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lit terms 12 > quiz on fri > Flashcards

quiz on fri Flashcards

1
Q

rhetorical question

A
  • a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer
  • ex/ “why are you so stupid?”
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2
Q

pastiche

A
  • creative work that imitates another author or genre. way of paying respect, or honour, to great works of the past. often humorous but not mocking like a parody
  • ex/ “treasure” by Bruno Mars is a pastiche to 70’s disco
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3
Q

palimpsest

A
  • something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface
  • ex/ the internet is a palimpsest (everything keeps refreshing to match the current)
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4
Q

antithesis

A
  • the opposite of a statement, concept, or idea. pair of statements in which the one reverses the other. used to emphasize a concept, idea, or conclusion
  • ex/ “to err is human; to forgive, divine” - Alexander Pope
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5
Q

lost generation

A
  • refers to a group of writers and poets who were men and women of the post WW1 period. they didn’t know what to believe in anymore
  • ex/ Ernest Hemingway`
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6
Q

apocrypha

A
  • refers to body of esoteric (aka exclusive) writings that were at first prized, later tolerated, and finally excluded. any writings of dubious authority
  • ex/ bigfoot
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7
Q

courtly love

A
  • medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman, highlighting nobility and chivalry
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8
Q

paen

A
  • a work (usually song) that praises or honours its subject, can be a song or hymn
  • ex/ a paean to the queen on her 50th birthday
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9
Q

deus ex machina

A
  • “a god from the machine.” when some new character, force, or event suddenly shows up to solve a seemingly hopeless situation. it undermines the tension of the story and is often disappointing for readers. based on luck
  • ex/ Little Red Riding Hood. girl’s eaten by wolf but random wood guy comes out of absolutely nowhere and saves her
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10
Q

analogy

A
  • 2 unrelated objects are compared for their shared qualities. not a figure of speech and used to make strong arguments
  • ex/ every choice made is like spinning wheel of fortune—sometimes you get the good results, while sometimes you end up with something you hoped to avoid
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11
Q

deconstruction

A
  • involves close reading of texts to demonstrate that any given text has contradictory meanings, rather than being a unified, logical whole
  • ex/ rereading a novel 20 years later and seeing how it has different meanings each time
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12
Q

epithet

A
  • nicknames that replace the name of a person and often describe them in some way
  • ex/ daddy longlegs
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13
Q

blank generation

A
  • term applied to a range of American contemporary post-punk or transgressive (meaning that they challenge boundaries) fiction writers of the 1970s and 1980s
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14
Q

ambiguity

A
  • idea or situation that can be understood in more than one way. often viewed in a negative light, but can be a good thing in poetry and storytelling
  • ex/ I went out in the woods and found a bat
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15
Q

Petrarchan sonnet

A
  • has 14 lines and a kind of flexible rhyme scheme. first 8 lines follow an ‘abbaabba’ rhyme scheme, but the rhyme scheme of last 6 lines varies
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16
Q

decadence

A
  • late-19th-century artistic and literary movement, centred in Western Europe. followed an ideology of excess and artificiality, period of deterioration of art/lit that follows an era of great achievement
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17
Q

pastoral

A
  • class of literature that presents the society of shepherds as free from the complexity and corruption of city life. prominent in 16-18th century, peaked in 17th century.
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18
Q

bombast

A
  • speech or writing that is excessively elaborate, pompous, grandiose, pretentious, or boastful. this writing is mostly for show and can be meaningless
  • ex/ the president’s speech was by far the greatest speech ever given in the history of the world
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19
Q

nihilism

A
  • belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known/communicated. often associated with extreme pessimism that condemns existence. true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy
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20
Q

doggerel

A
  • poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for comic effect. Also, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap/trivial meaning
  • ex/ many pop songs like Sorry by JB
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21
Q

catharsis

A
  • “cleansing.” first developed by Aristotle. any form of art/media that makes us feel strong negative emotions, but that we are still drawn to – we seek out art that creates these emotions as the experience purges them from our system. like blowing off steam
  • ex/ the reason why people like sad/dark/angry music
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22
Q

muses

A
  • 9 goddesses of classical mythology who presided over learning and arts. especially associated with poetry. ancient Greek/Roman writers would ask for the aid of the Muses in their composition
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23
Q

kitsch

A
  • mostly applies to art but some writing. refers to pretentious/shallow stuff, calculated to have popular appeal. sometimes appreciated in a knowingly ironic or humorous way
  • ex/ the cat in the dress painting thing
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24
Q

dadaism

A
  • all about rejecting the mainstream. relies heavily on nonsense to stress how meaningless modern life is. it also hates materialism. started in 1916 in Zurich in reaction to WW1
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25
Q

baroque

A

extravagant, heavily ornamented, and/or bizarre. very flowery. used in 16/17th century

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26
Q

satire

A
  • use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices
  • ex/ zoolander
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27
Q

beat generation

A
  • started in the 1950s. challenged the establishment and its materialism/conformity, instead embracing sex, drugs, and jazz
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28
Q

existentialism

A
  • emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe
  • ex/ the stranger by Alexander camus
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29
Q

denotation

A
  • a word’ or thing’s literal or main definition. completely absent of emotion
  • ex/ commonly used in recipes. very clear and concise terms
30
Q

bowdlerize

A
  • to remove certain parts of lit. publishers may bowdlerize to make a text simpler or less offensive
  • ex/ Thomas Bowdler: famously, and controversially, published a bowdlerized version of Shakespeare’s collected works to create The Family Shakespeare
31
Q

panegyric

A
  • formal public speech/written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally highly studied and undiscriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical
  • ex/ members of Trump’s Presidential Cabinet each delivered a televised panegyric in praise of him during Cabinet’s first meeting
32
Q

epistolary novel

A
  • literary genre pertaining to letters, in which writers use letters, journals, and diary entries in their works, or they tell their stories or deliver messages through a series of letters
  • ex/ blogs
33
Q

byronic hero

A
  • type of fictional character who is a moody, brooding rebel, often one haunted by a dark secret from his past
  • ex/ batman or will from clockwork angel stuff
34
Q

bathos

A
  • anticlimactic. an abrupt turn from the serious and poetic to the regular and silly. also could be sentimental pathos (overdone)
  • ex/ for a moment, nothing happened. then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen
35
Q

polemic

A
  • stems from greek word polemikos = war. strong attack or argument against something. topic is usually controversial and significant
  • ex/ someone making argument against death penalty
36
Q

realism/naturalism

A
  • realism: describes story elements, such as setting, characters, themes, etc., without using elaborate imagery, or figurative language like similes and metaphors. writers explain things without sugar-coating the events. depicts things as they are. ex/ the crucible!!! Naturalism depicts things realistically, but focused on the inability of people to resist the forces of nature. ex/ the painted door :)
37
Q

picaresque

A
  • narrative fiction made up of the adventures of a wily hero. hero is lower class scoundrel who always gets through by the skin of his teeth
  • ex/ Aladdin?? maybe
38
Q

bard

A
  • a poet, especially one who writes impassioned, lyrical, or epic verse
39
Q

parody

A
  • work that’s created by imitating an existing original work in order to make fun of or comment on an aspect of the original
  • ex/ a bunch of SNL stuff
40
Q

humours

A
  • makes audiences laugh. breaks the boredom/tension and make the audience’s nerves relax
  • ex/ Steve in stranger things during suspenseful scenes
41
Q

farce

A
  • comedy in which everything is absolutely absurd. usually involves some kind of deception/miscommunication. sometimes involves cases of mistaken identity. slapstick humour is a common feature
  • ex/ Friends
42
Q

appolonian

A
  • relating to, or resembling Apollo. 1 of the 2 opposing elements in Greek tragedy. Apollonian attributes are reason, culture, harmony, and restraint. opposed by Dionysian characteristics
  • ex/ Jem from the clockwork angel stuff
43
Q

sentimentality

A
  • exploits reader’s capacity for tenderness/compassion/sympathy to a disproportionate degree by presenting a unrealistic view of its subject. refers to European novelistic development in 18th century partly due to the rationalism of the Neoclassical period. feelings over reasoning
44
Q

didactic

A
  • literary texts that are overloaded with informative or realistic matter, not flowery. may refer to forms of literature that are very scholarly and dull. some are still interesting though
  • ex/ a textbook
45
Q

elegiac

A
  • poem or song written in honour of someone deceased. typically laments or mourns the death of the individual. has the capacity to express emotions that deeply influence people
  • ex/ Marc Antony’s elegy about Caesar
46
Q

futurism

A
  • 20th century Italian/Russian movement in lit/arts. declared radical disassociation from the past and a focus on new art/tech/politics. it showed a preference for the arts that challenged conservative social elements and to provoke a violent negative response`
47
Q

surrealism

A
  • bizarre/disjointed, but still understandable. surrealist novels often are dreamlike. they sort of make sense, but they’re hard to follow
  • ex/ “what miracle is this? this giant tree. it stands ten thousand feet high but doesn’t reach the ground. still it stands. its roots must hold the sky”
48
Q

objective correlative

A
  • group of things/events which systematically represent emotions. must be a connection between the emotion the poet is trying to express and the object/image/situation in the poem that helps to convey that emotion to the reader
  • ex/“the sleep-walking scene” in McB. Shakespeare conveys lady McB’s state of mind through unconscious repetition of her past actions. Her mental agony is seen by the eyes and felt by the heart
49
Q

comedy of manners

A
  • genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660-1710) that questions and comments on the manners/social conventions of sophisticated, artificial society
50
Q

black/gallows humour

A
  • used in novels/plays to discuss taboo subjects while adding comedy. a non-serious way of dealing with serious subjects. is a tool to explore serious issues, inciting serious thoughts and discomfort in the audience
  • ex/ Deadpool
51
Q

hubris

A
  • “overconfidence.” when somebody gets so confident that they start to believe they’re invincible and make foolish decisions that ultimately bring about their defeat.
  • ex/ it has been argued that Hitler’s hubris cost him the war
52
Q

icon

A
  • symbol/embodiment of something greater

- ex/ Shakespeare is an iconic literary figure

53
Q

proverb/parable

A
  • para: short story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. comes from Greek word meaning “comparison.” ex/ boy who cried wolf. proverb: short saying that usually emerges from general culture rather than by singular author. ex/ if you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both (Russian)
54
Q

invocation

A
  • address to deity/muse that often is a request for help in composing the poem at hand. can occur at the beginning of poem/start of a new canto; they are considered conventions of the epic form
  • ex/ “sing heav’nly muse” at beginning of John Milton’s Paradise Lost
55
Q

peripateia

A
  • “reversal.” turning point in drama. plot starts to move to its tragic finale. discussed by Aristotle as shift of tragic protagonist’s fortune from good to bad, essential to plot of a tragedy
  • ex/ when Macbeth has planned for banquo’s murder
56
Q

poete maudit

A
  • refers to poet being outcast of modern society, brilliant but self-destructive writer misunderstood by an indifferent society
57
Q

aphorism

A
  • short statement of a general truth, insight, or good advice. similar to a “saying.” may use metaphors/creative imagery to get their point across. more direct than a proverb
  • ex/ it’s a sign of weakness to avoid showing signs of weakness.
58
Q

objectivity

A
  • writing that you can verify through evidence and facts. must remain neutral through use of facts/statistics/research. best used when you must present unbiased info to audience and let them determine own opinion
  • ex/ news reports
59
Q

archetype

A
  • idea/symbol/pattern/character-type in story. story element that constantly appears in stories from cultures around the world and symbolizes something universal in human experience
  • ex/ the trickster like Reggie
60
Q

dionysian

A
  • characteristic of the god Dionysus; a sensuous, frenzied, or orgiastic character. counters the appolonian aspect of a character. these 2 aspects make a tragic story
61
Q

carpe diem

A
  • “pluck the day when it is ripe.” it’s a proverb and central theme in much literature. sheds light on Epicureanism, which asserts that pleasure is greatest good, in order to attain pleasure, one must live an enjoyable/luxurious life, without paying any attention to any other thing
  • ex/ YOLO
62
Q

persona

A
  • latin for mask worn by stage actors which represented their characters. it refers to the voice of a particular kind of character who is also the narrator within a literary work written from the first-person point of view. it’s a personality
  • ex/ you use a different persona around young children than you would around your teacher
63
Q

platonism

A
  • belief that physical objects are impermanent representations of unchanging ideas, and that the ideas alone give true knowledge as they are known by the mind
  • ex/ pi has the characteristics it does regardless of any mental or physical activities of human beings.
64
Q

allegory

A
  • story within a story. has a “surface story” and another story hidden underneath
  • ex/ story about 2 neighbours throwing rocks at each other’s homes, but hidden story is that 2 neighbouring countries are at war with each other
65
Q

mystery plays

A
  • medieval times. usually representing biblical subjects and depicted such subjects as the Creation or Adam and Eve
66
Q

epigram

A
  • short but insightful statement, often in verse form, which communicates a thought in a witty, paradoxical, or funny way
  • ex/ I can resist everything but temptation
67
Q

jargon

A
  • specific type of language used by particular group/profession. can describe language which is overly technical/obscure/pretentious in negative way
  • ex/ “I feel comfortable using legal jargon in everyday life: I object!” in legally blonde (she says “I object” to reject catcallers)
68
Q

stream of consciousness

A
  • method of narration that describes happenings in the flow of thoughts in minds of the characters. character describes thoughts to himself so it’s different from a monologue in which character talks to audience
69
Q

philippic

A
  • fierce condemnation of a subject; a rant
  • ex/ in 351 BCE, the Greek orator Demosthenes delivered fiery speech to warn his countrymen against imperialistic designs of the king of Macedon, and chastising them for their inaction
70
Q

assonance/consonance

A

ass: - repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences. ex/ yeet skeet repeat
cons: - combo of consistently copied consonants! same consonant sound appears repeatedly in a line/sentence, creating rhythmic effect. ex/ are you asking me to come up with examples of consonance?

71
Q

semantics

A
  • refers to the different meanings of words, phrases, signs, or other symbols. meaning in one word influences meaning in another word/sign. allow us to communicate/“read” the world in many meaningful ways
  • ex/ white wine, white skin, white noise, white lie
72
Q

cacophony

A
  • use of word combo w/loud, harsh sounds in reality and lit. used for a noisy or jarring poetic effect
  • ex/ he is a rotten, dirty, terrible, trudging, stupid dude!

lit terms 12 (1 decks)

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