Ap Literature Test Terms

Front 1

Abstraction

Back 1

A summary of any piece of written work; not concrete

Front 2

Allegory

Back 2

A narrative in verse or prose in which the literal elements consistently point to a parallel sequence of ideas, values, realities, virtues, or other recognizable things. Allegory is often used to dramatize moral principles, historical events, religious systems, or political issues for didactic or satiric purposes with a literal and symbolic

Front 3

Alliteration

Back 3

Repetition of a consonant sound. Strictly marks the beginning of words but can apply within the words themselves

Front 4

Allusion

Back 4

A brief, sometimes indirect reference in a text to a person, place, thing, or prior text. An allusion man appear in a literary work as an initial quotation, as a passing mention of a name, or as a phrase borrowed from another writing bringing with it meanings and implications of the original material.

Front 5

Analogy

Back 5

A word or thing that is similar or parallel to another

Front 6

Anaphora

Back 6

Repetition of the same word at the beginning of lines of verse or sentences

Front 7

Anthropomorphism

Back 7

An interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics (similar to personification).

Front 8

Anticlimax

Back 8

An unsatisfying and trivial turn of events in a literary work that occurs in place of a climax. Often involves a surprising shift in tone

Front 9

Antithesis

Back 9

Words, phrases, clauses, or sentences set in deliberate contrast to one another, similar to parallelism, abalance of opposing ideas.

Front 10

Apostrophe

Back 10

A direct address to an absent person or thing as if it were present; often hails to an entity not ordinarily spoken to

Front 11

Attitude

Back 11

The writer’s attitude is determined by the tone of the passage through analysis of diction, style, and syntax

Front 12

Ballad

Back 12

A songlike poem that tells a story and originally folk art sung or recited

Front 13

Chiasmus [kai-AZ-mus]

Back 13

A syntactical pattern in which words or parts of speech in one part of a sentence are reversed in the other

Front 14

Conceit, Metaphysical

Back 14

Showing preoccupation with analogies between macrocosm and microcosm, wit, ingenuity, dexterous, use of colloquial speech, flexibility of rhythm and meter, complex themes, a liking for paradox, and a keenly felt awareness of mortality

Front 15

Conceit

Back 15

Used in Renaissance literature, a far-flung metaphor comparing dissimilar things

Front 16

Couplet

Back 16

A verse unit of two lines, usually rhymed and of equal length

Front 17

Couplet, Heroic

Back 17

Closed couplets that rhyme and are written in iambic pentameter

Front 18

Denotation

Back 18

The dictionary meaning of a word

Front 19

Diction

Back 19

Word choice or vocabulary

Front 20

Doggerel

Back 20

Crude verse that brims with cliché, predictable rhyme and inept rhythm, sometimes aiming for low comedy and vulgar limericks to revel in crudity and irreverence

Front 21

Elegy

Back 21

A lament or meditative poem, often written on the occasion of a death or other solemn event or theme

Front 22

Enjambment

Back 22

When one verse flows into the other without grammatical pause, the opposite of end-stopped.

Front 23

Epigram

Back 23

A short poem, often comic, that ends with a sharp turn of wit or meaning

Front 24

Epigrammatic Expression

Back 24

Any witty, ingenious, or pointed saying tersely expressed; short satirical poem dealing concisely with a single subject and usually ending with a witty turn of though

Front 25

Epiphany

Back 25

Sometimes considered a spiritual state, a moment of sudden realization or awareness

Front 26

Foreshadowing

Back 26

In plot construction, this technique of arranging events and information in such a way that subsequent doings are prepared for beforehand

Front 27

Hyperbole

Back 27

A figure of speech that contains an exaggeration for emphasis

Front 28

Iamb

Back 28

A metrical foot in verse in which an unaccented syllable is followed by an accented one. The most common metrical foot in English poetry

Front 29

Image

Back 29

A series of words that refers to a sensory object, or the five senses

Front 30

Irony

Back 30

A statement whose intended meaning is the opposite of its literal meaning

Front 31

Irony, Dramatic

Back 31

When the audience understands the meaning or implications of an event that the characters do not

Front 32

Juxtaposition

Back 32

A deliberate side-by-side comparision of two opposing ideas, images, metaphors, or diction

Front 33

Lyric

Back 33

Originally distinguished from narrative and dramatic poetry, lyric poetry emphasized a speaker’s emotional and intellectual state and was meant to be sung.

Front 34

Memoir, Novel

Back 34

A form of novel which purports to be a ‘true’ autobiographical account but which is wholly or mostly fictitious, thus a kind of literary convention or fictional device.

Front 35

Metaphor, Mixed

Back 35

A metaphor that trips over another metaphor already in the statement, usually without the speaker’s awareness. The two or more metaphors are combined, resulting in ridiculousness or nonsense.

Front 36

Mock Heroic Style

Back 36

In the style of mock-epic, but the term has wider application; The heroic manner is adopted to make a trivial subject seem grand in such a way as to satirize the style, and it is therefore commonly used in burlesque and parody.

Front 37

Metaphor

Back 37

A figurative statement asserting that one thing is something else

Front 38

Metonymy [muh-TAWN-uh-mee]

Back 38

A figure of speech in which one thing stands for another on the basis of prior association in reality. It is distinguished from synecdoche in that a synecdoche involves a substitution of actual part for whole.

Front 39

Monologue, Dramatic

Back 39

A word or sequence of words that emphasizes the visual appearance of things

Front 40

Mood

Back 40

The audience’s attitude toward the work based on diction, style, and syntax

Front 41

Narrative

Back 41

Any piece of verse or prose that tells a story

Front 42

Narrator

Back 42

A voice or character that tells a story, providing readers with information and insight about characters and incidents in the narrative.

Front 43

Oxymoron

Back 43

A figure of speech which combines incongruous and apparently contradictory words and meanings for a special effect

Front 44

Paradox

Back 44

A statement that at first appears self-contradictory, but that on reflection reveals some deeper sense

Front 45

Parallelism

Back 45

A common device in poetry that consists of phrases or sentences of similar contruction and meaning placed side by side, balancing each other.

Front 46

Paraphrase

Back 46

The restatement in our own words of what we understand a literary work to say.

Front 47

Personification

Back 47

A figure of speech in which a thing, an animal, or an abstraction is endowed with human characteristics

Front 48

Pun

Back 48

A play on words in which one word is substituted for another similar, or identical sound but different meaning.

Front 49

Refrain

Back 49

A word, phrase, line, or stanza repeated at intervals in a song or poem

Front 50

Repetition

Back 50

An essential element in poetry that may consist of sounds, syllables, and words, phrases, stanzas, patterns, ideas, allusions and shapes for effect.

Front 51

Rhetoric

Back 51

The art of eloquence and persuasion; dates back to ancient Greece and divided up into three parts, logos, pathos, and ethos (logic, emotion, authority)

Front 52

Rhetorical Question

Back 52

A question not expecting an answer or one to which the answer is self-evident

Front 53

Rhyme

Back 53

Two or more words that contain an identical or similar vowel sound, usually accented, with following consonant sounds that are identical as well

Front 54

Rhyme Scheme

Back 54

Pattern of rhyme in an individual poem or a fixed form

Front 55

Rhythm

Back 55

Pattern of stresses and pauses in a poem

Front 56

Sarcasm

Back 56

Simple, often nasty or bitter form of irony in which the ironic statement is designed to mock its target by blunt exaggeration or understatement, or by contemptuous imitation; implies blank disrespect, as if the target of sarcasm were hardly worth the effort of ridicule. Often low comedy nature. See burlesque.

Front 57

Satire

Back 57

Genre using derisive humor to mock human pretense and vice, or to censure social and political follies and incompetence.

Front 58

Setting

Back 58

The time and place of a literary work.

Front 59

Simile

Back 59

A major figure of speech as a comparison of two ostensible unlinek things, indicated by some connective, usually like, as, or, than.

Front 60

Speaker

Back 60

The assumed voice of the poet, unless otherwise denoted

Front 61

Surrealism

Back 61

The attempt to express in art and literature the workings of the unconsious mind and to synthesize these workings with the conscious mind. The surrealist allows his work to develop non-logically so that the results represent the opreations of the unconsious

Front 62

Syllogism

Back 62

Deduction of two prepositions containing three terms of which one appears in both, of aconclusion that is true of they are all true.

Front 63

Style

Back 63

The distinctive forms and uses of language in a literary work, an author’s corpus, or an historical epoch. Style is the sum of diction, imagery, syntax, grammar, punctuation, and figurative language.

Front 64

Symbol

Back 64

A person, place, or thing in a narrative that suggests meanings beyond its literal sense. Symbol is related to allegory, but it works more complexly.

Front 65

Symbolism or Symbology

Back 65

The study and analysis of symbols throughout literature

Front 66

Synecdoche [sin-EK-doe-kee]

Back 66

A figure of speech in which a significant part of a thing stands for the whole of it or vice versa.

Front 67

Syntax

Back 67

Word order in text or verse

Front 68

Tercet [TUR-set]

Back 68

A group of three lines of verse, usually ending in the same rhyme. Sometimes referred to as a terza rima

Front 69

Terza Rima

Back 69

A verse form made up of three-line stanzas that are connected by an overlapping rhyme scheme (aba, bdb, cdc, ded)

Front 70

Theme

Back 70

The prevailing topic or issue conspicuously running through a literary work.

Front 71

Tone

Back 71

The attitude toward a subject conveyed in a literary work. NO single stylistic device creates town; it is thenet result of various verbal elements that an author brings to the representation.

Front 72

Understatement

Back 72

An ironic figure of speech that deliberately describes something as less than it really is. Often it suits comic motives.

Front 73

Verse, Blank

Back 73

Consists of unrhymed, five-stress lines, iambic pentameters; Most widely used of English verse forms

Front 74

Verse, Free

Back 74

Verse that has no regular meter or line length and depends on natural speech rhythms and counterpoint of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Front 75

Zeugma

Back 75

A figure of speech in which the same word (verb or preposition) is applied to two others in different senses.

Front 76

Anecdote

Back 76

A short narrative usually consisting of a single incident or episode, real or fictional, and within a larger context tend to reveal something meaningful to the work as a whole

Front 77

Antihero

Back 77

A protagonist who lacks one or more of the conventional qualities attributed to a hero. Rather than brave, dignified, idealistic or purposeful, antiheros may be cowardly, self-interested, alienated, and weak.

Front 78

Blank Verse

Back 78

Most common meter of unrhymed poetry. Five iambic feet per line and no rhymes, lacking stanza form and rhyme, a perfect formula for complex and epic scope

Front 79

Cacophony

Back 79

A harsh, discordant sound often mirroring and meaning of the object to which it refers

Front 80

Caesura

Back 80

A pause within a line of verse, traditionally appearing near the middle of a line, but placement can vary to create rhythmic effects.

Front 81

Closed Form

Back 81

Poetry written in an established pattern of meter, rhyme, line, and stanza. Closed form adheres to a set structure, such as sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, and ballads

Front 82

Conceit

Back 82

Used in Renaissance literature, a far-flung metaphor comparing dissimilar things

Front 83

Consonance

Back 83

Repetition of consonant sounds at the nd of stressed syllables—any repetition of consonants not at the beginning of the words

Front 84

Elegy

Back 84

A lament or meditative poem, often written on the occasion of a death or other solemn event or theme

Front 85

Epic

Back 85

A long narrative poem composed in an elevated style recounting the trials and adventures of a hero, superhuman achievements in battle and migration and fateful exchanges with the gods or God.

Front 86

Epigram

Back 86

A short poem, often comic, that ends with a sharp turn of wit or meaning

Front 87

Epistrophe [eh-PIS-tro-fee]

Back 87

The repetition of the same word or words at the end of lines

Front 88

Euphony

Back 88

Language that has both melodious sound and harmonious relation to meaning, so that the words please and comfort the ear and mind

Front 89

Free Verse

Back 89

Poetry whose lines fall into no consistent meter

Front 90

Hero

Back 90

The central character in a narrative whose virtues and vices, choices and experiences, are raised to meaningful levels.

Front 91

Meter

Back 91

A systematic rhythmic pattern of stresses in verse. When stresses fall at regular intervals, the result is meter, and the many existing meters are classified by differences in those intervals. Also see blank verse.

Front 92

Open Form

Back 92

Verse that has no set scheme, regular meter, rhyme, or stanzaic pattern

Front 93

Pastoral

Back 93

An idealized rendition of rural life, in which shepherds muse upon love and time, nature is tranquil and idyllic, and the verse or prose is fluid and lovely

Front 94

Prosody [PRAW-suh-dee]

Back 94

The study of metrical and rhythmic structures in poetry and prose; covers the sounds of words, the accents of syllables, verse lengths, metrical conventions, rhyme—in sum, any element of language that contributes to verbal rhythms.

Front 95

Scansion [SCAN-shen]

Back 95

A method of prosody that measures rhythms in a poem, scansion separates the metrical feet, counts the syllables, marks the accented ones, and indicates the pauses.

Front 96

Soliloquy [so-LIL-o-kwee]

Back 96

In drama, a speech by a character along onstage in which he or she utters his or her internal thoughts aloud; a crucial part of the drama, gives insight to motivation

Front 97

Ambiguity

Back 97

A quality or state of indistinctness, but in literary context signifies rich, copious expressions and provocative viewpoints. Many ambiguities are perpetual, not resolvable into single implications

Front 98

Figure of Speech

Back 98

Any expression or comparison whose meaning is metaphorical, ironic, or rhetorical, not literal.

Front 99

Foot

Back 99

The basic unit of measurement in metrical poetry. Whereas accentual verse counts only the number of stresses per line, fixed forms, such as blank verse, sonnets, heroic couplets, count all the syllables and categorize them as feet. Different meters are identified partly by the pattern and order of stressed and unstressed syllables, the pattern arranged into and three-syllable units

Front 100

Hero

Back 100

The central character in a narrative whose virtues and vices, choices and experiences, are raised to meaningful levels.