TTOSF - Vocab Flashcards
aside
common dramatic convention, in which a character speaks in such a way that some of the characters on stage do not hear what is said, while others do.
ballad
poem or song which tells a story in simple, colloquial language. The subject matter of ballads is often violent. During the Elizabethan period ballads were accessible to most people; they were sung in the streets by their sellers, and mass produced. There were a number of comic ballads about shrewish wives.
blank verse
unrhymed verse often in iambic pentameter
comedy
a broad genre which encompasses a large variety of different kinds of literature; however, ‘comedy’ is used most often with reference to a kind of drama which is intended to entertain the audience, and which ends happily for the characters.
commedia dell’arte
(Italian ‘comedy of the professional actors’) a form of drama that evolved in sixteenth-century Italy in which a travelling companies of actors improvised comic plays around standard plots, using stock characters. A typical play might involve a young lover, the ‘Inamorato’, tricking Pantaleone (‘Pantaloon’), a rich old father, into giving up his daughter. Arlecchio (‘Harlequin’), the cunning servant, and Pulcinella (‘Punch’), the hunchback clown, were other stock types.
climax
the high point of the action
dramatic irony
a feature of many plays: it occurs when the development of the plot allows the audience to possess more infomation about what is happening than some of the characters on stage. Characters may also speak or act in an ironic way, saying something that points to events to come without understanding the significance of what they say.
epilogue
concluding speech or passage in a work of literature, often summing up and commenting on what has gone before.
essentialism
the view that people and objects have certain characteristics that are essential to them and are not accidental.
exposition
the opening sections of a play in which infomation vital to the understanding of the plot is conveyed to the audience
farce
drama intended to primarily provoke laughter, using exaggerated characters and complicated plots, full of absurd episodes, ludicrous situations and knockabout action. Farcical episodes date back to Aristophanes and occur alongside serious drama in all ages
feminist
broadly speaking, a political movement claiming economic equality of women with men. Feminist criticism and scholarship seek to explore the masculine ‘bias’ in texts and challange traditional ideas about them, constructing and then offering a feminine perspective on works of art. Since the late 1960’s feminist theories about literature and language, and feminist interpretations of texts have multiplied enormously.
figurative language
any form of expression of grammar which deviates from the plainest expression of meaning is designated ‘figurative language’. Departures into more decorative language are further defined by a large number of terms. Metaphor is probably the figure of speech which most clearly characterises literary language: hence ‘figurative language’ can specifically refer to metaphorical language as well as to language abounding in other figures of speech.
foreshadowing
a device used to suggest what events are to come
humanist
in the Renaissance, a scholar of the humanities, especially classical literature. The humanists’ attitude to the world contrasts with the religious view in centring upon humanity for its own sake rather than treating humankind as a fallen creature who must look to God for goodness; their idea of truth and excellence is based on human values and human experience.
