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AP Lit. Terms
Literary terms
51
Literature
12th Grade
04/26/2008

Additional Literature Flashcards

 


 

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Term
accent
Definition
  • a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation
  • emphasis: special importance or significance
  • Term
    allegory
    Definition
    • fable: a short moral story
    • an expressive style that uses fictional characters and events to describe some subject by suggestive resemblances; an extended metaphor
    Term

    anachronism

    Definition
     
  • something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred
  • an artifact that belongs to another time
  • a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age
  • Term

    anapest

    Definition
    • a three-syllable poetic measure comprising two short or unaccented syllables followed by a longer accented one (--/).
    Term
    anaphora
    Definition
    • The repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences
    Term
    anecdote
    Definition
    • a brief account of an interesting incident or event that usually is intended to entertain or to make a point.
    Term
    aphorism
    Definition
    • a short, pithy statement of a truth or doctrine
    • A terse, pointed statement expressing some wise or clever observation
    Term
    apostrophe
    Definition
    • The direct address of a person or personified thing, either present or absent
    • a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an absent person or a personified quality, object or idea
    Term
    ballad
    Definition
    • A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain
    Term
    blank verse
    Definition
    • Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter
    Term
    burlesque
    Definition
    • A work designed to ridicule a style, literary form, or subject matter either by treating the exalted in a trivial way or by discussing the trivial in exalted terms
    Term
    cacophony
    Definition
    • harsh, discordant sound : dissonance
    Term
    caricature
    Definition
    • a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect
    Term
    catharsis
    Definition
    • Catharsis is a key element of tragedy which induces pity and fear in the audience: pity of the hero's plight, and fear that it will befall us
    Term
    colloquialism
    Definition
    • Language that is familiar, informal everyday talk
    Term

    cinquain

    Definition
    • In poetry, a cinquain or quintain is a five line stanza, varied in rhyme and line, usually with the rhyme scheme ababb
    Term
    classicism
    Definition
    • A literary movement, popular in France and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that reflected the following values of ancient Greece and Rome: an interest in balance and proportion in artistic form; an emphasis on reason and rationality rather than on emotion and irrationality
    Term
    dactyl
    Definition
    • A metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables
    Term
    conceit
    Definition
    • An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image, such as an analogy or metaphor
    Term
    connotation
    Definition
    • The attitudes and feelings associated with a word
    Term
    denotation
    Definition
    • a direct specific meaning
    Term
    discourse
    Definition
    • formal and orderly and usually extended expression of thought on a subject
    Term
    dissonance
    Definition
    • a mingling of discordant sounds
    Term
    elegy
    Definition
    • a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead
    Term
    epic
    Definition
    • a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero
    Term
    epigram
    Definition
    • a terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying
    • a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought
    Term
    euphony
    Definition
    • pleasing or sweet sound
    Term
    exemplum
    Definition
    • an anecdote or short narrative used to point a moral or sustain an argument
    Term
    exposition
    Definition
    • a setting forth of the meaning or purpose
    Term
    farce
    Definition
    • a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot
    Term

    foil

    Definition
    • someone or something that serves as a contrast to another
    Term
     heptameter
    Definition
    • seven metrical feet
    Term
    hexameter
    Definition
    • six metrical feet
    Term
    hubris
    Definition
    • exaggerated pride or self-confidence
    Term
    iamb
    Definition
    • a metrical foot consisting of one short syllable followed by one long syllable or of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
    Term
    idyll
    Definition
    • a simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic life or pastoral scenes or suggests a mood of peace and contentment
    Term
    loose sentence
    Definition
    • a sentence in which the principal clause comes first and subordinate modifiers or trailing elements follow
    Term

    metonymy

    Definition
    • a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated (as crown in lands belonging to the crown)
    Term
    mode
    Definition
    • an arrangement of the eight diatonic notes or tones of an octave according to one of several fixed schemes of their intervals
    Term
    naturalism
    Definition
    • action, inclination, or thought based only on natural desires and instincts
    Term
    objectivity
    Definition
    • relating to or existing as an object of thought without consideration of independent existence
    •  expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations
    Term
    octave
    Definition
    • a stanza of eight lines
    Term
    parable
    Definition
    •  a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle
    Term
    paradox
    Definition
    • a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true
    Term

    parody

    Definition
    • a feeble or ridiculous imitation
    Term

    rhetoric

    Definition
    • the art of speaking or writing effectively
    Term
    sestet
    Definition
    • a stanza or a poem of six lines
    Term
    spondee
    Definition
    a metrical foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables
    Term
    tercet
    Definition
    • a unit or group of three lines of verse
    Term
    trochee
    Definition
    •  a metrical foot consisting of one long syllable followed by one short syllable or of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable
    Term
    villanelle
    Definition
    • a chiefly French verse form running on two rhymes and consisting typically of five tercets and a quatrain in which the first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end of the other tercets and together as the last two lines of the quatrain
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