UIL Literary Criticism - FHS

Abbey Theatre

The Abbey Theatre is an Irish national theatre founded in 1904, known for producing works by prominent playwrights such as W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Sean O'Casey. It has been instrumental in the development of modern Irish theatre. Primarily produced plays that explore social issues and themes relevant to Irish identity. Burned in 1951.

ABC-Book, Abcee-Book, Absey-Book

a primer or horn-book that introduces a subject

ABC, A B C, A.B.C.

an alphabetical acrostic (Geoffrey Chaucer’s prayer, “Chaucer’s A B C); a primer teaching the alphabet or other elementary parts of a field of study

Abecedarian, abecedarius, Abecedary

A form of poetry in which each line or stanza begins with successive letters of the alphabet. Additionally, every word in each line should start with the same letter, but that’s really difficult, so it isn’t often done. (Alaric Alexander Watts did it, though - “An Austrian army, awfully arrayed . . . “)

Abridgment

a shortened version of a work but one that attempts to preserve essential elements

Absolute

a term applied to anything totally independent of conditions, limitations, controls, or modifiers; In vocabulary - a word, such as “unique” that cannot be compared or qualified; In grammatical structure - a phrase that is free of the customary syntactical relationships to other parts of the sentence (“How can I, that girl standing there” - W. B Yeats); Certain comparative and superlative forms when there is no specific context (higher education, or last resort); In criticism - inviolable standards by which a work should be measured

abstract

(n) an abridgment that summarizes the principal ideas in a longer work; (adj.) opposite of concrete; removed from any real world'; (adj) in graphic art - nonrepresentational or nonobjective

absurd

the sense that human beings live in meaningless isolation in an alien universe - some absurdist novelists: Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, Gunter Grass, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

academic

with a neutral connotation, schools and academies in general; with a negative connotation, aridly theoretical in ideas or pedantic, conventional, and formalistic in style

academic drama

plays written and performed in schools and colleges in the Elizabethan Age

allegory

a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, places, and actions in a narrative are equated with meaning outside the narrative itself; characters are often personifications of abstract qualities; ex: Pilgrim's Progress

Amy Lowell

author of Whats o'clock and winner of 1926 pulitzer prize for poetry

anecdote

short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event. Most frequently referring to the life of an important person, the term should lay claim to an element of truth

Chronicle

A form of historical writing

De Casibus

Latin term concerning the falls (from greatness). Chaucer's "Monk's Tale" belongs to this tradition.

deus ex machina

The employment of some unexpected and improbable incident to make things turn out right. In Ancient Greek theater, when gods appeared they were lowered from the "machine" or structure above the stage. This was referred to as "god from the machine" or Deus Ex Machina in Latin.

Dolce Stil Nuovo

The "sweet new style." Flourished among lyric poets in certain Romance languages in the thirteenth century.

Fabliau

A humorous tale popular in medieval France.

Harper Lee

Author of To Kill a Mockingbird

In Medias Res

Term from Horace meaning "In or into the middle parts of things." It is applied to the litrary technique of opening a story in the middle of the action and then supplying information about the beginning of the action though flashbacks and other devices for exposition.

Legend

narrative or tradition handed down from the past distinguished from a myth by having more historical truth and perhaps less supernatural

Romance

languages derived from Latin are romance languages. or love.

Theatre of the Absurd

drama that presents a view of the absurdity of the human condition by the abandoning of usual or rational devices and by the use of nonrealistic form; portrays not a series of connected incidents telling a story, but a pattern of images presenting people as bewildered creatures in an incomprehensible universe - The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco, Waiting for Godot - by Samuel Beckett, also Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Harold Pinter

Vade Mecum

An article that one keeps constantly on hand. This phrase means "go with me"