AP Literature - Literary Devices Flashcards

14691899716	Allegory	A narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the surface one	0
14691899717	Alliteration	Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound	1
14691899718	Allusion	A reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history	2
14691899719	Anaphora	The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect	3
14691899720	Anastrophe	Inverted order of words or events as a rhetorical scheme	4
14691899721	Anecdote	A short account of an interesting or humorous incident	5
14691899722	Apostrophe	The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present	6
14691899723	Cacophony	A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds	7
14691899724	Conceit	An elaborate or unusual comparison--especially one using unlikely metaphors, simile, hyperbole, and contradiction	8
14691899725	Consonance	A special type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by changes in the intervening vowels--i.e., the final consonants of the stressed syllables match each other but the vowels differ	9
14691899726	Euphony	A smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds	10
14691899727	Imagery	The representation through language of a sensory experience	11
14691899728	Juxtaposition	The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side by side or in a similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development	12
14691899729	Metaphor	A comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one, figuratively speaking	13
14691899730	Metonymy	Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a more general idea	14
14691899731	Onomatopoeia	The use of sounds that are similar to the noise they represent for a rhetorical or artistic effect	15
14691899732	Oxymoron	Using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense on a deeper level	16
14691899733	Periodic Sentence	A long sentence that is not grammatically complete (and hence not intelligible to the reader) until the reader reaches the final portion of the sentence	17
14691899734	Personification	Giving human qualities to animals or objects	18
14691899735	Tone	The writer's attitude toward his or her audience and subject	19
14691899736	Setting	The context in time and place in which the action of a story occurs	20
14691899737	Symbol	Something that means more than what it is	21
14691899738	Synecdoche	A rhetorical trope involving a part of an object representing the whole, or the whole of an object representing a part	22
14691899739	Voice	The distinctive style or manner of expression of the writer or a character in a book	23
14691899740	Antagonist	A character or force in a story who opposes the main character or protagonist	24
14691899741	Character	Any of the people involved in a story or play	25
14691899742	Characterization	The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character	26
14691899743	Deuteragonist	The second most important character, after the protagonist, often a foil or eventual antagonist	27
14691899744	Direct Presentation of Character	A method of characterization in which the author, by exposition or analysis, tells us directly what a character is like, or has someone else in the story do so	28
14691899745	Dynamic Character	A character who grows, learns, or changes as a result of the story's action	29
14691899746	Flat Character	A character whose character is summed up in one or two traits	30
14691899747	Foil	A character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character	31
14691899748	Hubris	Overbearing pride or presumption	32
14691899749	Indirect Presentation of Character	That method of characterization in which the author shows us a character in action, compelling us to infer what the character is like from what is said or done by the character	33
14691899750	Protagonist	The main character in a literary work	34
14691899751	Round Character	a character whose character is complex and many sided	35
14691899752	Static Character	A character that does not change from the beginning of the story to the end	36
14691899753	Stock Character	A stereotypical character	37
14691899754	Tragic Flaw	A flaw in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy that brings the protagonist to ruin or sorrow	38
14691899755	Colloquial	Informal, conversational language	39
14691899756	Dialect	A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation	40
14691899757	Euphemism	Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for a harsh, blunt, or offensive one	41
14691899758	Figure of Speech	Broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary way; more narrowly, a way of saying one thing and meaning another	42
14691899759	Hyperbole	A figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis	43
14691899760	Invective	Denunciatory or abusive language	44
14691899761	Proverb	A short pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or piece of advice	45
14691899762	Slang	A kind of language especially occurring in casual or playful speech, usually made up of short-lived coinages and figures of speech deliberately used in place of standard terms	46
14691899763	Understatement	a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants	47
14691899764	Exposition	The part of a narrative that provides the background information needed to understand the characters and the actions	48
14691899765	Conflict	A clash of actions, desires, ideas, or goals in the plot of a story or drama	49
14691899766	Frame Narrative	The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones	50
14691899767	Irony	A situation or use of language involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy	51
14691899768	Dramatic Irony	Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play	52
14691899769	Irony of Situation	A situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate	53
14691899770	Verbal Irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant	54
14691899771	Anticlimax	A sudden descent from the impressive or significant to the ludicrous or inconsequential	55
14691899772	Dilemma	A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones	56
14691899773	Inversion	A reversal in order, nature, or effect	57
14691899774	Motivation	A character's incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act	58
14691899775	Paradox	A statement or proposition containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements	59