Thursday, February 12, 2009

Vocabulary

allegory: a story with a literal and an inmplied level of meaning
apostraphe: addressing an inaminamte object
burlesque: entertainment of broad and earthy humor

blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
closet drama: plays written to be read
didacticism: instruction in literature
elegy: formal poem lalemtning the death of a particular person or meditating on the subject itself
empiricism: the philosophical view that all knowledge originates in sensory experience
epigrams: a short, highly compressed poem making a wise or humorous point

familiar essays: the personal essay perfected by Charles lamb and his successors, as distinct from the more formal and public neoclassical periodical essay
herioc couplet: couplets of iambic pentameter
neoclassicism: a cultural attraction to the art and thought of ancient reece and Rome
odes: a long, highly stylized lyric poem written in a complex stanza on a serious theme and often for a specific occasion
personification: iving characteristics to an inanimate object
poetic diction: artificially selected and refined languiage
poet laureate: the official poet of a nation or region

primitivism: the preference for an uncivilized life
progressivism: belief in the importance and possibility of social and material progress
rationalism: the belief that human reason rather than revelation or authority is the source of all knowledge and the only valid basis for action

realism: the attempt in fiction to create an illusion of actuality by the use of seemingly random detail or by the inclusion of the ordinary
satire: constructive ridicule in literature

soliloquy: self-revalation overheard
traditionalism: a reverance for tradition as a source of authority or values in religion, morality, or art
tragedy: a drama that ends unhappily

transcendentalism: set of religious concepts
utilitarianism: an ethical system developed by jeremy Bentham based on the human desire for pleasure rather than pain and, politically, on the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number
verisimilitude: the inclusion of minute, or even superfluous, details to create an illusion of realism


Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

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