AP Literature Terms Flashcards

8805302566	allegory	story or poem that can be used to reveal a hidden moral/political meaning	0
8805302567	alliteration	beginning of same letter or sound in closely connected words	1
8805302568	allusion	a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance	2
8805302570	antagonist	a hostile person who is opposed to another character	3
8805302571	apostrophe	figure of speech used to adresss an imaginary character	4
8805302572	aside	when a character's dialogue is spoken but not heard by other actors on the stage	5
8805302573	blank verse	poetry written in meter without an ending rhyme	6
8805302574	flat character	story character who have no depth, usually has one personality or characteristic	7
8805302575	round character	character who has complex personality: contradicted person	8
8805302576	dynamic character	changes throughout the story, through major conflict	9
8805302577	static character	person who doesn't change throughout story--keeps same personality	10
8805302579	climax	the beginning of the end, sets the stage for the final conflict	11
8805302581	conflict	struggle between opposing forces	12
8805302582	connotation	an idea or feeling evoked by a word	13
8805302583	couplet	two rhyming lines in a verse	14
8805302584	denotation	the literal meaning of a word	15
8805302585	denouement	final outcome of the story--loose ends are "tied up"	16
8805302586	deus ex machina	resolution of a plot by chance or coincidence	17
8805302588	end rhyme	rhymes occurring at the end of line	18
8805302589	end stopped line	poetic line ending in regular punctuation	19
8805302590	English sonnet	a sonnet rhyming ababcdcdededgg	20
8805302591	epiphany	when a character receives a spiritual insight into they life	21
8805302592	falling action	Events after the climax, leading to the resolution	22
8805302593	figurative language	Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.	23
8805302595	foot	basic unit in the scansion or measurement of verse , stressed and un stressed syllables	24
8805302597	free verse	Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme	25
8805302599	imagery	Description that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)	26
8805302601	internal rhyme	A word inside a line rhymes with another word on the same line	27
8805302602	irony	A contrast between expectation and reality	28
8805302603	verbal irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant	29
8805302604	dramatic irony	Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.	30
8805302605	situational irony	refers to an occurrence that is contrary to what is expected or intended	31
8805302606	italian sonnet	A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd	32
8805302607	metaphor	direct comparison without using like or as	33
8805302608	meter	A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry	34
8805302609	motivation	A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior	35
8805302610	narrator	Person telling the story	36
8805302611	octave	8 line stanza	37
8805302612	onomatopoeia	A word that imitates the sound it represents.	38
8805302613	hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	39
8805302614	oxymoron	A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.	40
8805302615	paradox	A contradiction or dilemma	41
8805302616	paraphrase	A restatement of a text or passage in your own words.	42
8805302617	personification	A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	43
8805302618	plot	Sequence of events in a story	44
8805302619	point of view	The perspective from which a story is told	45
8805302620	omniscient point of view	The point of view where the narrator knows everything about the characters and their problems - told in the 3rd person.	46
8805302621	third person limited point of view	narrator tells the story from only one character's pov	47
8805302622	first person point of view	a character in the story is actually telling the story himself/herself	48
8805302623	objective point of view	a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.	49
8805302624	protagonist	Main character	50
8805302625	quatrain	A four line stanza	51
8805302627	rhyme scheme	A regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem	52
8805302630	satire	A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies.	53
8805302631	sestet	6 line stanza	54
8805302632	setting	The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs.	55
8805302633	simile	A comparison using "like" or "as"	56
8805302634	soliloquy	A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage	57
8805302635	sonnet	14 line poem	58
8805302636	stanza	A group of lines in a poem	59
8805302637	stream of consciousness	private thoughts of a character without commentary	60
8805302638	symbol	A thing that represents or stands for something else	61
8805302639	tercet	3 line stanza	62
8805302640	theme	Central idea of a work of literature	63
8805302641	tone	Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character	64
8805302642	tragedy	A serious form of drama dealing with the downfall of a heroic or noble character	65
8805302643	understandment	the deliberate representation of something as lesser in magnitude than it actually is; a deliberate under-emphasis	66
8805302644	verse	A single line of poetry writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme	67