VDB Lit Terms Quiz 1
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Created by:
robiswiththemob on November 14, 2009
Subjects:
AP English Literature and Composition
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75 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 abstract words | words used to discuss intangible qualities like good and evil |
| accent | the stressed portion of a word in poetry |
| ad hominem argument | argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason; may attack the messenger rather than the message |
| aesthetic | appealing to the senses (adj.), a coherent sense of taste (n.), the study of beauty (n.) |
| aestheticism | devotion to the idea of beauty in art |
| aleatory | an alogical poem seems composed by chance |
| allegory | a story in which each aspect has symbolic meaning outside the story |
| alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds |
| allusion | reference to a famous work or figure outside the poem |
| amplification | repeating a word, and adding more modifiers each time |
| anachronism | an object misplaced in time |
| anacoluthon | finishing a sentence with different grammatical structure from that with which it began |
| analogy | a comparison, involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship |
| anapestic | metrical measurement of two unstressed syllables and then one stressed one (u u ') |
| anaphora | repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses |
| anecdote | a short story |
| antagonist | one that contends with or opposes another |
| antecedent | a word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to |
| anthropomorphism | inanimate objects are given human characteristics, but no human shape |
| anticlimax | an action produces far smaller results than one had led to expect, comic |
| antihero | a protagonist who is markedly unheroic |
| antimetabole | reversing the order of repeated words/clauses to intensify the sentence, present alternatives, or show contrast |
| antiphrasis | one word irony (calling a beautiful girl "ugly) |
| antistrophe | repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive lines |
| antithesis | juxtaposition of opposites, e.g., heaven and hell |
| aphorism | a short and witty saying |
| apocopated rhyme | a cut-off rhyme; last syllable of one of the rhymes is missing (pain/gainless) |
| apologia | a defense of one's opinions, actions, or life (Think Socrates' The Apology) |
| apologue | moral fable using animals to comment on human condition |
| aporia | expression of doubt about conclusions |
| aposiopesis | stopping abruptly and leaving statement unfinished |
| apostrophe | speech is directed to a nonhuman object or one that is not present |
| appositive | a noun or phrase placed next to another noun, for the purpose of further describing |
| archaism | use of deliberately old-fashioned diction |
| archetype | the original pattern or model of which all things of a similar nature are copies |
| ars poetica | a poem written on the subject of poetic art, usually explaining poet's reasons for writing |
| aside | a speech made by an actor to the audience as though momentarily stepping outside the action on stage |
| assonance | the repeated use of internal vowel sounds |
| atmosphere | the emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene |
| aubade | a love song or poem greeting the dawn |
| ballad | a long narrative poem in regular meter and rhyme |
| bathos | writing that strains for grandeur it can't support |
| blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| bildungsroman | a novel of self-development or personal formation |
| bombast | pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language |
| burlesque | broad parody that takes on a specific style and makes fun of it |
| cacophony | using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds |
| cadence | the beat or rhythm of poetry |
| caesura | a pause in a line of poetry (indicated or not) |
| camera eye narrator | third-person narrator who describes what would be visible to a camera; objective |
| canto | a section division in a long work of poetry |
| caricature | a portrait that exaggerates a facet of personality |
| carpe diem | the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future |
| catalogue | a complete enumeration of items, arranged systematically, with descriptive details |
| catharsis | cleansing of emotion an audience member experiences, having lived through the experiences on stage |
| Chaucerian stanza | 7 lines, rhyme ababbcc |
| chorus | the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it |
| classicism | a tendency to reflect he principles manifested in the art of ancient Greece and Rome |
| climax | the point of highest tension, or a major turning point in a play |
| coinage | a new word, usually invented on the spot |
| colloquialism | a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English |
| conceit | an extended metaphor, developed and expanded upon over several lines |
| concrete poetry | a poem wherein shape of words and lines conveys the meaning |
| confessional poetry | makes frank, explicit use of incidents in the poet's life |
| connotation | the association with a word; the word suggests/implies meaning beyond the literal |
| consonance | repetition of consonant sounds within words |
| continuous form | a poem in which lines follow each other without stanza breaks |
| couplet | a pair of lines ending in rhyme |
| dactylic | a metrical measurement of one accented syllable and two unaccented (' u u) |
| decorum | the attitude one should display according to his social/economic status |
| denotation | a word's literal meaning |
| denoument | conclusion, the outcome of a plot |
| determinism | belief that man is fated to defeat under indifferent natural forces; emphasizes vanity of free will |
| deus ex machina | "god from the machine" - conflicts quickly resolved at end of last act, often by sudden introduction of a power who solves all |
| diacope | repetition of words before and after syntactical break (We will do it, I tell you, we will do it.) |
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