Y10 ENX Jane Eyre definitions Flashcards
(13 cards)
Define 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.
Define theme
A recurring idea or concept within a text that is used by the author to develop and convey core messages or meaning
Define 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.
Define Bildungsroman
Also known as a ‘coming-of-age’ story, this is a common narrative structure in novels, exploring social, moral or psychological tensions.
Define genre
A means of categorising or classifying texts based on commonalities in convention, such as narrative devices, narrative structures, character types, and technical elements.
Define gothic literature
A group of texts written predominantly in the 19th Century, which share common themes and tropes such as: wild, remote and inhospitable settings; conflicts and struggles for power; and the uncanny, the sublime and the supernatural.
Define uncanny
Objects, people or things that are at once strange yet familiar, recognisable yet unrecognisable.
Define sublime
Experiences that are not beautiful or enjoyable, but which are thrilling because they are terrifying or overwhelming.
Define 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.
Define adverb
A class of word that modifies a verb.
Define adjective
A class of word that modifies a noun.
Define direct address
A rhetorical device whereby a narrator ‘speaks’ directly to the reader, as if in conversation, through the use of the personal pronoun “you” or phrases such as “dear reader.”
Define parenthetical elements
A word or phrase, included within a sentence and demarcated by commas, that allows for the addition of meaning, opportunities for authorial voice, and/or clarifying details.
