Ap Lit Vocabulary 2

Front 1

Ballad

Back 1

A song or poem that tells a lively or tragic story in simple language using rhyming four-line stanzas and a
set meter.

Front 2

Beat Generation

Back 2

A group of writers in the 1950s and ‘60s who represented the counterculture to 1950s
American prosperity. The word comes from the slang for being down and worn out, suggesting their
weariness with mainstream culture and their adoption of a free-spirited attitude. Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and
Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” are major works.

Front 3

Bildungsroman

Back 3

A coming of age story that details the growth or maturity of a youth, usually an adolescent. The
term is German meaning “novel of formation.”

Front 4

Blank Verse

Back 4

Unrhymed iambic pentameter, often used in Shakespeare’s plays or for epic subject matter, as in
Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Front 5

Burlesque

Back 5

A work of drama or literature that ridicules its subject matter through exaggerated mockery and broad
comedy.

Front 6

Caesura

Back 6

A pause, usually in the middle of a line, that marks a kind of rhythmic division.

Front 7

Canon

Back 7

In a literary context, the group of works considered by academics and scholars to be essential to and
representative of the body of respected literature.

Front 8

Catharsis

Back 8

The purging of emotions which the audience experiences as a result of the powerful climax of a
classical tragedy; the sense of relief and renewal experienced through art.

Front 9

Cliche

Back 9

A figure of speech that has been used so commonly that it has become trite. The use may suggest
an ironic tone.

Front 10

Collective Unconscious

Back 10

A set of characters, plots, symbols, and images that each evoke a universal response.