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79 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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accent
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the emphasis placed upon a syllable in pronunciation
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allegory
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a story or visual image with a second meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. A good example would be Animal Farm.
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alliteration
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the repetition of the same sounds in any sequence of neighbouring words. Alliteration tends to link the words together, either to give the effect of 'pairing' (as can be seen from this impossibly difficult analysis) or can give the effect of a listing, dragged out sort of feel, a la Larkin's Toads.
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Absurd –
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the modern sense of human purposelessness in a universe without meaning or value CR Albert Camus (existentialism and the absurd) and Martin Esslin (more specifically the theatre of the absurd)
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Adynaton
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a figure of speech related to hyperbole that emphasizes the inexpressibility of something, some idea or feeling (like comparing something to the sea, “a coastal shelf” a la our favourite poem)
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Allusion
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an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, plce or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned. (the author assumes that the reader shares some knowledge with himself)
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Anacoluthon
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a change in construction in a sentence that leaves the initial construction unfinished, continued by a fresh clause (possible for use in Waterland)
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Anagnorisis
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when a character, usually the protagonist, realizes the true state of affairs as well as possibly the true nature of other characters. (Oedipus, Othello – as used by Ms Chia)
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Analepsis
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flashback
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Anaphora
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a rhetorical figure or repetition in which the same word or phrase is repeated in (and usually at the beginning of) successive lines, clauses or sentences (used by Mr Ho in DKH)
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Antiphon
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a song, hymn or poem in which two voices or choruses respond to one another in alternate verses or stanzas (also used by Mr Ho in DKH)
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Aphorism
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a statement of some general principle, expressed memorably by condesning much wisdom into few words (“the Price book of aphorisms”)
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Apollo/Dionysian
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a Nietzsche concept. The Apollonian refers to the tendency for form, beauty, moderation and symmetry – sculpture. The Dionysian refers to the instinct of irrationality, violence and exuberance – music.
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Aposiopesis
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when the speaker suddenly breaks off in the middle of a sentence, leaving it unfinished. Not anacoluthon because no fresh clause continues.
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Assonance
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the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of neighbouring words
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bildungsroman
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a kind of novel that follows the development of the hero or heroine from childhood or adolescence into adulthood, through a troubled quest for identity.
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Binary opposition
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the principle of contrast between two mutually exclusive terms
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Blank verse
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unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
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Caesura
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a pause in a line of verse, usually between clauses. Can be either feminine (following an unstressed syllable) or masculine (following a stressed syllable).
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Conceit
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an usually far-fetched or elaborate metaphor or simile presenting a surprisingly apt parallel between two apparently dissimilar things or feelings.
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Consonance
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the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighbouring words
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Denouement
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the clearing up of complications in the plot (Othello: Act 5, Scene 2.)
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Dipthong
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a vowel sound that changes noticeably in quality during the pronunciation of a syllable (eg. wide, beer, late, round)
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Dirge
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a song of lamentation in mourning for someone’s death (mentioned in DKH somewhere)
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Dissonance
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harshness of sound and/or rhythm, either inadvertent or deliberate
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Dystopia
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the opposite of utopia (Len is well-versed in this concept)
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Elegy
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an elaborately formal lyric poem lamenting the death of a friend or public figure, or else reflecting on some solemn subject
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Enjambment
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the running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one verse line or couplet to the next without punctuated pause (the line flows over)
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Envelope
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in poetry, where a line or stanza is repeated, with little or no variation, such that it encloses part of the poem
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Epigraph
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quotation or motto placed at the beginning of a book, chapter or poem (Waterland, Deceptions)
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Epitaph
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a form of words in prose or verse suited for inscription on a tomb
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Epizeuxis
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rhetorical figure where a word is repeated for emphasis, without any words in between (“blood blood blood!” – Othello)
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Existentialism
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CR Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Kirkegaard, Berkeley (useful for Godot)
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`Feminine ending
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the ending of a metrical line on an unstressed syllable
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Free verse
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poetry or verse that does not conform to any particular metre or length
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Half rhyme
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where the final consonants of stressed syllables agree but the vowel sounds do not (eg. cape/deep)
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Hamartia
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fatal flaw or fatal action (Aristotle really meant the latter but it seems interchangeable, not a… fatal mistake)
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Heroic couplet
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a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines
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Hubris
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the arrogance or pride of a tragic hero in which he or she defies moral laws or the prohibitions of the gods, leading to his or her downfall (Othello & DKH)
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Iamb
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metrical foot, one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable
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In medias res
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in the middle of things, usually refers to the beginning of a play or story starting in the middle of the story
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Internal rhyme
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rhyme occurs between the word at the end of the line and a word inside the line
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Intrusive narrator
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Tom Crick (except that he’s not omniscient so by definition he isn’t, but it should be usable I hope)
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Leitmotif
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a frequently repeated phrase, image, symbol or situation in a literary work, the recurrence of which usually supports a theme (“Once upon a time…”)
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Machiavel
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a type of stage villain found in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, for a broad category of devilish, ruthless schemers (eg. Iago)
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Masculine ending
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the ending of a metrical verse line on a stressed syllable
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Masculine rhyme
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the most common form of rhyme where the singles stressed ending syllables of lines rhyme (feminine rhyme adds unstressed syllables afterward)
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Meiosis
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Greek term for understatement or ‘belittling’, a rhetorical figure by which something is referred to in terms less important than it really deserves
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Metonymy
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where the name of one thing is replaced with something else that it is closely associated with (“chasing skirts”, “the press”)
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Mimesis
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a literary work understood to be reproducing an external reality or any aspect of it
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Occasional verse
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poetry written for some special event (Auden’s “September 1, 1939” / Yeats’ “Easter, 1916” / some of Larkin’s poetry)
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Omniscient narrator
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“all knowing” narrator with full knowledge of events and characters motives (usually referring to the third person narrator)
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Parallelism
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the arrangement of similarly constructed clauses, sentences or verse lines suggesting some relation between them, usually achieved through syntax patterns
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Pastiche
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a literary work composed from elements borrowed from other writers or from an earlier author
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Pathetic fallacy
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the poetic convention where natural phenomena are described like they can feel as humans do (crying clouds, angry thunder)
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Pathos
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the emotionally moving quality or power of a literary work or particular passages , appealing to our feelings of sorrow, pity and compassion
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Pentameter
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metrical verse line with five feet
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Periodic sentence
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a long sentence where sense is delayed until the end, forces the reader to accelerate towards the ending
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Peripeteia
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a sudden reversal of a character’s circumstances or fortunes, usually refers to the downfall of the tragic hero (Elesin / Othello)
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Portmanteau
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a word created by fusing two different words together (eg. Waterland)
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Prolepsis
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Greek for ‘in anticipation’, otherwise known as flash forward
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Self-reflexive
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a term applied to literary works that openly reflect upon their own processes of artful composition (eg. Waterland)
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Sestet
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a group of six lines forming the second part of a sonnet following the opening octave
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Stichomythia
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a form of dramatic dialogue in which two disputing characters answer each other rapidly in alternating single lines, with one character’s replies balancing (and often partially repeating) the other’s utterances
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Stream of consciousness
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the continuous flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings and memories in the human mind or a literary method of representing such a blending of mental processes in fictional characters, usually an unpunctuated and disjointed form of the interior monologue. May violate the norms of grammar, syntax and logic. (Waterland Prelim passage)
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Synaesthesia
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a blending or confusion of different kinds of sense-impression, in which one type of sensation is referred to in terms more appropriate to another (eg. “warm colours”)
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Synecdoche
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a common figure of speech in which something is referred to indirectly, either by naming only some part or constituent of it (more common use) or by naming a larger entity to which it belongs (less common use)
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Syntax
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the way words and clauses are arranged to form sentences
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Tableau
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an image formed by living persons caught in static attitudes
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Tercet
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a unit of three verse lines, usually rhyming with each other or with neighbouring lines
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Threnody
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a dirge or lament for the dead (Soyinka’s “threnodic essence”)
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Tragedy
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a serious play with the downfall of the protagonist. CR Aristotle’s Poetics the tragedy defined as a play with serious and complete action, resulting in final catharsis (purification). The protagonist is led by hubris to hamartia and then to some downfall, creating tragedy even as we recognize some admirable qualities in the hero that make his destruction a shame
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Tragicomedy
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a play that combines elements of tragedy and comedy, either by providing a happy ending to a potentially tragic story or by some more complex blending of serious and light moods
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Unities, the
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the principles of dramatic structure proposed by dramatists of the 16th to 17th century. Unity of time, Unity of place, Unity of action.
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Unreliable narrator
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a narrator whose account of events appears to be faulty, misleadingly biased, or otherwise distorted so that it departs from the ‘true’ understanding of events shared between the reader and the implied author. The bias may stem from conscious falsifying or harmless naivety and fallibility.
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Vers de societe
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“society verse”, a kind of light verse that deals with the frivolous concerns of upper class social life (lol yes it actually means something)
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Vice, the
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a stock character in medieval morality plays, a cynical character in service of the Devil. Thought to be an ancestor of the Machiavellian sort like Iago.
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Villanelle
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a poem composed of an uneven number of tercets (usually five) rhyming aba, the a final quatrain rhyming abaa
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Volta
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“turn” in a sonnet, occurring in the Italian form between the octave and sestet and in the Shakespearean form at the final couplet.
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