Midterm Vocab

Front 1

Absurdist Drama

Back 1

Play that depicts life as meaningless, senseless, uncertain.

Front 2

Act

Back 2

Main division of a play.

Front 3

Alarum

Back 3

Stage direction in a Shakespeare play indicating the coming battle

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Alexandrine

Back 4

Verse popularized in France in which each line contains twelve syllables

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Alliteration

Back 5

Repetition of consonant sounds

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Anachronism

Back 6

A thing from a different period of history than that which is under discussion; a thing that is out of place historically

Front 7

Anagnorsis

Back 7

In Greek drama, a startling discovery; moment of epiphany.

Front 8

Analogue

Back 8

Literary work, film, character, setting that resembles another literary work, film, character, setting

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Anapest and Anapestic

Back 9

Meter

Front 10

Anaphora

Back 10

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of word groups occurring one after another.

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Anastrophe

Back 11

Inversion of the normal word order, as in a man forgotten (a forgotten man)

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Antonomasia

Back 12

Identification of a person by an appropriate substituted phrase.

Front 13

Antiphrase

Back 13

Irony

Front 14

Antithesis

Back 14

Placement of contrasting or opposing words, phrases, clauses, or sentences side by side

Front 15

Apostrophe

Back 15

Addressing an abstraction or a thing, present or absent

Front 16

Apprenticeship Novel

Back 16

Novel that centers on the period in which a young person grows up

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Archetype

Back 17

Original model of models for person's appearing later in history or characters appearing later in literature

Front 18

Arras

Back 18

Tapestry hung on the stage to conceal scenery until the right moment

Front 19

Arthurian Romance

Back 19

Literary work in which a knight in the age of the legendary King Arthur goes on a quest

Front 20

Aside

Back 20

Words an actor speaks to the audience which other actors on the stage cannot hear

Front 21

Assonance

Back 21

Repetition of vowel sounds preceded and followed by different consonant sounds

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Attica

Back 22

Peninsula in southeastern Greece that included Athens

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Aubade

Back 23

Joyful song about dawn and its beauty; morning serenade

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Ballad, Folk

Back 24

Poem that tells a story that centers on a theme popular with the common people of a particular culture or place

Front 25

Ballad, Literary

Back 25

Ballad that imitates a folk ballad

Front 26

Ballade

Back 26

Lyric poem of French origin usually made up of three eight line stanzas and a concluding four-line stanza called an envoi that offers parting advice or a summation

Front 27

Bard

Back 27

Originally, a Celtic poet who sang epic poems while playing a harp

Front 28

Beast Fable

Back 28

Fable

Front 29

Bildungsroman

Back 29

Apprenticeship Novel

Front 30

Bombast

Back 30

Inflated, pretentious speech or writing that sounds important but is generally balderdash

Front 31

Breton Lay

Back 31

14th Century English narrative poem in rhyme about courtly love

Front 32

Caesura

Back 32

Pause in a line of verse shown in scansion by two vertical lines

Front 33

Canon

Back 33

Complete words of an outhor

Front 34

Canto

Back 34

Major division of an epic poem, such as Dante's Divine Comedy

Front 35

Caricature

Back 35

Literary work or cartoon that exaggerates that physical features, dress, or mannerism of an individual or derides the ideas and actions of an organization, institution, movement

Front 36

Catalexis

Back 36

Meter

Front 37

Catastrophe

Back 37

denouement, or conclusion, of a stage tragedy

Front 38

Catchword

Back 38

In published Shakespeare plays in earlier times, a single word on the bottom of the right side of every page

Front 39

Catharsis

Back 39

A purification of emotions

Front 40

Chalmys

Back 40

In the drama of ancient Greece, sleeveless outer garment, or cloak, worn by some actors

Front 41

Chantey

Back 41

In earlier times, a song sung by sailors that kept time with the work they were doing such as tugging on a rope to hoist a sail

Front 42

Flat Character

Back 42

Character in a story who has only one prominent trait

Front 43

Round Character

Back 43

Character in a story who has many aspects to his or her personality

Front 44

Chivalric Romance

Back 44

Take of courtly love

Front 45

Chiasmus

Back 45

Words in a second clause or phrase that invert or transpose the order of the first clause or phrase

Front 46

Chorus (Greek Play)

Back 46

Bystanders in a Greek play who present odes on the action

Front 47

Chronicler

Back 47

Recorder of medieval events; historian

Front 48

Chronique Scandaleuse

Back 48

Literary work centering on gossip and intrigue at the court of a king

Front 49

Climax

Back 49

High point in a story

Front 50

Closet Drama

Back 50

A drama written to be read rather than acted on a stage

Front 51

Comedy

Back 51

Play with a happy ending

Front 52

Comedy of Manners

Back 52

Comedy that ridicules the manners

Front 53

Coming of Age Novel

Back 53

Apprenticeship Novel

Front 54

Concrete Poetry

Back 54

Poetry with lines arranged to resemble a familiar object

Front 55

Conflict

Back 55

The struggle on a work of literature

Front 56

Conte Philosophique

Back 56

Philosophical novel or philosophical story

Front 57

Coronach

Back 57

Funeral song

Front 58

Cothurni

Back 58

Boots worn by actors in ancient Greece to increase their height and visible to audiences

Front 59

Couplet

Back 59

Two successive lines of poetry with end rhyme

Front 60

Heroic Couplet

Back 60

Two successive end-rhyming lines in iambic pentameter

Front 61

Deuteragonist

Back 61

In Greek drama, the character second in importance to the main character, or protagonist

Front 62

Dialogue

Back 62

Conversation in a play, short story, or novel

Front 63

Didactic

Back 63

Adjective describing a literary work intended to teach a lesson or a moral principle

Front 64

Dimeter

Back 64

Meter

Front 65

Dionysia, Greater

Back 65

Dionysus

Front 66

dionysia, Rural

Back 66

Dionysus

Front 67

Dionysus

Back 67

Patron god of Greek drama

Front 68

Dithyramb

Back 68

In the drama of ancient Greece, a choral hymn that praised Dionysus

Front 69

Doggerel

Back 69

Trivial or bad poetry

Front 70

Domesday Book

Back 70

Official census of the english people and their possessions, notably land, which was completed in 1086 at the behest of King William

Front 71

Doppelganger

Back 71

In folklore, the spirit double of a living person

Front 72

Drama

Back 72

Literary work with dialogue written in verse and/or prose and spoken by actors playing characters experiencing conflict and tension

Front 73

Dramatic Monologue

Back 73

Poem that presents a moment in which a narrator/speaker discusses a topic and, in so doing, reveals his feelings and state if mind

Front 74

Dramatis Personae

Back 74

List of the characters in a play

Front 75

Dumb Show

Back 75

Part of a play performed in gestures, without speech.

Front 76

Edition and Issue

Back 76

Terms describing published versions of newspapers and magazines

Front 77

Rational Egoism

Back 77

Acting in oneself's best interest by selecting what seems to be the most beneficial of all choices

Front 78

Psychological Egoism

Back 78

Belief that a person's nature, or biological makeup, will always cause him to act in his own self-interest

Front 79

Normative Egoism

Back 79

Belief that a person will act in his own best interest if he first thoroughly educates himself about the choices available

Front 80

Elegy

Back 80

A somber poem or sog that praises or laments the dead

Front 81

Elizabethan

Back 81

Pertaining to the time when Elizabeth I reigned as queen of England

Front 82

Encomium (Encomia)

Back 82

In ancient Greece, a poem in the form of a choral song praising a victor in the Olympic games

Front 83

Enjambment

Back 83

Carrying the sense of one line of verse over the next line without pause

Front 84

Enter

Back 84

Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the entrance onto the stage of a character or characters

Front 85

Epic

Back 85

Long poem in a lofty style about the exploits of heroic figures

Front 86

Epic Conventions

Back 86

Literary practices, rules, or devices that became commonplace in epic poetry

Front 87

Epicedium

Back 87

Funeral hymn or ode

Front 88

Epigram

Back 88

Wise or witty saying expressing a universal truth in a few words

Front 89

Epigraph

Back 89

Quotation inserted at the beginning of a poem, novel, or any other literary work

Front 90

Epilogue

Back 90

In Shakespeare, a short address spoken by an actor at the end of a play that comments on the meaning of events in the play or book

Front 91

Epinicion (Epinicia)

Back 91

In ancient Greece, a choral ode celebrating an athletic victory

Front 92

Episode

Back 92

Scene or incident in a literary work

Front 93

Epistle

Back 93

Letter written by an apostle in the New Testament of the Bible

Front 94

Epitaph

Back 94

Inscription on a tomb or a written work praising a dead person

Front 95

Epitasis

Back 95

A part of a stage that develops the characters, plot, and theme

Front 96

Epithalamion

Back 96

Poem or song honoring the bride and groom on the day of their wedding

Front 97

Epithet

Back 97

One of the hallmarks of the style of the Greek epic poet Homer is epithet, a combination of a descriptive phrase and a noun

Front 98

Epitome

Back 98

Statement summarizing the content of a book, essay, report

Front 99

Esprit d'escalier

Back 99

slow wit

Front 100

Essay

Back 100

Short, nonfiction composition of a single topic

Front 101

Eulogy

Back 101

Speech or written work paying tribute to a person who has recently died

Front 102

Euphemism

Back 102

Word or phrase that softens the hard reality of the truth

Front 103

Euphuism

Back 103

Ornate, high-flown style of speaking or writing.

Front 104

Excursion

Back 104

Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that a military attack is taking place

Front 105

Exemplum

Back 105

Short narrative in verse or prose that teaches a moral lesson or reinforces a doctrine or religious belief

Front 106

Exeunt

Back 106

Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the departure of two or more characters from a stage

Front 107

Exeunt Omnes

Back 107

Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the departure of all characters from the stage

Front 108

Exit

Back 108

Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the departure of a character from the stage

Front 109

Exodos

Back 109

In a drama of ancient Greece, the exit scene; final part of the play

Front 110

Expressionism

Back 110

A writing approach, process or technique in which a writer depicts a character's feelings about a subject

Front 111

Exposition

Back 111

In a story, the part of the plot that introduces the setting and characters and presents the events and situations that the story will focus on

Front 112

Fable

Back 112

Story that teaches a lesson or rule of living.

Front 113

Fabliau

Back 113

Short verse tale with coarse humor and earthy, realistic, and sometimes obscene descriptions that present an episode in the life of contemporary middle- and lower-class people

Front 114

Fair Copy

Back 114

In Shakespeare's time, a play manuscript after it has been edited.

Front 115

Flashback

Back 115

Device in which a writer describes significant events of an earlier time or actually returns the plot to an earlier time.

Front 116

Flourish

Back 116

Stage direction in a play manuscript for music introducing the entrance or exit of a king or another important person

Front 117

Folio

Back 117

A folio is a sheet of printing paper folded once to form four separate pages for printing a book.

Front 118

Folklore

Back 118

Stories, songs, and sayings transmitted by memory (that is, orally) rather than by books or other printed documents, from one generation to the next.

Front 119

Fool

Back 119

In the courts of England in Shakespeare's time, a fool was a comic figure with a quick tongue who entertained the king, the queen, and their guests.

Front 120

Foul Papers

Back 120

In Shakespeare's time, the original manuscript of a playwright which was later edited.

Front 121

Frame Tale

Back 121

Story with a plot structure in which an author uses two or more narrators to present the action.

Front 122

Gleeman

Back 122

Anglo-Saxon minstrel who sang or recited poetry. Gleemen traveled from place to place but sometimes found employment in the court of a monarch.

Front 123

Gnomic

Back 123

Adjective describing writing that contains wise, witty sayings

Front 124

Goliard

Back 124

Wandering student of Medieval Europe who made merry and wrote earthy or satiric verses in Latin.

Front 125

Hagiography

Back 125

Book on the lives of saints; scholarly study of the lives of saints.

Front 126

Hamartia

Back 126

Serious character flaw of the main character (protagonist) of a Greek tragedy.

Front 127

Hautboys

Back 127

Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that entering characters are playing hautboys, which are Elizabethan oboes.

Front 128

High Comedy

Back 128

Comedy that relies on wit and subtle irony or sarcasm. High comedy usually focuses on the everyday life of upper classes.

Front 129

Homily

Back 129

A clergyman's talk that usually presents practical moral advice rather than a lesson on a scriptural passage, as in a sermon.

Front 130

Huitain

Back 130

Eight-line stanza

Front 131

Idyll

Back 131

Poem focusing on the simplicity and tranquillity of rural life; prose work with a similar focus.

Front 132

Introduction

Back 132

In a Shakespeare play, an introductory event that precedes Act 1.

Front 133

In Medias Res

Back 133

Latin phrase for “in the middle of things,” meaning that a story begins in the middle of the plot, usually at an exciting part.

Front 134

Invocation of the Muse

Back 134

In ancient Greece and Rome, poets generally requested a muse (goddess) to fire them with creative genius when they began long narrative poems, called epics, about godlike heroes and villains.

Front 135

Ipse Dixit

Back 135

Dogmatic or arbitrary statement made without supporting evidence. This Latin term means He said [it] himself.

Front 136

Jeu d'esprit

Back 136

Witty writing; clever wording; jest; pun, ingenious turn of phrase

Front 137

Jeu de mots

Back 137

Pun; play on words

Front 138

Jongleur

Back 138

Itinerant minstrel in medieval England and France who sang songs (his own or those written by others) and told stories.