Kirzner Terminology Flashcards
(200 cards)
1
Q
Iambic hexameter, a common form in French poetry but relatively rare in English poetry
A
Alexandrine
2
Q
Story with two parallel and consistent levels of meaning, one literal and one figurative, in which the figurative level offer’s a moral or political lesson; John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
A
Allegory
3
Q
Has only one meaning (for instance, it may represent good or evil), as opposed to a symbol, which may suggest a complex network of meanings
A
Allegorical figure
4
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The system of ideas that conveys the allegory’s message
A
Allegorical framework
5
Q
Repetition of initial sounds in a series of words
A
Alliteration
6
Q
Reference, often to literature, history, mythology, or the Bible, that is unacknowledged in the text but that the author expects the reader to recognize
A
Allusion
7
Q
International device in which authors invoke a number of possible meanings of a word or grammatical structure by leaving unclear the meaning they intend .
A
Ambiguity
8
Q
Has three syllables, two unstressed and the third stressed
A
Anapest
9
Q
Character who is in conflict with or opposition to the protagonist; the villain . Sometimes a force or situation rather than a person .
A
Antagonist
10
Q
Modern character who possesses the opposite attributes of a hero. Rather than being dignified and powerful, tends to be passive and ineffectual. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman
A
Antihero
11
Q
Figure of speech in which an absent character or personified force or object is addressed directly, as if it were present or could comprehend
A
Apostrophe
12
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Image or symbol that is so common or significant to a culture that it seems to have a universal importance .
A
Archetype
13
Q
Stage in which the actors are surrounded by the audience; also called theater in round .
A
Arena stage
14
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Brief comment spoken by the actor to the audience and assumed not to be heard by other characters
A
Aside
15
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Reposition of vowel sounds in a series of words: “creep three feet”
A
Assonance
16
Q
Tone or mood of a literary work, often established by the setting and the language . The emotional aura that determines readers expectations about a work .
A
Atmosphere
17
Q
Poem about morning usually celebrating the dawn
A
Aubade
18
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Narrative poem, rooted in oral tradition, usually arranged in quatrains rhyming abcb and containing a refrain
A
Ballad
19
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Alternates lines of eight and six syllables . Typically only the second and fourth lines rhyme
A
Ballad stanza
20
Q
Short tale usually including a moral, in which animals assume human characteristics
A
Beast fable
21
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Comedy that relies on the morbid and absurd . Often are so satiric that they become ironic and tragic
A
Black comedy
22
Q
Lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter in no particular stanzaic form .
A
Blank verse
23
Q
Decisions about how characters move and where they stand on stage in a dramatic production
A
Blocking
24
Q
Harsh or unpleasant spoken sound created by clashing consonants
A
Cacophony
25
Strong or long pause in the middle of a poetic line created by punctuation or by the sense of the poem
Caesura
26
Literally, "seize the day" the philosophy that gave its name to a kind of seventeenth-century poetry arguing that one should enjoy life today before it passes one by
Carpe diem
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Traditionally, the moment in a tragedy after the climax, when the rising action has ended and the falling action begun, when the protagonist begins to understand the implications of events that will lead to his or her downfall, and when such events start to occur
Catastrophe
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Aristotle's term for the emotional reaction or "purgation" that takes place in the audience watching a tragedy
Catharsis
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rhyme that occurs in the first syllable or syllables of the line
Beginning rhyme
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What happens in a drama
action
31
Fictional representation of a person, usually but not necessarily in a psychologically realistic way.
Character
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Well developed, closely involved in the action and responsive to it.
Round character
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static, stereotypical,
Flat Character
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growing and changing in the course of action
Dynamic Character
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remaining unchanged
Static Character
36
Way in which writers develop their characters and reveal those characters' traits to readers
Characterization
37
Group of actors in classical Greek drama who comment in unison on the action and the hero; they are led by the Choragos
Chorus
38
Attitude toward art that values symmetry, clarity, discipline, and objectivity. Neoclassicism, such as that practiced in eighteenth-century Europe, appreciated those qualities as found in Greek and Roman art and culture; Alexander Pope's poetry follows neoclassical principles.
Classicism
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Overused phrase of expression
cliché
40
Point of greatest tension or importance, where the decisive action of a play or story takes place.
Climax
41
Type of poetic structure that has a recognizable rhyme scheme, meter, or stanzaic pattern.
Closed form
42
Play meant to be read instead of performed--for example, Shelly's Prometheus Unbound
closet drama
43
Any literary work, but especially a play, in which events end happily, a character's fortunes are reversed for the better, and a community is drawn more closely together, often by the marriage of one or more protagonists at the end.
Comedy
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Comedy that focuses on characters whose behavior is controlled by a characteristic trait, or humor, such as Volpone (1606) by Ben Johnson, who popularized the form.
Comedy of humors
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Satiric comedy that developed during the sixteenth-century and achieved great popularity in the nineteenth century. This form focuses on the manners and customs of society and directs its satire against the characters who violate its social conventions and norms. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde .
Comedy of manners
46
Extended or complicated metaphor, common I the Renaissance, that is impressive largely because it shows an author's power to manipulate and sustain a striking comparison between two dissimilar items; John Donne's use of the compass metaphor in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is an example.
Conceit
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Poem whose typographical appearance on the page reinforces its theme, as with George Herbert's "Easter Wings."
Concrete poem
48
Struggle between opposing forces (protagonist and antagonist) in a work of literature
Conflict
49
Meaning that a word suggests beyond its literal, explicit meaning, carrying emotional associations, judgments, or opinions. Can be positive, neutral, or negative.
Connotation
50
Peak or moment of tension in the action of a story; the point of greatest tension is the climax
Crisis
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Dictionary meaning of a word; its explicit, literal meaning
Denotation
52
Literary, "the god out of the machine": any improbable resolution of plot involving the intervention of some force or agent hitherto extraneous to the story.
Dues ex machina
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Particular regional variety of language, which may differ from the more widely used standard or written language in its pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary. Eliza Doolittle's cockney dialect in the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion is an example
dialect
54
Conversation between two or more characters
dialogue
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Word choice of an author, which determines the level of language used in a piece of literature
diction
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lofty and elaborate diction (typical of Shakespearean nobility)
Formal diction
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diction that is idiomatic and relaxed (like dialogue in John Updike's "A&P")
informal diction
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the specialized diction of a professional or occupational group (such as computer hackers.)
Jargon
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The colloquial expressions, including slag, of a particular group or society
Idiom
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Poetry whose purpose is to make a point or teach a lesson, particularly, common in the eighteenth century
didactic poetry
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phrase or word with a deliberate double meaning, one of which is sexual
double entendre
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literature written to be performed
drama
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Type of poem perfected by Robert Browning that consists of a single speaker talking to no one or more unseen listeners and often revealing much more about the speaker than he or she seems to intend; Browning's "My Last Duchess" is the best known example for this form
Dramatic monologue
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Characters in a play
Dramatis personae
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Poem commemorating someone's death, usually in a reflective or mournful tone, such as A. E. Housman;s "To an Athlete Dying Young."
Elegy
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Leaving out an unstressed syllable or vowel, usually in order to keep a regular meter in a line of poetry ("o'ver" instead of "over," for example).
Elision
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Line of poetry that has a full pause at the end, typically indicated by a period or semicolon
End-stopped-line
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a four-line stanzaic pattern closely related to the ballad stanza. It differs that its rhyme scheme is abab rather than abcb
common measure
69
something whose meaning is so widely understood within a society that authors can expect their audiences to accept and comprehend it unquestioningly--for example, the division of plays into acts with intermissions, or the fact that stepmothers in fairytales are likely to be wicked
Literary convention
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evoke a general and agreed upon response from most people
conventional symbol
71
exists when fate frustrates any effort a character might make to control or reverse his or her destiny
cosmic Irony
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stanzaic form of two lines
couplet
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A type of meter which is composed of three syllables, the first stressed and the subsequent ones unstressed
Dactyl
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Final stage in the plot of a drama or fiction. Here the action comes to an end and remaining loose ends are tied up.
Denouement
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when there is more than one story but one string of events is clearly the most significant, the other stories are called subplots.
Double plot
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Oedipus the King, depends on the audience's knowing something the protagonist has not yet realized (and thus experiencing simultaneously its own interpretation of the events and that of the protagonist).
Dramatic Irony
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Where rhyming syllables are put at the end of a rhyme
End rhyme
78
Line of poetry that ends with no punctuation or natural pause and consequently runs over into the next line
enjambment
79
Three-line conclusion to a sestina that includes all six of the poem's key words, three placed at the ends of lines and three within the lines
Envoi
80
Long narrative poem recounting the adventures of heroes on whose actions depend the fate of a nation or race. Frequently the gods or other supernatural beings take active interest in the events presented .
Epic
81
Generally to describe a sudden moment of revelation about deep meaning inherent in common things.
Epiphany
82
Word consciously chosen for its pleasant connotations; often used for subjects like sex and death whose frank discussion is somewhat taboo in our society.
Euphemism
83
Pleasant spoke sound created by smooth consonants
Euphony
84
First stage of a plot, where the author presents the information the reader or viewer will need to understand the characters and subsequent action.
Exposition
85
Artistic and literary movement that attempts to portray inner experience. It moves away from realistic portrayals of life and is characterized by violent exaggeration of objective reality and extreme with mood and feeling.
Expressionism
86
A comparison used throughout a work.
Extended metaphor
87
Short didactic story, often involving animals or supernatural beings and stressing a plot above character development., whose object is to teach a pragmatic or moral lesson.
Fable
88
Stage in a play's plot during which the intensity of the climax subsides
falling action
89
Trochaic and dactylic meters, so called because they move from stressed to unstressed syllables.
Falling meter
90
Nonrealistic piece of literature that depends on whimsical plot, supernatural or mythical characters, implausible actions, usually with a happy ending
Fantasy
91
Comedy in which stereotypical characters engage in boisterous horseplay and slapstick humor
Farce
92
Form of narrative that is primarily imaginative, though its form may resemble that of a factual writing like history or biography
Fiction
93
(also called double rhyme or falling rhyme) two syllables correspond, the second of which is stressed
Feminine rhyme
94
Expressions that suggest more than their literal meanings.
Figures of speech
95
Figurative language that depends on international overstatement
Hyperbole
96
Concise form of comparison equating two things that may at first seem completely dissimilar
Metaphor
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Figure of speech in which the term for one thing can be applied to another in which it is closely associated
Metonymy
98
Attributing of human qualities to things that are not human
Personification
99
Comparison of two seemingly unlike things using the words "like" or "as"
Simile
100
Figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole
Synecdoche
101
Intentional downplaying of a situation's significance, often for ironic or humorous effect
Understatement
102
Variation on chronological order that presents an event or situation that occurred before the time in which the story takes place
Flashback
103
Minor character whose role is to highlight the main character by giving readers a chance to compare and contrast their qualities.
Foil
104
Each repeated unit of a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
Foot
105
Presentation early in a story of situations, characters, or objects that seem to have no special importance but in fact are later revealed to have great significance
Foreshadowing
106
General organizing principle of a literary work. In poetry, it is described as the presence (or absence) in a particular work of elements like rhyme, meter, and stanzaic pattern.
Form
107
open form poetry makes use of varying line lengths, abandoning stanzaic divisions, breaking lines in unexpected places, and even abandoning any pretense of formal structure
Free verse
108
The five parts of classic dramatic plots: exposition, complication (the introduction of elements that will lead to conflict and ultimately crisis), climax, catastrophe, and resolution.
Freytag's Pyramid
109
Category of literature. Fiction, drama, and poetry are the three major genres; subgenres include the novel, the farce, and the lyric poem.
Genre
110
Seventeen syllable, three-line form of Japanese verse that almost always uses concrete imagery and deals with the natural world.
Haiku
111
Aristotle's term for the "tragic flaw" in characters that eventually causes their downfall in Greek tragedy.
Hamartia
112
Traditionally, the use of the Bible to interpret other historical or current events; in current critical theory, the principles and procedures followed to determine the meaning of text
Hermeneutics
113
First used by Chaucer and especially popular throughout the eighteenth century, as in Alexander Pope's poetry, consists of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter with a weak pause after the first line and a strong pause after the second.
Heroic Couplet
114
Term introduced in 1877 by George Meredith to denote comedy that appeals to the intellect, such as Shakespeare's As You Like IT.
High Comedy
115
Tragic flaw of overwhelming pride that exists in the protagonists of a tragedy
Hubris
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Literary attack on folly or vanity by means of ridicule; usually intended to improve society
satire
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Type of meter that has two syllables, unstressed followed by stressed
iamb
118
Words and phrases that describe the concrete experience of the five senses.
Imagery
119
a group of related images developed throughout a work.
pattern of imagery
120
a from of imagery that mixes the experience of the senses (hearing something visual, smelling something audible)
Synesthesia
121
Freezes the moment to give it the timeless quality of painting or sculpture
Static Imagery
122
Attempts to show motion or change
kinetic imagery
123
Contemporary version of an old, even ancient, oral tale that can be traced back centuries through many different cultures. Folktales include fairy tales, myths and fables.
Folktale
124
Movement in modern poetry much influenced by haiku, stressing terseness and concrete imagery.
Imagism
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occurs when consonants in two words are the same but intervening vowels are different. "pick/pack" "lads/lids"
imperfect rhyme
126
Describes a work that begins in the middle of the action in order to catch a reader's interest.
In medias res
127
consists of rhyming words found within a line of poetry
Internal rhyme
128
literary device or situation that depends on the existence of at least two separate and contrasting levels of meaning or experience.
Irony
129
Irony that exists when what happens is at odds with what the story's situation leads readers to expect will happen.
Situational Irony
130
Irony that occurs when what is said is in contrast with what is meant. It can be expressed as understatement, hyperbole, or sarcasm.
Verbal Irony
131
Group of literary works generally acknowledged to be the best and most significant to have emerged from our history. The cannon tends to be conservative (it is difficult to add or remove works from it), and it reflects ideological positions that are not universally accepted.
Literary canon
132
Descriptions, analyses, interpretations, or evaluations of works of literature by experts in the field.
Literary criticism
133
Introduced by George Meredith, it refers to comedy with little or no intellectual appeal.
Low Comedy
134
Form of poetry, usually brief and intense, that expresses a poet's subjective response to the world. In classical times, lyrics were set to music. The Romantic poets, particularly Keats, often wrote lyrics about love, death and nature.
Lyric
135
Single syllables correspond
Masculine rhyme
136
Lyric poem that focuses on a physical object, using this object as a vehicle for considering larger issues.
Meditation
137
Sensational play that appeals shamelessly to the emotions, contains elements of tragedy but ends happily, and often relies on set plots and stock characters.
Melodrama
138
Aristotle's term for the purpose of literature, which he felt was "imitation" of life; literature represents the essence of life and we are affected by it because we recognize elements of our own experiences.
Mimesis
139
Extended speech by one character
Monologue
140
Atmosphere created by the elements of a literary work. (setting, characterization, imagery, tone, and so on)
Mood
141
Medieval Christian allegory
Morality play
142
Reasons behind a character's behavior that make us accept or believe that character
motivation
143
Medieval play depicting biblical scenes
Mystery play
144
Anonymous story reflecting the religious and social values of a culture or explaining natural phenomena, often involving gods and heroes.
Myth
145
The "storytelling" of a piece of fiction; the forward-moving recounting of episode and description.
Narrative
146
Person who tells the story
Narrator
147
Nineteenth-century movement whose followers believed that life should not be idealized when depicted in literature. Rather, literature should show that human experience is a continual struggle against an implacable natural world.
Naturalism
148
Greek comedies of the fourth and third centuries B.C. that followed the Old Comedies. They were comedies of romance with stock characters And conventional settings. They lacked the satire, invective, and bawdiness of Old Comedies.
New Comedy
149
Fictional narrative, traditionally realistic, relating a series of events or following the history of a character or group of characters through a period of time
Novel
150
Extended short story, usually concentrated in episode and action but involving greater character development
Novella
151
Relatively long lyric poem, common in antiquity and adapted by the Romantic poets, for whom it was a serious poem of formal diction, often addressed to some significant object that has stimulated the poet's imagination
Ode
152
The first comedies, written in Greece in the fifth century B.C., which heavily satirized the religious and social issues of the day
Old comedy
153
Word whose sound resembles what it describes: "snap, crackle, pop."
Onomatopoeia
154
Sometimes called free verse or vers libre, open form poetry makes use of varying line lengths, abandoning stanzaic divisions, breaking lines in unexpected places, and even abandoning any pretense of formal structure
Open form
155
Writing that stresses careful description of setting and the trappings of daily life, psychological probability, and the lives of ordinary people. It's practitioners believe they are presenting life "as it really is"; Ibsen's A Doll House is an example .
Realism
156
Principal character of a drama or fiction; the hero. The tragic hero is the noble protagonist in Classical Greek drama who falls because of a tragic flaw.
Protagonist
157
Open form poem whose long lines appear to be prose set in paragraphs. For example, Walt Whitman's "Calvary Crossing a Ford."
Prose poem
158
Arch that surrounds the opening in a picture-frame stage; through this arch the audience views the performances
Proscenium arch
159
Pictures, furniture, and so on, that decorate the stage for a play.
Props
160
First part of a play in which the actor gives the background or explanations that the audience needs to follow the rest of the drama
Prologue
161
Works aimed at a mass audience
Popular fiction
162
Suffering that exists simply to satisfy the sentimental or morbid sensibilities of the audience
Pathos
163
Narrator or speaker of a poem or story; in Greek tragedy, the persona was a mask worn by an actor
Persona
164
Episodic, often satirical work about a rogue or rascal
Picaresque
165
Stage that looks like a room with a missing fourth wall through which the audience views the play
Picture-frame stage
166
Way in which the events of the story are arranged.
Plot
167
When there is more than one story but one string of events is clearly the most significant, the other stories are called
Subplots
168
Perspective from which a story is told
Point if view
169
Prose tale set in an idealized rural world; popular in Renaissance England
Pastoral romance
170
Literary work that deals nostalgically and usually unrealistically with a simple, preindustrial rural life; the name comes from the fact that traditionally pastorals feature shepherds
Pastoral
171
Exaggerated imitation of a serious piece of literature for humorous effect.
Parody
172
Seemingly contradictory situation
Paradox
173
Story that uses analogy to make a moral point
Parable
174
Phrase combining two seemingly incompatible elements
Oxymoron
175
4.a. A group of eight lines of poetry, especially the first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet. Also called octet.b. A poem or stanza containing eight lines.
Octave
176
An eight line stanza set in iambic pentameter
Ottava rima
177
An octave rhymed abba/abba with a sestet rhymed cdc/cdc or a variation
Petrarchan sonnet
178
Four lines
Quatrain
179
The final stage in the plot of a drama or fiction. Here the action comes to an end and remaining loose ends are tied up
resolution
180
Organization, strategy, and development of literary works, guided by an eye to how such elements will further the writer's intended effects
rhetoric
181
repetition of concluding sounds in different words, often intentionally used at the ends of poetic lines.
rhyme
182
rhyme where three syllables correspond
triple rhyme
183
occurs when words look like they should rhyme but are pronounced differently
eye rhyme
184
The corresponding vowel and consonant sounds of accented syllables must be preceded by different consonants
perfect rhyme
185
Regular recurrence of sounds in a poem. Ordinarily determined by the arrangement of metrical feet in a line.
rhythm
186
Form of irony in which apparent praise is used to convey strong, bitter criticism
sarcasm
187
Curtain that when illuminated from the front appears solid but when lit from the back becomes transparent
scrim
188
reaction against the comedy of manners. This type of comedy relies on sentimental emotion rather than on wit or humor to move an audience and dwells on the virtues of life
sentimental comedy
189
Poem composed of 6 line stanzas and a tree line conclusion called and envoi. Each line ends with one of six key words. The alteration of these six words in different positions--but always at the ends of lines--in the poem's six stanzas creates a rhythmic verbal pattern that unifies the poem
sestina
190
background against which the action of a piece of literature take place; the historical time, locale, season, time of day, interior, decoration, and so on
setting
191
Fictional narrative centered on one climatic event and usually developing only a single character in depth; its scope is narrower than that of a novel, and it often uses setting and characterization more directly to make its theme clear
short story
192
convention of drama in wich a character speaks directly to the audience revealing thoughts and feelings which other characters present on stage are assumed not to hear. Taken to reflect a characters sincere feelings and beliefs
soliloquy
193
Fourteen line poem, usually a lyric in iambic pentameter. It has a strict line scheme in one of two forms: the Petrarchan sonnet or Shakespearean sonnet.
Sonnet
194
three quatrains rhymed abab/cdcd/efef with a concluding couplet rhymed gg
Shakespearean sonnet
195
Narrator or persona of a poem or story
speaker
196
A nine-line form (ababbcbcc) with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter.
Spenserian stanza
197
Two stressed syllables
spondee
198
actions or movements of an actor onstage--for example, lighting a cigarette, leaning on a mantel, straightening a picture.
stage business
199
In the production of a play, scenery and props. In expressionist stage settings, scenery and props are exaggerated and distorted to reflect the workings of a troubled, even abnormal mind. Surrealistic stage settings are designed to mirror the uncontrolled images of dreams or nightmares.
stage setting
200
seven line stanza set in iambic pentameter
rhyme royal
