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106 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Pantomime
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Use of body movements and facial expressions by actors to convey a message without speaking.
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Parabasis
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In the drama of ancient Greece, an ode in which the chorus addresses the audience to express opinions of the author, including his views on politics, social trends, and other topics.
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Parodus
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In the drama of ancient Greece, a song sung by the chorus when it enters; also, the moment when the chorus enters.
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Paradox
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Contradictory statement that may actually be true. Paradox is similar to oxymoron in that both figures of speech use contradictions to state a truth.
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Paranomasia
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Pretentious term for pun.
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Parody
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Imitation of a literary work or film–or the style used by a writer or filmmaker–in order to ridicule the work and its writer or producer.
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Patoral Poem
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Poem focusing on some aspect of rural life.
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Periakti
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In the drama of ancient Greece, a prism having surfaces painted with pictures.
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Peripeteia
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In a stage tragedy in ancient Greece, a sudden reversal of fortune from good to bad.
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Peroration
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Concluion of a speech in which the speaker summarizes the main points.
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Philippic
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Speech that bitterly denounces, blames, accuses, or insults a person; speech that viciously attacks a person or his ideas.
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Picaresque Novel
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Novel that presents the episodic adventures (each a story in itself) of a roguish character as he travels from place to place and meets a variety of other characters, some of them also travelers.
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Plaint
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Expression of grief or sorrow in a poem.
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Plot
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The events that unfold in a story; the action and direction of a story; the story line.
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Poetics
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Important work by Aristotle written about 335 B.C. It analyzes Greek theater and outlines its origin and development
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Poetry
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Language that expresses powerful emotions and ideas in a stanza or stanzas that may use rhythm and rhyme, as well as other rhetorical devices.
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Prolixity
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Wordiness, long-windedness.
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Prologue
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Introduction to a play or another literary work.
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Prologos
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In the drama of ancient Greece, a prologue that begins the play with dialogue indicating the focus or theme of the play.
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Promptbook or Prompt Copy
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In Shakespeare's time, the edited version of a play in which an acting company inserted stage directions.
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Proscenium
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(1) The stage of a theater; (2) the part of the stage extending out toward the audience; (3) the arch over the stage that separates the stage from the audience.
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Prose
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Language of everyday speech and writing.
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Protagonist (Greek Scene)
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Main character in an ancient Greek play who usually interacts with the chorus.
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Protagonist (Modern Scene)
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Main character of a novel, play, or film.
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Protasis
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Opening part of a stage drama that introduces the characters and focus of the play.
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Pun
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Play on words; using a word that sounds like another word but has a different meaning.
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Quarto
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A quarto is sheet of printing paper folded twice to form eight separate pages for printing a book.
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Quatrain
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Stanza or poem of four lines.
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Quill
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Writing instrument used before the invention of the fountain pen, the ballpoint pen, and other writing instruments.
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Redundancy
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Writing flaw in which unnecessary wording is used.
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Re-Enter
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the re-entrance onto the stage of a character or characters.
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Refrain
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Group of words repeated at key intervals in a poem, such as Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."
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Realism
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In literature, a movement that stressed the presentation of life as it is, without embellishment or idealization.
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Repartee
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Quick, witty, often amusing reply; a conversation full of witty replies; verbal fencing or sparring.
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Rhetoric
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Art of effectively using words in speech and writing; the study of language and its rules.
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Rhyme, Consonant
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A special type of rhyme (consonance) in which pairs of words with different vowel sounds have the same final consonants.
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Rhyme, End
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Rhyme in which the final syllable (or syllables) of one line mimic the sound of the final syllable (or syllables) of another line.
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Rhyme, Eye
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Form of rhyme in which the pronunciation of the last syllable of one line is different from the pronunciation of the last syllable of another line even though both syllables are identical in spelling except for a preceding consonant.
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Rhyme, Feminine
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Rhyme in which the final two syllables of one line mimic the sound of the final two syllables of another line.
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Rhyme, Internal
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Rhyme that occurs inside a line.
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Rhyme, Masculine
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Rhyme in which the final yllable of one line mimics the sound of the final yllable of another line.
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Roman a Clef
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Novel in which real persons are thinly disguised as fictional characters with fictional names.
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Romance, Medieval
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Long poem resembling an epic in its focus on heroic deeds. Unlike an epic, however, a medieval romance is light in tone, and its content is at times fantastic and magical.
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Romanticism
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In literature, a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking.
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Rondeau
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Lyric poem consisting of three stanzas with a total of fifteen lines. Lines 9 and 15 are the same--that is, they make up a refrain.
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Sarcasm
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Form of verbal irony that insults a person with insincere praise.
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Satire
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Literary work that attacks or pokes fun at vices and imperfections; political cartoon that does the same.
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Satyre Play
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In the drama of ancient Greece, a play that pokes fun at a serious subject involving gods and myths; a parody of stories about gods or myths
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Scenario
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Plot outline of a play, opera, motion picture, or TV program.
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Scene
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Part of an act of a play; (2) a settingin a literary work, opera, or film; (3) a theater stage in ancient Greece or Rome; (4) part of a literary work, opera, or film that centers on one aspect of plot development.
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Science Fiction
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Literary genre focusing on how scientific experiments, discoveries, and technologies affect human beings for better or worse.
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Scop
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Old English poet often attached to a monarch's court. A scop composed and recited his own poetry.
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Sennet
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Stage direction in a play manuscript to signal a trumpet flourish that ntroducess the entrance of a character, such as the entrance of King Lear (Act 1) in Shakespeare's play.
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Sentimentality
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A flaw in a literary work or film in which the author relies on tear-jerking or heart-wrenching scenes rather than writing talent or cinematic skill to evoke a response in readers.
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Sermon
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A clergyman's talk centering on a scriptural passage.
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Sestet
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Final six lines of a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet. Petrarch's sonnets each consist of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza (sestet).
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Sestina
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Poem with six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a stanza with three lines (tercet).
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Setting
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Setting is the environment in which a story unfolds.
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Sic
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Word inserted in a quoted statement in a research work (essay, magazine article, doctoral thesis, book, etc.) to indicate that the quotation contains an error.
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Simile
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Comparing one thing to an unlike thing by using like, as, or than.
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Soliloquy
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Recitation in a play in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience but not to other characters in the play.
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Solus
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating a character is alone on the stage.
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Sonnet
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Form of lyric poetry invented in Italy that has 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme
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Sonnet, Curtal
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Shortened or contracted sonnet.
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Soubrette
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In a comedy (a play or an opera), a maid or servant girl involved in intrigue affecting the central characters.
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Southern Gothic
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Fictional genre with a setting in the Southern United States that vests its stories with foreboding and grotesquerie.
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Spoonerism
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Slip of the tongue in which a speaker transposes the letters of words.
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Stasimon
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In a Greek play, a scene in which the chorus sings a song, uninterrupted by dialogue.
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Spensarian Stanza
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A stanza with eight lines in iambic pentameter and a ninth line in iambic hexameter.
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Stationers' Register
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In Shakespeare's time, a book in which the English government required printers to register the title of a play before the play was published.
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Stanza
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Lines that form a division or unit of a poem. Stanzas generally have four lines.
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Stereotype
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Character in a literary work or film who thinks or acts according to certain unvarying patterns simply because of his or her racial, ethnic, religious, or social background.
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Stichomythia
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In a stage play brief, alternating lines of dialogue spoken in rapid-fire succession.
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Sturm and Drang
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In Eighteenth Century Germany, a literary movement characterized by a rejection of many classical literary conventions
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Style
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Style is the way an author writes a literary work.
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Subplot
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Secondary or minor plot in a story usually related to the main plot.
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Suspense
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Anxiety about what will happen next in a story.
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Symbol
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In a literary work or film, a person, place, thing or idea that represents something else.
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Syncope
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Omitting letters or sounds within a word.
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Synecdoche
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Substitution of a part to stand for the whole, or the whole to stand for a part.
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Synesthesia
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Use of an adjective associated with one sensation to describe a noun referring to another sensation.
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Tautology
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Wordiness, needless repetition.
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Tercet
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In poetry, a unit of three lines that usually contain end rhyme.
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Terza Rima
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Italian verse form invented by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). It consists of a series of three-line stanzas in which Line 2 of one stanza rhymes with Lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza.
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Tetralogy
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In the drama of ancient Greece, four plays (three tragedies and one satyr play) staged by a playwright during a drama competition.
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Theatre, Greek
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Open-air structure in which plays were performed.
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Theatre of the Absurd
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Term coined in 1965 by critic Martin Eslin to describe the plays of Samuel Beckett and other writers who believed that life is meaningless.
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Theme
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Main idea of a literary work; the thesis.
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Thespian
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Actor or actress. Also, an adjective referring to any person or thing pertaining to Greek drama or drama in general.
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Tone
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Prevailing mood or atmosphere in a literary work.
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Tiring House
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In Shakespeare's time, dressing rooms of actors behind a wall at the back of the stage.
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Torches
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Stage direction in a Shakespeare play indicating that entering characters are carrying lit torches.
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Tragedy, Greek
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Verse drama written in elevated language in which a noble protagonist falls to ruin during a struggle caused by a flaw (hamartia) in his character or an error in his rulings or judgments.
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Tragicomedy
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Play that has tragic events but ends happily.
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Transcendentalism
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Belief that every human being has inborn knowledge that enables him to recognize and understand moral truth without benefit of knowledge obtained through the physical senses.
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Travesty
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Play, novel, poem, skit, film, opera, etc., that trivializes a serious subject or composition.
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Trope
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Figure of speech; figurative language.
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Troubadour
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Lyric poet/musician of southern France or northern Italy; minstrel.
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Ubi Sant
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Ubi sunt is Latin for where are.
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Unities
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Three key elements of dramatic structure: time, place, and action.
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Universality
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Appealing to readers and audiences of any age or any culture.
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Versimilitude
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Having the appearance of truth; realism. In a fictional work, a writer creates unreal characters and situations and asks the reader to pretend that they are real.
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Verse
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Collection of lines (as in a Shakespeare play) that follow a regular, rhythmic pattern.
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Villanelle
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Form of poetry popularized mainly in France in the 16th Century.
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Within
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that a person speaking or being spoken to is behind a door or inside a room
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Zeugma
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Use of one word (usually an adjective or a verb) to serve two or more other words with more than one meaning.
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