AP Lit quiz

Friday 9/5

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. this is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent.

Antithesis

Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.

Asyndeton

Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasising the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z… it’s X,Y,Z…. see polysyndenton

ex. “I came, I saw, I conquered”

Apostrophe

Calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea.

Colloquialism

A word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.

Ex. “He’s out of his head if he thinks I’m gonna go for this stupid idea.”

Chiasmus

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced agains the first, but with the parts reversed.

Ex. “Flowers are lovely love is flowerlike”

Didactic

Form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral and provides a model of correct behavior/thinking.

Dynamic character

A character who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action

Round character

Has more dimensions to their personalities- they are complex, just as real people are.

Flat character

Has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional.

Static character

Is one who does not hcange much in the course of a story.

Foil

A character who acts as a contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

Indirect characterisation

The author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, revealing their private thoughts/feelings, their effect on others, or by showing character in action. Modern literature does this more.

Direct characterisation

The author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean. Romantic style does this more.

Ellipsis

The deliberate omission of one or more words from a sentence the reader can apply or understand from surrounding context.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

Frame device

When an introductory or outer story sets the stage for a second, more detailed inner story.

Hyperbole

Figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect.

Irony

A discrepancy between apperances and reality.

Juxtaposition

Poetic and rhetorical devices where normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to each other, creating an effect of surprise and wit. Contrast.

Litotes

A form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form.

Metonymy

Figure of speech where a person, place or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it. Ex. crown= monarch.

Motif

A recurring image, word, phrase, etc. unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones.

Paradox

A statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth.

Pedantic

Tone/writing style focused excessively on minor details, trivial facts, etc.

Polysyndeton

Sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series. Instead of X,Y,Z… it’s X and Y and Z…

Satire

A type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change.

Syllepsis

When a single word governs/modifies two or more words but applies to each in an entirely different sense.

Ex. “She stole my heart and my wallet”

Symbol

A place, person, or thing or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. “If you don’t drive properly, you will lose your wheels” the wheels represent the entire car.

Synesthesia

When one sensory experience is described using terms from a different sense “Loud color” “frozen silence”.