British Literature Final Exam Terms

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Trimeter

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3 feet

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Tetrameter

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4 feet

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Pentameter

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5 feet

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Hexameter (or Alexandrine)

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6 feet

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Heptameter (or "Fourteener")

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8 feet

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Prose

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No measured length. We speak in prose

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KINDS OF FEET
Iam

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Unstress, stress ("invent")

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Trochee

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Stress, unstress ("dingbat")

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Spondee

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Stress stress

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Pyrrhic

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Unstress unstress

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Blank Verse

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Unrhymed iambic pentameter

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Catalectic

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When the unstressed syllable is cut out at the end of a trochaic line

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Feminine Ending

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Extra unstressed (or soft) syllable at the end of a poetic line

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POETIC TERMS
Endstop

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the stop at the end of the poetic line, usually indicated by punctuation

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Caesura

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"Slit" in the middle of a poetic line

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Enjambment

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A "striding over" - where there is no stop at the end of the poetic line; when the unit of sense carries over to the next line

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TROPES AND FIGURES:
Simile

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A comparative expression using "like" or "as" ("Love is like a rose.")

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Epic Simile

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(Homeric Simile) A special kind of extended simile found especially in epic narration

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Metaphor

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"Love is a rose"

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Implicit Metaphor

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"O, Rose, thou art sick!"

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Structural Irony

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Irony created by a structural feature such as a naive protagonist whose viewpoint is consistently wrong, shared by neither author nor reader.

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Verbal Irony

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A trope in which the meaning ostensibly expressed “differs sharply from” what the speaker really means. A common type of verbal irony is sarcasm,

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Dramatic Irony

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The quality exhibited in words spoken by a character in a play or narrative who, because of his ignorance of present or future circumstances that the audience is aware of, does not realize how the words apply to his situation. (Oedipus: “Why, I’d sooner marry my own mother than . . . “)

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Allegory

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Extended metaphor in which characters represent concepts, often symbolically.

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HISTORICAL TERMS and OTHERS
Kenning

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A compound expression in Old English with metaphorical meaning

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Alliteration

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Anglo-Saxon poetry characterized by two stressed alliterative sounds before the caesura, and usually one or two following. ("Victory is vital")

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Irony

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When the implicit meaning is opposed to the explicit meaning of a word or passage

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Litotes

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Double-negative, a form of understatement

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Scop

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"SchOp" - a professional or semi-professional singer, poet

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Vulgate

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Latin Bible translated by St. Jerome ca. 400. Used as common bible throughout Middle ages

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Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

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credited for inventing Blank Verse in his translation of Virgil's Aeneid. Also credited with having invented the English Sonnet or Shakespearean Sonnet

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Medieval Chivalric Romance

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Long prose or verse narrative telling fantastic stories or "errant" knights with heroic qualities, fighting evil and going on a quest

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DATES AND PERIODS
Middle Ages

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Longest period in literary history

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Renaissance

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Starts approx 1500
Bede, Caedmon

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Restoration

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1660-?

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The "Long Eighteenth Century"

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1660-1900

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J.R.R. Tolkien

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Gave lecture "The Monsters and the Critics" in 1936. He was the first to appreciate the author of Beowulf as an imaginative author, writing with conscioous literary artistry. Represented human destiny

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600-1200

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Old English was spoken

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1066

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Norman Conquest

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1649

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Execution of Charles I; end of English Civil War (English Revolution)

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Interregnum

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Period between Kings (Charles I and Charles II= 1649-1660)

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English Civil War

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1640-1669

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Cultural Relativity

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A concept that cultural norms and values derive their meaning within a specific social context.

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Satire

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The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

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Estate Satire

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Literature satirizing the three estates of the 14th Century (The Canterbury Tales)

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Lyric

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The poet writes the poem as his or her own experience; often the poet uses first person ("I"); however, this speaker is not necessarily the poet but may be a fictional character or persona.

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Drama

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The characters are obviously separate from the writer; in fact, they generally seem to have lives of their own and their speech reflects their individual personalities. The writer is present, of course, in stage directions, and occasionally a character acts as a mouthpiece for the writer.

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Epic

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This long narrative is primarily written in third person. However, the epic poet makes his presence known, sometimes by speaking in first person, as when the muses are appealed to for inspiration, or by reporting the direct speech of the characters.

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Tragedy

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Addresses serious themes, and concludes with the death or suffering of a protagonist. The tragic hero is a person of worth who is not perfect, and whose weakness, or tragic flaw, leads to their defeat. The purpose of tragedy is to induce a catharsis – a "cleansing" of emotion through pity and terror -- in the spectator.

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Utopia

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Imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

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Sonnet

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A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.

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Mock Epic

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A satirical imitation or burlesque of the heroic manner or style.

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Theodicy

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The vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil.

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Felix Culpa

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(in Christian theology) the sin of Adam viewed as fortunate, because it brought about the blessedness of the Redemption.

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In medias res

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Into the middle of a novel, without preamble. (Paradise lost starts this way)

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Invocation

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The action of invoking something or someone for assistance or as an authority.

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Couplet

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Two successive lines the last words of which rhyme

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Quatrain

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A stanza or poem of 4 lines

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Sestet

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The last six lines of a sonnet, or just a stanza of six lines

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Octave

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A verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter (in English poetry)

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Petrarchan Sonnet

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Poem divided into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final six lines). Follows specific rhyme scheme- A B B A A B B A

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Shakespearean Couplet

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Poem composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg

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Heroic Couplets

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Couplets with a meter of heroic pentameter

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Zeugma

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The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one.