AP Literature Terms Flashcards

6157629809	Allegory	a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a political one	0
6157629810	Alliteration	the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words	1
6157629811	Allusion	an expression designed to call something to mid without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference	2
6157629812	Ambiguity	the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness	3
6157632538	Analogy	a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification	4
6157632539	Anaphora	the use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition	5
6157632540	Anastrophe	the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses	6
6157636024	Anecdote	a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person	7
6157636025	Antagonist	a character, group of characters, institution, or concept that stands in or represents opposition	8
6157639239	Antimetabole	Device in which a phrase or sentence is repeated, but in reverse order	9
6157639240	Antithesis	A figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of each other	10
6157639241	Antihero	A protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, or morality	11
6157641888	Anthropomorphism	The attributing of human characteristics and purposes to inanimate objects, animals,	12
6157641889	Aphorism	A pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as "if it isn't broke don't fix it"	13
6157641890	Apostrophe	A writer or speaker using this detaches himself from reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech	14
6157644636	Apposition	a relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are parallel and have the same referent	15
6157648156	Assonance	In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible	16
6157648157	Asyndeton	the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence	17
6157648158	Characterization	the creation or construction of a fictional character	18
6157660740	Indirect Characterization	The process by which the writer shows the character's	19
6157666623	Direct Characterization	the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character	20
6157666624	Static Character	A literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop	21
6157666625	Dynamic Character	A literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude	22
6157668897	Flat Character	Two- dimensional in the fact that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of the work	23
6157668898	Round Character	Complex and undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader	24
6157668899	Chiasmus	A figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form	25
6157668900	Cliche	A phrase or opinion that is overused and often a stereotype	26
6157671458	Colloquialism	A word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation	27
6157671459	Comedy	professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make audience's laugh	28
6157671460	Conceit	excessive pride in oneself	29
6157687082	Confessional Poetry	poetry of the personal	30
6157687083	Conflict	literary device used for expressing a resistance the protagonist of the story finds in achieving his aims or dreams	31
6157687084	External Conflict	struggle between a literary or dramatic character and an outside force nature or another character	32
6157693608	Internal Conflict	the struggle occurring within a character's mind	33
6157693609	Connotation	An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning	34
6157693610	Couplet	two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit	35
6157693611	Dialect	a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group	36
6157699393	Diction	the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing	37
6157699394	Didactic	intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive	38
6157700995	Elegy	A sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead	39
6157700996	Epanalesis	figure of speech defined by the repetition of the initial word (or words) of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence	40
6157700997	Epic	a long narrative poem, often written about a hero or heroine	41
6157705797	Epigraph	an inscription on a building, statue, or coin	42
6157705798	Epistrophe	the repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences	43
6157708607	Epithet	an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned	44
6157708608	Essay	a short piece of writing on a particular subject	45
6157708609	Explication	the process of analyzing and developing an idea or principle in detail	46
6157708610	Fable	a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral	47
6157710326	Farce	a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable stations	48
6157710327	Figurative Language	using figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive and impactful. They go beyond the literal meanings of the words to give the readers new insights	49
6157710328	Flashback	a scene in a movie, novel, or other work set in a time earlier than the main story	50
6157713090	Foil	a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character	51
6157713091	Foreshadowing	device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story	52
6157713092	Free Verse	poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhyme and does not rhyme	53
6157714554	Hyperbole	exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally	54
6157714555	Hypotactic	subordination of one clause to another, or when the clauses are coordinated or subordinated to one another within sentences	55
6157716541	Imagery	visually descriptive or figurative language	56
6157716542	Irony	the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect	57
6157716543	Verbal Irony	when words express something contrary to truth or someone says the opposite of what they really feel or mean	58
6157723177	Situational Irony	occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead	59
6157723178	Dramatic Irony	irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play	60
6157723179	Juxtaposition	the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect	61
6157732688	Litotes	ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary	62
6157732689	Lyric Poem	When a poet writes an emotional, rhyming poem, she can call it a lyric poem	63
6157732690	Metaphor	A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable	64
6157735848	Extended Metaphor	a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem	65
6157735849	Metonymy	the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of thing meant	66
6157735850	Mood	the atmosphere of a literature piece	67
6157739227	Motif	a distinct feature or dominant idea in a literary composition	68
6157739228	Motivation	the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way	69
6157739229	Onomatopoeia	the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named	70
6157741062	Oxymoron	a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction	71
6157741063	Parable	a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson	72
6157744524	Paradox	A statement that, despite apparently sound reasoning from true premises, leads to a self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion	73
6157744525	Parallel Structure	the repetition of a chosen grammatical form within a sentence	74
6157748958	Paratactic Sentence	literary technique that favors short, simple sentences, with the use of coordinating rather than subordinating conjunctions	75
6157748959	Parody	an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect	76
6157748960	Periodic	appearing or occurring at intervals	77
6157750335	Personification	the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form	78
6157750336	Plot	the main events of a play, novel, or other work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence	79
6157750337	Point of View	a particular attitude or way of considering a matter	80
6157752320	Omniscient Point of View	perspective where the reader sees all of the events in a story	81
6157752321	Polysyndeton	conjunctions are used repeatedly in quick succession, often with no commas, even when the conjunctions could be removed	82
6157754297	Protagonist	the leading character or one of the major characters	83
6157754298	Pun	a joke exploiting the different possible meaning of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings (ex: Santa's helpers are known as subordinate Clauses, A chicken farmer's favorite car is a coupe)	84
6157758547	Quatrain	a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes	85
6157758548	Refrain	a verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections	86
6157758549	Rhythm	the systematic arrangement of musical sounds, principally according to duration and periodic stress	87
6157758550	Rhetoric	language designed to have persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content	88
6157760110	Rhetorical Question	a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer	89
6157762075	Romance	referrers to a story of chivalry and love	90
6157762076	Satire	the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues	91
6157764235	Simile	a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid	92
6157764236	Soliloquy	an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any heareres, especially a character in a play	93
6157764237	Stereotype	a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing	94
6157766550	Stream of Consciousness	a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow	95
6157768460	Style	the way the writer writes and is the technique which an individual author uses in their writing	96
6157768461	Suspense	a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen	97
6157768462	Symbol	the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense	98
6157770836	Synecdoche	figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa	99
6157776839	Syntactic Fluency	a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa	100
6157776840	Syntactic Permutation	Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved.	101
6157778923	Tall Tale	a story with such unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual	102
6157778924	Telegraphic Sentence	A concise sentence typically containing five words or less	103
6157782849	Theme	the central topic a text treats can be divided into two categories; a work's thematic concept is what readers think the work is about	104
6157782850	Tone	The attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience The tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject	105
6157782851	Tragedy	Branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual	106
6157782852	Tricolon	A rhetorical term that consists of three parallel clauses, phrases or words, which happen to come in quick succession without any interruption	107
6157786310	Understatement	A figure of speech employed by writers or speakers	108
6157791746	Unity		109
6157791747	Vernacular		110
6157791748	Purtinism	1620-1770	111
6157794216	Neoclassicism	1770-early 1800	112
6157796095	Romanticism	early 1800-1870	113
6157800527	Realism	1850- early 1900	114
6157816379	Naturalism	late 1800-mid 1900	115
6157816380	Modernism	1920-1945	116
6157818365	Post Modernism	1945-current	117