AP Literature Terms Flashcards

8287659958	theme	the main point of a work of literature, term is used interchangeably with thesis, the theme of William Shakespeare's Othello - jealousy - is a common one	0
8287674173	style	a writer's distinctive manner of arranging words to suit his or her ideas and purpose in writing, the unique imprint of the author's personality upon his or her writing, style is the product of an author's way of arranging ideas with use of diction, sentence structures, rhythm, figures of speech, rhetorical principles, etc.	1
8287708994	diction	The selection and arrangement of the words in a literary work. Either both may vary depending on the desired effect. Four types are: formal, informal, colloquial, and slang	2
8287723154	tone	the author's attitude towards his or her audience, can be formal, or informal	3
8287735627	mood	the prevailing emotions of a work or of the author in his or her creation of work, might not always be expected based on its subject matter	4
8287750500	imagery	the array of images in a literary work, concrete representation of an object or sensory experience, helps evoke feeling in the reader	5
8287761420	discordia concours	Latin phrase meaning "discord in harmony", to describe "a combination of dissimilar images or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike"	6
8287788021	symbol	something that suggests or stands for something else without loosing its original identity, can carry complex associations or that derive their suggestive meaning from their functions	7
8287808289	motif	a theme, character type, image, metaphor or other verbal element that recurs throughout a single work of literature or time period	8
8287825220	denotation	the definition of a word apart from the impressions or feelings it creates in the reader	9
8287834807	connotation	the impression that a word gives beyond its defined meaning, universally understood or significant to a single group	10
8287848606	double entendre	a corruption of a french phrase meaning "double meaning", a word or phrase that is deliberately ambiguous, especially when one of the meanings is risque or improper	11
8287860895	pun	a play on words that have similar sounds but different meanings	12
8287876650	figurative language	a technique in writing in which the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particular effect such as in hyperbole, irony, or simile	13
8287892056	metaphor	a figure of speech that expresses an idea through the image of another object, suggest the essence of the first object by identifying it with certain qualities of the second object	14
8287918437	simile	a comparison, usually using like or as, of two dissimilar things	15
8287925486	analogy	a comparison of two things made to explain something unfamiliar through its similarities to something familiar or to prove one point based on the acceptance of another	16
8287936259	conceit	a clever and fanciful metaphor, usually expressed though elaborate and extended comparison, that presents a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things	17
8287950499	metonymy	a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another which it is closely associated	18
8287959685	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, or the material for the thing made from it	19
8288049774	personificatin	a figure of speech that gives human qualities to abstract ideas, animals, and inanimate objects	20
8288054871	anthropomorphism	the presentations or gods, animals, or objects in human shape or with human characteristics	21
8288061095	pathetic fallacy	used to identify writing that falsely endows nonhuman things with human intentions and feelings	22
8288069408	allusion	a reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood	23
8288075457	hyperbole	in literary criticism, deliberate exaggeration used to achieve an effect	24
8288079869	understatement	restraint or lack of emphasis in expression, as for rhetorical effect	25
8288088136	litotes	a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite	26
8288102814	oxymoron	a phrase combining two contradictory terms, may be intentional or unintentional	27
8288117774	paradox	a statement that appears illogical or contradictory at first but may actually point to an underlying truth	28
8288123665	irony	the effect of language in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated	29
8288133495	dramatic irony	occurs when the audience of a play or the reader of a work knows something that a character in the work itself does not know, irony is in the contrast between the intended meaning of the statements or actions and the additional information understood by the audience	30
8288152870	onomatopoeia	the use of words whose sounds express or suggest their meaning	31
8288158258	alliteration	a poetic device where the first consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in words or syllables are repeated	32
8288168447	consonance	occurs in poetry when words appearing at the ends of two or more verses have similar final consonant sounds but have final vowel sounds that differ	33
8288178423	dissonance	a combination of harsh or jarring sounds, may be accidental	34
8288185399	assonace	the repetition of similar vowel sounds in poetry	35
8288188758	rhythm	a regular pattern of sound, time intervals, or events occurring in writing, most often in poetry	36
8288198802	foot	the smallest unit of rhythm in a line of poetry, typically one accented syllable combined with one or two unaccented syllables	37
8288207090	meter	the repetition of sound patterns that creates rhythm in poetry, based on the number of syllables and the presence and absence of accents	38
8293817301	caesura	a pause in a line of poetry usually occuring near the middle, typically corresponds to a break in the natural rhythm or sense of the line, can create a special meaning or effect	39
8293835603	enjambment	the running over of the sense and sturcture of a line of verse or a couplet into the following verse or couplet	40
8293848321	epic	a long narrative poem about the adventures of a hero of great historic or legendary importance, the setting is vast and the action is often given cosmic siginifcance though the intervention of supernatural forces such as gods, angels, or demons	41
8293884552	lyric poetry	a poem expressing the subjective feelings and personal emotions of the poet, it is melodic	42
8293897268	ode	name given to an extended lyric poem characterized by exaulted emotion and dignified style, usually concerns a single serious theme and addressed to an object or individual, complex rhythm and stanzaic patterns	43
8293927104	elegy	a lryic poem that laments the death of a person or the eventful death of all people, poet and subject are spoken of as shepherds, melancholy or mournful	44
8293947784	pastoral	a term derived from the latin word "pastor", meaning shepherd, rural theme	45
8293958972	sonnet	a fourteen-line poem, usually composed in iambic pentameter, employing one of several thyme schemes, threes major types are petrarchan, italian, and shakespearean sonnets	46
8293984772	concrete poetry	poetry in which visual elements play a large part in the poetic effect, punctuatuion marks, letters, or words are arranged on a page to form visual design, for example a cross	47
8294005921	blank verse	loosely, any unrhymed poetry, but more generally unrhymed iambic pentameter verse	48
8294020035	free verse	poetry that lacks regualr metrical and rhyme patterns but that tries to capture the cadences of everyday speech, allows poet to exploit a variety of rhythmical effects	49
8294044687	dramatic personae	the characters in a work of literature or drama, the actions of the character are what constitute the plot of a story, novel, or poem	50
8294065619	archetype	an original pattern or model from which all other things of the same kind are made	51
8294080034	stereotype	originally the name for a duplication made during the printing process, led to meaning a person or thing that is the same as all others of its type	52
8294103058	protagonist	the central character of a story who serves as a focus of its themes and incidents and as the principal rationale for its development, hero or heroine	53
8294122327	antagonist	major character in a narrative who works against the protagonist and known as the anit-hero, typically distrust conventional values and are unable to commit themselves to any ideas	54
8294143772	foil	a character in a work of literature whose physical or psychological qualities contrast strongly with another character and therefore highlight their qualities, example, sherlock holmes	55
8294173194	noble savage	the idea that primitive man is noble and good but becomes evil and corrutped as he becomes civilized, renaissane period	56
8294187578	femme fatale	french phrase with translation "woman fatal", sensuous, alluring woman who often leads men into danger or trouble	57
8294205025	electra complex	a daughters amorous obession with her father, comes from plays of euripides and sophocles	58
8294219668	oedipus complex	a sons amorous obession with his mother, from the story of the ancient hero oedipus	59
8294233295	doppelganger	a literary technique by which a character is dupllicated or divided into two distinct, usually opposite personalities, for example dr. jekyll and mr. hyde	60
8334797001	tragic flaw	in a tragedy, the quality within the hero which leads to his or her downfall	61
8334818113	hamartia	in a tragedy, the event or act that leads to the hero's downfall, often incorrectly used as a synonym for tragic flaw	62
8334845196	prologue	an introductory section of a literary work, contains information establishing the situation of the characters or presents information about the setting, time period, or action	63
8334869250	dialogue	simply conversation between people in a literary work, refers specifically to the speech of characters in a drama	64
8363856022	interior monologue	a narrative technique in which characters' thoughts are revealed in a way that appears to be uncontrolled by the author, aims to reveal the inner self of a character, portrays emotional experiences as they occur at both a conscious and unconscious level	65
8363921041	monologue	a composition, written or oral, by a single individual, a speech given by a single individual in a drama or other public entertainment, has no set length	66
8363962019	extended monologue	a monologue of great length and seriousness, occurs in the one-act, one-character play The Stronger by August Strindberg	67
8363994803	soliloquy	a monologue in a drama used to give the audience information and to develop the speaker's character, typically a projection of the speaker's innermost thoughts, delivered while the speaker is alone on stage, intended to present an illusion of unspoken reflection	68
8364044159	aside	a comment made by a stage performer that is intended to be heard by the audience but supposedly not by other characters	69
8364058330	apostrophe	a statement, question, or request addressed to an object, a concept or to a nonexistent or absent person	70
8364085711	epilogue	a concluding statement or section of a literary work, dramas of the 17th and 18th centuries, a closing speech, often in verse, delivered by an actor at the end of a play and spoken directly to the audience	71
8364139024	setting	the time, place, and culture in which the action of a narrative takes place, may include geographic location, characters' physical and mental environments, prevailing cultural attitudes or the historical time in which the action takes place	72
8364174554	the three unitles	strict rules of dramatic structure, formulated during the renaissance and loosely based on principles of drama discussed by Aristotle, compelled a dramatist to 1) construct a single plot with a beginning, middle and end that details the casual relationships of action and character 2) restrict the action to the events of a single day 3) limit the scene to a single place or city, unities were observed by continental writers until romantic age	73
8364271787	chorus	a group of actors who commented on and interpreted the unfolding action on the stage, initially was a major component of the presentation, 16th century typically a single person who provided a prologue and an epilogue and occasionally appeared between acts to introduce or underscore an important event	74
8644569589	narrator	the teller of a story, may be the author, or a character in the story through whom the author speaks	75
8644577565	raisonneur	a character in a drama who functions as a spokesperson for the dramatist's views, typically observes the play without becoming central to its action, 19th century	76
8644587551	point of view	the narrative perspective from which a literary work is presented to the reader, third person omniscient, third person, first person, and second person	77
8644599689	plot	the pattern of events in a narrative or drama, guides the author in composing the work and helps the reader follow the work, has a beginning, middle and end	78
8644610341	subplot	a secondary story in a narrative, may serve as a motivating or complicating force for the main plot of the work or it may provide emphasis for or relief from the main plot, Romeo and Juliet	79
8644639821	episode	an incident that forms the part of a story and is significantly related to it, may be either self-contained narratives or events that depend on a larger context for their sense and importance	80
8644683792	objective correlation	an outward set of objects, a situation, or a chain of events corresponding to an inward experience and evoking this experience in the reader, frequently appears in modern criticism in discussions of authors' intended effects on the emotional responses of readers, Hamlet	81
8644708342	conflict	in a work of fiction is the issue to be resolved in the story, occurs between two characters, the protagonist and the antagonist or between the protagonist and society or the protagonist and himself or herself	82
8644722727	in medias res	Latin term meaning "in the middle of things", refers to the technique of beginning a story at its midpoint and then using various flashback devices to reveal previous actions	83
8644744919	flashback	a device used to present action that occurred before the beginning of the story, often introduced as the dreams or recollections of one or more characters, are often used in films typically set off by a gradual changing of one picture to another	84
8644764902	exposition	writing intended to explain the nature of an idea, thing, or theme, often combined with description, narration, or argument, in dramatic writing it is the introductory material which presents the characters, setting, and tone of the play	85
8644788157	description	intended to allow a reader to picture the scene or setting in which the action of a story takes place, often evokes an intended emotional response, Edgar Allan Poe's "Landor's Cottage"	86
8644805873	dream vision	a story is presented as a literal dream of the narrator, used to teach moral and religious lessons, important works of this type are "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri	87
8644841711	stream of consciousness	a narrative technique for rendering the inward experience of a character, designed to give the impression of an ever-changing series of thoughts, emotions, images, and memories in the spontaneous and seemingly illogical order that they occur in life, Ulysses	88
8644856444	foreshadowing	used to create expectation or to set up an explanation of later developments	89
8644861039	suspense	a literary device where the author maintains the audiences attention through the buildup of events, the outcome of which will soon be revealed, Hamlet	90
8781010755	comic relief	the use of humor to lighten the mood of a serious or tragic story, especially in plays, the technique is common in Elizabethan works, and can be an integral part of the plot or simply a breif event designed to break the tension of a scene	91
8781029691	rising action	the part of a drama where the plot becomes increasingly complicated, leads up to the climax or turning point of a drama, the final "chase scene" of an action film is generally this which culminates in the film's climax	92
8781051361	climax	the turning point in a narrative, the moment when the conflicts at its most intense, typically the structure of stories, novels, and plays	93
8781082250	epiphany	a sudden revelation of truth inspired by a seemingly trivial incident, widely used by James Joyce	94
8781097707	denoucement	french word meaning "the unknotting", it denotes the resolution of conflict in fiction or drama, follows the climax and provides an outcome to the primary plot situation as well as an explanation of secondary plot complications, often involves a character's recognition of his or her state of mind or moral condition	95
9204531288	resolution	the portion of a story following the climax in which the conflict is resolved	96
9204543647	deus ex machina	a latin term meaning "god out of a machine", a god was often lowered onto the stage by a mechanism of some kind to rescue the hero or untangle the plot, refers to any artificial device used to bring about a convenient and simple solution to the plot	97
9218200935	poetic justice	an outcome in a literary work, not necessarily a poem, in which the good are rewarded and the evil are punished, especially in ways that particularly fit their virtues or crimes	98
9218238600	poetic license	distortions of fact and literary convention made by a writer, not always a poet, for the sake of the effect gained, closely related to the concept of "artistic freedom", exaggeration of the truth	99
9218257798	catharsis	the release or purging of unwanted emotions, specifically fear or pity, brought about by exposure to art	100
9218272895	bildungsroman	greman, from bildung "education" + roman "novel", a novel set in the formative years or the time of spiritual education of the main character	101