AP Literature Terminology Flashcards

10504770109	Abstract/ abstraction:	language that describes qualities that cannot be perceived with the five senses	0
10504779853	Allegory	From the Greek allegoria, the term loosely describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning; acts as an extended metaphor	1
10504787249	Alliteration	repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound; consonance and assonance are two specific types	2
10504787250	Allusion	a figure of speech which references a historical or literary figure, event or object; often, a reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work	3
10504793078	Ambiguity	any wording, action, or symbol that can be read in divergent ways, often intentional by the author; may develop in a character, or an entire story	4
10504793079	Anachronism	something out of place in time	5
10504794596	Analogy	the relationship of similarity between two or more entities or a partial similarity on which comparison is based	6
10504797169	Anaphora	The intentional repetition of beginning clauses for the purpose of emphasis	7
10504799347	Anecdote	a short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event, often used to support or demonstrate a specific point	8
10504801300	Antanaclasis	rhetorical device in which a phrase or word is repeatedly used, though the meaning of the word changes in each case	9
10504806329	Anthimeria	originated from the Greek word anti-heroes, meaning "one part for another"; it is a rhetorical device that uses a word in a new grammatical shape, often as a noun or verb	10
10504814127	Antihero	non-hero or antithesis of a traditional hero	11
10504816342	Aphorism	a brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life	12
10504816343	Apostrophe	addressing someone or something, usually not present, as though present	13
10504819041	Aposopesis	rhetorical device that can be defined as a figure of speech in which the speaker or writer breaks off abruptly, and leaves the statement incomplete	14
10504819042	Archetype	pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life	15
10504821168	Aside	a dramatic device in which a character speaks directly to the audience	16
10504821169	Asyndeton	a stylistic device that takes away all conjunctions for emphasis	17
10504825160	Ballad Meter	four line stanza with alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter lines with a abcb or abab rhyme scheme	18
10504825161	Bard	An ancient Celtic poet, singer and harpist who recited heroic poems by memory	19
10504826836	Bildungsroman	a coming of age story	20
10504826837	Blank Verse	lines of iambic pentameter without an end rhyme	21
10504828489	Canon	works you would find in anthologies	22
10504828490	Canto	a sub-division of an epic similar to a chapter	23
10504829476	Caesura	a natural pause in a line of poetry cause by the rhythms of speech	24
10504832134	Caricature	exaggerating or simplifying some characteristics of some	25
10504832135	Catalectic Meter	metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable somewhere in the line or ending with an incomplete foot of meter	26
10504833296	Chiasmus	A->B;B->A	27
10504833297	Cliche	a phrase that has become lifeless through overuse	28
10504834876	Colloquial	informal language found in certain regions	29
10504834877	Comedy	upbeat drama where most characters end up married	30
10504835873	Comedy of Errors	a dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical; actions usually funny mistakes, etc.	31
10504835874	Conceit	a fairly elaborate figure of speech, especially an extended comparison	32
10504838038	Concrete	language that describes qualities perceived by the five senses	33
10504841387	Conflict	opposition between two characters and drives the story	34
10504841388	Connotation	extra tinge or taint on meaning of a word beyond the dictionary definition	35
10504841389	Couplet	two lines of the same metric length and ending in a rhyme	36
10504842695	Crisis	turning point of uncertainty and tension resulting from earlier conflict	37
10504842696	Denotation	dictionary definition	38
10504844866	Deus Ex Machina	unrealistic, divine intervention	39
10504845954	Dialect	subset of a language spoken in specific way by group of people	40
10504845955	Diction	choice of words	41
10504847567	Didactic Literature	preachy writing that seeks to overly convince a reader	42
10504847568	Doppelgänger	look-alike	43
10504850137	Double Entendre	deliberate use of ambiguity in a phrase or image	44
10504850138	Drama	composition in prose or verse presenting a narrative involving conflict	45
10504851487	Dramatic Monologue	a poetic form in which the speaker addresses the listener directly	46
10504852845	Dramatic Structure	exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement	47
10504852846	Exposition	background information	48
10504854042	Rising Action	basic internal conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts	49
10504854043	Climax	turning point	50
10504855541	Falling Action	conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels	51
10504855542	Denouement	outcome of a complex situation	52
10504857996	Dynamic Character	character who changes over the course of the story	53
10504859256	Static Character	unchanging characters	54
10504859257	Elegy	any poem written in elegiac meter; poem dealing with the subject-matter common to the early Greco-Roman elegies	55
10504862644	Elision	removal of an unstressed syllable, consonants, or letters from a word or phrase	56
10504863951	Ellipsis	three successive periods (...)	57
10504863952	Enjambment	line having no pause or end punctuation continues uninterrupted grammatical meaning into the next line	58
10504867456	Epic Poetry	a long narrative traditionally beginning with the invocation of a muse and told in an elevated style and in medias res while recounting the superhuman exploits of an epic hero, whose actions will determine the future of their nation	59
10504869595	Invocation of Muse	in Greco-Roman culture, the poet is simply a vessel for the gods to transmit a story, which this invocation shows; the storyteller asks for their talents from the gods	60
10504871012	In Media Res	starting in the middle of the action, instead of a build up	61
10504871013	Epic Simile	a simile that may be developed at great length throughout a canto or the entire epic	62
10504871014	Epigraph	a brief quotation appearing at the start of a literary work	63
10504872591	Epilogue	a conclusion added to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem	64
10504872592	Epistolary	writing taking the form of a letter or letters to tell part or the entire story	65
10504874435	Epistrophe	repetition of words at the end of successive phrases	66
10504874436	Epitaph	final statement before a character's death	67
10504874437	Epithet	a "nickname" attached to the name of the character	68
10504875664	Eponym	name of a legend or real person associated with some other person	69
10504876579	Etymology	the study of word origins	70
10504876580	Euphemism	use of a mild phrase to describe something that usually is harsh, blunt such as death	71
10504877773	Fable	tale designed to illustrate a moral lesson	72
10504880935	Farce	form of low comedy to provoke laughter through exaggerated caricatures in improbable situations	73
10504891171	Figurative Language	language employing figures of speech.	74
10504891172	Simile	A comparison using "like" or "as"	75
10504892165	Metaphor	a direct comparison of two objects	76
10504892166	Flashback	method of narration where action is interrupted so that the reader can witness past events	77
10504892901	Foil	a character whose purpose serves to contrast another character	78
10504892902	Foot	basic unit of meter	79
10504894900	Foreshadowing	a literary device which hints at later events	80
10504894901	The Fourth Wall	separating the audience from the stage, it is a "barrier" through which an audience views the play	81
10504896164	Frame Narrative	a story within a story	82
10504896165	Free Verse	no meter or (necessarily) rhyme scheme	83
10504899994	Hyperbole	exaggeration	84
10504899995	Gallows Humor	grim humorin the face of desperate situations such as death	85
10504901031	Genre	type, species, or class of composition	86
10504901032	Gothic	a work in which the supernatural and horrific governs and pervades the action	87
10504902868	Hamartia	tragic flaw (think Odysseus' pride); makes a character tragic	88
10504905225	Heroic Couplet	stanza of two rhymed, iambic pentameter couplets	89
10504905226	Humours	four bodily fluids believed to control behavior and health	90
10504908035	Hyperbaton	in version in the syntax	91
10504912202	Idiom	commonly used phrase that works only on figurative level	92
10504912203	Innuendo	remark about somebody or something, usually suggesting something bad, mean or rude	93
10504912204	Invective	speech/writing that attacks, insults, or denounces	94
10504913167	Irony	mode of expression, through words, events, or dramatic tension conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation	95
10504913168	Verbal Irony	sarcasm	96
10504916756	Situational Irony	incongruity between what the audience expects versus what actually happens (ex. firehouse burning down)	97
10504916757	Dramatic Irony	significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience although unknown to the character	98
10504918050	Juxtaposition	arrangement of ideas next to one another for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development	99
10504918051	Kenning	two word phrase describing something through a metaphor	100
10504919311	Laureate	Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution	101
10504919312	Litotes	understatement for rhetorical effect	102
10504920311	Malapropism	a word humorously misused	103
10504920312	Melodrama	work that exaggerates plot or characters to appeal to the emotions	104
10504921776	Memoir	an individual writing about their life (biography)	105
10504921777	Meter	rhythm in a poem through stresses and unstressed syllables	106
10504924426	Iambic	unstressed, stressed	107
10504924427	Trochaic	stressed, unstressed	108
10504926200	Anapestic	unstressed, unstressed, stressed	109
10504953593	Dactylic	stressed, unstressed, unstressed	110
10504953594	Spondaic	stressed, stressed	111
10504963670	Rising Meter	iambs and anapests that employ strong stress at the end	112
10504963671	Falling Meter	spondees and dactyls that employ no/little stress at the end	113
10504964736	Monometer	one foot	114
10504964737	Dimeter	two feet	115
10504964738	Trimeter	three feet	116
10504965805	Tetrameter	four meet	117
10504965806	Pentameter	five feet	118
10504966757	Hexameter	six feet	119
10504966758	Heptameter	seven feet	120
10504967871	Octameter	eight feet	121
10507996951	Metonymy	part standing in for the whole (specifically words implying a another word or larger idea)	122
10508000668	Motif	A recurring theme, subject or idea	123
10508000669	Muses	the nine daughters of Atlas, and goddesses of the arts and sciences	124
10508002670	Novel	extended fictional prose narrative focusing on a few primary characters but often involving scores of secondary characters	125
10508002671	Ode	ancient form of poetic song, usually celebratory	126
10508004812	Onomatopoeia	words that sound similar to their meaning	127
10508005938	Oxymoron/Paradoxes	the use of contradiction that make sense (ex. loving hate)	128
10508009846	Parallelism	use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; adds balance and rhythm to sentences, giving ideas a smoother flow because of the repetition it employs	129
10508012967	Parody	a satirical work imitating another	130
10508013883	Personification/Anthropomorphism	giving human qualities to animals or objects	131
10508015593	Point of View	the perspective from which a story is told	132
10508018022	Omniscient	all-knowing	133
10508018023	Polysyndeton	deliberate use of multiple conjunctions when making a list	134
10508019646	Portmanteau	a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings	135
10508021707	Prose	works not written in regular meter	136
10508021708	Prosody	the mechanics of poetry	137
10508021709	Protagonist	the hero or central character of a literary work	138
10508023816	Pun	play on words	139
10508026710	Quatrain	stanza or poem of four lines	140
10508026711	Red Herring	false clue that leads readers or characters towards a false conclusion	141
10508028377	Refrain	repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals in a poem	142
10508028378	Rhetorical Question	A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply	143
10508029471	Rhyme	matching similarity of sounds in two or more words	144
10508029472	End Rhyme	the rhyming of the final syllables of a line	145
10508029473	Internal Rhyme	inside a line	146
11192176330	Masculine Rhyme	final syllable of one line mimics the sound of another	147
10508032004	Feminine Rhyme	final two syllables of one line mimic the sound of another	148
10508033126	Slant Rhyme/Off Rhyme	words rhymed with similar but not identical sounds	149
10508036755	Eye Rhyme	Word comprised of similar spellings, though not pronunciation	150
10508036756	Rhyme Scheme	pattern of rhyme in a poem	151
10508038263	Roman a Clef	a novel about real life, overlaid with a facade of fiction	152
10508038264	Satire	ridicule of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor	153
10508038265	Scansion	divide the poetry into feet by pointing out different syllables based on their lengths	154
10508041012	Setting	environment in which a story unfolds	155
10508041013	Short Story	short, fictional, prose tale	156
10508047002	Soliloquy	monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes that they are alone	157
10508048238	Sonnet	a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and usually in iambic pentameter	158
10508049816	Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet	octave and a sestet turn; abba- octet, efg-sestet	159
10508051069	Shakespearean/English Sonnet	three quatrains and a couplet turn; abab rhyme scheme	160
10508056410	Spoonerism	accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect	161
10508056411	Stanza	essentially a poetic "paragraph"	162
10508057184	Stream of Consciousness	character's perceptions, thoughts, and memories are presented in an apparently random form, without regard for logical sequence, chronology, or syntax	163
10508057185	Style	way an author writes a literary work	164
10508057186	Symbol	object or idea that represents something else	165
10508058584	Universal Symbol	meaning could be understood and agreed upon by almost anyone, regardless of cultural background	166
10508058585	Conventional Symbol	symbol whose meaning has been established by and for a specific culture	167
10508060471	Literary Symbol	can only be understood within a certain literary context	168
10508061855	Synesthesia	neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway	169
10508063038	Synecdoche	a part of an object that stands in for the whole of it	170
10508063039	Syntax	standard word order and sentence structure	171
10508069999	Terza Rima	A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc.	172
10508070000	Theme	central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work	173
10508070001	Tone	prevailing mood or atmosphere in a literary work	174
10508070002	Tragedy	serious play in which the chief character, by some peculiarity of psychology, passes through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe	175
10508075205	Tricolon	three parallel clauses, phrases, or words, which happen to come in quick succession without any interruption	176
10508075206	Uncanny	concept often used to discuss elements of horror found in the gothic	177
10508078618	Understatement/Meiosis	lessens or minimizes the importance of what is meant	178
10508078619	Unities	unity of place, time, and action	179
10508081004	Universality	appealing to readers and audiences of any age or any culture	180
10508081005	Unreliable Narrator	imaginary storyteller or character who describes what he witnesses accurately, but misinterprets those events because of faulty perception, personal bias, or limited understanding	181
10508081888	Verisimilitude	having the appearance of truth	182
10508086521	Villanelle	genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines - five tercets and a concluding quatrain	183
10508088318	Willing Suspension of Disbelief	setting aside our beliefs about reality in order to enjoy the make-believe of a play, a poem, film, or a story	184
10508088319	Zeugma	grammatical construction in which a single word is used in relation to two other parts of a sentence although the word grammatically or logically applies to only one	185
10508097501	Zoomorphism	animal attributes are imposed upon non-animal objects, humans, and events	186