ENG 3014
Terms
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- Absurd
- In contemporary literature and criticism, a term applied to the sense that human beings, cut off from their roots, live in meaningless isolation in an alien universe.
- Affective Fallacy
- The incorrect judging of a work of art in terms of the emotional effect it leaves the reader with.
- Anthropomorphism
- The ascription of human characteristics to non-human objects, often divine entities in nature.
- Catharsis
- Purging of an unhealthy emotional state and the reemergence of the character's health.
- Deus Ex Machina
- "God from the machine." An event that changes the fate of the characters in a positive manner.
- Dissociation of Sensibility
- T.S. Eliot, more elevated language and cruder emotions from later poets.
- Expressionism
- A movement that went beyond Impressionism in its efforts to "objectify inner experience." External objects aren't representational, but rather act as transmitters of internal impressions and moods.
- Farce
- A dramatic piece intended to excite laughter, depending less on plot than on improbable situations.
- Free Verse
- A term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry.
- Hermeneutics
- A philosophical technique concerned with the interpretation and understanding of texts.
- Hubris
- Overwhelming pride or insolence that results in the misfortune of the protagonist of a tragedy.
- Intentional Fallacy
- The judging of the success of a work of art by the author's expressed intention in producing it.
- Interior Monologue
- The stream of consciousness in a literary work.
- Mimesis
- A means of perceiving the emotions of characters. Considered to be re-presenting the human emotions in new ways and so re-presenting to the reader the inherent nature of the emotions and the psychological truth of the work of art.
- Negative Capability
- A state of intentional openmindedness; great people have the ability to accept that not everything can be resolved.
- Objective Correlative
- Eliot thought that the only way to express things in art is to find an object, a set of objects, a situation - something concrete that evokes the emotion the artist wants to express.
- Organic Form
- The notion of the structure of a literary work as growing from its conception in the thought, feeling, and personality of a writer rather than being shaped arbitrarily and mechanically in a preconceived mold.
- Pathetic Fallacy
- The description of inanimate natural objects in a manner that endows them with human emotions, thoughts, sensations and feelings. Less formal than personification.
- Personification
- the figure of speech which involves directly speaking of an inanimate object, or an abstract concept, as if it were a living entity, often one with specifically human attributes.
- Synecdoche
- A figure of speech that presents a kind of metaphor in which a part of something is used for the whole or the whole is used for a part.
- Tragic Flaw
- The theory that the main character in a tragedy has a character trait that becomes his/her inevitable downfall.
- Trope
- A figure of speech involving a "turn" or change of sense. I.E. Metaphors, similes, ironical expressions.
- Verisimilitude
- The semblance of truth.