Ap Literature Terms

Front 1

anaphora

Back 1

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

Front 2

anecdote

Back 2

a story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate to a point

Front 3

antithesis

Back 3

the presentation of two contrasting images

Front 4

aphorism

Back 4

a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or moral principle

Front 5

apostrophe

Back 5

a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction

Front 6

atmosphere

Back 6

the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described

Front 7

colloquial

Back 7

the use of slang in writing, often to create local color and to provide an informal tone

Front 8

conceit

Back 8

a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects

Front 9

connotation

Back 9

the interpretive level of a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning

Front 10

denotation

Back 10

the literal or dictionary meaning of a word

Front 11

didactic

Back 11

have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles

Front 12

epigraph

Back 12

the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme

Front 13

epithet

Back 13

an adjective or adjective phrase appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by naming a key or important characteristics of the subject

Front 14

euphemism

Back 14

a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable

Front 15

Homily

Back 15

literally means "sermon" but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice

Front 16

irony

Back 16

an unexpected twist or contrast between what happens and what was intended or expected to happen

Front 17

cosmic irony

Back 17

concludes that fate or the universe is either malicious or indifferent to human suffering which creates a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its meaninglessness

Front 18

dramatic irony

Back 18

centers on the ignorance of those involved; whereas, the audience is aware of the circumstance

Front 19

romantic irony

Back 19

involves the author's voice entering the storyline thereby drawing attention to the artifice of the work

Front 20

situational irony

Back 20

the contrast between one's understanding of a situation versus the reality of the situation

Front 21

verbal irony

Back 21

uses sarcasm in a statement to imply the opposite of that statement

Front 22

metonymy

Back 22

a representative term is used for a larger idea

Front 23

motif

Back 23

the repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work used to develop theme or characters

Front 24

parable

Back 24

a story that operates on more than one level and usually teaches a moral lesson

Front 25

parallelism

Back 25

the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity

Front 26

pathos

Back 26

the aspects of a literary work that elicit pity from the audience. An appeal to emotion that can be used as a means to persuade

Front 27

synecdoche

Back 27

a figure of speech that utilizes a part as representative of the whole

Front 28

syntax

Back 28

the grammatical structure of prose and poetry

Front 29

zeugma

Back 29

two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them