Terms Flashcards
Allegory
A story or situation with two different meanings , where the straightforward meaning on the surface is used to symbolise a deeper meaning underneath
Apostrophe
a rhetorical term for speech addressed to a person or thing
Archetype
A typical or representative figure of a particular imposing kind
Aside
Dramatic convention by which a character on stage says something to the audience, but not all the others characters can hear.
Bathos
A ludicrous descent from the elevated treatment of a subject to the ordinary or dull
Blank Verse
Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
Blazon
a poetic device in which the lovers eyes, lips, cheeks and hair are catalogued and separately described.
Caesura
A strong pause for sense and syntax within a metrical line
Carnival
A literary phenomenon described by the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin.
Some writers use their works as an outlet for the spirit of carnival, of popular festivity and misrule. They ‘subvert’ the literary culture of the ruling class, undermining its claim to moral monopoly
Characterisation
The way in which a writer created characters so as to attract or repel our sympathy.
Different kinds of literature have certain conventions of characterisation.
In Jacobean drama there were many stock dramatic ‘types’ whose characteristics were familiar to the audience.
Chorus
Where present in Ancient Greek drama. Usually acted as commentators rather than participant in the event, often with ironic insight
Cliché
A widely used expression which, through overuse, has lost impact and originality
Dramatic Irony
Occurs when the development of the plot means that the audience is in possession of more information about what is happening than some of the characters are
Enjambment
The running over of a statement or sentence from one line of verse to another
Eulogy
formal speech of high praise or commendation
