Drama Flashcards
When satirical comedy is extended to extremes, wherein the comedic occurrences are grotesque or terrible.
Black Comedy
Meaning tragic insight or recognition, this is a moment of realization by a tragic hero or heroine that he or she has become enmeshed in a “web of fate.”
Anagnorisis
This is often called a “tragic flaw,” but is better described as a tragic error. It is an archery term meaning a shot missing the bull’s eye, used here as a metaphor for a mistake—often a simple one—which results in catastrophe.
Hamartia
While often called “pride,” this is actually translated as “violent transgression,” and signifies an arrogant overstepping of moral or cultural bounds—the sin of the tragic hero who over-presumes or over-aspires.
Hubris
translated as “retribution,” this represents the cosmic punishment or payback that the tragic hero ultimately receives for committing hubristic acts.
Nemesis
Literally “turning,” this is a plot reversal consisting of a tragic hero’s pivotal action, which changes his or her status from safe to endangered.
Peripateia
proposed a different theory of tragedy than Aristotle (384-322 BC), which was also very influential. Whereas Aristotle’s criteria involved character and plot, this author defined tragedy as a dynamic conflict of opposite forces or rights.
HEGEL’S THEORY OF TRAGEDY
Hegel theorized that a tragedy must involve some circumstance in which two values, or two rights, are fatally at odds with one another and conflict directly. Hegel did not view this as good triumphing over evil, or evil winning out over good, but rather as one good fighting against another good unto death. He saw this conflict of two goods as truly tragic.
the beginning of the story and generally takes place before the rising action begins. The purpose of this is to give the reader context for the story, which the author may do by introducing one or more characters, describing the setting or world, or explaining the events leading up to the point where the story begins.
exposition
at the beginning of the story and generally takes place before the rising action begins. The purpose of this is to give the reader context for the story, which the author may do by introducing one or more characters, describing the setting or world, or explaining the events leading up to the point where the story begins.
exposition
A major type of internal conflict is some inner personal battle
Man versus self
part of the story where conflict intensifies
Rising action
The rising action begins with an event that prompts the main conflict of the story
Inciting incident
the event in the narrative that marks the height of the story’s conflict or tension
Climax
Once the conflict and climax are complete this occurs. shows what happens in the story between the climax and the resolution.
Falling action
central idea demonstrated by a passage.
Theme
perspective from which a passage is told
Point of view
authors refer to each character by using he or she
Third person
narrator is not a character in the story and tells the story of all of the characters at the same time.
third-person omniscient
narratives that let narrators express inner feelings and thoughts, especially when the narrator is the protagonist as Lemuel Gulliver is in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
First-person narratives
When a narrator reports others’ narratives
Frame narrators
This address is very commonplace in popular song lyrics, it is the least used form of narrative voice in literary works.
Second person narration
This narration is the most prevalent type, as it allows authors the most flexibility. It is so common that readers simply assume without needing to be informed that the narrator is not a character in the story, or involved in its events.
Third-person narration
most often included in stories according to which characters are being described.
Third-person singular and plural
narration that does not include what the characters described are thinking or feeling
Objective third-person narration
Type of third-person narration that tells what the characters described are thinking or feeling
subjective third-person narration
narrator knows everything about all characters, including their thoughts and emotions, and all related places, times, and events.
third-person omniscient
Type of third-person narration where the narrator may know everything about a particular character, but is limited to that character. In other words, the narrator cannot speak about anything that character does not know.
third-person limited
Authors use sentence structure, to make their texts unique, convey their own writing style, and sometimes to make a point or emphasis. This is called what?
Syntax
story’s atmosphere, or the feelings the reader gets from reading it.
Mood
describes a series of words beginning with the same sounds
Alliteration
Type of figurative language describing a non-human thing, like an animal or an object, as if it were human
Personification
stated comparisons using “like” or “as.”
Simile
type of figurative language in which the writer equates something with another thing that is not particularly similar, instead of using like or as.
Metaphor
naming one thing with words or phrases of a closely related thing
Metonymy
This is similar to metaphor. However, the comparison has a close connection, unlike metaphor. An example of metonymy is to call the news media the press. Of course, the press is the machine that prints newspapers. Metonymy is a way of naming something without using the same name constantly.
points to the whole by naming one of the parts. An example would be calling a construction worker a hard hat.
synecdoche
Like metonymy, synecdoche is an easy way of naming something without having to overuse a name. The device allows writers to highlight pieces of the thing being described. For example, referring to businessmen as suits suggests professionalism and unity.
create comparisons, and often take the form of similes or metaphors. They are are always phrases and are understood to have a meaning that is different from its individual words’ literal meaning
Idiom
an uncited but recognizable reference to something else.
allusion
For example, an author may allude to a very important text in order to make his own text seem more important. Martin Luther King, Jr. started his “I Have a Dream” speech by saying “Five score years ago…” This is a clear allusion to President Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and served to remind people of the significance of the event.
how the author arranges and sequences events—which may be chronological or not.
Discourse
Story is imaginary; discourse is words on the page. Discourse allows a story to be told in different ways
