Terms and concepts Flashcards
same-soul theory
metaphysical; same immaterial soul = same person
physical continuity theory
same material body = same person
psychological continuity theory
psychologically continuous = same person
- consistent stream of conscious
- consistent memories
- stable, long-standing personality traits
gestalt
an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts
- ex. taking apart a car -> are all the pieces and parts still the same car? -> no, it’s missing its gestalt
ballad stanza
- a four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, in iambic meter
- alternating four- and three-stress lines
- usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (in an a/b/c/b pattern
assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences
consonance
the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession
persona
- the person who is understood to be speaking (or thinking or writing)
- the voice chosen by the author for a particular artistic purpose
transferred epithet
- often involves shifting a modifier from the animate to the inanimate
epithet: an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned
ex. “dreamless sleep”
transferred epithet:
the adjective or adverb is transferred from the noun it logically belongs with, to another one which fits it grammatically but not logically
ex. “dreamless night” (a night can’t dream)
intertextuality
- the shaping of a text’s meaning by another text
- intertextual figures include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody
- stronger and more sustained than an allusion (allusion is only a brief reference)
aporia
- a philosophical puzzle, paradox, or impasse often used in conjunction with ‘deconstruction’
- a state of wonder and awe due to contemplating the mysteries of life and the universe
- an internal contradiction in a statement or theory
- literal translation from Greek is ‘without passage’
- R & G: mixing up their language; in front of a puzzle or paradox and having no words
alterity
- philosophical principle of exchanging one’s own perspective for that of the “other” (how we understand the “other”)
- state of being on the periphery or fringes due to race, gender, class, or ethnicity
- dissimilarity from cultural norms
- a lack of personal identity
theatre of the absurd
- neither tragedy, comedy, or melodrama
- the absurdity of life (particularity government and burocracy )
- dramatic works of the 50’s and 60’s
- the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of purpose
- little dramatic action as conventionally understood; however frantically the characters perform, their busyness serves to underscore the fact that nothing happens to change their existence
theatre by ambush
lots of surprise for the audience
alienation
- breaking the 4th wall
- the audience is called upon to act/react
postmodernism
a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power
postcolonialism
- field of study that focusses on the resurgence of formerly marginalized and oppressed colonial peoples and on their artistic and cultural works
- it looks at the effect of colonization on language, narrative, philosophy, and culture
moral relativism
the truth is relative to every individual and thus is only a consensus
- Player: One acts on assumption. What do you assume?
identity politics
political arguments that focus upon the interest and perspectives of groups with which people identify
terrorism
the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims
anarchism
political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups
(theatre of theatre) metatheatre
theatre which draws attention to its unreality, especially by the use of a play within a play
decentred identity
the self is not bound to one particular identity
fractured identity
- a social event, or series of events, during one’s childhood or adolescence results in a fracturing of the personality
- a small breakage in personality not visible to the outside world
- traumatic events are a precursor to a life of crime and delinquency and mental health issues
supermarket self
you are who you are by virtue of what you buy
Thatcherism
Margaret Thatcher
- sold off all state enterprises
- closed coal mines
- took away social safety nets
- said you must make wealth for yourself
miscegenation
the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types
telescopic omniscience
narrator can zoom in and out on particular characters and periods of time
anagnorisis
- a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery
- revelation about character (what that person stood for)
Operation Blue Star (attack on The Golden Temple)
- military operation in 1984 ordered by PM Indira Gandhi
- to establish control of the Golden Temple and remove a Sikh religious group’s leader and armed followers
- many civilian deaths
- later that year, Gandhi assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards
- anti-Sikh riots followed
the age of anxiety
term coined by W. H. Auden to describe the interwar years (and the immediate post-war)
- quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialized world
- worried about total destruction (fallout shelters)
aleatory composition
composition by chance (Beat poets)
- ex. pick a random word -> the subject of your poem
Horatian satire and Juvenalian satire
Horatian: gentler and witty; makes fun of universal human folly
Juvenalian: harsher and cutting; attacks through satire; aims to provoke change
synecdoche
a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa
- ex. “bread and butter” (for “livelihood”), “suits” (for “businesspeople”), and “boots” (for “soldiers”)
metonymy
a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word
ex. “The pen is mightier than the sword” (the “pen” stands in for “the written word” and the “sword” stands in for “military aggression and force”)
essentialism
- a belief that things have a set of characteristics that make them what they are, and that the task of science and philosophy is their discovery and expression
- ex. the view that categories of people, such as women and men, or heterosexuals and homosexuals, or members of ethnic groups, have intrinsically different and characteristic natures or dispositions
binarism
a mode of thought predicated on stable oppositions (as good and evil or male and female)
political hegemony
political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others
the new capitalism
- postmodern capitalism
- modern corporations provide no long-term stability, benefits, social capital, or interpersonal trust
- too many superfluous people are employed to remain competitive and people should constantly adapt and prove themselves to be assets
- majority of workers face uncertainty and find it difficult to conceive of a life narrative
- Capitalism’s need for potential is increasingly reflected in the education system. SATs favour superficial and adaptive reasoning rather than deeper introspection on the meaning of things
spontaneous prose
reveal true essence of people
parataxis
listing of things
anaphora
repetition
epistrophe
repeating last part of phrase
- ex. “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream”
postmodern identity
strongly determined by outside relationships, not just the individual
mise-en-scene
what’s in the frame (composition)
