Terms for AP Lit Flashcards
Abstract
Complex style, discussing intangible qualities like good/evil, rarely uses examples to support its points
Academic
Describing style, dry or theoretical writing
Accent
Stressed portion of a word in poetry
Aesthetic
Adjective meaning something appeals to senses or noun meaning coherent sense of taste/style
Allegory
Story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside of the tale itself
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
Allusion
Reference to another work or famous figure (can be historical allusion or popular allusion)
Anachronism
Taken out of time
Analogy
Comparison usually involving 2+ symbolic parts, used to clarify an action or relationship
Anecdote
Short narrative
Anthropomorphism
When inanimate objects are given human characteristics (different than personification because personification has the non-human quality/thing take a human shape)
Anticlimax
Occurs when action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect
Antihero
Protagonist (main character) who is markedly unheroic (morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or other bad qualities)
Aphorism
Short + usually written witty saying
Apostrophe
Figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that isn’t human
Archaism
Use of deliberately old-fashioned language to create a feeling of antiquity
Aside
Speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience as though momentarily stepping out of the action on the stage
Assonance
Repeated use of vowel sounds
Ballad
Long, narrative poem (usually very regular in meter/rhyme), usually has naive folksy quality
Pathos
When the writing of a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity + sympathy
Bathos
Effect of anticlimax when an attempt to create feeling fails + seems ridiculous
Black humor
Use of disturbing themes in comedy
Bombast
Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language (trying to use more sophisticated words to sound more eloquent but it comes off poorly)
Burlesque
Broad parody that takes a style or form + exaggerates it to ridiculousness
Cacophony
Use of deliberately harsh + awkward sounds in poetry
Cadence
Beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense (ex: iambic pentameter)
Canto
Name for a section division in a long work of poetry (divides poem like chapters in a book)
Caricature
Portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality
Catharsis
Refers to “cleansing” of emotion an audience member experiences having lived (vicariously) through the experiences on stage
Chorus
Group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage + comment on it (in Greek drama)
Classic
Accepted masterpiece
Coinage (neologism)
New word usually invented on the spot
Colloquialism
Word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn’t a part of “accepted” English
Conceit
Startling or unusual metaphor or metaphor developed + expanded on over several lines
Controlling image
When the image dominates/shapes an entire work
Connotation
Everything that the word suggests or implies
Denotation
Word’s literal meaning
Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds within words
Couplet
Pair of lines that end in a rhyme
Decorum
Character’s speech being styled to his/her social station, in accordance with the occasion
Diction
Author’s choice of words
Syntax
Ordering + structuring of words
Dirge
Song for the dead
Dissonance
Refers to grating of incompatible sounds
Doggerel
Drude, simplistic verse, often used in song/rhyme
Dramatic irony
When the audience knows something that the characters do not
Dramatic monologue
When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience
Elegy
Type of poem that meditates on death/morality in a serious/thoughtful manner
Epic
Very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style
Epitaph
Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place
Euphemism
Word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality
Euphony
When sounds blend harmoniously
Farce
Extremely broad humor
Feminine rhyme
Lines rhymed by their final 2 syllables
Foil
Secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of the main character, usually by means of contrast
Foot
Basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry (formed by a combination of 2/3 syllables, either stressed or unstressed)
Foreshadowing
Event or statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event coming later on
Free verse
Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme/metrical pattern
Genre
Sub-category of literature
Gothic
Supernatural horrors + unknown terrors are an important part of the plot
Hubris
Excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character’s downfall
Hyperbole
Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement
In medias res
Meaning “in the middle of things” (ex: starting book in middle of a war)
Interior monologue
Term for novels + poetry referring to mental talking that goes on inside a character’s head (more coherent than stream of consciousness)
Inversion
Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase
Irony
Statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean
Lament
Poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss
Lampoon
Satire
Loose sentence
Complete before its end
Periodic sentence
Not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase
Lyric
Type of poetry that explores that explores the poet’s personal interpretation of + feelings about the world
Masculine rhyme
Rhyme ending on a final stressed syllable
Melodrama
Form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very good/pure and the villain is very bad
Metaphor
Comparison or analogy stating that one thing is another
Simile
Comparison using like or as
Metonym
Word used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with
Nemesis
Protagonist’s arch enemy or supreme + persistent difficulty
Objectivity
Treatment of subject matter is an impersonal or outside view of events
Subjective
Uses the interior or personal view of a single observer + is typically colored with that observer’s emotional responses
Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like what they mean
Parable
Story that instructs (ex: fable or allegory)
Paradox
Situation or statement that seems to contradict itself but doesn’t upon closer inspection
Parallelism
Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect
Parenthetical phrase
Phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence w/ some commentary/added detail
Parody
Work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness
Pastoral
Poem set in tranquil nature (more specifically one about shepherds)
Persona
Narrator in a non-first-person novel (“shadow-author” is the author’s persona)
Personification
When an inanimate object takes on human shape
Plaint
Poem or speech expressing sorrow
Point of view
Perspective from which the action of a novel or narrative poem is presented
Omniscient narrator
3rd person narrator who sees into characters’ minds + understands all action going on
Limited omniscient narrator
3rd person narrator who generally reports only what 1 character sees
Objective narrator, camera eye narrator
3rd person narrator who only reports on what would be visible to a camera (doesn’t report on characters’ thoughts unless they are directly spoken)
1st person narrator
Narrator who tells the story from his/her point of view, can be unreliable
Stream of consciousness technique
Method is like the first person narration but instead of the character telling the story, the author places the reader inside the main charcter’s head + makes the reader privy to all of the charactr’s thoughts as they scroll through his/her consciousness
Prelude
Introductory poem to a longer work of verse
Protagonist
Main character of a novel or play
Pun
Usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest 2+ meanings
Refrain
Line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem
Requiem
Song of prayer for the dead
Rhapsody
Intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love/praise
Rhetorical question
Question that suggests an answer
Satire
Exposes common character flaws to the cold light of humor
Soliloquoy
Speech given by a character alone on the stage
Stanza
Group of lines roughly analogous in function in verse to the paragraph’s function in prose
Stock characters
Standard or cliched character types (ex: drunk, miser, foolish girl, etc.)
Suspension of disbelief
Demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging + supply the details w/ their imaginations
Symbolism
Device in literature where an object represents an idea
Thesis
Main position of an argument (central connection, will be supported)
Tragic flaw
Weakness of a character in an otherwise good/great individual that ultimately leads to their demise in a tragedy
Travesty
Grotesque parody
Truism
Way too obvious truth
Utopia
Idealized place (imaginary community of peace, prosperity, + happiness)
Zeugma
Use of a word to modify 2+ words, but used for different meanings (ex: she broke his car + his heart)
