Shared Flashcard Set

Details

AP Literary terms
literary terms
51
English
11th Grade
12/14/2011

Additional English Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Allegory
Definition
an extended metaphor in which people, things and actions represent an idea or generalization about life; they often have strong moral lessons. ( The boy who cried wold)
Term
Alliteration
Definition
a figure of speech that repeats the same initial sound in two or more nearby words. (Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers.)
Term
Allusion
Definition
a reference in a literary work to a familiar person, place, event or thing (I was not born in a manger)
Term
anaphora
Definition
repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, lines, etc.
Term
antithesis
Definition
a figure of speech that uses an opposition or contrast of ideas for effect (creates tension)(Ex: We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.”)
Term
archetype
Definition
a universal symbol, story pattern, theme, or character that appears often in literature, film, and art and is easily recognizable. (Ex: Athena, goddess of knowledge; Venus, goddess of love.)
Term
assonance
Definition
the repetition of the same vowel sound in two or more nearby words; the repetition may occur any where in the word. (“The murmuring of inumerable bees.”)
Term
analysis
Definition
process of breaking down a complex topic or substance into smaller parts (ex: DIDLS—Diction/Imagery/Details/Language/Syntax.
Term
ballad
Definition
a poem in verse form that tells a story (narrative poem) and that contains a refrain; ballads traditionally were meant to be sung. (Example: “Love Story” Taylor Swift; Nat King Cole!)
Term
blank verse
Definition
a verse form consisting of unrhymed iambic pentameter lines; this verse is the closest to spoken english. (Is this a dagger which I see before me? (MacBeth)
Term
characterization
Definition
the method an author uses to describe characters and their personalities ( what a character say, does, and reveals. (Ex: She was one of the most beautiful dancers I’ve ever seen.”
Term
cinquain
Definition
a five-line stanza of any meter or rhyme scheme. (Tree//sturdy, tall// climbing, swinging, playing//fun among the branches/maple.)
Term
consonance
Definition
the repetition of the same consonant sound before or after a different vowel in two or more nearby words; it is similar to alliteration, but it is not confined to the initial sound in a word. (Ex: first and last; odds and ends)
Term
couplet
Definition
two lines of poetry with the same meter and which often rhyme.(Twinkle twinkle little star//how I wonder what you are.)
Term
diction
Definition
an author's word choice.(Ex: Emerson vs.Norman Maclean)
Term
digression
Definition
moving away from the main plot or theme by presenting additional information that may or may not be relevant (Ex: a speech which digresses from the main point; a seeming break.)
Term
emjambent
Definition
a continuation in the syntax from one line to another(Ex: “I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.”)
Term
figurative language
Definition
symbolic language that literary devices use to create special effects or feelings; this symbolic language makes comparisons, exaggerates and means different things based on its context.(Ex (an idiom, peculiar to itself in meaning) “It’s a bee in your bonnet.”
Term
figures of speech
Definition
literary devices used to create special effects or feelings by making comparisons or exaggerations (metaphor, simile, puns, personification)
Term
free verse
Definition
poetry that does not have a regular meter or a rhyme scheme (ex:any poetic form that’s not rhymed)
Term
genre
Definition
literary type or form (Examples: anime, memoir, biography, creative nonfiction)
Term
haiku
Definition
a form of japanese poetry that has three lines consisting of 17 syllables: first line, 5 syllables; second line; 7 syllables' third lines, 5 syllables. The subject has traditionally been nature.(Ex: “It’s five syllables/then it’s seven syllables/then five syllables.”
Term
homophone
Definition
that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.(hour/our)
Term
hyperbole
Definition
a figure of speech that exaggerates or overstates for dramatic effect.(ex: “to wait an eternity.” “We were starving by the time we got there.”
Term
idiom
Definition
that’s unique to its language.(Laissez-faire. Cat got your tongue?)
Term
imagery
Definition
words or phrases, sensory details, a write uses to represent objects, feelings, actions, or idea to appeal to our senses. Ex: E.B. WHITE!! Once more to the lake...essentially all nature pieces
Term
inference
Definition
a reasonable conclusion about a character or event in a literary work drawn from the limited facts made available. Something the reader would perceive. (Ex: “The baby was asleep, I heard a thump [oh no! it fell ]”)
Term
irony
Definition
when the audience knows something the characters do not; the use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or normal meaning; when the unexpected occurs.(“the fire station is on fire!”) (tree hugger killed by a tree)
Term
metaphor
Definition
a figure of speech in which an indirect comparison is made. Ex: “time is a thief”
Term
metonymy
Definition
: a figure of speech that substitutes one word for another that is closely related or a word that describe part of a whole. Ex: “the british ‘crown’.”
Term
mood
Definition
the feelings a piece of literature arouses in a reader; overall the atmosphere of the work reflects it. Tone, style. Ex: Edgar Allen Poe (mood is dark, foreboding)
Term
onomatopoeia
Definition
the use of a word whose sound suggests its meaning.
( Ex: “meow, crunch, boom boom pow!)
Term
oxymoron
Definition
a combination of contradictory terms that form a new word or title.(ex: “jumbo shrimp, old news, living dead”)
Term
pathetic fallacy
Definition
attribution of human feelings and characteristics to nature or inanimate things.
(ex: “the giving tree”)
Term
personification
Definition
a figure of speech that embodies an inanimate object with human characteristics. (ex: “the farm buildings huddled like the clinging […] crouched low to the ground…”)
Term
point of view (first person):
Definition
the narrator is a character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings and what he or she sees and is told by other characters. The narrator cannot tell us thoughts of other characters. (Know second-person, or direct address, and third person, he/she/they, also.) (EX: Handmaid’s Tale, To Kill a Mockingbird)
Term
point of view (omniscient)
Definition
the narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of other characters. Sometimes author inputs their own opinions into the story (EX: Sula, Lord of the Flies
Term
prose
Definition
writing or speaking in the usual or ordinary form (not poetry). (Ex: Shakespeare’s “side characters” speaking in prose [informal])
Term
quatrain
Definition
a four-line stanza of any meter or rhyme stanza.(ex: iambic pentameter; “The curfew tolls the…” [Thomas Gray]
Term
simile
Definition
a figure of speech in which a direct comparison is made using like or as. (ex: Hair flowed down her back like a waterfall.” hair as white as snow”)
Term
theme
Definition
an opinion or makes a statement about the main ideas or topics of the literary work. (ex: A River Runs Through It—Giving and Receiving & THE RIVER)
Term
tone
Definition
a writer's attitude toward the subject.(Ex: “ I want a wife.” Is satiric tone)
Term
understatement
Definition
a figure of speech that states an idea with restraint to emphasize what is written. the common usage of not bad to mean good is an example. (Ex: Just a scratch when in reality there is a LARGE DENT in a car)
Term
paradox
Definition
a self-contradictory phrase or a truth containing opposites. (Ex: “I can resist anything but temptation” –Oscar Wao
Term
motif
Definition
A recurrent and dominant idea in a work of literature, for example an image, verbal pattern, character or foreshadowing that repeats. (Ex: Mongoose in Oscar Wao)
Term
connotation and denotation
Definition
The meaning of a word in context; the actual dictionary definition. (ex: stop sign—stop—denotation. Connotation/In context: “He failed to stop at the stop sign.”
Term
euphemism
Definition
A milder work or phrase which substitutes for another, more serious phrase.
Term
epigraph
Definition
A brief quotation at the beginning of a literary work, or chapter of a work.(Ex: The epigraph in the beginning of This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff reads, “The first duty in life is to assume a pose. What the second is, no one has yet discovered.” – Oscar Wilde) (Hotchkiss note: Many writers use them in the beginning of books, some for each chapter. Usually it is a tribute to the author AND there is a connection to the theme or characters – see the epigraph/s in Oscar Wao. – If you write a book, you can include short quotes by other writers; however, if you take longer pieces, you need to get permission.)
Term
parallel structure
Definition
In which repeated syntax structures appear.(ex:“I needed life insurance; I needed a vacation; I needed a home in the country,” by Raymond Chandler) Hotchkiss note: anaphora is a similar term -- the difference is that in parallel construction, it usually involves full syntax – sentences that are parallel in construction, not just a word or phrase, so use this definition if you see longer parallel phraseology on the test.)
Term
inflection
Definition
Describes a change in pitch (spoken inflection) or in the form of a word; in literature, the emphasis is often indicated by the word written in italics. (ex: She knew he could never completely fulfill her, being restless and troubled at heart.)
Term
synesthesia
Definition
The mixing of sense impressions, a response through several senses to one sense.
(ex: When she sang the ballad, he felt and thought he saw a cloud of blue emanating from her lips, which dissipated and travelled throughout the room long after the piercing notes had ended.”)
Supporting users have an ad free experience!