Vocab 1-162

archaism

"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!" Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

bathos

Alexander Pope coined the usage of ___ to mock the unintentional mishaps of incompetent writers, but later comic authors and poets used ____ intentionally for mirthful effects.

archaism

Artists might choose a ____ over a more familiar word because it is more suitable for meter, for rhyme, for alliteration, or for its associations with the past

allusion

Authors often use _____ to establish a tone, create an implied association, contrast two objects or people, make an unusual juxtaposition of references, or bring the reader into a world of experience outside the limitations of the story itself.

alliteration

Coleridge describes the sacred river Alph in Kubla Khan as "Five miles meandering with a mazy motion," which ____ with the consonant m.

allegory

Contrast with fable, parable, and symbolism

anticlimax

For example: "Osama Bin Laden: Wanted for Crimes of War, Terrorism, Murder, Conspiracy, and Nefarious Parking Practices."

abstract diction

For instance, calling something pleasant or pleasing is abstract, while calling something yellow or sour is concrete.

allusion

For instance, if a teacher were to refer to his class as a horde of Mongols, the students will have no idea if they are being praised or vilified unless they know what the Mongol horde was and what activities it participated in historically.

allegory

If we wish to be more exact, this is an act of interpretation, a way of understanding, rather than a genre in and of itself

anticlimax

In rhetoric, the effect is frequently intentional and comic

alliteration

Most frequently, the _____ involves the sounds at the beginning of words in close proximity to each other.

antithesis

Using opposite phrases in close conjunction

anticlimax

also called bathos

antithesis

contrast to oxymoron

archetype

for example, recurring symbolic situations

anaphora

is the opposite of epistrophe

allusion

A casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification.

anecdote

A good ____ has a single, definite point, and the setting, dialogue, and characters are usually subordinate to the point of the story

antihero

A protagonist who is a non-hero or the antithesis of a traditional hero

allegory

A reading usually involves moral or spiritual concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a narrative

anecdote

A short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event

anaphora

A well known example is the Beatitudes in the Bible, where nine statements in a row begin with "Blessed are." ("Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.")

archaism

A word, expression, spelling, or phrase that is out of date in the common speech of an era

recurring symbolic situations

Also, the long journey, the difficult quest or search, the catalog of difficult tasks, the pursuit of revenge, the descent into the underworld, redemptive rituals, fertility rites, the great flood, the End of the World

anastrophe

Alternatively, we can use the term ____ as a reference to entire narratives in which the sequence of events are chopped into sections and then "shuffled" or "scrambled" into an unusual narrative order

anastrophe

An example of this type of _____ might be the sequence of events in Quentin Tarentino's film Pulp Fiction or Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five.

archetype

An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life

allusion

Authors assume that the readers will recognize the original sources and relate their meaning to the new context.

apostrophe

Death, of course, is a phenomenon rather than a proud person

anachronism

Elizabethan theater often intentionally used ____in its costuming, a tradition that survives today when Shakespeare's plays are performed in biker garb or in Victorian frippery

antithesis

Examples might be, "I burn and I freeze," or "Her character is white as sunlight, black as midnight."

anastrophe

For example, Shakespeare speaks of "Figures pedantical" (LLL 5.2.407).

anaphora

For instance, Churchill declared, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost shall be." The repetition of "We shall. . ." creates a rhetorical effect of solidarity and determination

apostrophe

For instance, John Donne commands, "Oh, Death, be not proud."

anaphora and epistrophe

For instance, Saint Paul writes to the church at Corinth, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they the ministers of Christ? I am more."

anastrophe

For instance, T. S. Eliot writes of "arms that wrap about a shawl" rather than "shawls that wrap about an arm" in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

alliteration

For instance, the phrase "buckets of big blue berries" _____ with the consonant b.

allegory

Greek ("speaking otherwise"). The term loosely describes any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning.

anaphora

Greek, "carried again"

anachronism

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Shakespeare writes the following lines: Brutus: Peace! Count the clock. Cassius: The clock has stricken three (Act II, scene i, lines 193-94).

abstract diction

In the 20th century, the distinction between concrete and abstract has been a subject of some debate.

antihero

In the case of the Byronic and Miltonic ____, the ____is a romanticized but wicked character who defies authority, and becomes paradoxically ennobled by his peculiar rejection of virtue

abstract diction

In the early 1800s, the Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley once again preferred concreteness.

anachronism

Indeed, from surviving illustrations, the acting companies in Elizabethan England appeared to deliberately create ____ in their costumes.

archaism

It also might be attractive as a quick way to defamiliarize an everyday phrase or object.

antithesis

It can be a contrast of opposites: "Evil men fear authority; good men cherish it."

apostrophe

King Lear proclaims, "Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend, / More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child / Than the sea-monster."

anastrophe

Lewis Carroll uses _____ in "Jabberwocky," where we hear, "Long time the manxome foe he sought. / So rested he by the Tumtum tree . . . ."

allegory

Medieval works were frequently _____ such as the plays Mankind and Everyman. Other important _____ works include mythological ____ like Apuleius' tale of Cupid and Psyche in The Golden Ass and Prudentius' Psychomachiae.

anastrophe

Natalie Dorsch's poem, "Just Because," makes use of extended _____ in a clever way to show how delightfully confused the speaker is after a romantic interlude: I walked up the door, shut the stairs, said my shoes, took off my prayers, turned off my bed, got into the light, all because you kissed me goodnight. Here, she makes use of _____in nearly every line.

bathos

Not to be confused with pathos, _____ is a descent in literature in which a poet or writer--striving too hard to be passionate or elevated--falls into trivial or stupid imagery, phrasing, or ideas

anachronism

Of course, there were no household clocks during Roman times, no more than there were DVD players!

anaphora and epistrophe

Often the two can be combined effectively as well.

anastrophe

Particularly clever _____ can become a figure of speech when it alters meaning in unusual ways

anachronism

Placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period

allegory

Poems, novels, or plays can all be ____, in whole or in part

allegory

Probably the most famous____ in English literature is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678), in which the hero named Christian flees the City of Destruction and travels through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castle, and finally arrives at the Celestial City. The entire narrative is a representation of the human soul's pilgrimage through temptation and doubt to reach salvation in heaven.

alliteration

Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound.

anachronism

Some actors would dress in current Elizabethan garb, others in garb that was a few decades out of date, and others wore pseudo-historical costumes from past centuries--all within a single scene or play.

anastrophe

T. S. Eliot writes of "Time present and time past," and so on

anaphora

The intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect

allegory

The label comes from an interaction between symbols that creates a coherent meaning beyond that of the literal level of interpretation.

prosody

The study or analysis of verse poetry--its sounds, rhythms, scansion and meter, stanzaic form, alliteration, assonance, euphony, onomatopoeia, and rhyme

archetype

These images have particular emotional resonance and power

archetype

These would be expressed in the subconscious of an individual who would recreate them in myths, dreams, and literature

allegory

This narrative acts as an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something else on the symbolic level.

allegory

Typically, this involves the interaction of multiple symbols, which together create a moral, spiritual, or even political meaning.

archaism

Until fairly recently, it was still common to find poets using "I ween," "steed," and "gramercy" in their poems, even though they wouldn't use these terms in normal daily speech

archetype

Using the comparative anthropological work of Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough, the psychologist Carl Jung theorized that the archetype originates in the collective unconscious of mankind, i.e., the shared experiences of a race or culture, such as birth, death, love, family life, and struggles to survive and grow up

anecdote

Usually, the ____ does not exist alone, but it is combined with other material such as expository essays or arguments

alliteration

Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" employs the technique: "I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass."

antihero

While the traditional hero may be dashing, strong, brave, resourceful, or handsome, the _____may be incompetent, unlucky, clumsy, dumb, ugly, or clownish

anecdote

Writers may use ____ to clarify points, to humanize individuals, or to create a memorable image in the reader's mind

allusion

____ can originate in mythology, biblical references, historical events, legends, geography, or earlier literary works.

anticlimax

a drop, often sudden and unexpected, from a dignified or important idea or situation to one that is trivial or humorous

anticlimax

a sudden descent from something sublime to something ridiculous. In fiction and drama, this refers to action that is disappointing in contrast to the previous moment of intense interest

anaphora and epistrophe

are examples of rhetorical schemes. They serve to lend weight and emphasis.

allusion

assumes a certain level of education or awareness in the audience, so it should normally be taken as a compliment rather than an insult or an attempt at obscurity.

allegory

can be as short as a single sentence or as long as a ten volume book

archetype

examples can be found cross-culturally

antithesis

express their contrary ideas in a balanced sentence

archetype

for example recurring characters

archetype

for example recurring images

archetype

for example recurring themes

archetype

for example symbolic colors

picaresque novel/picaresque narrative

from Spanish picaro, a rogue or thief

bathos

greek: "depth"

archetype

include a symbol, a theme, a setting, or a character that some critics think have a common meaning in an entire culture, or even the entire human race

antithesis

it can be a contrast of degree: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind."

abstract diction

language that describes qualities that cannot be perceived with the five senses

archetype

recur in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, fairy tales, dreams, artwork, and religious rituals

archaism

still deliberately used by a writer, poet, or playwright for artistic purposes

recurring themes

such as the Faustian bargain; pride preceding a fall; the inevitable nature of death, fate, or punishment; blindness; madness; taboos such as forbidden love, patricide, or incest

recurring symbolic situations

such as the orphaned prince or the lost chieftain's son raised ignorant of his heritage until he is rediscovered by his parents, or the damsel in distress rescued from a hideous monster by a handsome young man who later marries the girl

recurring characters

such as witches as ugly crones who cannibalize children, lame blacksmiths of preternatural skill, womanizing Don Juans, the hunted man, the femme fatale, the snob, the social climber, the wise old man as mentor or teacher, star-crossed lovers

apostrophe

the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present

apostrophe

the act of addressing the abstract has its own rhetorical power

recurring characters

the caring mother-figure, the helpless little old lady, the stern father-figure, the guilt-ridden figure searching for redemption, the braggart, the young star-crossed lovers, the bully, the villain in black, the oracle or prophet, the mad scientist, the underdog who emerges victorious, the mourning widow or women in lamentation

epistrophe

the poet or rhetorician repeats the concluding phrase over and over for effects