Midterm vocab (IHUM)

Groundlings

Audience members who are of low-class society who stand in the pit of the theater.

Breaking the 4th wall

Breaking through an imaginary invisible wall that separates actors from the audience.

Primogeniture

A tradition of passing the property of a dead person to their firstborn legitimate child.

The Renaissance

The revival of art, literature, science, culture etc. in the 14th-16th centuries.

Humanism

A philosophy about the thoughts and importance of man (humans/mortals) rather than the divine.

Magical realism

A type of genre that presents the realistic world with elements of magic mixed in.

Postmodernism

An era during 1970-1990, where a new style of self-awareness and rejection of modern ideas for theatrical and theoretical ideas dominated cultures and art.

Metafiction

A type of fiction that reminds the audience that they are reading a fictional work.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close together in a sentence or verse.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words in a line or phrase.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two things that are not alike using the words 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor

Used to establish imagery and create a vivid picture of a person, object, or action.

Personification

Used in poetry to give human characteristics to nonhuman things, such as animals, objects, or abstract ideas.

Point of view

A particular way of thinking about something.

Setting

The surroundings of where an event takes place.

Symbolism

The use of symbols (things that represent other things) when explaining ideas or concepts.

Allegory

A story or narrative with a hidden meaning or moral theme.

Frame story

A literary device where a main narrative sets the stage for a secondary story or stories.

Scientific naturalism

A worldview that combines the ideas that nature is all that exists and that the scientific method is the only reliable way to learn about nature.

Unreliable narrator

An unreliable narrator is a narrator who cannot be trusted, one whose credibility is compromised.

Vertical line

A straight line that runs up and down.

Horizontal line

A straight line that runs left to right.

Diagonal line

A straight line that slopes from one bottom corner to a top corner.

Hatching

An artistic technique that involves drawing closely-spaced parallel lines to create shading or tonal effects.

Actual line

Physical marks made in a composition.

Implied line

Lines that are suggested.

Closure

Describes how people tend to perceive incomplete images as complete objects.

Continuity

A principle of visual perception that describes how the human eye tends to see lines and curves as flowing and connected.

Geometric shapes

Precise shapes with straight angles and lines.

Organic shapes

Irregular shapes that are similar to shapes found in nature.

Amorphous shapes

Shapes lacking structure/non-geometric.

Positive and negative shapes

Positive shapes are the objects, while negative shapes are the areas in between objects.

Value contrast

The difference between light and dark in a piece of art.

Value pattern

The placement of objects in artwork that guides the eye and creates unity between the objects.

Low key / high key values

Used to describe a painting that's related to the low-key or high-key lighting of cinema or photography.

Chiaroscuro

A technique that uses light and shadow to make 3D objects.

Warm colors

Colors that give off the feeling of warmth, energy, and heat.

Cool colors

Colors that give off the feeling of relaxed, calm, and cooling emotions.

Monochromatic schemes

Theme with hues of the same color instead of different colors.

Analogous color schemes

Groups of colors that appear next to each other on the color wheel.

Complementary scheme

Uses colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel to create a high-contrast, vibrant look.

Discordant colors

Deliberate to specifically bring out a person, place, or thing.

Arbitrary color

A choice of color in an artwork that has no basis in the realistic appearance of the object depicted.

'Denatured' color

Method of painting that uses denatured alcohol to create un-naturalistic and marble-like shapes.

Relative size

Clues in the picture that help you figure out the size of objects.

Overlapping

A technique that involves placing one object in front of another to create the illusion of depth and three-dimensionality.

Transparency

The quality of being able to see through (or partially see through) one or more layers in an artwork.

Vertical positioning

The use of lines and shapes that run up and down, and the effect that has on the viewer.

Atmospheric depth

The illusion of depth moving back into space.

Linear perspective

A system of creating an illusion of depth on a flat surface.

Vantage point

A stationary point from which a viewer is related to the object/figure being rendered.

Vanishing point

The point where parallel lines that recede into the distance appear to meet on the horizon line.

Arch

A curved symmetrical structure usually used to support the weight of a different structure.

Atrium

A central hall or court in a modern building, often glass-covered.

Buttress

A projecting support of stone or brick built against a wall.

Cantilever

A long projecting beam or girder fixed at only one end.

Column/pillar

A tall vertical structure of stone, wood, or metal used to support a building.

Dome

A rounded vault forming the roof of a building or structure.

Façade

The face of a building, especially the main front that looks onto a street or open space.