AP Literature Literary Foundational Terms Flashcards

10844864489	Alliteration	the occurrence of the same consonant or vowel at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words or stressed syllables.	0
10844864490	Antagonist	a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.	1
10844868654	Aside	a part of an actor's lines supposedly not heard by others on the stage and intended only for the audience.	2
10844869108	Assonance	rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words (as in "penitent" and "reticence")	3
10844872914	Ballad	any light, simple song or narrative composition, especially one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more stanzas all sung to the same melody.	4
10844872915	Climax	a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot	5
10844875774	Conflict	the opposition of persons or forces that gives rise to the dramatic action in a drama or fiction; antagonistic state or action	6
10844875775	Consonance	the correspondence of consonants, especially those at the end of stressed syllables, in a passage of prose or verse; the use of the repetition of consonants or consonant patterns as a rhyming device.	7
10844880065	Couplet	a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same length.	8
10844883522	Dramatic Irony	irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.	9
10858879303	Dynamic Character	a literary or dramatic character who undergoes an important inner change, as a change in personality or attitude	10
10844883959	End Rhyme	rhyme of the terminal syllables of lines of poetry	11
10844887226	Enjambment	a thought or sense, phrase or clause, in a line of poetry that does not come to an end at the line break, but moves over to the next line; running on from one couplet or line to the next without a major pause or syntactical break.	12
10844887227	Epic	a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero	13
10844887830	Essay	A short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative and usually has a personal point of view.	14
10844890853	Exposition	(in a play, novel, etc) dialogue, description, etc that gives the audience or reader the background of the characters and the present situation; a setting forth of the meaning or purpose.	15
10844890854	Falling Action	the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved	16
10844895342	First Person POV	a literary style in which the narrator is a character within the story and is describing the events as they occur to him/her.	17
10844895343	Flat Character	two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work.	18
10844903830	Foot	the basic unit of verse meter consisting of any various fixed combinations or groups of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables.	19
10844906623	Foreshadowing	an indication of what is to come; prefigure	20
10844906624	Free Verse	verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern	21
10844909239	Genre	any stylistic category in literature that follows specific conventions	22
10844909240	Hyperbole	an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.	23
10844911509	Imagery	the formation of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things, or of such images collectively.	24
10844911510	Internal Rhyme	rhyme between a word within a line and another either at the end of the same line or within another line	25
10844914716	Lyric	(of poetry) having the form and musical quality of a song, and especially the character of a songlike outpouring of the poet's own thoughts and feelings, as distinguished from epic and dramatic poetry.	26
10844914717	Memoir	a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation.	27
10844917883	Metaphor	a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.	28
10844921162	Meter	arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterened, or rhythmic lines or verses.	29
10844921163	Monologue	a prolonged talk by a single speaker, especially one dominating or monopolizing a conversation.	30
10844924274	Myth	a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.	31
10844924275	Objective POV	employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character's thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an unbiased point of view.	32
10844926725	Onomatopoeia	the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it	33
10844926726	Personification	an act of giving human characteristics to animals, objects, or concepts to create imagery.	34
10844927213	Point of View (POV)	the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indication toward the characteristics	35
10844931646	Protagonist	the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work.	36
10844931647	Quatrain	a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes	37
10844935234	Refrain	a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a song or poem, especially at the end of each stanza; chorus.	38
10844935235	Resolution	the point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out.	39
10844939136	Perfect Rhyme	rhyme of two words spelled or pronounced identically but differing in meaning, as "rain" and "reign".	40
10844942618	Rhyme Scheme	the arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or a poem	41
10844942619	Rising Action	a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.	42
10844945018	Round Character	encounters conflict and is changed by the conflict that falls upon them; extrememly realistic, more fully developed, and increases in complexity throughout the story.	43
10844949327	Simile	a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid	44
10844952441	Situational Irony	irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.	45
10844955348	Soliloquy (think of Yoshikawa Nao!)	an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present	46
10844955349	Elizabethan Sonnet	a sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg	47
10844958095	Stanza	an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem.	48
10844958096	Static Character	a literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop.	49
10844958097	Symbol	something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.	50
10844960431	Theme	a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic.	51
10844963941	Third Person Limited POV	where the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of a single character, while other characters are presented only externally.	52
10844966403	Third Person Omniscient POV	where the narrator knows all the thoughts, actions, and feelings of all characters	53
10844978256	Verbal Irony	irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning.	54