AP Literature Flashcards

7277794201	Act	A major division in a play. Often, individual acts are divided into smaller units ("scenes") that all take place in a specific location	0
7277825239	Antagonist	the character against whom the protagonist struggles or contends	1
7277834016	Aside	a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words	2
7277841429	Catastrophe	The "turning downward" of the plot in a classical tragedy. Usually occurs in the fourth act of the play after the climax	3
7277850463	Catharsis	An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety.	4
7277852687	Character	Any representation of an individual being presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation	5
7277859261	Dynamic Character	one whose personality changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change	6
7277868078	Flat Character	a character who serves a specific or minor literary function in a text	7
7277870397	Static Character	A static character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative (also called flat)	8
7277880898	Stock Character	A character type that appears repeatedly in a particular literary genre, one with certain conventional attributes or attitudes	9
7277894088	Climax	The moment in a play, novel, short story, or narrative poem at which the crisis reaches its point of greatest intensity and is thereafter resolved	10
7277898737	Comedy	the original meaning of the word, comedy referred to a genre of drama during the Dionysia festivals of ancient Athens	11
7277911731	Comic relief	A humorous scene, incident, character, or bit of dialogue occurring after some serious, tragic, or frightening moment.	12
7277915249	Conflict	The opposition between two characters (such as a protagonist and an antagonist), between two large groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores, and so on. Conflict may also be completely internal, such as the protagonist struggling with his psychological tendencies	13
7277922088	Denouement	meaning "unknotting" or "unwinding," denouement refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot	14
7277930829	Epilogue	A conclusion added to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem	15
7277932960	Exposition	The use of authorial discussion to explain or summarize background material rather than revealing this information through gradual narrative detail	16
7277936006	Falling action	the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved	17
7277944162	Foil	In fiction, a character who contrasts with another character —usually the protagonist— in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character	18
7277950314	Hero	a person or main character of a literary work who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through impressive feats of ingenuity, bravery or strength, often sacrificing their own personal concerns for a greater good	19
7277953744	Hubris	is extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings about his downfall	20
7277957245	Monologue	which is the speech or verbal presentation that a single character presents in order to express his/her collection of thoughts and ideas aloud	21
7277963089	Prologue	an opening of a story that establishes the setting and gives background details	22
7277968736	Protagonist	the central character or leading figure in poetry, narrative, novel or any other story (also called the hero)	23
7277973177	Rising Action	includes all decisions, characters' flaws and background circumstances that together create turns and twists leading to a climax.	24
7277982833	Scene	one of the subdivisions of a play: division of an act presenting continuous action in one place	25
7277992618	Soliloquy	often used in drama when a character speaks to himself or herself, relating thoughts and feelings, thereby also sharing them with the audience, giving off the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections.	26
7277995752	Tragedy	branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual	27
7277999769	Tragic flaw	a trait in a character leading to his downfall and the character is often the hero of the literary piece	28
7278003407	Villain	A versatile genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five tercets and a concluding quatrain	29
7279487544	Allusion	a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance	30
7279491015	Apostrophe	used when a speaker directly addresses someone or something that isn't present in the poem	31
7279493250	Euphemism	polite, indirect expressions which replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite or which suggest something unpleasant	32
7279497925	Metaphor	a figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics	33
7279502740	Onomatopoeia	a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting	34
7279505359	Personification	a figure of speech in which a thing - an idea or an animal - is given human attributes	35
7279507969	Simile	a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things	36
7279509550	Symbol	A figure of speech where an object, person, or situation has another meaning other than its literal meaning	37
7279512585	Synecdoche	a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part	38
7279517883	Understatement	a figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is	39