AP LIT Flashcards
(36 cards)
Allegory
story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other
people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities.
Alliteration
repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are
close together.
Allusion
reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature,
religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.).
Analogy
Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike
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.
Anastrophe
Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a
sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion.
Anecdote
Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something,
often shows character of an individual
Apostrophe
calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or
thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation.
Assonance
the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant
sounds especially in words that are together.
Asyndenton
Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus
emphasizing the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z… the writer uses X,Y,Z…. see
polysyndeton.
Colloquialism
a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal
writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. (“a colloquial phrase”)
Didactic
form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or
provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
Elegy
a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died.
Eulogy
great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.
Epanalepsis
device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or
phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence.
Voltaire: “Common sense is not so common.”
Epistophe
Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or
phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite
of anaphora).
Epithet
an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. “Father of our country” and “the great Emancipator” are examples.
Hyperbole
a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”
Irony
a discrepancy between appearances and reality.
Verbal Irony
occurs when someone says one thing but really means
something else.
Situational Irony
takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.
Dramatic Irony
is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.
Juxtaposition
poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas,
words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit. Ezra Pound: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Litotes
is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form: Hawthorne— “…the wearers of petticoat and farthingale…stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial
persons, if occasion were, into the throng…”
