AP Literature Vocab Words Flashcards

4870312759	Theme	A theme may be defined as "a salient abstract idea that emerges from a literary work's treatment of its subject matter; or a topic recurring in a number or literary works" (Baldick 258)	0
4870319428	Metaphor	A figure of speech that compares two things which are basically dissimilar	1
4870320361	Simile	A figure of speech, comparing two essentially like things through the use of a specific word of comparison (like, as, or than, for example)	2
4870326764	Verbal Irony	The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.	3
4870328566	Ambiguity	use of language where the meaning is unclear or has two or more possible interpretations or meanings. it could be created through a weakness in the way the writer has expressed him or herself.	4
4870333798	Diction	means "word choice", refers to word choice as a reflection of style. different types and arrangements of words have significant effects on meaning,	5
4870343784	Satire	Text that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way.	6
4870347033	Motif	A dominant theme, subject or idea which runs through a piece of literature	7
4870348739	Characterization	In literature is the process authors use to develop characters and create images of the characters for the audience. there are two different approaches to ______, including direct and indirect.	8
4870354158	Metonymy	A figure of speech where the term for one thing is applied for another with which it has become closely associated in experience, or where a part represents the whole.	9
5019533762	Setting	is used to identify and establish the time, place, and mood of the events of the story. It basically helps in establishing where and when and under what circumstances the story is taking place.	10
5019535626	Imagery	use of images, especially, in a pattern of related images, often figurative, to create a strong, unified, sensory impression.	11
5019537694	Tone	Author's attitude toward subject matter as revealed through style, syntax, diction, figurative language and organization.	12
5019539269	Mood	The atmosphere in the text created by the author's tone towards the subject.	13
5019540450	Dramatic Monologue	A poem or prose piece in which a character addresses an audience. Often the monologue is complete in itself.	14
5019542075	Elegy	A mediative poem usually sad and reflective in nature. sometimes, though not always, it is concerned with the theme of death.	15
5019543349	Allegory	A form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, places, and actions in a narrative are equated with meaning outside the narrative itself.	16
5019545397	Personification	A figure that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with human form.	17
5019547387	Oxymoron	A self-contradictory combination of words	18
5019548557	Antithesis	A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, or ideas, as in "man proposes, God disposes."	19
5182720932	Understatement	a common figure of speech in which the literal sense of what is said falls short (or under) the magnitude of what is being talked about.	20
5182723724	Allusion	A figure of speech that makes brief reference to a historical or literary figure, event, or object. Biblical allusions are frequent in English literature.	21
5182729180	Poetic Drama	A term properly restricted to plays written to be acted. if a poem is written to be read only, then it is not considered poetic drama.	22
5182733265	Paradox	A statement that although seemingly contradictory or absurd may actually be well founded or true."for when i am weak, then i am strong."	23
5182761096	Sentimentalism	The term used in two senses: (1) an overindulgence in emotion, or (2) an optimistic overemphasis of the goodness of humanity (sensibility)	24
5182763504	Subjective	A term for something expressive in a personal manner of inward convictions, beliefs, dreams, or ideals. subjective writing is opposed to objective writing, which is impersonal, and concrete.	25
5182766819	verisimilitude	the semblance of truth. The degree to which a work creates the appearance of truth.	26
5182785792	Tragedy	It concerns, in general, the effort to exemplify what has been called "the tragic sense of life" - that is, the sense that human beings are inevitably doomed through their own failure for personal weaknesses.	27
5182790968	Tragic Flaw	The theory that there is a flaw in the tragic hero that causes his or her downfall. Many characters in Shakespearean dramas exhibit tragic flaws such as Hamlet's inability to act.	28
5182793842	Lyric Poem	A brief subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody, and emotion and creating a single, unified, impression.	29
5904325105	foot	The unit a rhythm in verse, whether quantitive or accentual - syllabic.	30
5904335587	iamb	a foot consisting of an unaccented syllable (u) and an accented syllable (/) = (u/) the most common rhythm in english verse.	31
5904366935	echo	A complete, subtle, and multifarious acoustic phenomenon involving a faint but perceptive repetition inside a work or between works.	32
5904377302	ellipsis	the omission of one or more words that, while essential to a grammatical structure, are easily supplied.	33
5904417816	blank verse	unrhymed regular verse, usually iambic pentameter, but does not rhyme.	34
5904427646	caesura	a pause or a break in a line of verse, normally signaled by punctuation	35
5904431747	end rhyme	rhyme at the ends of lines in a poem. the most common type of rhyme.	36
5904442098	end-stopped lines	lines in which both the grammatical structure and the sense reach completion at the end.	37
5904462950	enjambment	the continuation of the sense and grammatical construction of a line on to the next verse or couplet.	38
5904469471	assonance	generally patterning of vowel sounds without regard to consonants. the pattern may be successive as in :knee-deep" or alternating as in "lEft my nEcktie."	39
5904495525	ambivalent	having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone	40
5904502797	synecdoche	a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part	41
5904512025	couplet	a literary device which can be defined as having two successive rhyming lines in a verse and has the same meter to form a complete thought. it is marked by a usual rhythm, rhyme scheme and incorporation of specific utterances.	42
5904527999	refrain	a verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears where a poem divides into different sections.	43
5904536132	colloquial	language is casual and conversational, characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation.	44
5904553285	pedantic	"like a pedant," someone who's too concerned with literal accuracy or formality. a negative term that implies someone is showing off book learning or trivia, especially in a tiresome way.	45
5904633477	shakespearean sonnet	also called the elizabethan sonnet, has 14 lines, and consists of three quatrains of iambic pentameter followed by a rhyming couplet. the first two quatrains offer a situation. the third may feature a turn or change. the couplet often reveals a theme or summarizes the conclusion.	46
5904657086	Petrarchan sonnet	also called the Italian sonnet, divided into two parts that form an argument. the octave establishes a problem, then the sestet proposes a resolution.	47
5904726963	pastoral	of or relating to the countryside or to the lives of people who live in the country.	48
5904730923	brevity	the use of few words to say something; the quality or fact of lasting only for a short period of time.	49