Literary Terms for AP Literature and Composition (Video Notes)

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key literary terms, concepts, and examples from the provided notes.

What is the major division in a play?

Act

What narrative technique presents a character's continuous flow of thoughts?

Stream of consciousness

What term describes the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words?

Alliteration

What is the literal meaning of a word called?

Denotation

What is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words called?

Assonance

What is the creation and presentation of a character's personality called?

Characterization

What is the end part of a story where loose ends are resolved?

Denouement

What is a character who contrasts with another to highlight traits called?

Foil

What literary device uses vivid sensory details to create images?

Imagery

What is the central topic or message of a work called?

Theme

What is the central idea or argument of a piece called?

Thesis

What term describes a post-World War II movement known for distrust of grand theories and fragmentation?

Postmodernism

Which Kurt Vonnegut novel is an example of postmodernism?

Cat's Cradle

What term refers to a contrast between expectation and reality?

Irony (situational, verbal, dramatic)

What is a speech in which a character reveals thoughts aloud on stage?

Soliloquy

What is the early part of a plot where readers learn about characters, setting, and conflict?

Exposition

What stage of plot involves events that build toward the climax?

Rising action

What is unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter called?

Blank verse

What is the turning point or most intense moment of a story called?

Climax

What is the error in judgment that leads to tragedy called?

Tragic flaw

What stage follows the climax and leads toward resolution?

Falling action

What figure of speech combines opposite or contradictory terms?

Oxymoron

What is the final part or outcome of a story called?

Resolution

What is a recurring symbol, motif, or pattern that recurs across works?

Archetype

What point of view describes a narrator who is not part of the story?

Third person point of view

What character or force opposes the protagonist called?

Antagonist

What longer work of fiction is typically longer than a short story?

Novel

What figure gives human qualities to nonhuman things called?

Personification

What emotional or associative meaning of a word is called?

Connotation

What word imitates the sound it represents?

Onomatopoeia

What is the traditional Japanese three-line poem with a 5-7-5 pattern?

Haiku

What figure of speech involves a direct comparison of two unlike things without using like or as?

Metaphor

What hero is a larger-than-life character embodying national ideals called?

Epic hero

What figure makes a comparison using like or as?

Simile

Who is the main character in a story called?

Protagonist

What is an indirect reference to a famous person, place, event, or literary work called?

Allusion

What type of writing uses lively language and sound devices to evoke emotion?

Poetry

What narrative device presents a story with two levels of meaning (literal and symbolic)?

Allegory

What term refers to stories that originate and are transmitted orally?

Oral literature

What is a scene or episode in a plot called?

Scene

What is the repetition of similar sounds at the ends of words or lines called?

Rhyme

What movement emphasizes individualism, self-reliance, and nature (Emerson, Thoreau)?

Transcendentalism

What broad category or class of literature is a work placed in?

Genre

What literary period emphasized nature, imagination, and emotion?

Romanticism

What writing involves imaginary elements called?

Fiction

What is a short repeated line or group of lines in a poem called?

Refrain

What directives guide actors, directors, and designers in a play?

Stage directions

What overused expression loses impact due to repetition?

Cliché

What poetry has no regular pattern or meter?

Free verse

What genre aims to amuse and entertain, often with a happy ending?

Comedy

What are common figures of speech such as 'idioms'?

Idioms

What dramatic form portrays serious events and often ends unhappily?

Tragedy

What is a four-line stanza called?

Quatrain

What traditional story passed down through generations may have historical origins called?

Legend

What humorous critique of society or its customs is called?

Satire

What is the process of revealing a character’s personality called?

Characterization

What is a pair of rhymed lines called?

Couplet

What point of view has a narrator who is a character in the story and uses 'I'?

First person point of view

What is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry called?

Meter

What term refers to a language variation tied to a geographic region?

Dialect

What is a speech on a moral subject called?

Sermons

What is word choice called in writing?

Diction

What is a source where the author was present at the events described?

Primary source

What is a source where the author was not present at the events described?

Secondary source

What is the text of a play called?

Script

What genre involves technology and science as central elements?

Science fiction

What device gives hints or clues about what will happen later?

Foreshadowing

What is five feet of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry?

Iambic pentameter

What is a symbol?

A person, place, or object that represents something beyond its literal meaning

What is a joke based on wordplay called?

Pun

What genre features stories set in historical periods with realistic details?

Historical fiction

What term describes the struggle between opposing forces in a story?

Conflict

What is a long speech by one character in a play?

Monologue

What information used to persuade, often biased or misleading, is called?

Propaganda

What type of exaggeration is used for humorous effect?

Hyperbole

What is the narrator who tells the story called?

Narrator

What is a third-person narration that reports from inside the minds of one character?

Third-person limited omniscient

What is a third-person narration where the narrator knows all thoughts and feelings of all characters?

Third-person omniscient