AP Lit. Terms Flashcards

A story told on two levels and intended to teach a moral lesson EX: The Prodigal Son; Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown."

Metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable

A very short story told to make a point

The main adversary of the hero/heroine, or protagonist

The use of parallel structure to present oppositional ideas EX:Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." - John Kennedy

To address a person not present; or to personify an object or trait and address the personified thing

A universal symbol or symbol that crosses many cultures EX: water; a universal character(the quest hero or wise old man)

Language/words appealing to the sense of sound/hearing

Unrhymed line of iambic pentameter

Medieval bodily humour - angry

An extended metaphor. A comparison extending throughout a poem, paragraph, or section of a work.

Metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable follwed by two unstressed syllables

Having a teaching purpose.

Situation in which the reader/viewer shares with the narrator knowledge of a situation or intention unknown to one or more of the characters. Often the reader/viewer knows the fate of a character who is ignorant of his/her own fate.

Poetry or speech which laments the loss of a person or sometimes of an era or aspect of culture. An "elegiac tone" is a lamenting tone or a somewhat nostalgic tone. EX: pastoral elegies lament the loss of rural life and farms

Run-on lines of poetry. When a though is not completed in one line so the reader has to read into the next line to get to the end of the thought, the lines are called "run-on lines"

Line of poetry ending in a period, question mark, exclamation point, or semicolon

Short, witty saying EX: "Fish and visitors smell after three days."

The appearance of manifestation of a deity; or a moment of understanding and sudden insight into reality or the truth.

Text or portion of a text which explains motives, action, definitions, etc. In this part of the text, the action doesn't move forward; the narrator offers explanation, analysis, or reflection on events and characters.

A nice or polite word used to replace a more direct or blunt one EX:"pass away" for "die",

Low comedy; comedy which has clowning and slapstick EX: the three stooges

Interrupting a narrative sequence with a recollection of an image or scene from the past

The form a text has - poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction. Genres also have sub-genres EX: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, epic poetry

Language or images appealing to the sense of taste

The ancient Greek term for "pride" or "ego". It was the tragic flaw demonstrated by heroes in Greek drama, including Characters such as Oedipus, Creon, and Antigone.

Exaggeration for effect

A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

A ten-syllable line in which the even-numbered syllables are stressed

Rhyming two words within a single line of poetry. EX: "Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary."

Having the opposite of what one expects to happen actually happens; reversal

Understatement for emphasis EX: Saying "not bad" when you mean "very good"

The misuse of words, especially words that sound like other words. Often malapropisms are humorous; sometimes they are puns. EX: saying "progeny" when you mean "prodigy"

Medieval bodily humor - sad, depressed

The rhythm of a poem. It includes how many syllables or "beats" each line has and which ones are stressed and unstressed. A unit of meter = a foot

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated EX: "The pen is mightier than the sword," in which pen means words and sword means the military or fighting

A story that seeks to explain processes of nature, the creation of the world and the human race, or traditional customs, political institutions, or religious rites

The stance from which a story is told

1st - one person

3rd - he, she, they

3rd omniscient - viewing the action from a god-like stance, seeing inside every characters mind

3rd limited - viewing the action primarily from one character's angle

Language or images appealing to the sense of smell

Two opposite words together forming a compound word or phrase - bittersweet, foolish wit, wise fool

A short story with a moral message; often it is allegorical. EX: The Prodigal Son + Good Samaritan

A statement that is illogical or contradictory but nevertheless true or which has a kind of truth that it states EX: "Fair is foul and foul is fair" - Macbeth

A humorous imitation of a serious literary work or form

A literary piece that idealizes life in the country

Medieval bodily humour - dull

The hero or heroine in a story, poem, novel, play, or film

Persuasive; a style, form, and approach intended to persuade

Two rhymed iambic pentameter lines forming a unit

Medieval bodily humour - energetic, cheerful, positive

Humor directed at making a point about human nature; it attacks human fault and teaches ethics through humor

Poem of 14 lines in which the structure is three quatrains followed by a couplet in which the main idea or central message is stated

Group of line of poetry forming a unit

Having one thing stand for another, especially for a complex of interrelated concepts. EX: Moby Dick, the white whale, representing power, fate, evil, the enemy, unknown

Figure of speech in which a part of an object is used to represent the whole EX: "All hands on deck" for "all sailors/men on deck"

Sentence structure; the phrases and clauses that together make a sentence

Language or images which appeal to the sense of touch or feeling

The attitude an author expresses towards his subject and/or audience

A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable

The meaning intended by a speaker differs from the meaning understood by one or more of the other characters or by the listener

Single line of poetry

when the first sound of a word is repeated several times in succession

a reference to something from a different story, such as referencing Noah's flood to let the reader know just how torrential it is raining.

when something happens that should be attributed to a different time from when it actually happened. Often, it is a mistake, where an inappropriate phrase or object appears in a period piece.

a type of repetition. It uses a repeated phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences to provoke an emotional response from the reader or the audience.

a literary technique, where the writer reverses traditional sentence structure. Subject, Adjective becomes Adjective, Subject.

where you apply human traits or qualities to something that isn't human-like animals, objects, or the weather.

universally accepted truth expressed concisely

In songs, poems, and literature to create flowing sounds that grab the reader/listener's attention and are pleasing to the ear

involves using a fractured sentence where two different parts are distinguishable but form one whole. When used in a speech, it forces the speaker to take a break. (sometimes uses II to indicate the breaks)

consonant sounds are repeated within a sentence or phrase.

Greek word that means "diagonal arrangement." It happens when you use two or more inverted parallel clauses together. The phrases must be related

used in speech when we want to be informal. In literature, it might provide a setting or give information about where a character comes from.

author's word choice in speech or description. There are so many different words that we can use to mean different things; a careful choice of words can make a huge difference.

the author cites a quotation from another work of literature. It is often put into italics

the author subtly lets the reader know the ending or an upcoming event

a character is speaking out loud, a character asks a question and then immediately answers it themselves.

the writer takes two more phrases or clauses that have a similar structure, rhythm, or length and lines them up on top of each other. You often see this in poems, and you'll also spot it in advertising, particularly brand slogans.

creates a visual representation of an action, idea, or thing to appeal to the reader's senses.

you place different story elements side by side, to provide contrast and highlight the differences.

says an object is something else, which brings new meaning to the original object

a repeated symbol, idea, or structure within a literary work to emphasize the theme.

When you want to show that your character is problem-solving and has reached a conclusion. Or, when you're giving a speech and want to provide an answer to a question your audience wants to hear.

the writer gives inanimate objects or ideas human traits, like the weather, or a feeling

whoever is telling your story.

the art of using several conjunctions (or connecting words) in succession.

a comparison of two different things the writer will use the words 'like' or 'as.'

when a character speaks their thoughts out loud, usually alone and to the audience, rather than to another character.

give animal-like qualities to anything that is not that particular animal.