Exam 4 Terms Flashcards
romans a clef
a story with a “key”; the characters represent real people under false names
Royalist
Someone who supported the supremacy of the monarchy rather than of parliament; fought for King Charles I
Satire
a genre of literature in which the flaws of a
target (person, culture, ideology, world) are exposed and
examined.
Reason
Often contrasted with the “passions” by the satirists. For Rochester (and Hobbes), reason is never fully achieved; humanity keeps messing things up whenever we try to achieve true reason. We rely on our passions. This is a deep pessimism of humanity.
Passions
The metaphorical hungers of humanity; relies on emotions and the five senses rather than on reason.
For Pope, the passions motivate, move us to action, and reason restrains us.
Whig
a person who supported the supremacy of the parliament over the supremacy of the monarchy; another word for a Parliamentarian
Yahoo
- Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
- humanity stripped of its reason; naked and fling feces at people; cannot communicate; wild people
Tramecksan and Slamecksan
groups of people in Gulliver’s Travels meant to represent the Tories and the Whigs. Their names are similar because Swift thought their differences were inconsequential.
Tory
Someone who supported the supremacy of the monarchy over the supremacy of the parliament.
Sir Robert Walpole
Whig politician; generally known as the first prime minster of great Britain; Swift satirized Walpole and his practices in Gulliver’s Travels through the character of Flimnap.
Scriblerus Club
Group of satirists: Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay, Thomas Parnell, and John Arbuthnot
“the thing which is not”
Gulliver’s Travels
The term the Houyhnhnm’s use to describe a lie
The Glorious Revolution
the events of 1688 where James II was deposed and his daughter Mary II and her husband William of Orange ascended to the throne.
Who wrote “An Essay on Man”?
Alexander Pope
What is another word for “self-love” according to Pope?
- Passions.
- For Pope, reason is meant to care for the passions–– Care as in be invested in but also as in to attend or to guide.
Nature
Two kinds: the natural world and human nature. Human nature is a mixture of reason and passion and they must work together (be balanced) for a human to function properly and not be a beast (Yahoo).
Optimistic Philosophy
- Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man”
- a reference to the belief that our ordered world is run by a benevolent God and therefore we live in the best possible version of our world (hence the optimism)
Blefuscu
- Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
- island nation neighbouring the Lilliputians (tiny people)
Big Endian
- People of Lilliput who represents the one of the two opposing political parties in the nation
- satire reference between Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England
Broadside
A large sheet of paper printed on one side only. One way for poets to publish their writing from the 16th-19th centuries. Discussed in relation to Wilmot.
Cavalier poet
- Any of a group of English gentlemen poets, called Cavaliers because of their loyalty to Charles I (1625–49) during the English Civil Wars, as opposed to Roundheads, who supported Parliament.
Class
- Pope focuses on the hierarchy or order of the universe through the four epistles in “Essay on Man”. For example in this “chain of being” humans are placed higher than animals in the universe.
Conceit
An extended metaphor
often utilized by the Metaphysical poets, including Donne and Phillips
Friendship
Having to do with Katherine Phillips’ friendship poems.
“Heav’n’s Design”
- Alexander Pope
- Talks about how heaven cannot be broken by earthly things. Pope says that heaven is perfect and it is not heaven’s fault that man is not perfect, rather man is as perfect as man can be.
Heroic Couplets
- a specific form of rhymed poetry consisting of pairs of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter. Each line typically contains ten syllables, following a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables known as iambic pentameter. The rhyming couplets are often end-stopped, meaning that each pair of lines forms a complete thought or sentence.
- Discussed in relation to Wilmot and Pope.
High Church Anglican
- Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
- Aligned more closely with the beliefs of the Catholic church
Holograph
- Katherine Philips’ “Friendship in Emblem, or the Seal, to my Dearest Lucasia”
- A manuscript handwritten by the person named as its author
Houyhnhnm
- Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
- the last group of beings, talking horses, that are known for having a rational, orderly, peaceful society (but also very lacklustre and lacking in any individuality)
Ignis fatuus
Latin for “foolish fire”, this term is present in Wilmot’s “Satire Against Reason and Mankind”
According to Gulliver’s master, what is the point of language?
to understand each other and receive information
Lilliputian
the first group Lemuel Gulliver encounters in his travels
- tiny people, just a few inches tall
- they are generous and accommodating, but also petty and childish
Low Church Anglican
more liberal in their religious beliefs and further away from Catholicism and dogma than High Church Anglican
Menippean Satire
- rather lengthy prose (anything that’s not poetry) that approaches the novel in form or genre
- Takes as its objects ideas and abstract concepts, rather than specific people
“moral beings”
- Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man”
- Pope refers to human beings as entities capable of moral reasoning, ethical decision-making, and the pursuit of virtuous behaviour
- Emphasizes the importance of humility, self-awareness, and moderation in human conduct
Should I put my name on every exam page, or just the first one?
I should put my name on every exam page to help my TA retain her sanity.
