AP Literature Flashcards

syntax

sequence in which words are put together to form sentences. In English, the usual sequence is SVO

theme

a message that is prevalent in a text.

motif

a recurring subject, theme, idea, etc. in a literary work.

allusion

a brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art

analogy

a comparison of two different things that are alike in some way

anastrophe

inversion of the normal syntactic order of words: To market went she

anathema

a formal solemn denunciation against an individual or institute

antithesis

opposition or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.

• Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. – Barry Goldwater.

• Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

• “The vases of the classical period are but the reflection of classical beauty; the vases of the archaic period are beauty itself.” Sir John Beazley

aphorism

a brief saying embodying a moral, a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words.

• “Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult.”

• “Some praise at morning what they blame at night.”

apostrophe

addressing someone or some abstraction that is not usually present: “Oh, Death, be not proud”

archetype

in poetry, this may be an idea, character, action, object, institution, event, or setting containing essential characteristics, which are primitive, general, and universal

conceit

a term for a particularly fanciful metaphor. In the Renaissance, term carried general notion of a clever, witty expression. A far-fetched simile o metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things. In the following example from Act V of Shakespeare’s Richard II, the imprisoned King Richard compares his cell to the world in the following line:

• I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world:

• The Flea by John Donne

dramatic irony

when the audience or reader understands something that a character doesn’t know - Romeo and Juliet

euphemism

an agreeable word or expression substituted for one that is potentially offensive, often having to do with bodily functions, sex, or death; for example, restroom for toilet, etc.

epithet

a word or phrase that functions as a part of someone’s name, such as “Ivan the Terrible” or “Richard the Lion-Hearted,” or that describes a noun, such as Homer’s “wine-dark sea.” The latter is known as a Homeric epithet, with its characteristic use of a compound adjective. Another famous Homeric epithet is “rosy-fingered dawn.”

hyperbole

an exaggerated, extravagant expression. It is hyperbole to say, “I’d give my whole fortune for a bowl of bean soup.”

inversion

the changing if the usual order of words, reversing the usual order and shifting the emphasis to the more important words. “Yet know I how the heather looks” and “Yet certain am I of the spot.” - Emily Dickinson

imagery

figurative description or illustration; rhetorical images collectively

irony

not only says one thing and means another, but says one thing and means its opposite. The word is used often of consciously inappropriate or understated utterances (so two walkers in the pouring rain greet each other with ‘lovely day!’, ‘yes, isn’t it’). Irony depends upon the audience’s being able to recognize a comment is deliberately at odds with its occasion, and may often discriminate between two kinds of audience: one which recognizes the irony, and the other which fails to do so.

litotes

a particular form of understatement, is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the word which otherwise would be used. Depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the effect of understatement, or becomes an intensifying expression.

• Heat waves are not rare in the summer.

• Hitting that telephone pole certainly didn’t do your car any good.

• Overall the flavors of the mushrooms, herbs, and spices combine to make the dish not at all disagreeable to the palate.

meiosis

from the Greek meioun to diminish. Using a negative to diminish or understate.

metaphor

implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.

- Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. Shakespeare, Macbeth

metonymy

substitution of one word for another which it suggests.

• He is a man of the cloth.

• The pen is mightier than the sword.

• By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread.

oxymoron

apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another.

• I must be cruel only to be kind. Shakespeare, Hamlet

• jumbo shrimp

paradox

reveals a kind of truth which at first seems contradictory

• Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage

personification

animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics

puns

a pun twists the meaning of words.

symbol

a word or object that stands for another word or object. The object or word can be seen with the eye or not visible. For example a dove stands for Peace. The dove can be seen and peace cannot.

synecdoche

a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the hole or the thing itself (or vice versa).

• Farmer Jones has two hundred head of cattle and three hired hands.

• If I had some wheels, I’d put on my best threads and ask for Jane’s hand in marriage.tone - the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author

tragic irony

a form of dramatic irony found in tragedies such as Oedipus the King in which Oedipus searches for the person responsible for the plague that ravishes his city and ironically ends up hunting himself.

verbal irony

occurs when a person says one thing but means the opposite. Sarcasm is a strong form of verbal irony that is calculated to hurt someone through, for example, false praise.

• “For Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all, all honorable men.” Antony in Julius Caesar

allegory

a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, that have both literal and figurative meanings. The difference between an allegory and a symbol is that an allegory is a complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas to get a point across, while a symbol is a representation of a n idea or concept that can have a different meaning throughout a literary work.

dirge

a funeral song lamenting someone’s death; a brief funeral hymn or song.

elegy

a type of literature defined as a song or poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died,

epic

a genre of classical poetry. It is a poem that is (a) a long narrative about a serious subject,(b) told in an elevated style of language, (c) focused on the exploits of a hero or demi-god who represents the cultural values of a race, nation, or religious group (d) in which the hero’s success or failure will determine the fate of that people or nation. The term mostly applies to classical Greek texts like the Iliad and the Odyssey.

epistle

a poem written in the form of a letter.

epitaph

refers literally to an inscription carved on a gravestone. In a more general sense, an epitaph is the final statement spoken by a character before his death. In many of Shakespeare’s plays, it is common for the last words a character speaks to come true, especially if he utters a curse.

fable

a brief story illustrating a moral. Unlike parables, fables often include talking animals or animated objects as the principal characters. The interaction of these animals or inanimate things reveals general truths about human nature. However, the lesson learned is not allegorical. Each animal is not necessarily a symbol for something else. Instead, the reader learns the lesson as an exemplum—an example of what one should or should not do.

homily

a sermon, or a short, exhortatory work to be read before a group of listeners in order to instruct them spiritually or morally.

lyric

lyric - Lyric poetry refers to a short poem, often with songlike qualities, that expresses the speaker’s personal emotions and feelings.

parody

A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation.

prose

should tell a story, whether fictional or non-fictional, and have a clear beginning and end; prose selections should be creative works worthy of publication in a creative writing anthology; prose themes should deal with those universal qualities which affect all—past and present— humankind.

satire

a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric attack.

sonnet

a lyric poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns. It usually expresses a single, complete idea or thought. There are three common forms:

• Italian or Petrarchan

tragedy

a serious play in which the chief figures, by some peculiarity of character, pass through a series of misfortunes leading to a final, devastating catastrophe. Traditionally, a tragedy is divided into five acts. The first act introduces the characters in a state of happiness, or at the height of their power, influence, or fame. The second act typically introduces a problem or dilemma, which reaches a point of crisis in the third act, but which can still be successfully averted. In the fourth act, the main characters fail to avert or avoid the impending crisis or catastrophe, and this disaster occurs. The fifth act traditionally reveals the grim consequences of that failure.

verse

a line of poetry. A generic term used to describe poetic lines composed in a measured rhythmical pattern, that are often, but not necessarily, rhymed.

assonance

is the repetition of vowel sounds but not consonant sounds.

alliteration

a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repetition can be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words.

blank verse

also called unrhymed iambic pentameter. Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents. Blank verse has been called the most “natural” verse form for dramatic works, since it is supposedly is the verse form most close to natural rhythms of English speech.

caesura

is a natural pause or break in a verse. England - how I long for thee.

consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds.

end-stopped rhyme

is a line ending in a full pause, often indicated by appropriate punctuation such as a period or a semicolon. This is in contrast to enjambment.

enjambment

also called run-on line. A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line.

rhyme

is a pattern of words that contain similar sounds. it is not only a recurrence but a matching of sounds.

Syntax

word order and sentence structure, as opposed to diction, the actual choice of words. Standard English syntax prefers a Subject-Verb-Object pattern, but poets may tweak syntax to achieve rhetorical or poetic effects.

onomatopoeia

echoic words or words that create an auditory effective similar to the sound they represent: buzz, click, rattle, clatter, squish, grunt.

anadiplosis

is the repeating of the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next clause.

• Nietzsche “Talent is an adornment; an adornment is also a concealment.”

• St. Paul “We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope, and hope maketh man not ashamed.”

• Yoda “fear leads to anger; anger leads to hatred; hatred leads to conflict; and conflict leads to suffering.”

anaphora

is the intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect.

• Churchill “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost shall be.” The repetition of “We shall...” creates a rhetorical effect of solidarity and determination. Anaphora is the opposite of epistrophe, in which the poet or rhetorician repeats the concluding phrase over and over for effects. Often the two can be combined effectively as well.

• St. Paul to the Corinthians “Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they the ministers of Christ? I am more.”

antimetabole

a rhetorical scheme involving repetition in reverse order. Same words, reverse structure.

• “One should eat to live, not live to eat.”

• “You like it; it likes you.”

• “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”

asyndeton

the artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect,

• “Veni. Vidi. Vici.” “I came. I saw. I conquered.” As opposed to “I came, and then I saw, and then I conquered.”

• Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt.

chiasmus

taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out, creating a “crisscross” pattern.

• “By day the frolic, and the dance by night.”

• Naked I rose from the earth; to the grave I fall clothed.”

• “I lead the life I love; I love the life I lead.” Chiasmus often overlaps with antimetabole. Reverse structure.

ellipsis

the artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause; a punctuation mark indicated by three periods to indicate material missing from a quotation...like so.

• Shall we to Dover? “The European soldiers killed six of the remaining villagers, the American soldiers, eight.”

epanalepsis

is the repeating of a word from the beginning of a clause at the end of the same clause.

• “Year chases year.”

• “Man’s inhumanity to man.”

• “Common sense is not so common.” Voltaire

interrupted sentence

is a sentence in which the subordinate elements come in the middle, often set off by dashes.

• Slamming into a large tree at sixty miles per hour is a very painful and, not surprisingly, apt to affect a person’s mental capacities.

loose sentence

is a complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and the subordinate clause follows.

• You can sing at the competition if you practice.

parallelism

is really a matter of balance. Balancing a sentence can be compared to balancing a scale if we pretend that certain words

periodic sentence

is a complex sentence in which the main clause comes last and is preceded by the subordinate clause.

• Considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada.

polysyndeton

using many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect, as in the phrase here and there and everywhere.

• “This term, I am taking biology and English and history and math and music and physics and sociology.”

ambiguity

In common conversation, it is a negative term applied to a vague or equivocal expression when precision would be more useful. Sometimes, however, intentional ambiguity in literature can be a powerful device, leaving something undetermined in order to open up multiple possible meanings. When we refer to literary ambiguity, we refer to any wording, action, or symbol that can be read in divergent ways.

anecdote

is a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident

antecedent

a noun that comes before a pronoun.

atmosphere

(also called mood) the emotional feelings inspired by a work. Often the opening scene in a play or a novel establishes an atmosphere appropriate to the theme of the entire work.

clause

is a group of words containing a subject and verb which forms part of a sentence or a complete sentence.

colloquial

is characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal; relating to conversation; conversational.

connotation

is an implied meaning of a word. Opposite of denotation.

• Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to they rest (burial).

conventional

is prescribed elements (hero is an element of an epic)

diction

word choice

denotation

is the literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning. Opposite of connotation.

• Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to the rest (sleep).

didactic

preachy/instructive

explication

to explain or analyze a literary work

inference

to derive a conclusion based on the facts presented

invective

is a direct verbal assault on someone or something: an insult or denunciation, whether witty or not.

narrative devices

style

narrative technique

same as narrative devices

mood

is the atmosphere of a literary work. The term is similar to tone, differing in that tone alludes to the author’s attitude to the subject, while mood usually refers to the reader’s experience.

pedantic/bombastic

using big words for nothing, babble

point of view

is the way a story gets told and who tells it. it is the method of narration that determines the position, or angle of vision, from which the story is told. Point of view governs the reader’s access to the story.

• first person

stream of consciousness

also known as interior monologue. In fiction, a narrative technique in which a character’s intimate thoughts and impressions are related directly and immediately the effect is like “wearing earphones plugged into someone’s brains, and monitoring the subject’s impressions, reflections, questions.

rhetorical mode

• expository - a statement or rhetorical discourse intended to give information about or an explanation of difficult material.

• persuasive - tending or having the power to persuade

• argumentative - consisting of, or characterized by, argument; containing a process of reasoning; as, an argumentative discourse.

• descriptive - serving to describe or inform or characterized by description

style

is the author’s words and the characteristic way that writer uses language to achieve certain effects. What effects, for instance, do word choice and sentence structure have on a story and its meaning? How does the author use imagery, figurative devices, repetition, or allusion? In what ways does the style seem appropriate or discordant with the work’s subject and theme?