AP Voccab 31-60

Question 1

Character, Foil

Answer 1

A character that contrasts another character.

Question 2

Character, Flat

Answer 2

A character embodying only one or two traits and lacking character development. Often such characters exist only to provide background or adequate motivation for a protagonist’s actions.

Question 3

Character, Round

Answer 3

A character who exhibits a range of emotions and who evolves over the course of the story.

Question 4

Character, Secondary/Minor

Answer 4

A supporting character; while not as prominent or central as the main character, they are still important to the events of a story or play.

Question 5

Character, Stock

Answer 5

A type of flat character based on a stereotype; one who falls into an immediately recognizable category or type and thus resists unique characterization. Stock characters are often used for humor or satire.

Question 6

Characterization

Answer 6

The method by which the author builds or reveals a character.

Question 7

Characterization, Direct

Answer 7

A narrator tells the reader who a character is by describing the background, motivation, temperament, or appearance of that character.

Question 8

Characterization, Indirect

Answer 8

The author shows rather than tells what a character is like through what the character says, does, thinks, or what others say about the character.

Question 9

Chiasmus

Answer 9

Sentence strategy in which the arrangement of ideas in the second clause is a reversal of the first.

Question 10

Colloquial Language/Colloquialism

Answer 10

An expression or language construction appropriate only for causal, informal speaking or writing.

Question 11

Comedy

Answer 11

Usually used to refer to a dramatic work that, in contrast to tragedy, has a light, amusing plot, features a happy ending, centers on ordinary people, and is written and performed in the vernacular. Structurally, comedies usually progress from chaos to order.

Question 12

Comedy of Manners

Answer 12

A satiric dramatic form that lampoons (criticizes) social conventions.

Question 13

Comic Relief

Answer 13

Something said or done that provides a break from the seriousness of the work.

Question 14

Conceit

Answer 14

A literary device that sets up a striking analogy between two entities that would not usually invite comparison.

Question 15

Conceit, Metaphysical

Answer 15

A conceit that specifically draws connections between the physical and the spiritual.

Question 16

Confessional Poetry

Answer 16

Poetry that uses intimate, painful, disturbing, or sad material from the poet’s life.

Question 17

Conflict

Answer 17

The tension, opposition, or struggle that drives a plot.

Question 18

Conflict, Dilemma

Answer 18

A type of conflict in which both choices have negative consequences.

Question 19

Conflict, External

Answer 19

The opposition or tension between two characters or forces.

Question 20

Conflict, Internal

Answer 20

Conflict occurring within a character.

Question 21

Consonance

Answer 21

A literary device that occurs when two words have the same consonant sound following different vowel sounds

Question 22

Contrast

Answer 22

A literary technique in which the author examines two opposites to create an attitude, to accomplish a purpose or effect, or to make an assertion.

Question 23

Couplet

Answer 23

Two lines of poetry.

Question 24

Couplet, Closed

Answer 24

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry that express a complete thought.

Question 25

Couplet, Heroic

Answer 25

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry written in iambic pentameter.

Question 26

Critical Lenses

Answer 26

Different ways to approach interpreting a work of literature; also known as critical perspectives. Specific types include Cultural, Formalist, Gendered/Feminist, Historical, Psychological.

Question 27

Deduction

Answer 27

Arriving at a conclusion by making an inference from the premise.

Question 28

Dialect

Answer 28

Dialogue or narration written to simulate regional or cultural speech patterns.

Question 29

Diction

Answer 29

A writer’s choice of words.

Question 30

Didactic

Answer 30

A work in which the author’s primary purpose is to instruct, teach, or moralize.