core knowledge

Question 1

What’s first wave feminism?

Answer 1

About gaining legal equality such as the vote

Question 2

What’s second wave feminism?

Answer 2

Closing the gender gap, looking more at societal issues

Question 3

What’s third wave feminism?

Answer 3

More focus on individual’s needs and looking at the rights of non-white and non-heterosexual women

Question 4

What’s fourth wave feminism?

Answer 4

Against wave 3 as individuals being conditioned by the patriarchy

Question 5

What’s Galvanism?

Answer 5

Also referred to as ‘animal electricity’. First discovered and introduced by an Italian Physician and Biologist, Luigi Galvani. A source of electricity that is produced through a chemical section

Question 6

Who was Prometheus and what did he do?

Answer 6

A Titan who gave men fire against the wishes of the Gods and was punished for all eternity

Question 7

Briefly explain what ‘The ancient mariner’ is about

Answer 7

A sailor who kills an albatross for no reason, therefore taking the place of God. He is condemned to live forever, telling his story

Question 8

Briefly explain what ‘Paradise Lost’ is about

Answer 8

The story of Adam and Eve disobeying God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil and causing the downfall of mankind

Question 9

When was the first edition of ‘Frankenstein’ published?

Answer 9

1818

Question 10

When was the final edition of ‘Frankenstein’ published?

Answer 10

1831

Question 11

What is the etymology of the word ‘monster’?

Answer 11

Latin ‘monstare’: something that serves to demonstrate or ‘monere’ to warn

Question 12

What does protagonist mean?

Answer 12

The leading character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel etc.

Question 13

What does antagonist mean?

Answer 13

The opposing force that brings conflict and is instrumental in the development of the protagonist, or main character

Question 14

What is a binary opposition?

Answer 14

The system of language and/or thought by which two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right

Question 15

What is an allusion?

Answer 15

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. it does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers

Question 16

What is an anti-hero?

Answer 16

A main character in a story who lacks the typical heroic qualities of bravery, courage, morality, and the special ability and desire to achieve for the greater good. They are still the protagonist but are a foil to the traditional hero archetype

Question 17

What is a doppel-ganger?

Answer 17

A apparition or double of a living person

Question 18

What is the Enlightenment?

Answer 18

Also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North America, during the late 17th and early 18th century. Its participants thought they were illuminating human intellect and culture after the ‘dark’ middle ages

Question 19

What is Romanticism?

Answer 19

A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasising inspiration, imagination, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual in reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment

Question 20

What was the cult of domesticity?

Answer 20

Also known as the cult of true womanhood, an opinion about women in the 1800’s. They believed that women should stay at home and should not do any work outside the home. Women should be more religious than men, pure in heart, mind and body and submissive to their husbands

Question 21

What is an epistolary novel?

Answer 21

A novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used.

Question 22

What is a framed narrative?

Answer 22

A story within a story

Question 23

What is an analogy?

Answer 23

A comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification

Question 24

What is dichotomy?

Answer 24

Defined as sharp division of things or ideas into two contradictory parts

Question 25

Who were Mary Shelley’s mother and father and what were they famous for?

Answer 25

William Godwin; an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. he is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism
Mary Wollstonecraft: an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights

Question 26

What is the ‘Noble Savage’?

Answer 26

A literary stock character who embodies the concept of the indigene outsider, wild human, an ‘other’ who has not been ‘corrupted’ by civilisation, and therefore symbolises humanity’s innate goodness.

Question 27

What was Freud’s theory of the unconscious?

Answer 27

According to Freud’s model of the psyche, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-ego operates as a moral conscious, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego

Question 28

What does bourgeois mean?

Answer 28

Belonging to or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes

Question 29

What is blasphemy?

Answer 29

The act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable

Question 30

Who were the Luddites?

Answer 30

British weavers and textile workers in the early 19th century who objected to the increased use of automated looms and knitting frames. Most were trained artisans who had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood

Question 31

What was the French Revolution?

Answer 31

A period of time in France when the people overthrew the monarchy and took control of the government. The French Revolution lasted 10 years from 1789 to 1799

Question 32

Where and when was the idea for ‘Frankenstein’ conceived?

Answer 32

In 1861, Mary Shelley and some friends were staying in Lord Byron’s villa in the mountains near Geneva. During a storm they had a ghost story competition. Shelley’s story came to her in a dream that night.

Question 33

Where is Geneva and what was its significance at the time Shelley was writting?

Answer 33

A city in Switzerland which had a reputation as an intellectual centre.