English vocab Flashcards
(20 cards)
Escapism
The tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in other, more appealing realities.
Subversion
The undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution.
Censure
To express severe disapproval of, or anger toward, someone or something.
Metaphor
A direct, non-literal comparison between two subjects, whereby one is named as the other.
Parallel structure
The repetition of the same (or very similar) sentence structure in succession.
Motif
A recurrent symbolic element in a text, such as a sound, action, word or event, used to enrich or embed the ideas or themes present.
Tone
The overall feeling of a text, affected by the author’s attitude and conveyed through diction.
Connotation
Ideas and emotions associated with words or phrases beyond their literal denotation.
Simile
A more indirect, non-literal comparison between two subjects, often using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Personification
The attribution of human traits or characteristics to a non-human subject, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Victorian era
The period of British history roughly corresponding to Queen Victoria’s reign, characterised by strict organising principles and expectations of gender and class.
The Outsider
A person who does not belong to a particular circle, community, or group. This character is in some way different and therefore gains insights from standing on the edge of belonging.
Bildungsroman
Also known as a ‘coming-of-age’ story, this is a common narrative structure in novels, exploring social, moral or psychological tensions.
The Uncanny
Objects, people or things that are at once strange yet familiar, recognisable yet unrecognisable.
The Sublime
Experiences that are not beautiful or enjoyable, but which are thrilling because they are terrifying or overwhelming.
Byronic Hero
A person who is at once charismatic, mysterious and perceptive, and yet arrogant, lacking in self-control, darkly brooding, standing in counterpoint to conventional modes of behaviour.
Hamartia
In Greek, this means “mistake”; it is an honest (but sometimes foolish) mistake that most people in the same situation might make.
Peripeiteia
A “reversal of fortune”; because of the mistake, the character experiences a turn in fortune for the worse.
Anagorisis
A “recognition” of how the original mistake caused the reversal of fortune.
Catharsis
A feeling experienced by the audience of being “purged” or rid of strong emotions, such as pity or fear, at the end of a tragedy.
