AP Lang BEOWULF literary terms Flashcards

7845874975	Verbal Irony	A contrast or discrepancy between the expectation and reality; when a person says one thing and yet means another; sarcasm.	0
7845874976	Situational Irony	When the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what someone expects.	1
7845874977	Epitaph	A tombstone inscription or brief poem composed in memory of someone who has died.	2
7845874978	Denouement	The resolution in the sequence of events in a narrative work, in which the final outcome is revealed.	3
7845874979	Implied Theme	The main idea of a story, poem, novel, or play that sometimes expresses a general statement about life, revealed gradually through elements such as plot, character, setting, point of view, and symbol.	4
7845874980	Setting	The time and place in which the events of a literary work occur. The setting includes not only physical surroundings, but also the ideas, customs, values, and beliefs of the people who live there.	5
7845874981	Genre	A category or type of literature.	6
7845874982	Epic	A long narrative poem that recounts, in formal language, the exploits of a larger-than-life hero.	7
7845874983	Folk Epic	A long narrative poem that recounts the exploits of a larger-than-life hero, has uncertain authorship, and arises usually through storytelling, from the collective experiences of a people.	8
7845874984	Protagonist	The central character in a story, drama, or dramatic poem, around whom most of the action revolves, who undergoes some conflict crucial to the plot.	9
7845874985	Antagonist	A person or force that opposes the protagonist, or central character, in a story or drama, and may try to prevent the protagonist from doing something or may simply have beliefs that contradict the protagonist's.	10
7845874986	Epic Hero	Usually a man of high social status who embodies the ideals of his people, often of great historical or legendary importance	11
7845874987	Direct Characterization	The method used to reveal the personality of a character wherein the author states its description overtly.	12
7845874988	Indirect Characterization	The author suggests traits through a character's words, actions, or appearance, as well as through the reactions of other characters to the person being portrayed.	13
7845874989	Minor Character	A less important personage in a narrative or drama, used by a writer to "fill out" a scene, to provide a line of dialogue, or to further the plot in some way.	14
7845874990	Main/Major Character	A personage in a narrative or drama, typically characterized fully, showing varied and sometimes contradictory traits.	15
7845874991	Round Character	A character who shows varied and sometimes contradictory traits.	16
7845874992	Dynamic Character	A personage in a narrative or drama who grows or changes significantly during the course of a story and is influenced by his or her experiences and by other characters in the story.	17
7845874993	Flat Character	A character who reveals only one personality trait.	18
7845874994	Static Character	A character who remains primarily the same throughout a story.	19
7845874995	Internal Conflict	A struggle that takes place within the mind of a character who is torn between opposing feelings or goals.	20
7845874996	External Conflict	The central struggle between two opposing forces in a story or drama, existing when a character struggles against some outside force, such as another person, nature, society, or fate.	21
7845874997	Tone	A reflection of the writer's attitude toward a subject as conveyed through such element as word choice, punctuation, sentence structure, and figures of speech, conveying a variety of attitudes such as sympathy, irony, sadness, or bitterness.	22
7845874998	Allusion	A reference in a work of literature to a well-known person, place, event, written work, or work of art.	23
7845874999	Foreshadowing	The author's use of hints or cues to prepare readers for events that will happen later in a narrative.	24
7845875000	Synecdoche	A figure of speech wherein the poet substitutes a part for a whole.	25
7845875001	Kenning	A descriptive figure of speech that takes the place of a common noun.	26
7845875002	Hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor.	27
7845875003	Apostrophe	A literary device in which a speaker talks directly to an inanimate object, a person who is absent or dead, or an abstract quality, such as love.	28
7845875004	Metaphor	A figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things to help readers perceive the first thing more vividly and to suggest an under- lying similarity between the two, but uses neither the word like nor as.	29
7845875005	Simile	A figure of speech that uses the words like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things.	30
7845875006	Personification	A figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or idea is given human qualities.	31
7845875007	Symbol	Any person, animal, place, object, or event that exists on a literal level within a work, but also represents something on a figurative level.	32
7845875008	Enjambment	The continuation of a sentence from one line of a poem to another, often to emphasize rhyming words, and to create a conversational tone.	33
7845875009	Caesura	An obvious pause in a line of poetry, usually found near the middle of a line, with two stressed syllables before and two after, creating a strong rhythm; can be indicated with double slashes (//).	34
7845875010	Alliteration	The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, often used to emphasize certain words or to create a musical quality.	35