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132 Cards in this Set
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Absurdist Drama
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Play that depicts life as meaningless, senseless,
uncertain. For example, an absurdist playwright's story generally ends up where it started; nothing has been accomplished and nothing gained. The characters may be uncertain of time and place, and they are virtually the same at the end of the play as they were at the beginning. Here is how the genre came about: A group of dramatists in 1940's Paris believed life is without apparent meaning or purpose; it is, in short, absurd, as French playwright and novelist Albert Camus (1913-1960) wrote in a 1942 essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus." Parodoxically, the only certainty in life is uncertainty, the absurdists believed. For more about absurdist drama, see Waiting for Godot. |
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Absurd, Theater of the
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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. For more information about this genre, see “Waiting for Godot.” |
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Act
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One of the main divisions of a play. Shakespeare's plays
each have five. Each is subdivided into scenes. Generally focuses on one major aspect of the plot or theme. Between these, stagehands may change scenery, and the setting may shift to another locale. |
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Adage
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Wise saying; proverb; short, memorable saying that
expresses a truth and is handed down from one generation to the next; short saying that expresses an observation or experience about life; maxim; aphorism; apothegm. Examples of adages are the following: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.–Unknown author, 16th Century. Birds of a feather flock together [probably based on an observation of Robert Burton (1577-1640) in The Anatomy of Melancholy: "Birds of a feather will gather together."] A great dowry is a bed full of brambles.–George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640.Fish and visitors smell in three days.–Benjamin Franklin. One tongue is enough for a woman.–J. Ray, English Proverbs (1670). A friend in need is a friend indeed.–Of Latin origin. A barber learns to shave by shaving fools.–J. Ray, English Proverbs (1670). |
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Alarum
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Stage direction in a Shakespeare play (or a play by another
author in Shakespeare's time) indicating the coming of a battle; a call to arms. |
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Alexandrine
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Verse form popularized in France in which each line
contains twelve syllables (and sometimes thirteen). Major accents occur on the sixth and twelfth syllables; two minor accents occur, one before the sixth syllable and one before the twelfth syllable. A pause (caesura) occurs immediately after the sixth syllable. Generally, there is no enjambment in the French Alexandrine line. However, enjambment does occur in English translations of Alexandrine verse. The name Alexandrine derives from a twelfth-century work about Alexander the Great that was written in this verse format. Jean Baptiste Racine was one of the masters of this format. Some English writers later adapted the format in their poetry. |
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Allegory
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Literary work in which characters, events, objects, and
ideas have secondary or symbolic meanings. One of the most popular [these] of the twentieth century was George Orwell's Animal Farm, about farm animals vying for power. On the surface, it is an entertaining story that even children can enjoy. Beneath the surface, it is the story of ruthless Soviet totalitarianism. Other famous examples of allegories are John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and the fifteenth-century morality play, Everyman. |
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Alliteration
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Repetition of consonant sounds. Examples: (1) But now I am
cabined, cribbed, confined, bound into saucy doubts and fears.–Shakespeare. (2) Duncan is in his grave; after life's fitful fever he sleeps well–Shakespeare. (3) When I was one-and- twenty–A.E. Housman. (Note that "one" has a "w" sound. (4) I sent thee late a rosy wreath–Ben Jonson. (Note that "wr" has an "r" sound.) |
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Allusion
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Reference to a historical event or to a mythical or
literary figure. Examples: (1) Sir Lancelot fought with Herculean strength. (Reference to the mythological hero Hercules). (2) "I have met my Waterloo," the mountain climber said after returning from a failed attempt to conquer Everest. (Reference to the Belgian town where Napoleon lost a make-or-break battle). (3) Since my elementary-school days, math has always been my Achilles heel. (Reference to the weak spot of Achilles, the greatest warrior to fight in the Trojan War. When his mother submersed him in the River Styx after he was born, the magical waters made him invulnerable. His flesh was impervious to all harm–except for the heel of a foot. His mother was grasping the heel when she dipped him into the river. Because the river water did not touch his heel, it was the only part of his body that could suffer harm. He died when a poison-tipped arrow lodged in his heel. Hence, writers over the ages have used the term Achilles heel to refer to a person's most pronounced weakness. |
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Anachronism
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A thing from a different period of history than that which
is under discussion; a thing that is out of place historically. Suppose, for example, that a literary work about World War I says that a wounded soldier is treated with penicillin to prevent a bacterial infection, but penicillin and other antibiotics did not come into use until 1941, twenty-three years after the end of World War I. |
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Anadiplosis (an uh dih PLOH sis)
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Figure of speech in which a word or phrase at the end of a
sentence, clause, or line of verse is repeated at or near the beginning of the next sentence, clause, or line of verse. Here are examples: The peasant pledged the country his loyalty; loyalty was his only possession. . My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain.–Shakespeare, Richard III. |
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Anagnorisis (an ag NOR ih sis)
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In Greek drama, a startling discovery; moment of epiphany;
time of revelation when a character discovers his true 4 identity. In the Sophocles play Oedipus Rex, anagnorisis occurs when Oedipus realizes who he is. |
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Analogue
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Literary work, film, character, setting, etc. that
resembles another literary work, film, character, setting, etc. The film West Side Story is a [this] of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Stephen Spielberg's film Jaws is an analogue of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. |
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Anaphora (uh NAF uh ruh)
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Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of
word groups occurring one after the other. Examples: (1) Give me wine, give me women and give me song. (2) For everything there is a season . . . a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.–Bible, Ecclesiastes. (3) To die, to sleep; to sleep: perchance to dream.–Shakespeare, Hamlet. One of the most famous examples of anaphora in Shakespeare occurs in Act II, Scene I, Lines 40-68. |
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Anastrophe (uh NAS truh fe)
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Inversion of the normal word order, as in a man forgotten
(instead of a forgotten man) or as in the opening lines of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Kahn": In Xanada did Kubla Kahn / A stately pleasure dome decree (instead of In Xanadu, Kubla Kahn decreed a stately pleasure dome). Here is another example, made up to demonstrate the inverted word order of anastrophe: In the garden green and dewy A rose I plucked for Huey |
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Anecdote
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A little story, often amusing, inserted in an essay or a
speech to help reinforce the thesis. |
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Annotation
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Explanatory note that accompanies text; footnote; comment.
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Antagonist
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Character in a story or poem who opposes the main character
(protagonist). Sometimes is an animal, an idea, or a thing. Examples of such might include illness, oppression, or the serpent in the biblical story of Adam and Eve. |
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Antonomasia (an tihn uh MAY zha)
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Identification of a person by an appropriate substituted
phrase, such as her majesty for a queen or the Bard of Avon for Shakespeare. |
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Antiphrasis (an TIF ruh sis)
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Saying the opposite of what is meant, or verbal irony;
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Anapest
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tri meter in Shakespear, Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed
.........Three Syllables |
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Antithesis
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Placement of contrasting or opposing words, phrases,
clauses, or sentences side by side. Following are examples: I am tall; you are short. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.–Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address." To err is human, to forgive divine.–Alexander Pope, "Essay on Criticism." |
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Aphorism
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Short, often witty statement presenting an observation or a
universal truth; an adage. Examples: (1) Fish and visitors smell in three days–Benjamin Franklin. (2) Many hands make light work.–John Heywood. (3) In charity there is no excess–Francis Bacon. (4) Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown–William Shakespeare. (See also Epigram.) |
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Apostrophe
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Addressing an abstraction or a thing, present or absent;
addressing an absent entity or person; addressing a deceased person. Examples: (1) Frailty, thy name is woman.– William Shakespeare. (2) Hail, Holy Light, offspring of heaven firstborn!–John Milton. (3) God in heaven, please help me. |
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Apprenticeship Novel (Bildungsroman)
|
Novel that centers on the period in which a young person
grows up. This type of novel was pioneered by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in his novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. Can also be identified by its German name, bildungsroman, meaning novel (roman) of educational development (bildungs). |
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Archetype
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(1) Original model or models for persons appearing later in
history or characters appearing later in literature; (2) the original model or models for places, things, or ideas appearing later in history or literature; (3) a primordial 6 object, substance, or cycle of nature that always symbolizes or represents the same positive or negative qualities. Explanation of Definition 1: The mythical Hercules is an original model of a strong man. Exceptionally strong men who appear later in history or literature are said to be this of Hercules figures because they resemble the original Hercules. Similarly, the biblical Eve is an original model of a woman who tempts a man to commit sin. Temptresses who appear later in history or literature are said to be this of Eve figures because they resemble the original Eve. Examples include the housewife who goads her husband to steal from his employer and the prostitute who tempts a married man to have illicit sex. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is an Eve figure because she, like Eve, urges her husband to commit sin–in the case of Macbeth, to commit murder. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus is a [this] of Judas (the apostle who betrayed Christ) because Brutus betrays Caesar. Explanation of Definition 2: The biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as Babylon, are original examples of cities corrupted by sin. Decadent cities–or cities perceived to be decadent–that appear later in history or literature are said to be this type of sin cities. Hollywood and Las Vegas are examples. Explanation of Definition 3: Rivers, sunlight, serpents, the color red and green, and winter are examples of primordial things (existing since the beginning of time) that are this because they always symbolize the same positive or negative qualities, according to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Rivers represent the passage of time or life; sunlight represents happiness, a new beginning, glory, truth, goodness, or God; the color red represents passion, anger, blood, or war; the color green represents new life, a new beginning, or hope; winter represents death, dormancy, or atrophy. |
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Arras
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Tapestry hung on the stage to conceal scenery until the
right moment. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, an arras played a crucial role. Polonius hid behind one to eavesdrop on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother, Queen Gertrude. When Hamlet saw the tapestry move, he stabbed at it, thinking King Claudius was behind it, and killed Polonius. |
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Arthurian Romance
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Literary work in which a knight in the age of the legendary
King Arthur goes on a quest. |
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Aside
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Words an actor speaks to the audience which other actors on
the stage cannot hear. Sometimes the actor cups his mouth toward the audience or turns away from the other actors. Serves to reveal a character's thoughts or concerns to the audience without revealing them to other characters in a play. Near the end of Hamlet, Queen Gertrude raises a cup of wine to her lips during the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. King Claudius had poisoned the wine and intended it for Hamlet. Claudius–unwilling to warn Gertrude in an effort to preserve his innocence–says, "It is the poison'd cup: it is too late." |
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Assonance
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Repetition of vowel sounds preceded and followed by
different consonant sounds. Use of "bite" and "like" in a line of poetry. Examples: (1) There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.–Shakespeare. (2) But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall to make oppression bitter. (3) John met his fate by the lake. Asyndeton Use of words or phrases in a series without connectives such as and or so. Examples (1) One cause, one country, one heart.–Daniel Webster. (2) Veni, vidi, vici (Latin: I came, I saw, I conquered).–Julius Caesar. |
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Attica
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Peninsula in southeastern Greece that included Athens.
According to legend, the King of Athens, Theseus, unified 12 states of this place into a single state dominated by Athenian leadership and the Athenian dialect of the Greek language. The adjective form of this word has long been associated with the culture, language and art of Athens. The great period of Greek drama, between the Sixth and Fourth Centuries, B.C., is known as the [This] Period. Drama itself was invented by an actor from this place, Thespis, who introduced speaking parts to accompany choral odes. |
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Aubade [oh BAHD]
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Joyful song about dawn and its beauty; morning serenade.
One of the finest of these in literature occurs in Act II, Scene III, of Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. It begins with the the famous words "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings" (Line 22). |
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Ballad, Folk
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Folk Poem that tells a story that centers on a theme
popular with the common people of a particular culture or place. Generally of unknown authorship, a folk [this] passes by word of mouth from one generation to the next. One of its key characteristics is a candence that makes the poem easy to set to mustic and sing. |
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Ballad, Literary
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Imitates a folk ballad. But
unlike the folk ballad, this ballad has a known author who composes the poem with careful deliberation according to sophisticated conventions. Like the folk ballad, it tells a story with a popular theme |
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Ballade
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Lyric poem of French origin usually made up of three eightline
stanzas and a concluding four-line stanza called an envoi that offers parting advice or a summation. At the end of each stanza is a refrain. Each line of the poem contains about eight syllables. The rhyme scheme of the eight-line stanza is ababbcbc. The rhyme scheme of the envoi is bcbc. "Ballade des dames du temps jadis" is an excellent example of the genre. |
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Bard
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Originally, a Celtic poet who sang epic poems while playing
a harp. In time, this was used to refer to any poet. Today, it is often used to refer to William Shakespeare (the [This] of Avon). |
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beast fable
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Story that teaches a lesson or rule of living. The
characters are usually animals that speak and act like humans. The most famous fables are those attributed to Aesop, a Greek, Thracian, Phrygian, Babylonian, or Lydian 25 storyteller or a group of storytellers who assigned the name Aesop to a collection of fables popularized in Greece. Aesop's fables are sometimes referred to as beast fables. |
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Bildungsroman
Coming of Age Novel or Apprenticeship Novel |
Novel that centers on the period in which a young person
grows up. This type of novel was pioneered by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in his novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship). An apprenticeship novel can also be identified by its German name, bildungsroman, meaning novel (roman) of educational development (bildungs). |
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Bombast
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Inflated, pretentious speech or writing that sounds
important but is generally balderdash. |
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Breton
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[This] Lay Fourteenth Century English narrative poem in rhyme
about courtly love. The poem contains elements of the supernatural. The English borrowed the Breton-lay format from storytellers in Brittany, France. A lay is a medieval narrative poem originally intended to be sung. Breton is an adjective describing anyone or anything from Brittany. "The Franklin's Tale," a story in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, is an example of a Breton lay. |
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Burlesque
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Literary work, film, or stage production that mocks a
person, a place, a thing, or an idea by using wit, irony, hyperbole, sarcasm, and/or understatement. For example, may turn a supposedly distinguished person into a buffoon or a supposedly lofty subject into a trivial one. A hallmark of [this] is its thoroughgoing exaggeration, often to the point of the absurd. Cervantes used [these] in Don Quixote to poke fun at chivalry and other outdated romantic ideals. Among English writers who used this were Samuel Butler (Hudibras) and John Gay (The Beggar’s Opera). This is a close kin of parody. The latter usually ridicules a specific literary work or artistic production. |
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Caesura
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Pause in a line of verse shown in scansion by two vertical
lines ( || ). |
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Canon
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Complete works of an author. When reasonable doubt exists
that an author wrote a work attributed to him, scholars generally exclude it from the author’s [this]. Such doubt sometimes arises when a centuries-old work–for example, a play, poem, or novel–has survived intact to the present day without an author’s byline or other documentation proving that a particular author wrote it. |
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Canto
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Major division division of an epic poem, such as Dante's
Divine Comedy. The word is derived from the Latin word for "song." |
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Caricature
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Literary work or cartoon that exaggerates the physical
features, dress, or mannerisms of an individual or derides the ideas and actions of an organization, institution, movement, etc. The word is derived from the Italian caricare, meaning load, exaggerate, surcharge, fill to excess. In literature, is a form of burlesque. |
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Carpe Diem
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Latin expression meaning seize the day. Literary works with
this theme tell readers to enjoy life while they can. In other words, they should eat, drink and be merry and not worry about dying. Sir John Falstaff, the fun10 loving and hard-drinking knight in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor believed in this. An example of a poem with this theme is Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." |
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Catalexis
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The
absence of the unstressed syllable. Ex: bright and night |
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Catastasis
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Climax of a stage play.
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Catastrophe
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(1) Denouement, or conclusion, of a stage tragedy; (2)
denouement of any literary work. |
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Catchword
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In published Shakespeare plays in earlier times, a single
word on the bottom of the right side of every page. This word was the first word appearing on the next page. |
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Catharsis
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In literature and art, a purification of emotions. The
Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) used the term to describe the effect on the audience of a tragedy acted out on a theater stage. This effect consists in cleansing the audience of disturbing emotions, such as fear and pity, thereby releasing tension. This purgation occurs as a result of either of the following reactions: (1) Audience members resolve to avoid conflicts of the main character– for example, Oedipus in Oedipus Rex and Creon in Antigone– that arouse fear or pity or (2) audience members transfer their own pity and fear to the main character, thereby emptying themselves of these disquieting emotions. In either case, the audience members leave the theater as better persons intellectually, morally, or socially. They have either been cleansed of fear of pity or have vowed to avoid situations that arouse fear and pity. In modern usage may refer to any experience, real or imagined, that purges a person of negative emotions. |
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Chalmys
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In the drama of ancient Greece, sleeveless outer garment,
or cloak, worn by some actors. |
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Chantey (SSHAN te;)
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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. The length varied in relation to the length of the tasks being performed. |
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Character, Flat
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Character in story who has only one prominent trait, such
as greed or cruelty and who does not learn or change. |
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Character, Round
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Character in a story who has many aspects to his or her
personality. The character may have a good side and a bad side; he or she may be unpredictable. learns and changes behavior based upon what is learned. |
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Character, Static
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Character in a literary work who does not change his or her
outlook in response to events taking place. Also a Flat Character. |
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Chivalric Romance
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Tale of courtly love. In such tales, knights exhibit
nobility, courage, and respect for their ladies fair, and the ladies exhibit elegance, modesty, and fidelity. Although knights and ladies may fall passionately in love, they eschew immoral behavior. In conflicts between good and evil, justice prevails. Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale," the first story in The Canterbury Tales, is an example of this. |
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Chiasmus (pronounced ki AZ mis)
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Words in a second clause or phrase that invert or transpose
the order of the first clause or phrase. Here are examples: I come from the rural north, from the urban south comes she. John is a good worker, and a bright student is Mary. A fop their passion, but their prize a sot.–Alexander Pope. Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike–Samuel Taylor Coleridge. |
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Chorus (Greek Play)
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Bystanders in a Greek play who present odes on the action.
A parode (or parados) is a song sung when it enters. A stasimon is a song sung during the play, between episodes of action. Generally had the following roles in the plays of Sophocles and other Greek playwrights: (1) to explain the action, (2) to interpret the action in relation to the law of the state and the law of the Olympian gods, (3) to foreshadow the future, (4) to serve as an actor in the play, (5) too sing and/or dance,and (6) to give the author's views. In some ways like the narrator of a modern film or like the background music accompanying the action of the film. In addition, it is like text on the film screen that provides background information or identifies the time and place of the action. |
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Chronicler [KRON ih kler]
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Recorder of medieval events; historian
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Chronique Scandaleuse [kron EEK skan duH LOOZ]
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Literary work centering on gossip and intrigue at the court
of a king. |
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Classicism
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In literature, a tradition espousing the ideals of ancient
Greece and Rome: objectivity, emotional restraint, systematic thinking, simplicity, clarity, universality, dignity, acceptance of established social standards, promotion of the general welfare, and strict adherence to formal rules of composition. A writer typically restrained his emotions and his ego while writing in clear, dignified language; he also presented stories in carefully structured plots. Remained a guiding force in literature down through the ages. Writers in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the first half of the 18th Century, highly esteemed classical ideals. In the mid- 18th Century, writers began to rebel against [these types of] ideals in what came to be known as the Romantic Movement, or romanticism, which advocated emotional freedom, imaginative thinking, and individuality in writing. However, neither [this] nor romantic writing was always entirely faithfully to its ideals. For example, [this type of] writer may have exhibited emotional effusion from time to time or expressed himself with language less than dignified; conversely, a romantic writer may have exhibited emotional restraint and cool objectivity on occasion. Writers today continue to use many of the principles of both [this type] and romantic schools of writing. |
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Cliché
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Overused expression. Examples: raining cats and dogs, snug
as a bug in a rug, chills running up and down my spine, warm as toast, short and sweet. Writers should avoid using clichés whenever possible. |
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Climax
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The point in the plot at which the outcome is inevitable,
i.e., the turning point which must lead to the Denouement. Often removes all free-will choices for the major character or characters. |
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Closet Drama
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A drama written to be read rather than acted on a stage. An
example is Samson Agonistes, by John Milton, a 1671 tragedy about the final days of the biblical hero Samson. |
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Comedy (Stage)
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Play that ends with a “marriage,” sometimes actual,
sometimes symbolic (meaning that oppositions are satisfactorily and happily resolved). The stage comedies in ancient and Renaissance times did not always contain humor, the staple of the modern stage and film comedy, but they did end with a happy reconciliation. By contrast, a stage tragedy ends with a “funeral,” either actual or symbolic (meaning a separation without the happy solution of opposition). |
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Comedy of Manners
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Comedy that ridicules the manners (way of life, social
customs, etc.) of the privileged and fashionable segment of society. An example is Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, in which Goldsmith pokes fun at the English upper class. The play uses farce (including many mix-ups) to ridicule the class-consciousness of 18th Century Englishmen. |
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Concrete Poetry
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Poetry with lines arranged to resemble a familiar object,
such as a Christmas tree. Also called shaped verse. |
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Conflict
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The struggle in a work of literature. This struggle may be
between one person and another person or between a person and an animal, an idea or a thing or between a person and himself or herself (internal conflict). In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the conflict is manifold. Hamlet struggles against the villain Claudius, against the unbecoming conduct of his mother, and against his conscience and indecision. |
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Conte Philosophique
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Philosophical novel or philosophical story, a genre
Voltaire is credited with inventing. His contes philosophiques (which include Micromégas and Zadig) are characterized by a “swift-moving adventure story in which characterization [counts] for little and the moral (or sometimes immoral) lesson for much” (Brumfitt, J.H. Voltaire: Candide. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1968, Page 9.) |
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Coronach
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Funeral song (dirge) in Scotland and Ireland. In addition
to being sung, it was sometimes played on bagpipes. |
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Cothurni (singular, cothurnus)
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Boots worn by actors in ancient Greece to increase their
height and, thus, visibility to theater audiences. |
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Couplet
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Two successive lines of poetry with end rhyme.
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Coup de Théâtre (pronounced KOO duh tay AH truh)
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(1) Startling development in a drama that is unforeseen and
unmotivated; (2) a cheap plot development intended solely to create a sensation. |
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Couplet, Heroic
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Two successive end-rhyming lines in iambic pentameter.
Following is an example: What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things (Lines 1 and 2, The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope) |
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Dactyl and Dactylic
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Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed
.........Three Syllables |
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Dénouement
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The outcome or resolution of the plot, occurring after the
climax. In a murder mystery, this may outline the clues that led to the capture of a murderer. In a drama about family discord, it may depict the reconciliation of family members after a period of estrangment–or the permanent dissolution of family ties if the drama reaches a climax in which the discord worsens. |
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Deus Ex Machina
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Armlike device in an ancient Greek theater that could lower
a "god" onto the stage from the "heavens." The Greek word 15 for machine, mechane, later gave rise to a pejorative Latin term, deus ex machina (god from a machine), to describe a contrived event in a literary work or film. A contrived event is a plot weakness in which a writer makes up an incident–such as a detective stumbling upon an important clue or a hero arriving in the nick of time to save a damsel in distress–to further the action. The audience considers such events improbable, realizing that the writer has failed to develop the plot and the characters in such a way that their actions spring from their motivations. The term (pronounced DAY oohs ex MAHK in ah or DE ihs ex MAHK in uh) is usually used adverbially, as in “The policeman arrived deus ex machina to overhear the murderer admit his guilt to his hostage. However, it can also refer to a character who becomes the "god from the machine." |
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Deuteragonist
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In Greek drama, the character second in importance to the
main character, or protagonist. |
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Dialogue
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Conversation in a play, short story, or novel. A literary
work on a single topic presented in the form of a conversation. Plato's Republic, Symposium, and Phaedo are examples of literary works that are dialogues. |
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Diction
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Word choice; the quality of the sound of a speaker or
singer. Good [this] means that a writer pleases the eye of a reader or the ear of a listener. |
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Didactic
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Adjective describing a literary work intended to teach a
lesson or a moral principle. |
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Dimeter
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Two Feet
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Dionysia, Greater
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The
most prestigious of these festivals, held in Athens for five days and participated in by playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Euripides. |
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Rural Dionysia
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Festivals held in villages and small towns
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Dionysus
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Patron god of Greek drama; god of wine and vegetation.
Called Bacchus by the Romans, was the son of Zeus and one of the most important of the Greek gods. Died each winter and was reborn each spring, a cycle his Greek devotees identified with the death and rebirth of nature. He thus symbolized renewal and rejuvenation, and each spring the Greeks celebrated his resurrection with ceremonies that eventually included drama contests. The most prestigious of festivals was named after him, held in Athens for five days and participated in by playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Euripides. Festivals held in villages and small towns were called the Rural ones. |
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Dithyramb
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In the drama of ancient Greece, a choral hymn that praised
Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, and sometimes told a story. In his great work, Poetics, Aristotle wrote that these inspired the development of Greek tragic plays, such as those of Sophocles. The first "play" supposedly took place in the 6th Century B.C. when Thespis, a member of a chorus, took the part of a character in a [this]. The action shifted back and forth between him and the chorus. See also Thespian. |
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Doggerel
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Trivial or bad poetry.
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Domesday Book [DOOMS day book]
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Official census of the English people and their
possessions, notably land, which was completed in 1086 at the behest of King William I (William the Conqueror). |
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Doppelgänger(pronounced DOP l gayng er)
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In folklore, the spirit double of a living person. Among
well-known writers who have used doppelgängers in their works are Fyodor Dostoevski and E.T.A. Hoffman. A doppelgänger is not the same as a ghost; the latter is an apparition of a dead person. |
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Drama
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Literary work with dialogue written in verse and/or prose
and spoken by actors playing characters experiencing conflict and tension. The English word drama comes from the Greek word "dran," meaning "to do." |
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Dramatic Irony
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Failure of a character to see or understand what is obvious
to the audience. The most notable example of dramatic irony in all of literature occurs in Oedipux Rex, by Sophocles, 17 when Oedipus fails to realize what the audience knows–that he married his own mother. |
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Dramatic Monologue
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Poem that presents a moment in which a narrator/speaker
discusses a topic and, in so doing, reveals his feelings and state of mind to a listener or the reader. Only the speaker, talks, hence the term. During his discourse, the speaker intentionally and unintentionally reveals information about himself. The main focus is this personal information, not the speaker's topic. A type of character study. Perhaps the most famous in English literature is Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess." |
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Dramatis Personae [druh-mah-tiss pur-soh-nay]
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List of the characters in a play. Such a list is found at
the beginning of each Shakespeare play, as well as the plays of other dramatists. |
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Dumb Show
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Part of play performed in gestures, without speech;
pantomime. In Shakespeare's plays, appears as a stage direction. |
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Edition and Issue
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Terms describing published versions of newspapers and
magazines. 2. A newspaper printed on a specific date, such as August 22, is a [this]. However, the August 22 [this] of the newspaper may go through several printings: one at 6 a.m., for example, and one at 2 p.m. and one at 10 p.m. The 2 p.m. version would update or revise news in the 6 a.m. version--or add new stories; the 10 p.m. version would update or revise news in the 2 p.m. version--or add new stories. 1. The newspapers printed at 6 a.m., 2 p.m., and 10 p.m. would all be [these] of the August 22 issue. |
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Egoism, Rational
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Acting in oneself’s best interests (that is, acting
selfishly) by selecting what appears to be the most beneficial of all the choices available. Russian writer Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) centered various writings on this subject. His great contemporary, Fyodor Mikhailovitch Dostoevsky (1821-1881), attacked rational egoism in his novel Notes From the Underground. There are two types of rational egoism, which are as follows: |
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Psychological Egoism
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Belief that a person’s nature, or
biological makeup, will always cause him to act in his own self-interest. In other words, a person has no free will; he will always end up choosing what he perceives is best for him. Suppose, for example, that two persons each have a toothache and a fear of dentists. After reviewing the alternatives, the first person decides to go to the dentist to have the tooth extracted because he perceives that the latter course will cause him less pain and distress in the long run. The second person, after reviewing the alternatives, decides to pull the tooth himself because he perceives that this course of action—despite the pain and greater risk of complications that self-treatment poses— will cause him less mental trauma than a dentist’s treatment. In both cases, there is no real "decision." What the persons do is dictated by their genetic makeup and other determining factors, according to proponents of this theory. |
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Normative Egoism
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Belief that a person will act in his own
best interests if he first thoroughly educates himself about the choices available. In this type of egoism, the second person in the example above would presumably decide to go to a dentist because, after educating himself about both alternatives, he would realize that professional treatment is more likely to produce a positive outcome. The rational egoists Dostoevsky criticizes—most notably Chernyshevsky—maintained that one always acted in his own self-interest, but also ought to investigate the available alternatives or options in order to make the most informed choice. However, there is a conflict here. On the one hand, the other type of egoism presumes that a person has no free will. On the other hand, this type of egoism implies that a person has at least a modicum of free will and, after educating himself, acts with "enlightened self-interest." Nevertheless, Chernyshevsky believed that a person had no free will regardless of how he went about making his choice. |
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Elegy
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A somber poem or song that praises or laments the dead.
Perhaps the finest in English literature is Thomas Gray's "[This] Written in a Country Churchyard." |
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Elizabethan
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Pertaining to the time when Elizabeth I reigned as queen of
England. Elizabeth, born in 1533, reigned from 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabethan may be used to describe the literature of the period (for example, Elizabethan poems 19 and Elizabethan plays) or anything else associated with the age (such as Elizabethan costumes, Elizabethan customs, Elizabethan music, and so on). |
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Encomium (Plural: Encomia)
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(1) In ancient Greece, a poem in the form of a choral song
praising a victor in the Olympic games. (2) In modern usage, any speech, essay, poem, etc., that praises a person. |
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Enjambment
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Carrying the sense of one line of verse over to the next
line without a pause. In the first four lines of "My Last Duchess," by Robert Browning, enjambment joins the second and third lines (I call / That) and the third and fourth lines (Pandolf's hands / Worked): That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. |
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Enter
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the
entrance onto the stage of a character or characters. |
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Epic
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Long poem in a lofty style about the exploits of heroic
figures, often, those heroic figures who act in the founding of a nation. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the Old English poem Beowulf, are examples. |
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Epic Conventions
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Literary practices, rules, or devices that became
commonplace in epic poetry. Among the classical conventions Milton used are the following: .......(1) The invocation of the muse, in which a writer requests divine help in composing his work. .......(2) Telling a story with which readers or listeners are already familiar; they know the characters, the plot, and the outcome. Most of the great writers of the ancient world–as well as many great writers in later times, including Shakespeare–frequently told stories already known to the public. Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected plot twists, no surprise endings. If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader and theatergoer, consider that many of the most popular motion pictures today are about stories already known to the public. Examples are ThePassion of the Christ, Titanic, The Ten Commandments, Troy, Spartacus, Pearl Harbor, and Gettysburg........(3) Beginning the story in the middle, a literary convention known by its Latin term in media res (in the middle of things). Such a convention allows a writer to begin his story at an exciting part, then flash back to fill the reader in on details leading up to that exciting part. .......(4) Announcing or introducing a list of characters who play a major role in the story. They may speak at some length about how to resolve a problem (as the followers of Satan do early in Paradise Lost). .......(5) Conflict in the celestial realm. Divine beings fight and scheme against one another in the epics of Homer and Vergil, and they do so in Paradise Lost on a grand scale, with Satan and his forces opposing God and his forces. .......(6) Use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a figure of speech in which a character in a story fails to see or understand what is obvious to the audience. Dramatic irony appears frequently in the plays of the ancient Greeks. For example, in Oedipux Rex, by Sophocles, dramatic irony occurs when Oedipus fails to realize what the audience knows–that he married his own mother. In Paradise Lost, dramatic irony occurs when Adam and Eve happily go about daily life in the Garden of Eden unaware that they will succumb to the devil's temptation and suffer the loss of Paradise. Dramatic irony also occurs when Satan and his followers fail to understand that it is impossible ultimately to thwart or circumvent divine will and justice. |
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Epicedium
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Funeral hymn or ode; dirge
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Epigram
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Wise or witty saying expressing a universal truth in a few
words. Following are examples from Shakespeare: There's small choice in rotten apples.–The Taming of the Shrew: Act I, Scene I. A goodly apple rotten at the heart, O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!–The Merchant of Venice: Act I, Scene III. They are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing.–The Merchant of Venice: Act I, Scene II. How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.–The Merchant of Venice: Act V, Scene I.Every cloud engenders not a storm.–Henry VI, Part III: Act V, Scene III. Words pay no debts.–Troilus and Cressida: Act III, Scene II. O! it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.–Measure for Measure: Act II, Scene II. |
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Epigraph
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(1) Quotation inserted at the beginning of a poem, a novel,
or any other literary work; (2) a dedication of a literary work or a work of art such as a painting; (3) words inscribed or painted on a monument, building, trophy, etc. |
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Epilogue
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In Shakespeare, a short address spoken by an actor at the
end of a play that comments on the meaning of the events in the play or looks ahead to expected events; an afterword in any literary work. |
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Epinicion (Plural: Epinicia)
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In ancient Greece, a choral ode celebrating an athletic
victory. For additional information, click here. |
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Episode
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Scene or incident in a literary work.
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Epistle
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Letter written by an apostle in the New Testament of the
Bible; any letter, especially an informal or instructive one. |
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Epistolary Novel
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Novel in which a character (or characters) tells the story
through letters (epistles) sent to a friend, relative, etc. For example, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister to bring her up to date on his expedition in the Arctic. After his ship takes Victor Frankenstein aboard, he listens to Frankenstein’s story and writes it down in letter form. |
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Epitaph
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Inscription on a tomb or a written work praising a dead
person; any commemoration, eulogy, or remembrance. |
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Epitasis
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The part of a stage play that develops the characters,
plot, and theme. Follows the protasis. |
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Epithalamion (or Epithalamium, Epithalamy) [eppi-tha-la-
MEE-um] |
Poem or song honoring the bride and groom on the day of
their wedding. The term is derived from Greek words referring to the bedroom of a woman. In ancient times, this was performed in front of the bridal chamber. However, this can also refer to a song performed during the wedding ceremony. Surviving fragments of the Greek poetess Saphho (610-580 B.C.) indicate that she wrote wedding songs called [this]. In Rome, the great lyric poet Catullus (84-54 B.C.) wrote these. In the Renaissance, English poets such as John Donne, Sir Philip Sydney, Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, and Richard Crashaw wrote these. Many critics believe Edmund Spenser's "This"–written in 1595 on the occasion of his second marriage–is the greatest English poem in this genre. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote a famous [this], which used as its title the Latin word for the term. |
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Epithet
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One of the hallmarks of the style of the Greek epic poet
Homer, a combination of a descriptive phrase and a noun. Presents a miniature portrait that identifies a person or thing by highlighting a prominent characteristic of that person or thing. In English, the Homeric [this] usually consists of a noun modified by a compound adjective, such as the following: fleet-footed Achilles, rosy-fingered dawn, wine-dark sea, earth-shaking Poseidon, and gray-eyed Athena. An ancient relative of such later epithets as Richard the Lion-Hearted, Ivan the Terrible, and America the Beautiful. Homer repeated his [these] often, presumably so the listeners of his recited tales could easily remember and picture the person or thing each time it was mentioned. In this respect, the Homeric [this] resembles the leitmotiv of opera composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). The leitmotiv was a repeated musical theme associated with a character, a group of characters, an emotion, or an idea. |
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Epitome
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(1) Statement summarizing the content of a book, essay,
report, etc. (2) Person or object that embodies all the qualities of something |
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Esprit d'escalier (es PRE duh SKAL yay)
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Slow wit. Used to characterize a person who thinks of the
ideal reply or retort after leaving a conversation and going upstairs (escalier). On the stairs, the ideal reply occurs to him. |
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Essay
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Short, nonfiction composition on a single topic. The
typical essay contains 500 to 5,000 words, although some essays may contain only 300 words and others 10,000 or more words. Examples of essays are newspaper or magazine articles that inform readers about current events, newspaper or magazine editorials that argue for or against a point of view, movie reviews, research papers, encyclopedia articles, articles in medical journals, and articles in travel magazines. There are four types of essays: those that inform the reader without taking a position; those that argue for or against a point of view; those that describe a person, place, thing, or idea; and those that tell a true story. Essays often require extensive research to support claims made by the writer of the essay. |
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Eulogy
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Speech or written work paying tribute to a person who has
recently died; speech or written work praising a person (living, as well as dead), place, thing, or idea. |
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Euphemism
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Word or phrase that softens the hard reality of
the truth, such as senior citizen for old person, passed away for died, misstatement for lie, previously owned car for used car, collateral damage for civilian deaths during war, and pleasingly plump for fat. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency once used the euphemism Health Evaluation Committee for assassination team. In general, good writers avoid euphemisms. |
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Euphuism
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Ornate, high-flown style of speaking or writing.
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Excursion
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating that a
military attack is taking place. The opening of Scene II in Act III of Shakespeare's King John contains such a stage direction. |
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Exemplum
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Short narrative in verse or prose that teaches a moral
lesson or reinforces a doctrine or religious belief. |
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Exeunt..[EX e unt]
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the departure of two or more characters from the stage.
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Exeunt Omnes..[EX e unt AHM-nez]
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the
departure of all the characters from the stage. |
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Exit
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Stage direction in a play manuscript indicating the
departure of a character from the stage. |
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Exodos (EX uh doss)
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In a drama of ancient Greece, the exit scene; the final
part of the play |
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Expressionism
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In literature, this is a writing approach,
process, or technique in which a writer depicts a character’s feelings about a subject (or the writer’s own feelings about it) rather than the objective surface reality of the subject. A writer, in effect, presents his interpretation of what he sees. Often, the depiction is a grotesque distortion or phantasmagoric representation of reality, for the character or writer must reshape the objective image into his mind's image. However, there is logic to this approach for these reasons: (1) Not everybody perceives the world in the same way. What one person may see as beautiful or good another person may see as ugly or bad. Sometimes a writer or his character suffers from a mental debility, such as depression or paranoia, which alters his perception of reality. Enables the writer to present this altered perception. An example of a character who sees reality through his mind's eye is Joseph K., the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. |
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Exposition
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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. Also refers to an essay whose primary purpose is to inform readers rather than to argue a point. |