AP Literature - Literary Terms Flashcards

6192077402	allegory	a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.	0
6192077403	alliteration	it is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.	1
6192077404	allusion	a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.	2
6192077405	ambiguity	more than one meaning	3
6192107438	analogue	two related scenes or events in literature	4
6192077406	anecdote	a short story or tidbit added to provide information	5
6192077407	antagonist	a character or force in conflict with the main character	6
6192077411	aphorism	a brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life.	7
6192077412	apostrophe	a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.	8
6192177857	aside	a separate conversation usually in a play to the audience or another person	9
6192185023	assonance	repetition of vowels	10
6192187369	ballad	elaborate narrative poem or verse	11
6192196113	biography	description of a person's life and accomplishments	12
6192077415	blank verse	poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter	13
6192077417	cacophony	harsh or discordant mixture of sounds	14
6192212350	carpe diem	latin for seize the day	15
6192229913	catastrophe	the final action that completes the unraveling of the plot in a play, especially in a tragedy	16
6192244447	character	a person, object or animal in a story	17
6192263654	characterization	using devices and description to provide information about the qualities of a character	18
6192274955	classicism	a movement or tendency in art, music, and literature to retain the characteristics found in work originating in classical Greece and Rome	19
6192288943	climax	the peak of events in a work of literature	20
6192294021	comedy	a literary work which is amusing and ends happily	21
6192077419	conceit	a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.	22
6192317834	conclusion	the resolution of the events in a story	23
6192323584	concrete poetry	a poem that visually resembles something found in the physical world.	24
6480200605	conflict	involves a struggle between two opposing forces usually a protagonist and an antagonist	25
6192077420	connotation vs denotation	All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests vs the actual definition	26
6192077421	consonance	Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.	27
6192077422	couplet	A pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem.	28
6192077423	dactyl	A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables	29
6192077425	denouement	an outcome or solution; the unraveling of a plot	30
6480252445	dialogue	conversational passage or a spoken or written exchange of conversation in a group or between two persons directed towards a particular subject	31
6192077426	diction	The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing	32
6192077427	didactic	Intended to instruct; teaching, or teaching a moral lesson	33
6480261169	dramatic monologue	a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation	34
6480267262	elegy	a form of literature which can be defined as a poem or song in the form of elegiac couplets, written in honor of someone deceased	35
6480270954	epigraph	a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component	36
6480287306	epithet	a descriptive literary device that describes a place, a thing or a person in such a way that it helps in making the characteristics of a person, thing or place more prominent than they actually are	37
6192077429	euphemism	An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant	38
6480311332	exposition	background information about events, settings, characters etc. to the audience or readers	39
6480320073	fable	described through plants, animals, forces of nature and inanimate objects by giving them human attributes wherein they demonstrate a moral lesson at the end	40
6480326926	falling action	the events following the climax	41
6480329416	farce	a subcategory of dramatic comedy that is different from other forms of comedy, as it only aims at making the audience laugh	42
6480341785	figurative language	language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation	43
6480358119	figure of speech	a word or phrase that has a meaning other than the literal meaning; often a metaphor or simile that's designed to further explain a concept	44
6192077435	flashback	A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events	45
6480399809	foil	opposite characters in a literary work	46
6192077436	foreshadowing	A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader.	47
6192077437	foot	A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables.	48
6192077439	free verse	Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme	49
6192077440	genre	A category or type of literature (or of art, music, etc.) characterized by a particular form, style, or content.	50
6480419297	haiku	a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons	51
6192077445	hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	52
6192077446	iamb	A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable.	53
6192077447	imagery	Descriptive or figurative language in a literary work; the use of language to create sensory impressions.	54
6480427493	inference	a literary device used commonly in literature and in daily life where logical deductions are made based on premises assumed to be true	55
6192077448	irony	A contrast or discrepancy between what is stated and what is really meant, or between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen.	56
6480430782	local color	fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region	57
6480437969	lyric poem	a fairly short poem which is the expression of strong feelings of thoughts or perceptions of a single speaker in a meditative manner	58
6192077455	metaphor	A comparison that establishes a figurative identity between objects being compared.	59
6192077456	meter	A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry	60
6192077457	metonymy	A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it	61
6192077458	mood	Feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for the reader	62
6480656694	myth	a legendary or a traditional story that usually concerns an event, or a hero, particularly one concerning with demigods or deities, and describes some rites, practices and natural phenomenon	63
6480669335	narrative poem	a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse	64
6192077462	novel	A long fictional narrative written in prose, usually having many characters and a strong plot.	65
6192077466	ode	A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject.	66
6192077467	onomatopoeia	A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words.	67
6192077468	oxymoron	A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.	68
6192077470	parable	A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson	69
6192077471	paradox	A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.	70
6192077472	parallel structure	Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other	71
6192077473	parody	A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule.	72
6480748829	pastoral	depicts farm life in an idealized manner, typically for urban audiences	73
6480755533	pathetic fallacy	gives human emotions to inanimate objects of nature for example referring to weather features reflecting a mood	74
6192077477	personification	A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	75
6192077479	point of view	The perspective from which a story is told	76
6192077482	protagonist	Chief character in a dramatic or narrative work, usually trying to accomplish some objective or working toward some goal.	77
6192077483	pun	A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.	78
6192077484	quatrain	4 line stanza	79
6480775631	resolution	the part of a story's plot line in which the problem of the story is resolved or worked out	80
6480780275	rhyme	a repetition of similar sounding words occurring at the end of lines in poems or songs	81
6192077492	rhyme scheme	A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem	82
6480785345	rhythm	a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form	83
6480789345	rising action	the events leading up to the climax	84
6480791243	saga	any type of story or history in prose, irrespective of the kind or nature of the narrative or the purposes for which it was written	85
6192077493	satire	A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.	86
6480808440	scansion	the process of marking the stresses in a poem, and working out the metre from the distribution of stresses	87
6480814150	setting	where and when a literary work takes place	88
6480818069	similie	a metaphor using like or as	89
6480820550	soliloquy	a speech that a character makes in a work of drama only to him or herself	90
6192077496	sonnet	14-line lyric poem focused on a single theme; usually written in iambic pentameter	91
6480829032	spondee	a beat in a poetic line which consists of two accented syllables	92
6480833334	stanza	a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter or rhyming scheme	93
6480836410	stereotype	a depiction or description of something or someone in an over-simplified way	94
6480842197	suspense	the intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events	95
6192077497	symbolism	using a thing to represent or stand for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.	96
6192077498	synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa	97
6480850964	synesthesia	a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one senses	98
6480856007	Theater of the Absurd	A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations, and plots that lack realistic or logical development	99
6192077500	theme	A topic of discussion or writing; a major idea broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work.	100
6192077501	tone	A writer's attitude toward his or her subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels.	101
6480870994	tragedy	A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances	102
6480882298	trochee	begins with a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed, or weak, syllable	103
6192077502	understatement	the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is.	104