Week 9 Flashcards
Introduction to Romanticism
The deeper issue(s) underlying a text; the central idea(s) – not overtly stated, but rather implied – that recur throughout a text. Can be thought of as a through-line(s)orthread(s)in a work that connect different events, scenes, and motifs.This is often a universal concept(s)or idea(s) of broad concern that humans grapple with. Examples include heroism, identity, ethics, regret, suffering, love, beauty, mortality, politics, relationships, childhood, nature, loneliness, memory, social class, power, religion, time, mental illness, technology, and many more.
theme
A literary device in which an author places two things side by side as a way of highlighting their differences. Ideas, images, characters, and actions are all things that can be presented in this way. For example, it’s a common plot device in fairy tales such as Cinderella to present the good-natured main character beside a cruel step-sibling. That is an example of ~~~. The differences between the characters, as well as their close relation to one another, serve to highlight the main character’s good qualities.
Example from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a few jarring ~~~s that serve to accentuate the monstrosity as well as the humanity of the Creature that Victor Frankenstein brings to life. The Creature learns to speak in part by reading Milton’s Paradise Lost, and so his language is ornate and elevated, full of thee’s, thy’s, and thou’s. The ~~~ of this elegant, formal speech with the Creature’s ugly, deformed features and terrible strength creates an uncanny, terrifying effect that at the same time increases the reader’s understanding of the Creature’s tragedy, since we see his clear intelligence.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
juxtaposition
A type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, “The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent to their plans.” Describing the rain as “indifferent” is an example of ~~~, because rain can’t be “indifferent,” nor can it feel any other human emotion. However, saying that the rain feels indifferent poetically emphasizes the cruel timing of the rain. ~~~ can help writers to create more vivid descriptions, to make readers see the world in new ways, and to more powerfully capture the human experience of the world (since people really do often interpret the non-human entities of the world as having human traits).
Some additional key details about ~~~:
• ~~~ isn't exclusive to the use of human attributes to describe non-human things. If a writer describes a non-human thing as performing a human action, the writer using ~~~. The sentence, "The rain mocked the wedding guests' plans," qualifies as ~~~ just as much as the sentence, "The rain was indifferent," does. • The word "~~~" has another, separate meaning from its function as a literary device. The word can also be used to indicate that someone embodies a certain quality or concept. For instance, some people think that the Queen of England is the ~~~—or the embodiment—of civility. However, that represents a different use of the word from the literary use.
More examples:
The waves winked in the sunlight.
The wind played hide-and-go-seek among the trees.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
personification
A type of poetic rhythmic pattern that features ten syllables per line, in which the lines are made up of alternating unstressed/stressed syllables.
Here’s an example of a line featuring ~~~ from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets with the stressed syllables underlined:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
The line contains a total of ten syllables, and follows a stress pattern of “da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum.”
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
iambic pentameter
An attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. ~~~ can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. ~~~ emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from britannica.com)
Romanticism
A 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of humanity, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from britannica.com)
Transcendentalism
A phrase that, due to overuse, is seen as lacking in substance or originality. For example, telling a heartbroken friend that there are “plenty of fish in the sea” is such a tired phrase that it would probably not be all that comforting for them to hear, even though the saying is meant to be reassuring. While “~~~” is most often used to describe expressions or phrases, it can be used to label nearly anything related to literature as being boring, tired, or uncreative, including settings, character traits, actions, ideas, images, and plot events or even entire storylines.
Some additional key details about ~~~:
The term carries a negative connotation. ~~~s in works of art are treated as a sign of a lack of originality.
The word is often misused as an adjective (“That’s so ~~~.”) when in fact it is a noun (“That’s a ~~~.”).
Every ~~~ was, at one time, a new and original expression or idea. In most cases, ~~~s become ~~~s because, originally, they were so compelling that they became popular and, eventually, overused.
Types of ~~~s
Most ~~~s are just regular, common ~~~s that involve the expression of a familiar idea in boring, familiar ways. Here are a few examples:
“That night, I cried myself to sleep.”
“I never saw her again.”
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
“It was a cold, dark night in November.”
“I felt like the most beautiful girl in the world.”
There are also some specific types of ~~~s that function in particular ways. The two most common are “thought-terminating ~~~s” and platitudes.
Thought-Terminating ~~~s
Some ~~~s are so simple and ubiquitous that they have the effect of cutting off or discouraging further conversation. These types of ~~~s are called “thought-terminating ~~~s.” They tend to be short phrases that align with commonly-held cultural values and are difficult to refute or disprove. Here are a few examples:
“The customer is always right.”
“To each his own.”
“You win some, you lose some.”
“Rules are rules.”
“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
“There’s no time like the present.”
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
cliché
theme
The deeper issue(s) underlying a text; the central idea(s) – not overtly stated, but rather implied – that recur throughout a text. Can be thought of as a through-line(s)orthread(s)in a work that connect different events, scenes, and motifs.This is often a universal concept(s)or idea(s) of broad concern that humans grapple with. Examples include heroism, identity, ethics, regret, suffering, love, beauty, mortality, politics, relationships, childhood, nature, loneliness, memory, social class, power, religion, time, mental illness, technology, and many more.
juxtaposition
A literary device in which an author places two things side by side as a way of highlighting their differences. Ideas, images, characters, and actions are all things that can be presented in this way. For example, it’s a common plot device in fairy tales such as Cinderella to present the good-natured main character beside a cruel step-sibling. That is an example of ~~~. The differences between the characters, as well as their close relation to one another, serve to highlight the main character’s good qualities.
Example from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a few jarring ~~~s that serve to accentuate the monstrosity as well as the humanity of the Creature that Victor Frankenstein brings to life. The Creature learns to speak in part by reading Milton’s Paradise Lost, and so his language is ornate and elevated, full of thee’s, thy’s, and thou’s. The ~~~ of this elegant, formal speech with the Creature’s ugly, deformed features and terrible strength creates an uncanny, terrifying effect that at the same time increases the reader’s understanding of the Creature’s tragedy, since we see his clear intelligence.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
personification
A type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, “The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent to their plans.” Describing the rain as “indifferent” is an example of ~~~, because rain can’t be “indifferent,” nor can it feel any other human emotion. However, saying that the rain feels indifferent poetically emphasizes the cruel timing of the rain. ~~~ can help writers to create more vivid descriptions, to make readers see the world in new ways, and to more powerfully capture the human experience of the world (since people really do often interpret the non-human entities of the world as having human traits).
Some additional key details about ~~~:
• ~~~ isn't exclusive to the use of human attributes to describe non-human things. If a writer describes a non-human thing as performing a human action, the writer using ~~~. The sentence, "The rain mocked the wedding guests' plans," qualifies as ~~~ just as much as the sentence, "The rain was indifferent," does. • The word "~~~" has another, separate meaning from its function as a literary device. The word can also be used to indicate that someone embodies a certain quality or concept. For instance, some people think that the Queen of England is the ~~~—or the embodiment—of civility. However, that represents a different use of the word from the literary use.
More examples:
The waves winked in the sunlight.
The wind played hide-and-go-seek among the trees.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
iambic pentameter
A type of poetic rhythmic pattern that features ten syllables per line, in which the lines are made up of alternating unstressed/stressed syllables.
Here’s an example of a line featuring ~~~ from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets with the stressed syllables underlined:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
The line contains a total of ten syllables, and follows a stress pattern of “da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum.”
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
Romanticism
An attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. ~~~ can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. ~~~ emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from britannica.com)
Transcendentalism
A 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of humanity, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths.
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from britannica.com)
cliché
A phrase that, due to overuse, is seen as lacking in substance or originality. For example, telling a heartbroken friend that there are “plenty of fish in the sea” is such a tired phrase that it would probably not be all that comforting for them to hear, even though the saying is meant to be reassuring. While “~~~” is most often used to describe expressions or phrases, it can be used to label nearly anything related to literature as being boring, tired, or uncreative, including settings, character traits, actions, ideas, images, and plot events or even entire storylines.
Some additional key details about ~~~:
The term carries a negative connotation. ~~~s in works of art are treated as a sign of a lack of originality.
The word is often misused as an adjective (“That’s so ~~~.”) when in fact it is a noun (“That’s a ~~~.”).
Every ~~~ was, at one time, a new and original expression or idea. In most cases, ~~~s become ~~~s because, originally, they were so compelling that they became popular and, eventually, overused.
Types of ~~~s
Most ~~~s are just regular, common ~~~s that involve the expression of a familiar idea in boring, familiar ways. Here are a few examples:
“That night, I cried myself to sleep.”
“I never saw her again.”
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
“It was a cold, dark night in November.”
“I felt like the most beautiful girl in the world.”
There are also some specific types of ~~~s that function in particular ways. The two most common are “thought-terminating ~~~s” and platitudes.
Thought-Terminating ~~~s
Some ~~~s are so simple and ubiquitous that they have the effect of cutting off or discouraging further conversation. These types of ~~~s are called “thought-terminating ~~~s.” They tend to be short phrases that align with commonly-held cultural values and are difficult to refute or disprove. Here are a few examples:
“The customer is always right.”
“To each his own.”
“You win some, you lose some.”
“Rules are rules.”
“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
“There’s no time like the present.”
(Definition retrieved and lightly modified from litcharts.com)
