terms Flashcards
early modernity
the recognizable beginning of a modern age, with rise of globalization, capitalism, humanism, increasing separation of arts and sciences from each other, empowerment of a middle class, etc.
cultural capital
symbolic elements such as a material belonging, skills, tastes, posture, clothing, mannerisms, credentials, etc. that one acquires from being a part of a social class
Medievalism
post-medieval culture’s recreation of the European middle ages
Didactic
intending to teach, especially moral insurrection
Allegory
narrative strategy that makes use of a literal level of signification and at the same time one or more metaphorical levels. abstract entities, like love or reason, may be personified
idolatry
the fetishtic worship of a physical object as a God
Iconoclasm
the description of idolatrous objects
Tragic hero
a high born man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake
hamartia
mistake
Virago
a domineering, violent or bad-tempered woman (lady macbeth)
providence
the belief that nothing happens that God hasn’t planned, excludes anything like fortune or chance
epic
long verse narrative on a serious subject in a formal style, centered around a heroic figure whose actions determine fate of a tribe, nation or human race
invocation
address to a supernatural being to assist the poet in composition of the epic
epic hero
a heroic, quasi- divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of worlds tribe, nation
conceit
an extended metaphor
Casuistry
ethical reasoning that looks for a just/moral response to circumstances in each particular case (milton in PL)
Soliloquy
when an actor shares their inner thoughts, differ from a monologue because there is no one on stage with them, it is just one actor facing the audience (lady macbeth reading the letter)
Doctrine of predestination
idea that god plans everything, free will doesn’t exist
Apostrophe
direct adress (PL book 4, line 32, milton’s speech to satan)
Monism
belief that everything is one substance, there’s no duality in life
Catabasis
decent to the underworld (in the FQ when Dusses brings RC to the underworld to heal him after he was wounded)
Invocation
blessing, typically at the start of a canto that is calling upon muses or gods to bless the poet and the works
Carpe diem
“seize the day,” the speaker notes that life is short to urge beloved to make the most of the present moment
Trope
the nobel savage
Associative thinking
using other words/phrases from things that they know to depict something that someone doesn’t understand
Semper Eadam
always the same
Prome
preface and poem
Alexandrine
Iambic hexameter, six beats instead of five
Orgololia
pride
Saracen
any follower of Islam, almost labeled as an object or thing because they were supposedly careless for other people and gods
Personification
an idea or thing given human attributes
Archaism
mixture of old fashion words
Epic catalogue
giving reference to something that already existed
Absolutist Monarchy
a king believes that he is way above God, and no one can tell him to say or do anything
Cunning folk
absorbed wisdom about old folk terms
Enjambment
when there is a verse that continues to extend past the line of poetry
Caesura
Stop or cut in the midst of a line
