AP English Literature and Composition Flashcards

6266064497	adage	A saying that becomes widely accepted as truth over time. Usually observances of life and behaviour that express a general truth. Ex: "A penny saved is a penny earned."	0
6266064500	allusion	A reference to a person, place, or event meant to create an effect or enhance the meaning of an idea.	1
6266064501	ambiguity	A vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation.	2
6266064502	anachronism	A person, scene, event, or other element in literature that fails to correspond with the time/era in which the work is set.	3
6266064503	analogy	A comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to something else that is quite different from it. It aims at explaining that idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar.	4
6266064506	aphorism	A statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner. The term is often applied to philosophical, moral and literary principles.	5
6266064507	Apollonian	In contrast to Dionysian, it refers to the most noble, godlike qualities of human nature and behaviour.	6
6266064508	apostrophe	A figure of speech where the writer or speaker detaches himself from his present reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech.	7
6266064509	archetype	A character, action or situation which represents or reflects a commonly held or universal pattern, such as human nature.	8
6266064510	assonance	The repetition of two or more vowel sounds in a group of words or lines in poetry and prose.	9
6266064511	ballad	A simple narrative verse that tells a story that is sung or recited; a long narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme, typically has a folksy quality	10
6266064512	bard	A poet or a performer in olden times who told heroic stories to musical accompaniment.	11
6266064513	Bildungsroman	A special kind of novel that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of its main character from his or her youth to adulthood. Generally, such a novel starts with a loss or a tragedy that disturbs the main character emotionally. He or she leaves on a journey to fill that vacuum.	12
6266064514	blank verse	Poetry written in iambic pentameter, the primary meter used in English poetry and the works of Shakespeare and Milton; its lines generally do not rhyme.	13
6266064515	bombast	Inflated, pretentious language used for trivial subjects.	14
6266064516	cacophony	The use of words with sharp, harsh, hissing and unmelodious sounds, primarily those of consonants, to achieve the desired results. Ex: "I detest war because cause of war is always trivial."	15
6266064517	caesura	It involves creating a fracture within a sentence, where the two separate parts are distinguishable from one another yet intrinsically linked; the purpose is to create a dramatic pause. Ex: "Mozart- oh, how your music makes me soar!"	16
6266064518	canon	The works most widely read, studied, and considered most important in national literature or in a specific literary period.	17
6266064520	catharsis	A cleansing of the spirit brought about by the pity and terror of a dramatic tragedy.	18
6266064521	classicism	Deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity and restraint.	19
6266064522	conceit	A figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors; it develops a comparison which is exceedingly unlikely but is, nonetheless, intellectually imaginative.	20
6266064523	anticlimax	This occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect; it is frequently comic in effect.	21
6266064524	anti-hero	A protagonist who is markedly un-heroic, morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavoury qualities; he is not just good or noble like a conventional hero.	22
6266064525	aside	A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.	23
6266064526	atmosphere	The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene.	24
6266064527	black humor	The use of disturbing themes in comedy. Ex: two tramps comically debating over which should commit suicide first, and whether the branches of a tree will support their weight.	25
6266064528	cadence	the beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense	26
6266064529	canto	is a divider in long poems, much like chapters in a novel	27
6266064530	coinage	a.k.a. neologism, inventing a word	28
6266064531	colloquialism	this is a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "schoolbook" English	29
6266064532	controlling image	when an image dominates and shapes the entire work	30
6266064533	metaphysical conceit	a type of conceit that occurs only in metaphysical poetry	31
6266064534	connotation	the suggest or implied meaning of a word/phrase	32
6266064535	consonance	the repetition of two or more consonant sounds within a group of words or a line of poetry	33
6266064537	heroic couplet	two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter are called this	34
6266064538	denotation	the literal, dictionary definition of a word	35
6266064539	denouement	the resolution that occurs at the end of a play or work or fiction	36
6266064540	Dionysian	as distinguished from Apollonian, the word refers to sensual, pleasure seeking impulses	37
6266064543	dirge	a song for the dead, its tone is typically slow, heavy, and melancholy	38
6266064544	dissonance	the grating of incompatible sounds	39
6266064545	doggerel	crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme	40
6266064546	dramatic irony	when the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not	41
6266064547	dramatic monologue	when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience	42
6266064548	elegy	a poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing/death of something/someone of value	43
6266064549	elements	the basic techniques of each genre of literature. IN SHORT STORY: characters, irony, theme, symbol, plot, setting. IN POETRY: figurative language, symbol, imagery, rhythm, rhyme. IN DRAMA: conflict, characters, climax, conclusion, exposition, rising action, falling action, props. IN NONFICTION: argument, evidence, reason, appeals, fallacies, thesis.	44
6266064551	empathy	a feeling of association or identification with an object/person	45
6266064552	end stopped	a term that describes a line of poetry that ends with a natural pause often indicated by a mark of punctuation	46
6266064553	enjambment	the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause	47
6266064554	epic	an extended narrative poem that tells of the adventures and exploits of a hero that is generally larger than life and is often considered a legendary figure	48
6266064555	mock epic	a parody form that deals with mundane events and ironically treats them as worthy of epic poetry	49
6266064556	epitaph	lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. usually a line or handful of lines, often serious or religious, but sometimes witty and even irreverent	50
6266064557	epigram	a concise but ingenious, witty and thoughtful statement	51
6266064558	euphony	when sounds blend harmoniously; pleasing, harmonious sounds	52
6266064559	epithet	an adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality of a person or thing	53
6266064560	eponymous	a term for the title character of a work of literature	54
6266064561	euphemism	a mild or less negative usage for a harsh or blunt term	55
6266064563	explication	the interpretation/analysis of a text	56
6266064564	extended metaphor	a series of comparisons between two unlike objects that occur over a number of lines	57
6266064566	falling action	the action in a play or story that occurs after the climax and that leads to the conclusion and often to the resolution of the conflict	58
6266064567	fantasy	a story containing unreal, imaginary features	59
6266064568	farce	a comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose	60
6266064569	figurative language	in contrast to literal language, this implies meanings. It includes devices such as metaphors, similes, and personification, etc.	61
6266064573	foreshadowing	an event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later	62
6266064574	foot	the basic rhythmic unit of a line in poetry. it is formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed	63
6266064575	frame	a structure that provides premise or setting for a narrative	64
6266064576	free verse	a kind of poetry without rhymed lines, rhythm or fixed metrical feet	65
6266064578	Gothic novel	a novel in which supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terror pervades the action. i.e. "Frankenstein"	66
6266064579	harangue	a forceful sermon, lecture, or tirade	67
6266064582	humanism	a belief that emphasizes faith and optimism in human potential and creativity	68
6266064585	idyll	a lyric poem or passage that describes a kind of ideal life or place	69
6266064587	inversion	switching customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. when done badly it can give a stilted, artificial look-at-me-I'm-poetry feel to the verse. type of syntax	70
6266064589	invective	a direct verbal assault; a denunciation. i.e. Candide	71
6266064590	kenning	a device employed in Anglo-Saxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by one of its functions/qualities, as in "ring-giver" for king and "whale-road" for ocean	72
6266064591	lament	a poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss	73
6266064592	lampoon	a satire	74
6266064593	light verse	a variety of poetry meant to entertain or amuse, but sometimes with a satirical thrust	75
6266064594	loose sentence	a sentence that is complete before its end. follows customary word order of English sentences i.e. subject-verb-object	76
6266064595	periodic sentence	a sentence not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase; sentence that departs from the usual word order of English sentences by expressing its main thought only at the end	77
6266064596	lyric	personal, reflective poetry that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about the subject; the word is used to describe tone, it refers to a sweet, emotional melodiousness	78
6266064597	melodrama	a form of overly-dramatic theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure.	79
6266064598	litotes	a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity	80
6266064599	maxim	a saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or truth	81
6266064601	metaphysical poetry	the work of poets, particularly those of 17th c., that uses elaborate conceits, is highly intellectual, and expresses the complexities of love and life	82
6266064602	meter	the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables found in poetry	83
6266064603	metonymy	a figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to represent something else with which it is associated. e.g. "The White House says..."	84
6266064604	mode	the general form, pattern, and manner of expression of a work of literature	85
6266064605	montage	a quick succession of images/impressions used to express an idea	86
6266064607	nemesis	the protagonist's archenemy or supreme and persistent difficulty	87
6266064608	objectivity	this treatment of a subject matter is an impersonal/outside view of events	88
6266064609	subjectivity	this treatment of a subject matter uses the interior/personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional responses	89
6266064611	moral	a brief and often simplistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature	90
6266064612	motif	a phrase, idea, event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in a work of literature.	91
6266064616	naturalism	a term often used as a synonym for "realism"; also a view of experiences that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic	92
6266064617	non sequitur	a statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before	93
6266064618	novel of manners	a novel focusing on and describing the social customs and habits of a particular social group	94
6266064619	ode	a lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful and exalted feelings toward the subject.	95
6266064620	omniscient narrator	a narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characters, setting, background, and all other elements of the story	96
6266064621	oxymoron	a phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. juxtaposition of contradictory element to create a paradoxical effect	97
6266064622	opposition	one of the most useful concepts in analyzing literature. it means that you have a pair of elements that contrast sharply.	98
6266064623	ottava rima	an eight-line rhyming stanza of a poem	99
6266064624	parable	like a fable or an allegory, it's a story that instructs; a story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived	100
6266064626	parallelism	repeated syntactical similarities used for effect	101
6266064627	parody	an imitation of a work meant to ridicule its style and subject	102
6266064629	pastoral	a work of literature dealing with rural life	103
6266064630	pathetic fallacy	faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects	104
6266064633	persona	the role/facade that a character assumes or depicts to a reader, viewer, or the world at large; the narrator in a non-first-person novel	105
6266064636	picaresque novel	an episodic novel about a roguelike wanderer who lives off his wits. e.g. "Don Quixote", "Moll Flanders"	106
6266064637	plaint	a poem or speech expressing sorrow	107
6266064641	objective narrator	3rd person narr. who only reports on what would be visible to a camera, doesn't know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks of it.	108
6266064643	prosody	the grammar of meter and rhythm in poetry	109
6266064645	prelude	an introductory poem to a longer work of verse	110
6266064647	pseudonym	also called "pen name", a false name or alias used by writers. i.e Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) George Orwell (Eric Blair)	111
6266064649	refrain	a line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem	112
6266064650	requiem	a song of prayer for the dead	113
6266064651	realism	the depiction of people, things, and events as they really are without idealization or exaggeration for effect	114
6266064652	rhetoric	the language of a work and its style; words, often highly emotional, used to convince or sway an audience	115
6266064654	rhapsody	an intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise	116
6266064658	romance	an extended narrative about improbable events and extraordinary people in exotic places	117
6266064660	satire	a literary style used to poke fun at, attack or ridicule an idea, vice, or foible, often for the purpose of inducing change. great subjects for this include hypocrisy, vanity and greed, especially if those characteristics have become institutionalized in society	118
6266064663	sentimental	a term that describes characters' excessive emotional response to experience; also nauseatingly nostalgic and mawkish	119
6266064664	sentiment	a synonym for "view" or "feeling"; also refined and tender emotion in literature	120
6266064665	scansion	the act of determining the meter of a poetic line.	121
6266064667	soliloquy	a speech spoken by a character alone on stage. meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's THOUGHTS. unlike an aside, it is not meant to imply that the actor acknowledges the audience's presence	122
6266064669	stream of consciousness	a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind, e.g. Ernest Hemingway	123
6266064670	stock characters	standard or cliched character types: the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl, etc.	124
6266064673	subplot	a subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or play, usually connected to the main plot	125
6266064674	subtext	the implied meaning that underlies the main meaning of a work of literature	126
6266064677	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part	127
6266064683	travesty	a grotesque parody	128
6266064684	truism	a way-too-obvious truth	129
6266064685	utopia	an idealized place. imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity and peace. Sir Thomas More came up with this idea.	130
6266064686	verbal irony	a discrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words	131
6266064688	verisimilitude	similar to the truth; the quality of realism in a work that persuades readers that they are getting a vision of life as it is	132
6266064689	versification	the structural form of a line of verse as revealed by the number of feet it contains. i.e. monometer = 1 foot; tetrameter = 4 feet; pentameter = 5 feet, etc.	133
6266064690	villanelle	a French verse form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous but consisting of 19 lines and a prescribed pattern of rhymes	134
6266064691	voice	the real or assumed personality used by a writer or speaker. a verb is in the active voice when it expresses an action performed by its subject. a verb is in the passive voice when it expresses an action performed upon its subject or when the subject is the result of the action. Active: The crew raked the leaves. Passive: The leaves were raked by the crew.	135
6266064692	wit	the quickness of intellect and the power and talent for saying brilliant things that surprise and delight by their unexpectedness; the power to comment subtly and pointedly on the foibles of the passing scene	136
6266064693	zeugma	the use of a word to modify two or more words, but used for different meanings. "He close the door and his heart on his lost love."	137
6266064694	anastrophe	inversion of the natural or usual word order	138
6266064696	epistrophe	repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses "When we first came we were very many and you were very few. Now you are many and we are getting very few."	139
6266064697	epanalepsis	repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. "Blood hat bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows"	140
6266064698	anadiplosis	repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. "The crime was common, common be the pain."	141
6266064699	antimetabole	repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."	142
6266064700	chiasmus	reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses. "Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys."	143
6266064701	polyptoton	repetition of words derived from the same root. "But in this desert country they may see the land being rendered USELESS by OVERUSE."	144
6266064702	antanaclasis	repetition of a word in two different senses. "Your argument is sound, nothing but sound."	145
6266064703	paronomasia	use of words alike in sound but different in meaning. "ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a GRAVE man."	146
6266064704	syllepsis	the use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies/governs. "The ink, like our pig, keeps running out of the pen."	147
6266064705	anthimeria	the substitution of one part of speech for another "I'll UNHAIR they head."	148
6266064706	periphrasis	substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name. "They do not escape JIM CROW; they merely encounter another, not less deadly variety."	149
6266064709	epiphany	in a literary work, a moment of sudden insight/revelation that a character experiences	150