Literary Workshops, Narrative Theory, and Cultural Contexts

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering literary devices, narrative techniques, archetypes, and cultural theories discussed in the lecture notes.

Conceit

A far-fetched metaphor or simile presenting a clever similarity between two very different things, often dominating the whole poem.

Synecdoche

Indirectly referring to something by naming its part or attribute instead of the whole.

Oxymoron

A combination of two contradictory terms, acting as a compressed paradox.

Anaphora

The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.

Ode

A poem of elaborate structure, usually celebrating some abstract idea, an individual, or an event.

Elegy

Earlier a poem of a particular metre, but since the 17th century it refers to a poem commemorating a tragic event, especially death.

Haiku

A non-European poem from Japan consisting of 17 syllables in 3 lines.

Epithalamium

A poem about getting married.

Concrete poetry

Also known as shape poetry, where words are arranged on the page to resemble the shape of the thing they describe.

Source domain

In conceptual metaphors, the conceptual area from which we draw terms, usually something known or physical from daily life.

Target domain

In conceptual metaphors, the abstract area one tries to understand and describe.

Self-conscious narrator

A narrator who draws attention to the novel’s artifice and his or her role as a storyteller.

Intrusive narrator

A narrator who interrupts the story to provide commentary to the reader on some aspect of the story or a more general topic.

Stream of consciousness

A literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description.

Bildungsroman

A novel subgenre focused on the protagonist growing up and reaching maturity.

Man Friday

A fictional character idiom referring to a loyal servant or helper, derived from Robinson Crusoe.

Catch-22 situation

A frustrating situation where you cannot escape because of contradictory rules, named after Joseph Heller’s novel.

Defamiliarisation

A term from Russian Formalism referring to making ordinary things seem extraordinary and new in literature.

Femme Fatale

A stock character type: an overtly sexual, amoral, and manipulative woman who leads men to their doom.

Trickster

A character archetype that is clever, unpredictable, and plays pranks, such as Loki or the Cheshire Cat.

Allegory

A form of narrative that possesses a hidden meaning which must be interpreted, often culturally specific with only one intended interpretation.

Sublime

An aesthetic concept representing the exaggerated, terrifying, or awe-inspiring that evokes fear mixed with respect.

Uncanny

According to Tzvetan Todorov, a plot device where seemingly supernatural events are eventually given a realistic and rational explanation.

Biological essentialism

The belief that human abilities and interests are entirely innate and biologically predetermined.

Bechdel test

A test for female representation in media requiring at least two named women talking to each other about something other than a man.

Orientalism

A concept by Edward Said describing how the West creates an artificial, often negative or exotic stereotype of the East to maintain power.

Subaltern

A term by Gayatri Spivak referring to groups pushed to the absolute margins of society who lack their own voice.

Bowdlerization

The practice of censoring or removing material from a text considered indecorous or offensive, named after Thomas Bowdler.

Pastiche

A literary rewriting style where one writes in the style of another author as a tribute rather than for parody.

Retelling

A fundamental reinterpretation of a canonical text that often gives a voice to a marginalized or secondary character.

Green-eyed monster

A Shakespearean idiom originating from Othello representing jealousy.

At one fell swoop

A Shakespearean idiom from Macbeth meaning suddenly or at the same time.

Hoist with his own petard

A Shakespearean idiom from Hamlet meaning to be caught in one's own trap or killed by one's own weapon.