AP English Literature: Literary Terms – Flashcards
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Accent
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the stressed portion of a word
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Allegory
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a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
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Alliteration
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the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
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Allusion
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an expression designed to bring something to mind without mentioning it plainly
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Anachronism
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a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists; something that is old-fashioned
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Analogy
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a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification
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Anecdote
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a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person
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Aphorism
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a witty observation that contains a general truth about life, such as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
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Apostrophe
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an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person or thing
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Aside
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a remark or passage by a character in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.
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Assonance
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in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for an echo effect
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Ballad
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a long narrative poem or song narrating a single story, which is often tragic or violent, in short stanzas.
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Caesura
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a break between words within a metrical foot; "To err is human forgive, divine"
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Folk Ballad
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Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.
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Literary Ballad
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also called an art ballad that imitates the form and spirit of the folk ballad, but is more polished and uses a higher level of poetic diction
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Blank Verse
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poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter; often found in Shakespeare's works
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Burlesque
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an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something in a literary or dramatic work; a parody
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Cacophony
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a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds; opposite of euphony
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Caricature
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a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect
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Catharsis
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the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
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Chorus
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a group of performers, in Greek drama, who comment on the main action, typically speaking and moving together.
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Classicism
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the following of ancient Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship
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Colloquialism
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a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation.
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Conceit
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a fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor
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Consonance
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the recurrence of similar sounds, such as consonants, in close proximity
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Conundrum
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a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; may also be a paradox or difficult problem
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Description
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the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse
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Diction
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word choice; also called syntax
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Discourse
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written or spoken language and literary works
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Dissonance
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the grating of sounds that are harsh or do not go together
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Elegy
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a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead
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End Rhyme
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a rhyme that comes at the end of lines of poetry
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Epic
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a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation
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Epigram
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a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way; a short poem having a witty or ingenious ending
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Euphony
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the quality of being pleasing to the ear through a harmonious combination of words
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Exemplum
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a model moralizing or illustrative story
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Exposition
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the part of a play or work of fiction in which the background to the main conflict is introduced and revealed
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Farce
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a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations
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Figurative Language
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language that contains figures of speech such as similes and metaphors in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal
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Figures of Speech
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expressions such as similes, metaphors, and personifications that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or asscociatons
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Foil
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a character who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another character
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Folklore
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the traditional beliefs, customs, stories, and songs of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth
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Foot
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the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that makes up the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry
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Anapest
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a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable; in-ter-rupt
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Dactyl
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a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables or one long syllable followed by two short syllables; beau-ti-ful
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Iamb
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a metrical foot consisting of one short unstressed syllable followed by one long stressed syllable; dis-turb
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Spondee
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a foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables; hodge-podge
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Trochee
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a foot consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one short or unstressed syllable; in-jure and con-stant
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Foreshadowing
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be a warning or indication of a future event in a story
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Free Verse
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poetry that is written without a regular meter, usually without ryme
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Genre
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a category of literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter
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Gothic
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referring to a type of novel that emerged in the eighteenth century that uses mystery, suspense, and sensational and supernatural occurrences to evoke terror
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Hubris
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in Greek tragedies, excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis
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Humor
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anything that causes laughter or amusement
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Hyperbole
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exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
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Idyll
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a short description in verse or prose of a picturesque scene or incident, esp. in rustic life
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Imagery
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visually descriptive or figurative language in a literary work
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Interior Monologue
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writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head
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Internal Rhyme
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a rhyme occurring within a line of poetry
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Inversion
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reversal of the normal order of words, typically for rhetorical effect but also found in the regular formation of questions in English
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Irony
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the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect
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Loose Sentence
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a sentence that is grammatically complete before its end
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Lyric
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expressing the writer's emotions, usually short and briefly and in stanzas or recognized form
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Metaphor
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a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable
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Meter
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the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of peotry
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Monometer
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One foot
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Dimeter
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Two feet
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Trimeter
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Three feet
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Tetrameter
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Four feet
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Pentameter
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Five feet
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Hexameter
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Six feet
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Heptameter
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Seven feet
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Metonymy
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the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant
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Mode
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the method or form of a literary work: a manner in which a work of literature is written
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Mood
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similar to tone, it is the primary emotional attitude of a work
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Myth
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a traditional story, concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events
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Narration
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the action or process of narrating a story
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Naturalism
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19th-century artistic and literary movement, influenced by contemporary ideas of science and society, that rejected the idealization of experience and adopted an objective and often uncompromisingly realistic approach to art.
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Objectivity
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an impersonal presentation of events and characters
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Ode
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a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter
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Onomatopoeia
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the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named; cuckoo; sizzle
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Oxymoron
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a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
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Parable
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a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels
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Paradox
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a statement or proposition that leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory
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Parallelism
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the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning
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Parody
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an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect
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Pastoral
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a work of literature portraying or evoking country life, typically in a romanticized or idealized form
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Periodic Sentence
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a sentence that is not grammatically complete until it's last phrase
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Personification
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the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman
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Persuasion
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a mode of discourse in which the action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something
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Petrarchan Sonnet
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one of the most important types of sonnets, composed of an octave with abba abba rhyme scheme and ending in a sestet with cde cde rhyme scheme; also called an Italian sonnet
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Point of View
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the perspective from which a story is presented
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First Person Narrator
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character in a story who relates their actions and thoughts through his or her perspective
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Stream of Consciousness Narrator
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similar to first person, but places the reader in the character's head
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Omniscient Narrator
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a third person narrator who is able to see into other character's minds and understand all their actions
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Limited Omniscient Narrator
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a third person narrator who only reports the thoughts of one character and generally only what the one character sees
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Objective Narrator
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a third person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera; thoughts and feelings are only revealed if the character speaks of them
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Protagonist
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the leading character or one of the major characters in a literary work
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Realism
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late 19th-century movement that meant to portray and focus on simple and unidealized treatment of contemporary life
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Refrain
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repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse
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Regionalism
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an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot
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Rhyme
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a similarity of accented sounds between two words
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Masculine Ryhme
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the rhyme sound is the last syllable of a line
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Feminine Ryhme
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the accented syllable is followed by an unaccented syllable
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Romanticism
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a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual
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Sarcasm
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the use of irony to mock or convey contempt
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Simile
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a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid
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Soliloquy
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an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play
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Sonnet
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a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line
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Speaker
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the voice of a poem; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictional character
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Stanza
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a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse
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Couplet
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the simplest stanza, consisting of two rhymed lines
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Tercet
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three lines, usually having the same rhyme
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Quatrain
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Four lines
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Cinquain
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Five lines
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Sestet
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Six lines
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Octave
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Eight lines
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Stereotype
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a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
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Stock Character
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a standard character who may be stereotyped such as the miser or fool
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Style
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an author's characteristic manner of expression
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Subjectivity
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based on or influenced by the authors personal feelings, tastes, or opinion
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Suspension of Disbelief
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the demand made of a theater audience to provide some details with their imagination and to accept the limitations of reality and staging; also the acceptance of the incident of the plot by the reader or audience
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Symbolism
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the use of symbols to represent both literal and representative ideas or qualities with a more complex significance
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Synecdoche
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a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa
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Syntax
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the word choice of diction
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Theme
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the central idea or message of a literary work
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Tone
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the characteristic emotion of attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience
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Tragic Flaw
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the one weakness that causes the downfall of the hero in a tragedy
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Villanelle
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a lyric poem consisting of five tercets ad a final question
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Voice
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the way a written work conveys an author's atittude
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Rhythm
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Four strong beats; "To err is human forgive, divine"
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Kenning
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Two word poetic renaming; sea-paths (rivers); Lord of life, Ruler of glory (God)
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Epithets
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Brief, descriptive phrases used to characterize people or things
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Hamartia
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Greek word for character flaws. (Often used instead of "character flaws" on AP Test)
