Miscellaneous Flashcards
The existence of mutually conflicting emotions or attitudes; often used to describe the contradictory attitudes an author takes toward characters & societies & also to describe a confusion of attitudes or response called forth by a work.
Ambivalence
The judging of a work of art by the author’s expressed or ostensible intention in producing it. Like the affective -, is an error particularly when view from an objective theory of art, which means it’s worth or value is within itself & is not dependent on things outside the work such as the author’s intent or purpose in writing it.
Intentional Fallacy
Harsh, abusive language directed against a person or cause. Virtueperative (harshly abusive) writing.
Invective
A display of learning for its own sake. Often used in critical reproach. When style is marked by big words, quotations, foreign phrases, allusions, etc.
Pedantry
A term once limited ti the interpretation or religious texts, particularly the allegorical, but now a synonym for theory of interpretation. The theory of perception & understanding alone w/ the premises, procedures, methods, & limitations of interpretatism.
Hermenutic Circle
A form of irony, a pretended refusal that is insincere or hypocritical.
Accismus
The effect resulting from the unsuccessful effort to achieve dignity or sublimation of style. An unintentional anticlimax dropping from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Bathos
The general environment in which a work is produced.
Milieu
The study of rules that enable signs to have meaning. In literary criticism, it refers to the analysis of literature in terms of language, conventions, & modes of discourse.
Semiotics
Words formed by telescoping 2 words in 1, as the making of “squarson” from “squire” & “parson”, “smog” from “smoke” & “fog”, “motel” from “motor car” & “hotel”, “brunch” from “breakfast” & “lunch”, “palimony” from “pal” & “alimony”. James Joyce uses many - - in -Ulipses- & -Finneganswald-.
Portmanteau Words
A witty playing of words, a clever sally, brief, clever pieces of writing.
Jeu d’esprit
A piece of notably fine writing. A colorful passage standing out from the writing around it. Now & then in a strongly emotional passage, writers will give free play to most of the stylistic tricks in their bag, resulting in a - -. Often used derogatorily.
“Purple Patch”
Characterized by the superfluous. Applied to a style marked by verbiage, an excess of repetition, or pleonasm. The use of repetition or pleonasm may, on occasion, be justified for emphasis, but - is usually unjustified repetition. Also a term for identical rhyme, as in cell & sell.
Redundant
The quality in art & literature that stimulates pity, tenderness, or sorrow.
Pathos
Confused speech, resulting particularly from the mingling of several languages or dialects. Any strange language that sounds uncouth to us. In the sense of outlandish speech. Sometimes = nonsense or gibberish. Also signifies the special language of a group or profession, such as legal - or thrives -.
Jargon
The state of having more than 1 meaning; w/ resultant uncertainty as to the intended significance of the statement. The main because of unintentional - are unduebreuity, faulty sequence, indefinite pronoun reference, & use of a word w/ 2 or more meanings. The kind of - that results from the capacity of words to stimulate simultaneously several different streams of thought, all of which make sense, is a characteristic of the richness & concentration that makes great poetry.
Ambiguity
Used to designate the types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form, technique, or subject matter.
Genre
A concise statement of a principle or precept given in painted words.
Ex: “Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult.”
Aphorism
Combines 2 elements: the idea to be expressed & the individuality of the author. No 2 - are exactly alike. A study of - for the purpose of analysis includes diction, sentence structure, & variety, imagery, rhythm, repetition, coherence, emphasis, & arrangement of ideas.
Style
An inapropriateness of speech resulting from the use of 1 word for another for which it resembles. Named for Mrs. -, a character in Rich & Sheridan’s -The Rivals-, who was constantly saying such things as “as headstrong as an allegory (alligator) on the banks of the Nile.” The nurse in -Romeo & Juliet- says she “confidence” for “conference.”
Malapropism
Relates to both subject & style, a gruesome combination of farce & tragedy. - elements are in T.L. Beddoes & Edgar Allen Poe.
Macabre
A term for something expressive in a personal manner of inward convections, beliefs, dreams, or ideas. Opposed to objective, which is impersonal, concrete, & concerned w/ narrative, analysis, or description of exteriors.
Subjective
The emotional-intellectual attitude of the author toward the subject. A group of poems about death may range from a - of noble defiance in Obnne’s “Death Be Not Proud,” to pathos in Frost’s “Out-Out-,” to irony in Hausman’s “To An Athlete Dying Young,” to morbidly joyous acceptance in Whitman’s “When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” If a distinction between - & tone is present then it will be - as the attitude of the author toward the subject while tone as the attitude of the author toward the audience.
Mood
Contrasting light & shade. Originally applied to painting, the term is used in the criticism of various literary forms involving the contrast of light & darkness as in Hawthorne’s work such as -The Scarlet Letter- & in Fualkner’s -Light in August-. Important in film noir, a type of American crime film that flourished in 1940-1960 characterized by gloomy tone, fast pace, complex texture, exaggerated - & voice-over narration.
Chiaroscuro
An expression used in informal conversation but not accepted in formal speech or writing. Differ from more formal language in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, imagery, or connotation. Often involves the use of slang, contractions & lively conversational rhythms.
Colloquialism
Something that is like another given thing. May mean a word in 1 language corresponding w/ 1 in another, as the English “mother” is an - of the latin “mater.” May refer to 2 versions of the same story, thus the story of the pound of flesh in
- Gesta Romanorum- may be called an - because of the similar plot in
- The Merchant of Venice- by Shakespeare.
Analogue
A method, involving the painstaking analysis of the meanings, relationships, & ambiguities of the words, images, & other small units that make up a literary work.
Explication De Texte
A title, description, direction, or other elements independent but explanatory of the text. Comes from Latin for “red” & derived from the fact that directions for religious services in | | books were printed in red & distinguish them from the text proper - now used for heading, label, or category.
Rubric
A concluding statement- generally applied to the final remark of an actor addressed to the audience.
Epilogue
Scientific study of both language & literature.
Philogy
Writing that consists of little more than a series of incidents, w/ the - succeeding each other, w/ no particularly logical arrangement or complication. The metrical romance & the picturesque novel are said to have - -. Travel books naturally fall into this -.
Episodic Structure
A name that is significant. Ex: a tailor named Taylor, a dentist named Payne. In literature, Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair - she is a sharp woman. An auctioneer named Hammerdown. In -The Beggar’s Opera-, a prison warden named Lockit. Arthur Miller’s Willie Lowman in -The Death of a Salesman- is a low man.
Redende Name
A conclusion- usually restates or summarizes or integrates the preceding themes or movements.
Coda
An old word occasionally found in English, especially in literary titles from the medieval period.
Gest
The privilege, sometimes claimed by poets, of departing from normal order, diction, rhyme, or pronunciation.
Poetic License
A term used by Samuel Johnson for “a combining of dissimilar images or discovery of the occult resemblances in things apparently unlike” in metaphysical poetry. Derived from Horace’s phrase - -, “harmony in discord”.
Discordia Concors
- is a critical term characterizing writing that plays fully on the various - of the reader, not it be confused w/ - which is now generally used in an unfavorable sense & implies writing that is fleshy or carnae in which the author displays the voluptuous. - writing that makes a restrained use of the various senses; - writing that approaches unrestrained abandonments to the passion of physical love.
Sensual/Sensuous
The -ing of events so that the movement of a PLOT is determined or significantly altered w/o a sense of necessity or casual relationships among the events.
Coincidence
The placing of a sentence element out of its normal position.
Inversion
The “- method” in argument or explanation is the use of the question - & answer formula employed by - in Plato’s | |. - would feign (pretend) ignorance & then proceed to develop | | by the question & answer device. The method of assuming ignorance for the sake of taking advantage o the opponent in debate is known as “- irony”.
Socratic
A term for the moment in the work @ which the main action of the plot begins.
Point of Attack
A manifestation or showing forth. Term given currency by James Joyce to designate an event in which the essential nature of something - a person, an object, a situation - is suddenly perceived. A sudden realization of the meaning of something.
Epiphany
The art of persuasion. Having to do w/ the presentation of ideas in clear, persuasive language.
Rhetoric
A word form designed to belittle or ridicule someone or something, such as “so called” & “self-styled” (applied to a leader who fails to lead). Sometimes a belittling suffix, as in poetaster, meaning an incompetent poet.
Pejorative
A text in which ordinary verbal symbols are replaced by pictures & other devices to suggest a total meaning. IOU may be a kind of - (the letters O & U just mean their sounds & play on the words “owe” & “you”. In another variety a 16th century Italian painting shows the letters “CI” inscribed in a small crescent moon, that is “CI” inside “Luna” = Lucina = the name of a woman & also of the Roman goddess of childbirth.
Rebus
The prevailing tone or mood of a literary work, particularly - but not exclusively - when that mood is established in part by setting or landscape. Also an emotional aura that helps establish the reader’s expectations & attitudes. Ex: the brooding sense of fatality created by the description of Edgar Heath @ the beginning of Thomas Hardy’s novel -The Return of Nature-.
Atmosphere
