AP Lit Terms Set 3 (25 Words)

Question 1

informal, not always grammatically correct expressions that find acceptance in certain geographical areas and within certain groups of people - ex: Southerners saying “Ya’ll”

Answer 1

colloquial expressions

Question 2

repetition of successive clauses which oare usually parallel in syntanx (sentence structure). Example: “It’s hard to make time, but to waste it is easy”

Answer 2

chiasmus

Question 3

an extended metaphor - two unlike tings are compared n several different ways

Answer 3

conciet

Question 4

a pair of rhyming lines written in the same meter; maybe a separate stanza

Answer 4

couplet

Question 5

an author’s choice of words - i.e: simple, sophisticated, colloquial, formal, or informal.

Answer 5

diction

Question 6

pertaining to the base side of man

Answer 6

dionysian

Question 7

line of verse that carries over into the next line without a pause of any kind

Answer 7

enjambment

Question 8

a brief quotation at the beginning of a book or chapter

Answer 8

epigraph

Question 9

an awakening; a sudden understanding or burst or insight

Answer 9

epiphany

Question 10

substitute word(s) that sound better than another; the use of inoffensive or neutral words to describe a harsher, more serious concept. Example: pass away instead of die.

Answer 10

euphemism

Question 11

false dichotomy

Answer 11

two extremes in a continuum of intermediate possiblities (doesn’t consdier all the in betweens)”: “You love your country, or you hate it” “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”.

Question 12

farce

Answer 12

a totally ridiculous comedy

Question 13

figurative language

Answer 13

the broad term applied to writing or speech not meant to be taken literally but as a figure of speech; states something that is not literally true in order to create an affect (simile, metaphor, personification are figures of speech based on comparison. Metonymy, synechdoche, synesthesia, apostrope, oxymoron, and hyperbole are others).

Question 14

foil

Answer 14

a character who provides a contrast to another character, thus emphasizing the other’s traits

Question 15

foreshadowing

Answer 15

the arrangements and presentation of events and information in such as way that prepares for later events.

Question 16

gothic

Answer 16

a form of novel in which magic, mystery, horrors, and chivalry aboud.

Question 17

hamartia

Answer 17

a tragic flaw or error in judgement. In lit - the tragic hero’s error of judgement. This with elements of chance and other external forces brings about a catastrophe. The error or flaw often is the result of traits like probity, pride, and overconfidence.

Question 18

homily

Answer 18

a long speech denouncing someone or something; a didactic lecture

Question 19

hubris

Answer 19

pride or overconfidence which often leads to a hero to overlook divine warning or to break a moral law (- hubris is a type of hamartia)

Question 20

hyperbole

Answer 20

exaggeration for effect or empasis, overstatement (a figure of speech)

Question 21

imagery

Answer 21

devices which appeal to the senses: visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, kinetic - creates a mental picture.

Question 22

in media res

Answer 22

the story starts in the middle

Question 23

irony

Answer 23

surprising, amusing, or interesting contrast between reality and expectation. In irony of situation, the result of an action is the opposite of what was / is expected. In dramatic irony, the audience knows something the characters in the drama do not. In verbal irony, the contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant.

Question 24

juxtaposition

Answer 24

the positioning of ideas or images side by side for emphasis or to show contrast (i.e. love and hate in Romeo and Juliet.

Question 25

litotes

Answer 25

a type of meiosis (understatement) in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary, as in “not unhappy” or “a poet of no small stature”.