situation that represents universal significant patterns of human nature (collective unconscious)	16
6688185309	conceit	extended metaphors to compare two very different things often presenting striking juxtapositions and comparison	17
6688185310	metonymy	the replacement of the name of a thing with the name of something else that is closely associated	18
6688185311	synecdoche	use of a part to represent the whole or vice verse; ex. all hands on deck	19
6688185312	litotes	intentional use of an understatement that renders an ironical effect	20
6688185313	euphemism	the substitution of an inexplicit expression for a phrase considered to be too blunt, especially concerning something unpleasant or humiliating	21
6688185314	chiasmus	a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or modified form	22
6688185315	apostrophe	when the speaker addresses an absent person, abstract idea, or object	23
6688185316	slant/off/half rhyme	words that almost rhyme or appear to the eye to do so	24
6688185317	absurdism	the philosophical school of thought that holds that the human quest to find meaning in life will inevitably fail because of the abundance of information and lack of certainty; however, this should not discourage people from searching for meaning	25
6688185318	theatre of the absurd	different from traditional theatre bc it demonstrates the randomness of human nature and often confuses people; expect the unexpected	26
6688185319	metatheatre	"breaking the 4th wall" comments on its own drama or acting in general; addressing the audience	27
6688185320	mise en scéne	expression that describes the design aspects of a production through direction to help convey the deeper theme of the work	28
6688185321	in medias res	a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of the story, usually at some crucial point in the action	29
6688185322	syllogism	the start of an argument with a reference to something general that then uses this to draw conclusions about something more specific	30
6688185323	existentialism	theory that people are free agents who have control over their choices and actions	31
6688185324	tragicomedy	genre that blends elements of both comedy and tragedy; usually found in dramatic literature describing either a tragic play which contains comic elements that lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a series of unfortunate events but ends happily	32
6688185325	farce	a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay; typically includes crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations	33
6688185326	non sequitur	a response or statement that has no apparent or logical relationship to what came before it and often sounds absurd	34