AP Literature Terms #1-30

Flashcards for terms 1-30 review. (2024)

Alliteration

Alliteration

Definition: Repetition of initial consonant sounds.

Example:

• Poe’s “The Raven”

  • “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”

Consonance

Definition: Repetition of consonant sounds within words or at the end of words.

Example:

• Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind”

  • “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red. . .”

Assonance

Definition: Repetition of vowel sounds, especially in poetry.

Example:

• Poe’s “The Bells”

  • “. . .from the molten golden notes . . . “

The -colens: Pentacolen, Quadrucolen, Tricolen, Bicolen, Isocolen

Definition: The number of items in a series.

Example:

• I like fishing, boating, swimming. (Tricolen)

Epanalepsis

Definition: Starting and stopping with the same word.

Example:

• Hate breeds hate.

Anaphora

Definition: The repetition of the same word at the beginning of a series.

Example:

• To think on death, it is a misery; to think on life, it is vanity.

Anadiplosis

Definition: The last thought used in a clause which is the first thought in the next clause

Example:

• A man of character should live a life of success and happiness; but success and happiness are not always the result of virtue.

Epistrophe

Definition: Ending an item with the same clause in a series

Example:

• “. . .of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Anastrophe

Definition: Any out-of-the-ordinary inversions.

Example:

• What the mouse was chasing we never found out.

Synecdoche

Definition: The technique of mentioning a part of something to represent the whole.

Example:

• All hands on deck! (hands = sailors).

Fable

Definition: a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.

Example:

• Aesop’s Fables (“The Tortoise and the Hare,” etc.)

Tmesis

Definition: Repetition with an interruption.

Example:

• My heart is heavy, oh Lord, my heart is heavy.

Aphaeresis

Definition: Cutting from the front of a word.

Example:

• ‘twas

• ‘phoned

• ‘cause

Apocope

Definition: Cut from the end of a word.

Example: going - goin’

Syncope or Elision

Definition: Slurring over, resulting in a cutting from the middle of a word for a rhetorical effect.

Example:

• television - telvision

• suppose - s’pose

Mise en abyme

Definition: Usually in reference to art, of placing an

image within an image of itself;

• Regarding literature, a story within a story; a play within a play

Example:

• The Mousetrap in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.

Hyperbole

Definition: An exaggeration for the sake of emphasis; not literal.

Example:

• Sweat to death

• Rivers of blood

Myth

Definition: a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, often involving supernatural beings or events.

Example:

• Grail Quest--originates from Gaelic traditions (Pagan Ireland, 1st century) and comes to the Christian civilization.

• Suicides and burials of spouses, servants with a dead king in ancient civilizations— “I am more antique Roman than Dane” (Horatio, Hamlet V.ii).

Antithesis

Definition: balance of opposite elements; the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas.

Example:

• “To be or not to be....” (Shakespeare, Hamlet)

Asyndeton

Definition: Items separated by commas only; no conjunctions; elements are equal.

Example:

• I enjoy reading, watching T.V., swimming.

Personification

Definition: The giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals.

Example:

• The wind whistled.

• Her heart cried out.

Pathetic Fallacy

Definition: Crediting natural objects with the emotions and traits of human beings.

Examples:

• Cruel seas; From Paradise Lost, Book 9: “ . . .her rash hand in evil hour/Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd,

  she eat:

  Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,

  That all was lost.

Caesura

Definition: A break or pause in a line of poetry, which contributes to the rhythm of the poem; looks like a dash. (Type two hyphens when using this in academic essays.)

Example:

• “Yet not to thy eternal resting place Shalt thou retire alone—nor couldst thou wish Couch more magnificent” (Bryant, “Thanatopsis”).

Litotes

Definition: An understatement achieved by saying the opposite of what one means or by making an affirmation by stating the fact in the negative. It can be considered the opposite of hyperbole.

Example:

• She was not unimpressed.

Allusion

Definition: Figure of speech that seeks by tapping into the knowledge and memory of the reader, to secure a resonant emotional effect from the associations already existing in the reader’s mind.

Example:

• Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” (ref to Romeo and Juliet--literary); Kryptonite (ref to Superman cultural/fictional); Adam’s rib (Biblical ref—religious).

Zeugma

Definition: A figure by which a single word refers to two or more words in the sentence; clauses concluded under one verb.

Example:

• His looseness overcame all shame, his boldness fear, his madness reason.

Elegy

Definition: lyric which mourns the death of a friend; of length; includes rhyme, meter, etc....

Example:

• “In Memorium” by Tennyson.

Juxtaposition

The arrangement of two or more concepts/items/ideas for the purpose of comparison.

Example:

• “Give me liberty, or give me death.” (Patrick Henry)(Brutus) “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

Metonymy

Definition: A figure of speech in which a part of a thing, or something closely associated with it, is used to stand for or suggest the thing itself.

Example:

• hardhat = worker

• pigskin = football

Onomatopoeia

Definition: The use of a word to represent or imitate natural sounds.

Example:

• buzz, crunch, tinkle, gurgle, sizzle, hiss