World Literature, Philosophy, and Religion Flashcards
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here
A message warning one about a hopeless situation from which there is no return. The Italian version of this phrase appears in Dante’s Divine Comedy as the inscription on the entrance to Hell. The phrase is most often used humorously. I’ll never forget my first day as an intern and the sign above my cubicle that said, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”
theatre of the absurd
Plays that stress the illogical or irrational aspects of experience, usually to show the pointlessness of modern life.
The French Academy
A group of leaders in the literature and thought of France. The French Academy is supported by the government of France and sets standards for use of the French language.
Plato`s Academy
A school of philosophy established by Plato in ancient Athens, named after a legendary Greek hero, Hecademus. The Academy continued in operation for several hundred years.
Advent
The coming of Jesus, either in the Incarnation of biblical times or in the Second Coming at the end of the world. Also, a time observed in many Christian churches in December to prepare for Christmas.
Aeneid (i-nee-id)
An epic(long poem) in Latin by Virgil. The Aeneid begins with the adventures of Aeneas and his men after the Trojan War and ends when Aeneas gains control of the Italian peninsula, which will eventually become the base of the Roman Empire.
Aeschylus (es-kuh-luhs)
An ancient Greek poet, often considered the founder of tragedy. He was the f irst of the three great Greek authors of tragedies, preceding Sophocles and Euripides
Aesop’s fables
A group of stories thought to have been written by Aesop, a Greek storyteller. The main characters in these stories are animals, and each story demonstrates a moral lesson. (See also “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” and “The Tortoise and the Hare.”)
aesthetics
The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of art and with judgments concerning beauty. “What is art?” and “What do we mean when we say something is beautiful?” are two questions often asked by aestheticians.
✥ The term aesthete is sometimes used negatively to describe someone whose pursuit of beauty is excessive or appears phony.
agnosticism (ag-nos-tuh-siz-uhm)
a person who does not have a definite belief about whether God exists or not.A denial of knowledge about whether there is or is not a God. An agnostic insists that it is impossible to prove that there is no God and impossible to prove that there is one.
Aladdin’s lamp
The subject of a story in the Arabian Nights. The young boy Aladdin acquires a magic lamp that, when rubbed, brings forth a genie, who grants Aladdin’s wishes to win the hand of the sultan’s daughter and to build a palace. The magician who first gave Aladdin the lamp steals it back, but Aladdin regains the lamp, and he and the sultan’s daughter live happily ever after.
Ali Baba (ah-lee bah-buh, al-ee bab-uh)
The title character in “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” a story from the Arabian Nights. Ali Baba gains the treasure of the thieves, which they keep in a cave with a magical entrance.
✥Ali Baba opens the door of the thieves’ cave with the magical password “Open, sesame.”
All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
A German novel by Erich Maria Remarque about the horrors and futility of World War I.
✥A film adaptation of the novel appeared in . Widely considered the first major antiwar motion picture of the modern era, it won the Academy Award for best picture. A television adaptation of the film aired in .
Allah
used as the name of God in Islam.The name for God, the Supreme Being, in the Arabic language; the common name for God in Islam.
A.M.E. Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church; an important denomination for AfricanAmericans, founded in by the ex-slave and preacher Richard Allen. It is noted for education and philanthropy in the black community. An offshoot is the C.M.E. (Christian Methodist Episcopal) Church.
Amish (ah-mish, am-ish, ay-mish)
A group of Protestants who broke away from the Mennonites in the seventeenth century. The Amish live in close communities, farm for a living, and do without many modern conveniences, such as telephones, automobiles, and tractor-drawn plows. ✥ Some of the Pennsylvania Dutch are Amish.
Hans Christian Andersen
A nineteenth-century Danish author noted for his fairy tales, including “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Princess and the Pea,”the little mermaid”” and “The Ugly Duckling.”
Anglican Communion
The group of Christian churches historically based in the Church of England. Anglicans combine Catholic and Protestant elements in their teaching, worship, and government. They have bishops, for example, but do not accept the authority of the pope. ✥Nearly all of the churches of the Anglican Communion are in countries that once were possessions of Britain, including the United States, where the Anglican Communion is represented by the Protestant Episcopal Church. Anglicans use the Book of Common Prayer in worship.
animism (an-uh-miz-uhm)
the belief that all plants, animals, and objects have spirits. The belief that natural objects such as rivers and rocks possess a soul or spirit. Anima is the Latin word for “soul” or “spirit.” (See voodoo.)
Anna Karenina (an-uh kuh-ren-uh-nuh)
A novel by Leo Tolstoy; the title character enters a tragic adulterous affair and commits suicide by throwing herself under a train. ✥Anna Karenina begins with the famous sentence “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
anthropomorphism (an-thruh-puh-mawr-fiz-uhm)
is a literary device that can be defined as a technique in which a writer ascribes human traits, ambitions, emotions, or entire behaviors to animals, non-human beings, natural phenomena, or objects.The attributing of human characteristics and purposes to inanimate objects, animals, plants, or other natural phenomena, or to God. To describe a rushing river as “angry” is to anthropomorphize it.
Antigone (an-tig-uh-nee)
A tragedy by Sophocles. It concerns the punishment of Antigone for burying her brother, an act that was forbidden because he had rebelled against his own city. Antigone argues that the burial is required by divine law as opposed to human law.
Thomas Aquinas
A thirteenth-century Italian priest and philosopher who became the most influential theologian of the Middle Ages. Aquinas, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, sought to reconcile faith and reason by showing that elements of the philosophy of Aristotle were compatible with Christianity. His greatest work is the Summa Theologica.
Arabian Nights
A famous collection of Persian, Indian, and Arabian folktales. Supposedly, the legendary Scheherazade told these stories to her husband the sultan, a different tale every night for 1001 days; therefore, the collection is sometimes called The Thousand and One Nights. The Arabian Nights includes the stories of familiar characters such as Aladdin and Ali Baba.
Aristophanes (ar-i-stof-uh-neez)
An ancient Greek dramatist, the author of such comedies as The Clouds andLysistrata.
Aristotle (ar-uh-stot-l)
One of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers, with a large influence on subsequent Western thought. Aristotle was a student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great. He disagreed with Plato over the existence of ideal Forms and believed that form and matter are always joined. Aristotle’s many books include Rhetoric, the Poetics, the Metaphysics, and the Politics.
Babar
The elephant hero of a series of witty children’s books written and illustrated by the twentiethcentury French author Jean de Brunhoff and, later, by his son, Laurent de Brunhoff.
