Wilde's Techniques - Key Terms Flashcards
Ambiguity
Where words have multiple or uncertain meanings.
Affectation
Behaviour, speech or writing that is pretentious and designed to impress.
Camp
In a literary sense the word refers to an attitude to life and the arts as ironic, stylised and distanced. Often relies on a comically exaggerated responses to inappropriate subjects.
Characterisation
Manner in which a character is constructed and portrayed.
Dandy
Attractive, witty and worldly man with a fixation on enjoyment.
Denouement
The unfolding of the plot at the end of the play.
Dramatic irony
The audience posses more information about what is happening or being said than the characters.
Epigram
A pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing manner.
Euphemism
Unpleasant facts or words expressed more pleasantly.
Exposition
The beginning of a play in which essential background information is established.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration.
Incongruity
Contrary to what is expected.
Ingénue(e)
A stock character from the comedy of manners. Usually female, often from the country, she is innocent, naive, artless and easily manipulated.
Innuendo
An allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive one.
Irony
Where something is said but something else is meant.
