AP Literature Terms Flashcards

7563793554	allegory	story or poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning	0
7563793555	alliteration	closely connected words that begin with the same sound	1
7563793556	allusion	a reference to another story (literature, art, history, myth)	2
7563793557	anaphora	successive phrases or clauses that begin with the same words	3
7563793558	antagonist	the character or force that opposes the main character	4
7563793559	apostrophe	a direct address to an inanimate object or a person/character who is not present	5
7563793560	slant rhyme	words in rhyming pattern that sound alike; an imperfect rhyme	6
7563793561	aside	when a character's dialogue is spoken but not heard by other actors on the stage	7
7563793562	assonance	repetition of vowel sounds within words	8
7563793563	blank verse	poetry written in meter without an rhyme scheme	9
7563793564	cacophony	blend of unharmonious sounds	10
7563793565	caesura	pause in the middle of a line	11
7563793566	catharsis	the release of emotions through art (emotional cleanse)	12
7563793567	flat character	story character who have no depth, usually has one personality or characteristic	13
7563793568	round character	character who has complex personality: contradicted person	14
7563793569	dynamic character	a character who changes throughout the story	15
7563793570	static character	person who doesn't change throughout story keeps same personality	16
7563793571	characterization	process of revealing a character's personality	17
7563793572	climax	point where conflict hits its highest point; the turning point in a story	18
7563793573	comedy	drama that is amusing or funny; drama that has a happy ending	19
7563793574	conflict	struggle between opposing forces	20
7563793575	connotation	meanings and feelings associated with a word	21
7563793576	consonance	repetition of same consonant in words close together	22
7563793577	couplet	two rhyming lines in a verse	23
7563793578	denotation	the dictionary definition of a word	24
7563793579	denouement	final outcome of the story	25
7563793580	deus ex machina	resolution of a plot by chance or coincidence	26
7563793581	didactic writing	writing with a primary purpose to teach or preach	27
7563793582	direct presentation of character	author telling the reader how a character is and what actions it will do further in the story	28
7563793583	double rhyme	a feminine rhyme involving one stressed and one unstressed syllable in each rhyming line	29
7563793584	dramatic exposition	prose commentaries, to provide background information about the characters and their world	30
7563793585	end rhyme	rhymes occurring at the end of line	31
7563793586	end-stopped line	line ending in regular punctuation	32
7563793587	Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet	a sonnet rhyming ababcdcdededgg	33
7563793588	epiphany	sudden realization or spiritual insight (by a character)	34
7563793589	euphony	pleasant arrangement of sounds	35
7563793590	extended figure	A figure of speech sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem.	36
7563793591	falling action	Events after the climax, leading to the resolution	37
7563793592	feminine rhyme	a rhyme between stressed syllables followed by one or more unstressed syllables	38
7563793593	figurative language	Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.	39
7563793594	figure of speech	a way of saying something other than the ordinary way	40
7563793595	foot	basic unit in the scansion or measurement of verse, made up of stressed and unstressed syllables	41
7563793596	form	external pattern or shape of a poem	42
7563793597	free verse	Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme	43
7563793598	hamartia	tragic decision or flaw which causes a character's downfall	44
7563793599	imagery	Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)	45
7563793600	indirect characterization	the personality of a character is revealed by what he or she does or says	46
7563793601	internal rhyme	A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line	47
7563793602	irony	In general, a contrast between expectation and reality	48
7563793603	verbal irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant	49
7563793604	dramatic irony	Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience/reader but not by the characters in the play/story.	50
7563793605	situational irony	refers to an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended	51
7563793606	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
7563793607	masculine rhyme	A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable	53
7563793608	melodrama	a play based upon a dramatic plot and developed sensationally	54
7563793609	metaphor	A comparison without using like or as	55
7563793610	meter	A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry	56
7563793611	metonymy	A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it	57
7563793612	motivation	A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior	58
7563793613	narrator	Person telling the story	59
7563793614	octave	segment of poetry eight lines long	60
7563793615	onomatopoeia	A word that imitates the sound it represents.	61
7563793616	hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	62
7563793617	oxymoron	A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.	63
7563793618	paradox	A contradiction or dilemma	64
7563793619	paraphrase	A restatement of a text or passage in your own words.	65
7563793620	personification	A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	66
7563793621	plot	Sequence of events in a story	67
7563793622	point of view	The perspective from which a story is told	68
7563793623	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
7563793624	third person limited point of view	narrator tells the story from only one character's pov	70
7563793625	first person point of view	a character in the story is actually telling the story himself/herself	71
7563793626	objective point of view	a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.	72
7563793627	protagonist	Main character	73
7563793628	quatrain	segment of poetry four lines long	74
7563793629	rhythm	The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in writing	75
7563793630	rhyme scheme	A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem	76
7563793631	rising action	Events leading up to the climax	77
7563793632	sarcasm	the use of irony to mock or convey contempt	78
7563793633	satire	A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.	79
7563793634	scansion	Analysis of verse into metrical patterns	80
7563793635	sestet	segment of poetry six lines long	81
7563793636	setting	The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs.	82
7563793637	simile	A comparison using "like" or "as"	83
7563793638	soliloquy	A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage	84
7563793639	sonnet	14 line poem	85
7563793640	stanza	A group of lines in a poem	86
7563793641	stream of consciousness	private thoughts of a character without commentary	87
7563793642	syllabic verse	Verse measured by the number of syllables rather than the number of feet per line.	88
7563793643	symbol	A thing that represents or stands for something else	89
7563793644	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa	90
7563793645	synesthesia	describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")	91
7563793646	tercet	segment of poetry three lines long	92
7563793647	terza rima	a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.	93
7563793648	theme	Central idea of a work of literature	94
7563793649	tone	Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character	95
7563793650	tragedy	A serious form of drama dealing with the downfall of a heroic or noble character	96
7563793651	truncation	A line of poetry that has been shortened	97
7563793652	understandment	the deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is; a deliberate under-emphasis	98
7563793653	verse	writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme	99
7563793654	villanelle	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.	100
7563793655	polysyndenton	the use of more conjunctions than is grammatically necessary	101
7563793656	asyndeton	the elimination of conjunctions	102
7563793657	epistrophe	the repetition of words at the ENDS of successive phrases or clauses	103
7563793658	antimetabole (also called chiasmus)	rhetorical device in which a phrase or sentence is repeated, but in reverse order	104
7563793659	enjambment	the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction from one line of poetry to the next	105
7563793660	conceit	an extended metaphor; an ingenious and fanciful notion or conception, usually expressed through an elaborate analogy, and pointing to a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things	106
7563793661	epic simile or Homeric simile	an extended simile; often used in epic poetry	107
7563793662	parallelism	successive lines of writing that follow the same grammatical structure	108