AP Literature Terms Flashcards
Terms : Hide Images [1]
| 9707240451 | Abstract Diction | Intangible general concepts. ex: | 0 | |
| 9707240452 | Allegory | An abstract concept is presented as though it were a character who speaks and acts an independent being. ex: ^ | 1 | |
| 9707240453 | Allusion | A passing reference in a work of literature to another literary or historical work, figure, event, or to a literary passage. ex: Hercules' strength looks of a dauntless human | 2 | |
| 9707240454 | Analogy | The comparison of a subject to something that is similar to it in order to clarify to subject's nature, purpose, or function ex: | 3 | |
| 9707243057 | Anaphora | The intentional repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines, stanzas, sentences, or paragraphs. ex: Canon to the right of them, canon to the left of them | 4 | |
| 9707243058 | Antagonist | A character that opposes the protagonist's goals and interests and so creates the major conflict in the work. ex: Darth Vader, Iago | 5 | |
| 9707243059 | Antithesis | A figure of speech in which words or phrases that are parallel in order and syntax express opposite or contrasting meanings. ex: | 6 | |
| 9707246365 | Apostrophe | An address to a dead or absent person or to an inanimate object or abstract concept. ex Romeo Romeo where art thou | 7 | |
| 9707246366 | Assonance | The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables. ex: As apples are amazing | 8 | |
| 9707246367 | Atmosphere | The predominant mood or tone in all or part of a literary work. ex: | 9 | |
| 9707252767 | Bildungsroman | Novel of intellectual and emotional development of the protagonist from childhood into adulthood. ex: ^ | 10 | |
| 9707252768 | Characterization | The techniques by which an author of a work of fiction, drama, or narrative poem represents the moral, intellectual, and emotional natures of the characters. ex: ^ | 11 | |
| 9707252769 | Chiasmus | A figure of speech in which two successive phrases or clauses are parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words. ex: The truth is the light and the light is the truth | 12 | |
| 9707255095 | Classical Tragedy | Tragedy from ancient Greece that centers on a highborn tragic hero. ex: A hero's downfall | 13 | |
| 9707255096 | Concrete Diction | Tangible concepts. ex: | 14 | |
| 9707255116 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds in two or more successive words or stressed syllables that contain different vowel sounds. ex: The zoo is amazing with the zebras | 15 | |
| 9707258784 | Diction | Choice of words. ex: | 16 | |
| 9707258785 | Drama | Major literary form that presents characters directly to the audience usually without the intermediary of a narrator. ex: | 17 | |
| 9707258786 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience is privy to knowledge that one or more of the characters lacks. ex: | 18 | |
| 9707263360 | Epiphany | A sudden, overwhelming insight or revelation evoked by a commonplace object or a scene in the poem or a work of fiction. ex: Dorian Grey's Mirror | 19 | |
| 9707263361 | Epistolary Novel | Comprised of letters between characters. ex: ^ | 20 | |
| 9714530177 | Euphemism | Saying a word to lesser the meaning ex: passing away instead of dying | 21 | |
| 9707265300 | Exposition | The beginning of a novel. ex: | 22 | |
| 9707265301 | Extended Metaphor | Comparison sustained through several lines. ex: | 23 | |
| 9707265302 | Flashback | An interruption of the chronological sequence of an event or earlier occurrence. ex: | 24 | |
| 9707267241 | Foil | A character contrasts with the protagonists in ways that bring out certain of his or her moral, emotional, or intellectual qualities. ex: Romeo's nature vs Juliet's nature | 25 | |
| 9707267242 | Hero | Term for protagonist that has a connotation of nobility, dignity, and elevated status. ex: | 26 | |
| 9707267243 | Hyperbole | A trope in which a point is stated in a way that is greatly exaggerated. ex: | 27 | |
| 9707267244 | Imagery | Widely used term that has several distinctive meanings, representing through description. ex: The smell of the grass blew through my nose | 28 | |
| 9707270316 | In Medias Res | Beginning a narration not in chronological order, with the first event in the plot, but at some later point. ex: In the middle of things | 29 | |
| 9707270317 | Irony | Figurative language that depends on presenting a deliberate contrast between two levels of meaning. ex: | 30 | |
| 9707272681 | Litotes | A figure of thought in which a point is affirmed by negotiating is opposite. ex: It was not a pretty picture | 31 | |
| 9707272682 | Lyric Poetry | A speaker expresses what he or she feels, thinks, or speaks. ex: | 32 | |
| 9707272683 | Metonymy | Substitutes the name of an entity with something closely associated with it. ex: | 33 | |
| 9714736404 | Metaphor | Umbrella term for comparison ex: Life is like.... | 34 | |
| 9707277335 | Novel of Character | Primary interest is in the protagonist's thoughts, feelings, and motives, and in the ways characters develop. ex: ^ | 35 | |
| 9707277336 | Novel of Incident | Main focus is on the course and outcome of events in the plot. ex: ^ | 36 | |
| 9707280472 | Onomatopoeia | A word that imitates a sound. ex: | 37 | |
| 9707284557 | Paradox | A trope in which a statement that appears on the surface to be contradictory or impossible turns out to express and often striking truth. ex: | 38 | |
| 9707284558 | Pathetic Fallacy | Type of personification in which inanimate aspects of nature such as the landscape or the weather are represented as having human qualities or feelings. ex: ^ | 39 | |
| 9707287730 | Periphrasis | A figure of thought in which a point is stated by deliberate circumlocution, rather than directly. ex: | 40 | |
| 9707287731 | Pun | A figure of thought that plays on words that have the same sound, or closely similar sounds, but sharply contrasted meanings. ex: | 41 | |
| 9707287732 | Realistic Novel | The predominant type that depicts a fictional world that closely resembles the events, social interactions, settings, motivations, and feelings encountered in everyday life. ex: | 42 | |
| 9707290040 | Rhetorical Question | A figure of speech in which a question is posed not to solicit a reply but to emphasize a foregone or clearly implied conclusion. ex: Are you crazy? | 43 | |
| 9707290041 | Romance | A form popular in both prose and verse throughout the Renaissance. ex: | 44 | |
| 9707290042 | Round Character | Multi faced and subject to change and growth; he or she is capable of inconsistencies, and in those ways similar to an actual human being. ex: | 45 | |
| 9707292639 | Sarcasm | The taunting use of apparent approval or praise for actual disapproval or dispraise, simpler and more crude and signaled by vocal inflection. ex: | 46 | |
| 9707292640 | Satire | Type of comedy directed at ridiculing human foibles and vices such as vanity and greed; not meant to invoke laughter. ex: Ridicule | 47 | |
| 9707296155 | Selection and Order of Details | Crucial to the meaning of the tone of a literary work. ex: | 48 | |
| 9707296156 | Setting | The time and place in which the events in a work of fiction, drama, or narrative poetry take place. ex: Thornefield | 49 | |
| 9707296157 | Simile | One kind of thing is compared to a markedly different object, concept, or experience made explicit by like, as, appears, and seams. ex: | 50 | |
| 9707299226 | Structural Irony | An implication of alternative or more complex meaning that pervades a work. ex: | 51 | |
| 9707301208 | Structure | Basic framework, the principles and the patterns on which it is organized. ex: ^ | 52 | |
| 9707301209 | Symoblism | An object, action, or event that represent something, or creates a range of associations beyond itself. ex: The Grapes of Wraith | 53 | |
| 9707301210 | Synecdoche | Part of something is used to represent the whole or the term for the whole is used to represent a part. ex: 100 eyes looked back at me when I did my speech | 54 | |
| 9707305215 | Theater of the Absurd | Question the meaning of life in a universe seen as godless which has overthrown such accepted conventions as a well established setting logical dialogue, and a fully resolved conflict. ex: | 55 | |
| 9707305216 | Theme | A central idea that it conveys, either directly or implicitly. ex: | 56 | |
| 9707305217 | Tone | Author's or speaker's implied attitude towards the subject. ex: ^ | 57 | |
| 9707305218 | Tragedy | Tone is serious and somber and the outcome is disastrous for the protagonist. ex: ^ | 58 | |
| 9707702879 | Verse | Poetry ex: | 59 |