AP Literature: All terms Flashcards

6266508910	pathos	appeal to emotion	0
6266508911	pentameter	a line of five feet	1
6266508912	periodic sentence	a sentence that, by leaving the completion of its main clause to the end, produces an effect of suspense	2
6266508913	peripeteia	a sudden turn of events or an unexpected reversal in a tragedy	3
6266508914	personification	the technique by which animals, abstract ideas, or inanimate objects are referred to as if they were human	4
6266508915	plot	the careful arrangement by an author of incidents in a narrative to achieve a desired effect	5
6266508916	point of view	the vantage point, or stance, from which a story is told	6
6266508917	polysyndeton	the opposite of asyndeton. the use of many conjugations has a slowing effect.	7
6266508918	post-modernism	a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of objective truth.	8
6266508919	primitivism	the belief that nature provides a truer and more healthful model than culture; the nobel savage	9
6266508920	prosody	the study of sound and rhythm in poetry	10
6266508921	pun	a form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings	11
6266508922	puritanism	extreme strictness in moral or religious matters, often to excess; rigid austerity	12
6266508923	quatrain	a verse stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed	13
6266508924	rationalism	the doctrine that reason alone is a source of knowledge and is independent of experience	14
6266508925	realism	the author's use of accuracy in the portrayal of life or reality	15
6266508926	regionalism	the tendency in literature to focus on a specific geographical region or locality, re-creating as accurately as possible its unique setting, speech, customs, manners, beliefs and history	16
6266508927	rhetoric	the art of persuasion, in speaking or writing	17
6266508928	rising action	the part of a plot that leads through a series of events of increasing interest and poe to the climax or turning point	18
6266508929	romanticism	literature depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form	19
6266508930	sarcasm	harsh, cutting, personal remarks to or about someone, not necessarily ironic	20
6266508931	satire	any form of literature that blends ironic humor and wit with criticism directed at a particular folly, vice or stupidity. satire seeks to correct, improve, or reform through ridicule	21
6266508932	setting	the general locale, time in history, or social milieu in which the action takes place	22
6266508933	simile	a less direct metaphor, using like or as	23
6266508934	situational irony	the contrast between what is intended or expected and what actually occurs	24
6266508935	slant rhyme	inexact rhyme between two words	25
6266508936	soliloquy	a speech by one character while alone on the stage or under the impression of being alone	26
6266508937	sonnet	a fourteen-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter	27
6266508938	speaker's attitude	the speaker's viewpoint regarding his subject matter	28
6266508939	stanza	a section or division of a poem, resembling paragraphs in prose	29
6266508940	stock character	a stereotyped character; one familiar to use from examples in previous fiction	30
6266508941	stream of consciousness	a technique in which the reader sees the continuous, chaotic flow of a character's thoughts	31
6266508942	structure	the pattern of organization	32
6266508943	style	how the author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text	33
6266508944	surrealism	employs illogical, dreamlike images and events to suggest the unconscious	34
6266508945	syllogism	a form of logical reasoning, consisting of two premises and a conclusion (A=B B=C A=C)	35
6266508946	symbol	anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it	36
6266508947	synathesia	the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another	37
6266508948	synecdoche	figure of speech that utilizes a part as representative of a whole	38
6266508949	syntax	the rules or patterns of grammatical language	39
6266508950	theme	an abstract idea that emerges from a literary work's treatment of its subject matter	40
6266508951	title character	a character who gives his/her name to the work	41
6266508952	tone	the reflection in a work of the author's attitude toward his or her subject	42
6266508953	tragedy	a drama in which the protagonist, a person of high position, suffers a fall in fortune due to some error of judgement or flaw in his or her nature	43
6266508954	tragic flaw	the defect of a character that brings about the protagonist's downfall in a tragedy	44
6266508955	transcendentalism	the american version of romanticism; held that there was something in human beings that transcended human nature -- a spark of divinity	45
6266508956	trope	any literary or rhetorical device, as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony, that consists in the use of words in other than their literal sense	46
6266508957	unity of action	a tragedy that has one main action that it follows with no or few subplots	47
6266508958	verbal irony	a contrast between what is said and what is actually meant	48
6266508959	verisimilitude	the appearance or semblance of truth	49
6266508960	villanelle	a lyric poem made up of five stanzas of three lines, plus a final stanza of four lines	50
6266508961	voice	how a written work conveys to a reader of the writer's attitude, personality, and character	51
6266508962	wit	ingenuity in connecting amusingly incongruous ideas; intellect, humor	52
6266508963	allegory	a story with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning ex. animal farm	53
6266508964	alliteration	the repitition of the same sounds, usually initial consonants, in neighboring words ex. anxious ants avoid anteaters	54
6266508965	allusion	an indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place or artistic work that the author assumes the reader will understand	55
6266508966	ambiguity	a word, phrase or attitude that has double or even multiple meanings, resulting in multiple interpretations	56
6266508967	anachronism	an event, custom, person, or thing that is out of its natural order of time ex. back to the future	57
6266508968	anagnorisis	the critical moment of recognition or discovery in a tragedy	58
6266508969	anaphora	the regular reputation of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses	59
6266508970	antithesis	a figure of speech in which opposing or contrasting ideas are balanced against each other using grammatically parallel syntax	60
6266508971	apostrophe	a rhetorical device in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or an inanimate object or abstraction	61
6266508972	archetype	a pattern or model of an action, a character type, or an image that recurs consistently enough in life and literature to be considered universal	62
6266508973	assonance	the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words	63
6266508974	asyndeton	conjunctions are omitted, producing a fast-paced and rapid prose	64
6266508975	ballad	a form of narrative poetry that presents a single dramatic episode, which is often tragic or violent	65
6266508976	bildungsroman	a coming of age work that follows its protagonist from youth to experience, or maturity ex. to kill a mockingbird, harry potter	66
6266508977	blank verse	poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter	67
6266508978	bombast	speech too pompous for an occasion; pretentious words	68
6266508979	burlesque	an artistic composition, especially literary or dramatic, that, for the sake of laughter, vulgarizes lofty material or treats ordinary material with mock dignity	69
6266508980	cacophony	harsh, clashing, or dissonant sounds, often produced by combinations of words that require a clipped, explosive delivery	70
6266508981	caesura	a pause in a line of verse, often coinciding with a break between clauses or sentences	71
6266508982	caricature	a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things ex. clueless	72
6266508983	catharsis	the effect of purification achieved by tragic drama; emotional release	73
6266508984	chiasmus	grammatical structure in which the first clause or phrase is reversed in the second, sometimes repeating the same words.	74
6266508985	classicism	an adherence to the principals of greek and roman literature	75
6266508986	climax	the turning point or high point in a plot's action	76
6266508987	colloquial	words or phrases that are used in everyday conversation; informal writing	77
6266508988	conceit	an unusually far-fetched or elaborate metaphor presenting a surprisingly apt parallel between two apparently dissimilar things or feelings	78
6266508989	consonance	the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different	79
6266508990	couplet	two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme and that are written to the same meter	80
6266508991	dactyl	metrical foot of three syllables, on accented followed by two unaccented	81
6266508992	dénouement	the portion of a plot that reveals the final outcome of its conflicts or the solution of its mysteries	82
6266508993	determinism	philosophy that suggests people's actions and all other events are determined by forces over which human beings have no control ex. romeo and juliet	83
6266508994	deus ex machina	the resolution of a plot by use of highly improbable change, coincidence or artificial device that solves some difficult problem or crisis	84
6266508995	diction	the choice of words used in a literary work	85
6266508996	digression	a portion of a written work that interrupts or pauses the development of the theme of plot	86
6266508997	dissonance	harshness of sound and/or rhyme, either inadvertent or deliberate	87
6266508998	dramatic irony	a situation in which the audience knows more about a character's situation that the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character's expectations ex. romeo and juliet	88
6266508999	dystopia	an undesirable imaginary society	89
6266509000	elegy	an elaborately formal lyric poem lamenting the death of a friend or public figure, or serious reflection on a serious subject	90
6266509001	end-stopped	a line brought to a pause at which the end of a verse line coincides with the completion of a sentence, clause, or other independent unit of syntax	91
6266509002	enjambment	the running over of the sense and grammatical structure form one verse line or couplet to the next without a punctuated pause	92
6266509003	epic	a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes in a grand style ex. the odyssey	93
6266509004	epistolary	a novel written in the form of correspondence between characters ex. frankenstein, perks of being a wallflower	94
6266509005	epithet	any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality ex. "richard the lion-hearted"	95
6266509006	euphony	a pleasing smoothness of sound, perceived by the ease with which the words can be spoken in combination	96
6266509007	exegesis	critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of text	97
6266509008	exposition	the setting forth of a systematic explanation of or argument about nay subject; or the opening part of a play or story	98
6266509009	extended metaphor	a metaphor that is sustained for several lines or that becomes the controlling image of an entire poem	99
6266509010	fable	a brief tale that conveys a moral lesson usually by giving human speech and manners to animals and inanimate things ex. the tortoise and the hare	100
6266509011	falling action	the segment of the plot that comes between the climax and the conclusion	101
6266509012	farce	a type of drama related to comedy but emphasizing improbable situations, violent conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization or articulated plot	102
6266509013	feminine rhyme	two-syllable rhyme	103
6266509014	first person pov	the story is told by one of its characters, using the first person pronoun "i" which does not give the reader insight into the other characters' motives or thoughts	104
6266509015	flashback	a way or presenting scenes or incidents that took place before the opening scene	105
6266509016	foil	a character whose qualities or actions serve to emphasize those of the protagonist by providing a strong contrast with them	106
6266509017	foot	the basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry	107
6266509018	foreshadowing	the organization and presentation of events and scenes in a work of fiction or drama so that the reader or observer is prepared to some degree for what occurs later in the work	108
6266509019	frame narrative	the result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones	109
6266509020	free verse	poetry that is free of rhyme and meter resembling natural speech	110
6266509021	gothic novel	a type of novel characterized by master, horror, and the supernatural, often with haunted castles, secret passageways, grisly visions, and all the paraphernalia of the tale of terror	111
6266509022	grotesque	a character or location that is irregular, extravagant or fantastic in form	112
6266509023	harmartia	the greek word for error or failure; slightly different from tragic flaw, which is a flaw of character	113
6266509024	heroic couplet	two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc, with the thought usually compete the two line unit	114
6266509025	hexameter	a line containing six feet	115
6266509026	homily	religious sermon or discourse	116
6266509027	hubris	the greek word for insolence or affront, applied to the arrogance or pride of the protagonist in a tragedy in which he or she defies moral laws in the prohibitions of the gods.	117
6266509028	humanism	a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God.	118
6266509029	hyperbole	exaggeration for the sake of emphasis in a figure of speech not meant literally	119
6266509030	lamb	a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented ex: invade, today	120
6266509031	idyll	a poe or prose work describing an idealized rural life, pastoral scenes	121
6266509032	imagery	the making of pictures in words	122
6266509033	impressionism	a practice in literature that emphasizes immediate aspects of objects or actions without attention to details	123
6266509034	in medias res	latin for "the middle of things," the term describes the narrative practice of beginning a story in the middle of the action to involve the reader, and then sing one or more flashbacks to fill in what led up to that point	124
6266509035	internal rhyme	rhyme which comes within the line	125
6266509036	invective	direct denunciation or name-calling	126
6266509037	irony	the incongruity, or difference, between reality (what is) and appearance (what seems to be)	127
6266509038	jargon	the special language of a profession or group	128
6266509039	juxtaposition	the "side by side" comparison of two or more objects or ideals for the purpose of highlighting similarities or differences	129
6266509040	kenning	a metaphoric compound word or phrase used as a synonym for a common noun	130
6266509041	lampoon	a sharp, often virulent satire directed against an individual or institution	131
6266509042	limited pov	the narrator limits him;herself to a complete knowledge of one character in the story and tells us only what the one character feels, thinks, sees or hears.	132
6266509043	litotes	a figure of speech by which an affirmation is made indirectly by saying its opposite, usually with an effect of understatement	133
6266509044	loose sentence	sentence that follows normal patterns, subject then verb then modifiers	134
6266509045	lyric poetry	a usually short, personal poem expressing the poet's emotions and thoughts rather than telling a story	135
6266509046	malapropism	the comic substitution of one word for another similar in sound, but different in meaning. functions to make characters look ignorant or amusingly uneducated.	136
6266509047	masculine rhyme	one-syllable rhyme	137
6266509048	metaphor	one thing, idea, or action, is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea or action, so as to suggest some common quality shared by the two	138
6266509049	metaphysical poetry	intricate 17th century English poetry employing with and unexpected images	139
6266509050	meter	the pattern of measured sound-units recurring more or less regularly in lines of verse	140
6266509051	metonymy	figure of speech in which a representative term is used for a large idea	141
6266509052	mock epic	comically or satirically imitates the form and style of the epic, treating a trivial subject in a lofty manner	142
6266509053	mode	an employed method or approach, identifiable with a written work	143
6266509054	modernism	movement and emphasizing the desire to break away from established traditions	144
6266509055	mood	the prevailing emotional attitude in a literary work	145
6266509056	myth	an anonymous narrative, originating in the primitive folklore of a race or nation, that explains natural phenomena, or recounts the deeds of the heroes, passed on through oral tradition	146
6266509057	naturalism	style of writing that rejects idealized portrayals of life and attempts complete accuracy, disinterested objectivity, and frankness in depicting life as a brutal struggle for survival	147
6266509058	non sequitur	an inference or conclusion that does not follow established evidence or premises	148
6266509059	novel of manners	a novel, usually comical and satirical, whose characters and plot emerge from and are limited by the social customs, values, habits and mores of a particular social class in a particular time and place	149
6266509060	ode	an elaborately formal lyric poem, often in the form of a lengthy address to a person or abstract entity always serious and elevated in tone	150
6266509061	omniscient pov	the narrator knows all (godlike) and is free to tell us anything, including what the characters are thinking or feeling and why they act as they do	151
6266509062	onomatopeia	the use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to	152
6266509063	oxymoron	a figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression	153
6266509064	parable	a brief tale intended to be understood as an allegory illustrating some lesson or moral	154
6266509065	paradox	a statement or expression so surprisingly self-contradictory as to provoke us into seeking another sense in which it would be true	155
6266509066	parody	a composition that ridicules another composition by imitating and exaggerating aspects of its content	156
6266509067	pastoral	a poem dealing with rural life	157
6266509068	pathetic fallacy	the presentation of nature as possessing human feelings	158