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AP Literary Terms Test 2
continued
49
Language - English
12th Grade
09/17/2009

Additional Language - English Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
ballad meter
Definition
a four line stanza rhymed ABCD with four feet in lines one and three and three in lines two and four.
" O mother, mother make my bed.
O make it soft and narrow.
Since my love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow."
Term
bandwagon
Definition
a propaganda technique that encourages people to think or act in some way simply because other people are doing it.
Term
bathos
Definition
a figure of speech which descends from the sublime to the ridiculous in an attempt to create a grandiose or pathetic effect.
Term
beast fables
Definition
a tale or collection of tales written in mock epic, allegorical style in which the central characters are animals and the tone is often satirical and the purpose is to teach a moral or social truth. (Orwell's Animal Farm.)
Term
begging the question
Definition
(a fallacy)This fallacy occurs when someone assumes the truth of a statement to be proved without providing any evidence to support the statement.
Term
black humor
Definition
a substantial aspect of the Theatre (drama) of the Absurd and of the Absurd and of much modern fiction. The term describes sardonically humorous effects derived from mordant wit or grotesque situations that deal with anxiety, suffering, or death. The tone often one of resignation, anger or bitterness. ( the metamorphosis)
Term
blank verse
Definition
unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays as well as that of Milton's Paradise Lost.
Term
burlesque
Definition
a form of comedy, generally associated with stage performances, that achieves its effects through distortion, exaggeration and imitation.
Term
byronic hero
Definition
an antihero who is a romanticized but wicket character, a young, attractive male with a bad reputation. He defies authority and conventional morality and become paradoxically ennobled by his peculiar rejection of virtue. Byronic heroes are associated with destructive passions, selfish brooding, loneliness, intense introspection and fiery rebellion. (heathcliff in Wuthering Heights)
Term
caesura
Definition
a natural pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry.
Term
canto
Definition
a section of a long poem
Term
colloquial
Definition
a word or phrase used every day in plain and relaxed speech but rarely found writing, usually permitted to a given area.
Term
comedy
Definition
a work of literature, especially a play, that has a happy ending. Comedies often show ordinary
Term
comedy of manners
Definition
a play satirizing the fashions, manners and outlook on life of an artificial, highly sophisticated society.
Term
comic relief
Definition
is the feeling created by a humorous action or speech that appears within a serious work of literature. It is often used to emphasize, by contrast, the seriousness of the main action.
Term
conceit
Definition
an unusual and surprising comparison between two very different things. This special kind of metaphor or complicated analogy is often the basis for a whole poem. It is also a whimsical, ingenious, extended metaphor in which an object, scene, person, situation or emotion is presented in terms of a simpler analogue, usually from nature or a context familiar to author and reader alike.
Term
conclusion
Definition
anything that follows reasonably from something else.
Term
conflict
Definition
a struggle between opposing forces.
(1) man vs. man, (2)man vs. self, (3)man vs. nature and (4) man vs. society.
Term
connotation
Definition
an association that a word calls to mind in addition to its dictionary meaning.
Term
consonance
Definition
the repetition of consonant sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar vowel sounds.
Term
contrast
Definition
the process of observing and pointing out differences.
Term
convention
Definition
any device or style or subject matter which has become, in its time and by reason of its habitual use, a recognized means of literary expression, an accepted element in technique.
Term
crisis
Definition
in the plot of a story or play is the turning point for the protagonist and often coincides with the climax of the story.
Term
dactyl
Definition
a metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.
Term
damning with faint praise
Definition
(fallacy) attacking a person by formally praising him/her, but for an achievement that should not be praised.
Term
dead metaphor
Definition
is a metaphor that has been overused to the point that its original impact has been lost.
Term
decadence
Definition
a term used in literature or art history for the decline that marks the end of a great artistic period. general characteristic: self-consciousness, artificially, over-refinement and perversely.
Term
decorum
Definition
deals with the ideal of property. It stemmed from the classical authors and was used widely by the 17th and 18th century writers. It stressed that literary works had to be polished, dignified, clear, rational and elevated.
Term
deduction
Definition
is a form of argument in which the conclusion has to be true if the premises is true.
Term
deism
Definition
a belief in the existence of a personal God who is manifested neither supernaturally in history nor in nature.
Term
denotation
Definition
a word's actual dictionary meaning as opposed to a word's connotative meaning.
Term
denouement
Definition
in a literary work, it is anything that happens after the resolution of the plot. At this point the central conflict is resolved, and the consequences for the protagonist are already decided. It is the tying up of loose ends.
Term
determinism
Definition
the belief that all apparent acts of the will are actually the result of causes which determine them. In classical literature, it may be fate. In Calvinistic teachings, it may be the predestined will of God.
Term
dialectic
Definition
In classical literature, it refers to the tradition of continuing debate or discussion of eternally unresolved issues, such as beauty vs. truth or the individual vs. the state.
Term
didactic
Definition
instructiveness in a literary work, one of the purpose of which appears to be to give guidance, particularly in moral, ethical or religious matters.
Term
digression
Definition
to stray from the main subject in speaking or writing.
Term
dilemma
Definition
a situation that requires a person to decide between two equally attractive or equally unattractive alternatives.
Term
dime novel
Definition
a cheaply made, often sensational and melodramatic paperback novel of history, crime or adventure, printed in America in the latter half of the 19th century. These novels were priced at ten cents each.
Term
dirge
Definition
a lamentation sung or recited at a funeral or composed in commemoration of a death; a sad song
Term
discursive
Definition
digressing from subject to subject; relating to discourse or modes of discourse
Term
dissonance
Definition
harsh and inharmonious sounds that are discordant with the words and the rhythms surrounding them in a line or sentence.
Term
drama of the absurd
Definition
a type of drama allied to comedy, radically nonrealistic in both content and presentation, that emphasizes the absurdity, emptiness, or meaninglessness of life (The Metamorphosis)
Term
dynamic character
Definition
a character who is different at the end of the book than he/she was at the beginning.
Term
elegy
Definition
a solemn and formal lyric poem about death- often in tribute to a person who has died recently. Most written in formal, dignified language and are serious in tone.
Term
Elizabethan drama
Definition
English comic and tragic plays produced during the Renaissance- during the last years of and the few years after Queen Elizabeth's reign. Thus, Shakespeare is an Elizabethan dramatic, although more than 1/3 of his active career lies in the reign of James I who succeeded Queen Elizabeth I to the throne. -Elizabethan Era is the golden age of English drama.
Term
ellipsis
Definition
the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context.
Term
Enlightenment, The
Definition
a philosophical movement of the 18th century, particularly in France but effectively over much of Europe and America. The Enlightenment celebrated reason, the scientific method and human beings' ability to perfect themselves and society.
Term
end-stopped
Definition
a line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, comma, semicolon, examination point, or question mark are end-stopped lines.
Term
epic
Definition
a long, narrative poem about the adventures of the gods or of a hero.
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