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AP Literature Lit Devices Vocab

Terms in this set (20)

Socratic irony
a sophisticated assumption of ignorance (pretending ignorance) or uncertainty, by one who knows his mind or her own mind.
Cosmic irony
the view in which the world seems always to hold frustration and emptiness precisely when humans believe they can find fulfillment
hyperbole
exaggeration of heightened effect or humor
caricature
occurs in writing that exaggerates certain individual qualities of a person and produces a ridiculous effect which is likely to treat merely personal qualities
burlesque
a form of comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration and distortion: the sublime may be made absurd
Parody
composition imitating another, usually serious, piece. It's designed to ridicule a work or its style or author.
bathos
a lapse in mood from the sublime to the absurd or trivial. It uses "reducing to absurdity" to show the falsity of an argument or position.
Verisimilitude
the semblance of truth, the presentation of details, however far-fetched, in such a way as to give the appearance of truth and to sweep the reader, for a moment at least, into belief of them.
anagrams
words made from the letters of other words, such as read and dare
anapest
a foot of poetry going from two unstressed to one stressed syllables
apostrophe
a rhetorical figure in which the speaker addresses either someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or something that is nonhuman and cannot comprehend
assonance
the repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words
ballad
a song transmitted orally from generation to generation, that tells a story and that eventually is written down
ballad stanza
a four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, consisting of alternation eight-and six-syllable lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme
blank verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter
carpe diem
latin phrase meaning "seize the day" A common literary theme(especially in lyric poetry) that emphasized the shortness of life and suggests that one should make the most of present pleasures
caesura
pause within a line of poetry
cliches
ideas or expressions that have become trite and tired from overuse
colloquially
in a conversational manner that may include using slang expressions not used by the culture at large
consonance
identical sound preceded by a different vowel sound (ex: home, same; worth breath; trophy, daffy
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