AP Literature Drama Terms Flashcards

3275044827	Anagnorisis	a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery	0
3275048901	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	1
3275052700	Deus ex machina	the circumstance where an implausible concept or a divine character is introduced into a storyline for the purpose of resolving its conflict and procuring an interesting outcome	2
3275056992	Hamartia	a personal error in a protagonist's personality that brings about his tragic downfall in a tragedy	3
3275063005	Hubris	extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings about his downfall	4
3275070372	Choragus		5
3275121830	Peripeteia	the sudden reversal of fortune in a story, play, or any narrative in which there is an observable change in direction	6
3275170205	Protagonist	the main character in a work, on whom the author focuses most of the narrative attention	7
3275174231	Antagonist	the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work	8
3275181829	Foil	a character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character	9
3275189235	Stock Characters	a character type that appears repeatedly in a particular literary genre, one with certain conventional attributes or attitudes	10
3275212718	Aside	in drama, 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	11
3275212719	Soliloquy	a monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone	12
3275217982	Shared Lines	when a line is divided between two or more characters	13
3275225128	Feminine Meter		14
3275225129	Masculine Meter		15
3275226042	Blank Verse	unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter	16
3275228466	Iambic Pentameter	a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable	17
3275230347	Comedy	play or narrative poem in which the main characters manage to avert an impending disaster and have a happy ending	18
3275234231	Drama	a composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving conflict between a character or characters and some external or internal force	19
3275239015	Farce	form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations	20
3275241276	Melodrama	a dramatic form characterized by excessive sentiment, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending	21
3275250304	Play	a specific piece of drama, usually enacted on a stage by diverse actors who often wear makeup or costumes to make them resemble the character they portray	22
3275257818	Tradegy	a serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe	23
3275263623	Tragic Flaw	another term for the tragic hero's hamartia	24
3275268081	Dramatic Irony	involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know	25
3275274657	Situational Irony	trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate, such as the poetic justice of a pickpocket getting his own pocket picked	26
3275278773	Verbal Irony	trope in which a speaker makes a statement in which its actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express	27