AP Literature Terms Flashcards

8467851139	utopia	a perfect society	0
8467853642	dystopia	a society characterized by human misery, oppression, disease, and overcrowding	1
8467863000	situational irony	The difference between what is expected to happen and what actually happens	2
8469886603	dramatic irony	When the audience is more aware of what is happening than a character	3
8469892101	allusion	to make a subtle reference to something	4
8469914196	satire	a technique used by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, or exaggeration; makes fun of a subject without making direct imitation (ex: A Modest Proposal)	5
8469918701	novella	a story that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel (Usually under 100 pages)	6
8469926955	allegory	a figure of speech in which abstract ideas are represented by characters; objective to teach a moral lesson	7
8469935921	dialogue	a literary technique in which writers employ two or more characters to be engaged in conversation with each other	8
8469941180	archetype	a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature (ex: Beowulf)	9
8470064583	myth	a legendary or a traditional story that usually concerns an event, or a hero, with or without using factual or real explanations, particularly one concerning with demigods or deities, and describes some rites, practices and natural phenomenon; teach moral lessons and explain historical records	10
8470075184	parable	a figure of speech, which presents a short story typically with a moral lesson at the end	11
8470079381	polysyndeton	using multiple conjunctions to join words in a list	12
8470143047	asyndeton	to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical accuracy	13
8470169882	Doppelganger	usually shaped as a twin, shadow or a mirror image of a protagonist; refers to a character who physically resembles the protagonist and may have the same name as well	14
8470265937	epithet	a word or phrase given to a person or thing to describe a characteristic; usually a nickname for people	15
8470289445	kenning	a two-word phrase that describes an object through metaphors; replaces the noun it describes	16
8470292075	alliteration	multiple words that repeat the same consonant sound (beginning of the word)	17
8470296080	assonance	multiple words repeat the same vowel sound	18
8470304591	caesura	a pause in a line of text	19
8470320599	elegy	a poem or song that mourns the death or loss of a person	20
8470331621	persona	the character speaking in a poem	21
8470337876	epic	a long, narrative poem that tells about the life of a hero	22
8470348645	volta	the turn in thought or feeling in a poem that often begins with words like: "but", "yet", or "and yet"	23
8470356008	hyperbole	an exaggeration	24
8470358645	mood	when the author uses words and descriptions to cause the reader to feel an emotion	25
8470477002	bildungsroman	a novel that focuses on the growth of a character from childhood to adulthood (also known as a coming-of-age novel)	26
8470486127	flat character (static character)	a character that does not change very much from the beginning to the end of a story	27
8470495319	round character (dynamic character)	like real people with strengths and weaknesses and deep feelings and thoughts	28
8470504769	personification	giving a non-human thing human characteristics in order to create imagery	29
8470507528	anthropomorphism	giving a non-human thing human characteristics in order to make an animal or object behave and appear like they are human beings	30
8470526860	first person narrator	narrator is usually a character in the story, who interacts with other characters; use of "I" or "we"; usually perspective of the protagonist	31
8470536857	second person narrator	the narrator refers to at least one character directly as "you", suggesting that the audience is a character within the story; rarely found in novels or short stories, often for music lyrics	32
8470549734	third person narrator	someone who is not involved in the story is telling the story	33
8470552186	third person limited	the person telling the story only knows the point of view of one or two characters	34
8470554581	third person omniscient	the person telling the story knows everything	35
8470561693	frame tale	a story within a story	36
8470564621	ballad	a type of poetry that is accompanied by song and dance; a folk story that is passed down from generation to generation with each generation adding their own revisions to the common story	37
8470572042	anecdote	a short and interesting story that is used to make a point or get readers interested in a topic	38
8470572043	appositive	a noun that describes another noun that comes directly before it (ex: the insect, a large cockroach)	39
8470592226	prologue	an opening of a story that establishes setting and gives background details	40
8470596057	couplet	two lines that have end rhyme, have the same meter and form a complete thought	41
8470608741	exposition	the first part of a plot. The beginning of a story where characters, setting, and conflict are introduced	42
8470621002	slant rhyme (half rhyme)	words have similar but not identical sounds (ex: world and word)	43
8470630267	internal rhyme	a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of that same line	44
8470634567	inversion or anastrophe	a literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed in order to emphasize something or to keep meter/rhythm/rhyme (ex: powerful you have become)	45
8470641117	Early Romance Genre	romance originated in medieval France; includes love, chivalry, knights, quests of courtly love, etc.	46
8470646963	soliloquy	a speech given by a character alone on the stage	47
8470648377	act	a main division of a play	48
8470650232	scene	division of a play that make up an act; no shift in location or time	49
8470654957	aside	a comment that is made by a character that is meant to be heard by the audience or one other character but not by the other characters	50
8470658865	tragedy	a play that ends in suffering or defeat; meant to teach a lesson about humanity	51
8470661958	comedy	a play that ends well, usually with a wedding; unpleasant circumstances are overcome in the end to make a happy resolution	52
8470666832	paradox	a statement that seems to be contradictory but might be true when considered from a different perspective (ex: fair is foul and foul is fair)	53
8470679436	tragic flaw	a character flaw such as ambition, pride, weakness or poor judgment that causes the downfall of a character	54
8470680875	tragic hero	a protagonist who is involved in events and actions that lead to his/her downfall	55
8470692823	pastoral	a poem about nature or simple country life	56
8470694897	quatrain	a four-line stanza; usually has an independent theme and a rhyme scheme	57
8470700198	enjambment	continuing a thought from one line to the next; usually no punctuation at the end of the first line to break the thought so that it continues in the second line	58
8470731000	repitition	repeating a word, phrase, or line multiple times to emphasize it	59
8470732742	consonance	repeating consonant sounds at the middle or end	60
8470732744	imagery	using the five senses, touch, sight, sound, taste and smell, to describe something (ex: hope is the thing with feathers)	61
8470739007	sonnet	a poem with fourteen lines, is written in Iambic Pentameter, each line has ten syllables, it has a specific rhyme scheme and a volta	62
8470741446	simile	makes a comparison showing similarities between two different things using "like" or "as"	63
8470745552	apostrophe	addressing a character or an idea that is not present	64
8470754304	extended metaphor	a hidden comparison that is longer than one phrase or line; often an entire stanza.	65
8470763560	synecdoche	using a part of something to refer to the whole or using the whole thing to refer to a part of something (ex: all hands (referring to people) on deck)	66
8470770581	parody	imitating something directly to make a comic effect (ex: Sonnet 130)	67
8470782802	conceit	a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together (ex: you are a snail)	68
8470795607	equivocation	the use of vague language to hide one's meaning or to avoid committing to a point of view; often used to deceive others (ex: "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth")	69
8470818512	oxymoron	two opposite words are used together to make an effect (ex: the night of the living dead)	70
8470820835	motif	a recurring word, phrase, image, object, or action that creates unity throughout a text and may also reinforce its theme; an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work (ex: washing of hands in Macbeth)	71
8470827056	metonymy	a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it (ex: "Crown" meaning power or authority)	72
8470838791	metaphysical poetry	uses logical elements in a technique intended to express honestly, if unconventionally, the poet's sense of life's complexities through the use of elaborate conceits	73
8470861048	parallelism	examples of a writing that have the same grammar style or meaning; repeating something in order for emphasis or to have a balance (ex: easy come, easy go)	74
8470868423	English sonnet (Shakespearean Sonnet)	three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and a couplet, rhymed abab cdcd efef gg; always fourteen lines long and usually written in iambic pentameter	75
8470875489	catharsis	an emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress	76
8470882643	Chiasmus	a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect (ex: never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You)	77
8470886667	sarcasm	when what someone says is different than what they mean; usually intended to have a bitter, mocking, or comedic effect; often combined with irony to create satire	78
8470893304	dialect	the language used by the people of a specific area, class, district or any other group of people; involves spelling, sounds, grammar and pronunciation used by a particular group of people and it distinguishes them from other people around them	79
8557949779	anaphora	a type of repetition; repeating a word at the beginning of a sentence or the beginning of a clause	80
9677390111	euphemism	polite, indirect expressions that replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite (ex: "kick the bucket" = death)	81
9677408564	ode	a form of lyrical poetry, in which poets use a certain metrical pattern and rhyme scheme to express their noble and lofty sentiments in serious and sometimes satirical tone; celebratory in nature	82
9677454219	lyrical poetry	focuses more on emotions than telling a story (pastoral, ode, villanelle etc.)	83
9677457110	refrain	a poetic device that repeats, at regular intervals, in different stanzas	84
9677504301	gothic fiction	a branch of romanticism that focuses on terror and mystery in order to entertain or gain insights about a dark side to human nature	85
9677509121	science fiction	a form of fiction that focuses on the impact of science upon society or individuals; usually doesn't include supernatural elements	86
9677511280	understatement	making a situation seem less important than it really is; the opposite of hyperbole	87
9677515374	byronic hero	a type of antihero who is usually rebellious, arrogant and an outcast or exile (ex: Dracula, Mr. Darcy, etc)	88
9677520705	juxtaposition	two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts	89
9677527395	periodic sentence	a long sentence where the meaning isn't completed until the very end	90
9677539760	loose sentence	a sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by one or more coordinate or subordinate phrases and clauses	91
9677553437	cumulative sentence	an independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions; it has more than one subordinate clause	92
9677591520	antithetical sentence	a sentence that expresses two ideas that are opposed on the surface, but that can actually express another idea in its apparent contradiction	93
9677619601	balanced sentence	made up of two segments which are equal, not only in length, but also in grammatical structure and meaning (can be periodic or cumulative)	94
9677624603	epistrophe	the same word returns at the end of each sentence	95
9677631405	leitmotif	a musical piece that is associated with a character or object (Star Wars song)	96
9677645459	invocation	an appeal for aid (especially for inspiration) is made to a muse or deity, usually at or near the beginning of the work	97
9677647160	synesthesia	a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters, or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one sense, like hearing, sight, smell, and touch at a given time	98
9677659861	masculine rhyme	a rhyme that matches only one syllable, usually at the end of respective lines (wail & flail)	99
9677668654	Terza Rima	an arrangement of triplets, especially in iambs, that rhyme aba bcb cdc	100
9679709849	prolepsis	the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished; referring to a future event as if it is already completed; aka "flash forward"; ex: "I am going to tell you about the events that led to my death"	101
9679740236	zeitgeist	the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time	102
9679760543	stream of consciousness	a narrative device that attempts to give the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue (see below), or in connection to his or her actions	103
9679774653	unreliable narrator	a character whose telling of the story is not completely accurate or credible due to problems with the character's mental state or maturity	104
9679796840	feminine rhyme	a rhyme that matches two or more syllables, usually at the end of respective lines, in which the final syllable or syllabication are unstressed; aka double triple rhyme	105
9679800454	syntax	the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language	106
9679815498	blank verse	unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter	107
9679815499	homily	a usually short sermon; a lecture or discourse on or of a moral theme	108
9679831045	dirge	a song or hymn of grief or lamentation, especially one intended to accompany funeral or memorial rites	109
9679837180	limerick	a form of verse, often humorous and sometimes obscene, in five-line, predominantly anapestic meter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA	110
9679847289	panegyric	a lofty oration or writing in praise of a person or thing; eulogy	111
9679875608	epigram	a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought	112
9679881350	double entendre	a word or phrase open to two interpretations, one of which is usually obscene	113
9679893159	closed form	consists of poems that follow patterns of lines, meter, rhymes, and stanzas, whereas open form poetry does not	114
9679909237	villanelle	a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets (3 lines) followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines	115
9679935552	coda	the tail, tag, outro, envoi or concluding passage of a piece of writing	116
9679946179	em dash	a long dash used in punctuation to mark a pause	117
9679958605	free-verse	an open form of poetry; does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern	118
9680002692	interior monologue	the expression of a character's thoughts, feelings, and impressions in a narrative; a form of stream-of-consciousness	119
9680024398	missive	a letter, especially a long or official one	120
9680036436	litotes	ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (ex: you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad; not bad)	121
9680053641	lampoon	publicly criticize (someone or something) by using ridicule, irony, or sarcasm	122
9680057910	free indirect style	a style of third-person narration which uses some of the characteristics of third-person along with the essence of first-person direct speech	123
9680227778	memoir	a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation	124
9680230528	burlesque	an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody	125
9680232911	malapropism	the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect; ex: His capacity for hard liquor is incredulous (incredible).	126
9680250794	anachronism	a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, especially a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned	127
9680277550	exact rhyme	rhyme in which the final accented vowel and all succeeding consonants or syllables are identical, while the preceding consonants are different	128
9680288976	epanalepsis	a figure of speech in which the beginning of a clause or sentence is repeated at the end of that same clause or sentence, with words intervening; ex: "The king is dead, long live the king!"	129
9680310706	blandishment	a flattering or pleasing statement or action used to persuade someone gently to do something	130
9680313461	pontification	express one's opinions in a way considered annoyingly pompous and dogmatic	131
9680317206	admonition	warn or reprimand someone firmly	132
9876036914	aphorism	short, witty saying	133
9876036915	bathos	effect of anticlimax	134
9876038316	cadence	beat or rhythm of poetry	135
9876039564	doggerel	crude simplistic verse	136
9876041072	epitaph	lines commemorating the dead	137
9876042554	foil	a secondary character that highlights characteristics of the main character	138
9876043533	hubris	excessive pride and ambition	139
9876046672	epigram	concise saying/remark expressing idea in a clever way	140
9876047528	plaint	poem/speech expressing sorrow	141
9876048341	requiem	song of prayer for the dead	142
9876054006	subjunctive mood	set up hypothetical situation, a kind of wishful thinking "if I were you..."	143
9876056841	syncope	shortening words; ex: "heav'n"	144
9876057707	travesty	corruption; false representation of something	145
9876058612	zeugma	the use of a word to modify 2 or more words but use for different meanings	146