English Definitions Flashcards
Anaphora
Definition: The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses or sentences.
Close Reading
Definition: The detailed analysis of the complex interrelationships and ambiguities of the verbal and figurative components within a work.
Key Points:
Focuses on language and how it creates certain effects.
Requires careful attention to words, syntax, and meaning.
Empiricism
Definition: Knowledge based on experience, experimentation, and sensory information.
Source: Oxford English Dictionary (O.E.D.).
Dystopia
Definition: A society, often set in the future, that is undesirable or frightening.
Etymology: From Greek “bad place” (opposite of utopia).
Purpose: Alerts readers to potential dangers in society’s present or future course.
Related Genre: Post-apocalyptic fiction.
Example: George Orwell’s 1984.
Epigraph
Definition: A passage printed on the title page or first page of a literary work.
Function: Sets the tone or establishes the theme.
Example: T.S. Eliot’s use of The Divine Comedy in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Epistemology
Definition: The study of knowledge—its origin, nature, methods, and limits.
Manifesto
Definition: A public declaration of policy, beliefs, or artistic principles.
Etymology: From Italian manifesto, meaning “to make solid or real.”
Example: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Novel
Definition: A lengthy fictional prose narrative that develops characters and intricate plots.
Source: The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.
Example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Metafiction
Definition: Fiction about fiction—self-conscious writing that examines its own nature.
Key Concept: Calls attention to the act of storytelling and blurs fiction/reality.
Example: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino.
Poetry
Definition: A literary art form that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language.
Key Characteristics:
Concentrated, experimental language.
Uses meter, imagery, and sound devices.
Example: The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.
Outline
Definition: A tool used to organize the structure and ideas of a piece of writing.
Key Feature: Balances detail with the process of discovery.
Science
Definition: Knowledge acquired by study, observation, and systematic classification.
Historical Context:
Medieval Period: Authority of Church, Aristotle’s influence, alchemy.
Renaissance: Copernicus’s heliocentric model (1543).
17th-18th Century: Francis Bacon (empirical method), John Locke (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding), Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica).
Speculative Fiction
Definition: A genre exploring alternate realities, often linked to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and alternate history.
Example: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Thesis Statement
Definition: A concise statement of the central argument in an essay, appearing at the end of the introduction.
Key Functions:
Arguable position on a text or issue.
Answers the “So what?” question.
Provides a roadmap for the essay.
Short Story
Definition: A brief fictional prose narrative that reveals essential aspects of characters rather than developing them over time.
Source: The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.
Example: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
