AP Literature Vocabulary List Unit 1 Flashcards

11278698678	Existentialist	A work of literature which reflects upon absurd or meaningless existence. Example: Albert Camus's The Stranger	0
11278698679	Farce	Generally, today this word indicates broad humor. However, in the past, it had a more specific meaning: a comedy (play) involving ridiculous actions and dialogue with the purpose of exaggerating, rather than imitating life. Example: The Importance of Being Earnest	1
11278698680	Feminine rhyme	Lines rhymed by the final two syllables, often the final syllable is unstressed. Example: lines ending with passion and fashion.	2
11278698681	Foot	The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry, formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed. Iambic is the most popular form of this.	3
11278698682	Free verse	Borrowed from the French verse libre, this term refers to poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern.	4
11278698683	Genre	A category of a particular kind of artistic form, style, or content.	5
11278698684	Gothic (Gothic Novel)	A form of literature appearing in the 17th century and was quite popular into the century. Typical elements of this kind of literature are: gloomy, mysterious castles, the supernatural, noises in the attic, a young damsel in distress morally or physically. Example Anne Radcliff's The Mysteries of Udolpho.	6
11278698685	Heroic couplet	Two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter. An example of this can be seen in one of Shakespeare's sonnets: "For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings" (Sonnet 29).	7
11278698686	Hyperbole	Deliberate overstatement or exaggeration.	8
11278698687	Imagery	The use of language to form mental images, it is based on one or all of the five senses. Example: Dante is known for this explicit and horrific language in "The Inferno," which depicts sinners running over filth chassed by wasps and hornets.	9
11278698688	Aside	A convention in drama by which an actor directly addresses the audience revealing his or her observations or emotions. Is not meant to be heard by the other characters in the drama.	10
11278698689	Atmosphere	The prevailing mood of a literary work, often established by setting or landscape. It lends an emotional aura and influences the reader's expectations and attitudes.	11
11278698690	Caricature	The exaggeration or even distortion of personal qualities to ridiculous effect, in drawing, but also in literary characterization.	12
11278698691	Catalog	A rhetorical device which lists people, things, or attributes. Used in epics (heroes, ships, armor, the Bible (genealogy), and Elizabethan sonnets (the physical attributes of the beloved).	13
11278698692	Dynamic characters	Also called round, are three-dimensional and fully realized. These complex people are modified by their actions and experiences.	14
11278698693	Static characters	Are also called flat or stock, having only two, often predictable dimensions; they can even be caricatures. They change little, if at all, and things happen to them, rather than within the,. The action reveals them, but does not change them.	15
11278698694	Foil	Functions only as a contrast to a more important character.	16
11278698695	Characterization	The ways in which the characters are presented. Direct characterization employs explicit exposition, illustrated by action of the story; we are told what the character is like. Indirect characterization requires the reader to infer the character's attributes based only on dialogue and action; we are shown what the character is like. Inner representation reveals only the impact of actions and emotions on the character's inner self, with no authorial comment.	17
11278698696	Conflict	The struggle of two opposing forces providing interest, suspense, and tension in a plot. It may be internal or external. The protagonists may find tension with nature, a human antagonist, or him/herself.	18
11278698697	Denouement	From the French for "unknotting," this is the final unraveling of the plot, proving the solution, explanation, or outcome.	19
11278698698	Exposition	Material that introduces a story or drama by establishing the mood an setting, the characters and their relationships to each other, and antecedent action. This term is also used for a type of essay whose purpose is to explain (analysis).	20
11278698699	Flashback	Material presented that occurred prior to the opening scene or chapter. It may take the form of the interior recollection of characters, narration by characters, or dream sequences.	21
11278698700	Foreshadowing	Preparation for later events in the plot, achieved by establishing mood or atmosphere or revealing a fundamental and decisive character trait. Physical objects or facts also may intimate or suggest later action.	22
11278698701	Irony	A recognition of incongruities in event, simulation, or structure in which reality differs from the experience. The operate word is "opposite."	23
11278698702	Verbal irony	Uses words that express the opposite of what is meant-praise implies blame and blame, praise (it is not meant to be confused with sarcasm, which is much harsher).	24
11278698703	Situational irony	Is a predicament or bit of luck, which is the opposite of what one would expect, given the circumstances.	25
11278698704	Dramatic Irony	Comes into play when a character's utterance reveals that he or she is unaware of something important that the reader or audience knows.	26
11278698705	Personification	A figure of speech that endows ideas, abstractions, or inanimate objects with human form.	27
11278698706	Setting	The background of the action, it is of various importance that in works of literature. It may include the geographical location, the daily manners of living, the season or time of day, the atmosphere, and the general environment including religious, mental, moral, social, or emotional conditions and their symbolic meaning.	28
11278698707	Structure	A literary element, is generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. In fiction, the plot itself provides its own structure; in drama, the plan of acts and scenes structure the action. In poetry, the verse form and other formal arrangements, divisions, and internal plans of each part, sequence of images and ideas, and even grammatical patterns comprise structure.	29
11278698708	Archetype	A theme, motif, symbol, or stock character that holds a familiar and fixed place in a culture's conciousness. For example, many cultures across the world feature the reoccurring symbol of the resurrected god to herald the coming of Spring. The Fisher King and the goddess Persephone are two familiar instances of this in Western culture.	30
11278698709	Diction	A writer's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning.	31
11278698710	Emblem	A concrete object that represents an abstract idea. For example, the Star of David is something that represents Judaism. This term differs from a symbol in that this term's meaning is fixed: the Star of David always represents Judaism, regardless of context.	32
11278698711	Imagery	Language that brings to mind sense impressions, especially via figures of speech. It is the use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sounds, and taste. Sometimes it is characteristic of a particular writer or work.	33
11278698712	Mood	Also referred to as "atmosphere," is the feeling that a literary work conveys to readers. It is created through the use of plot, character, the author's descriptions, etc.	34
11278698713	Motif	A recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops or informs a work's major themes. It may relate to concrete objects, like Eastern v. Western architecture in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India or may be a recurrent idea, phrase, or emotion, like Lily Barth's constant desire to move up in the world in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.	35
11278698714	Symbol	An object, character, figure, or color that is used to represent an abstract idea or concept. For example, the two roads in Robert Frost's "The Road not Taken" represents the choice between two paths of life. Unlike an emblem, this term may have different meanings in different contexts.	36
11278698715	Syntax	The ordering of words into meaning verbal patterns such as phrases, clauses, and sentences. Poets often manipulate this, changing conventional word order, to place certain emphasis on particular words. An example of this is seen Emily Dickinson's "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" in the lines where she is surprised by a snake in her poem.	37
11278698716	Theme	A fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work. It is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader about life or human nature. It is general intertwined throughout the work, and the full impact is slowly realized as the reader processes the text, An example of this is seen in John Steinbeck's East of Eden, which showcases the perpetual contrast between good and evil.	38
11278698717	Thesis	The central argument that an author makes in a work. Although the term is primarily associated with non-fiction, it can apply to fiction. For example, the main focus of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is that Chicago meatpacking plants subject poor immigrants to horrible and unjust working conditions, and that the government must do something to address the problem.	39
11278698718	Tone	The general atmosphere created in a story, or the narrator's attitude towards the story, characters, reader, or subject. For example, the writer's attitude of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Undergrounds is outraged, defiant, and claustrophobic.	40
11278698719	Ballad	Traditionally, a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language, often with a refrain. A number of poets outside the folk tradition have adopted this format, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge did in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."	41
11278698720	Biography	The non-fictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated works of this genre.	42
11278698721	Black Comedy	Disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner, usually with the intention to confront uncomfortable truths. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is a notable example.	43
11278698722	Burlesque	A humorous imitation of a serious work of literature. The humor often arises from the incongruity between the imitation and the work being imitated. For example, Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" uses the high diction of epic poetry to talk about a domestic matter.	44
11278698723	Confessional Poetry	An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject manner with unusual frankness. The genre was popular from the late 1950s to the late 1960s due in part to Robert Lowell's Life Studies (1959).	45
11278698724	Didactic Literature	Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example, Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.	46
11278698725	Dirge	A short, poetic expression of grief. This kind of work differs from an elegy in that it is often embedded within a larger work, is less highly structured, and is meant to be sung. Ariel's song "Full fathom five thy father lies" in Shakespeare's The Tempest is an example of this.	47
11278698726	Drama	A composition that is meant to be performed. The term is often used interchangeably with play, but this kind of work is a broader term that includes some forms that may not be strictly be defined as plays, such as radio-broadcasts, comedy sketches, and opera.	48
11278698727	Dystopic Literature	A genre of fiction that presents an imagined future society that purports to be perfect and utopian but that the author presents to the reader as horrifyingly inhuman. Usually authors intend to warn contemporary readers that their own societies resemble, or are in danger of resembling, this flawed future world. George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World are well-known works of this kind of literature.	49
11278698728	Eclogue	A short pastoral poem in the form of a soliloquy or dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.	50
11278698729	Elegy	A formal poem that laments the death of a friend or public figure or occasionally, a meditation on death itself. In Greek and Latin poetry, the term applies to a specific type of meter (alternating hexameters and pentameters) regardless of content, but only some of these works in English obey that meter, Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Adonais," which mourns the death of John Keats, is an example of such a work.	51
11278698730	Epic	A lengthy narrative that describes the deeds of a heroic figure, often of national or cultural importance, in elevated language. Strictly, the term applies only to verse narratives like Beowulf, but is often used to describe more prose, drama, or film works of similar scope, such as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace or Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.	52
11278698731	Epigram	A succinct, witty statement, often in verse. For example, William Wordsworth's observation that "The child is the father of the man."	53
11278698732	Essay	A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s. Such works are flexible in form: although they usually are short prose works, there are also examples of book-length narratives (by John Locke) and verse forms (by Alexander Pope).	54
11278698733	Fable	A short prose or verse narrative, such as those by Aesop that illustrates a moral, which often is stated explicitly at the end. Frequently, the characters in such stories are animals that embody different human character traits.	55
11278698734	Abstract	A style which is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its point. `	56
11278698735	Academic	An adjective describing style, this word means dry and rhetorical writing.	57
11278698736	Allegory	A story which functions on both a literal level and symbolic level. Example: Dante's Inferno. Literally, it is a story about one man's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Symbolically, it is a story which depicts his feelings on the religious turmoil going on in Italy at the time (Including his own)-characters in the story stand to represent real figures living at the time of his writing.	58
11278698737	Alliteration	Repetition of initial consonant sounds "she sells sea shells," etc.	59
11278698738	Allusion	A reference to a literary or historical event, person, or place. Ex. when one says a great burden is an "albatross," it is an reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," wherein the main character must wear an albatross around his neck for a crime against nature.	60
11278698739	Anachronism	Means misplaced in time. An actor in a Shakespearean play forgetting to take off his wristwatch is an example of this.	61
11278698740	Anaphora	The regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. For example, see the excerpted passage from JFK's inaugural speech.	62
11278698741	Anecdote	A short narrative	63
11278698742	Antecedent	The word, phrase, or clause that determines what pronoun refers to-in the phrase "The principal asked the children where they were going," they is the pronoun and children is the clause that determines the pronoun.	64
11278698743	Aesthetic	Can be used as an adjective meaning appealing to the senses. This kind of judgment is a phrase associated with artistic judgement; as a noun it refers to a coherent set of taste.	65