World Literature and Enlightenment Thought

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering classical East Asian literature, Shakespearean drama, and Enlightenment philosophy.

Kireji

A "cutting word" used in traditional Japanese poetry to divide verse.

Renga

A traditional Japanese literary form consisting of collaborative linked poetry.

Traditional Haiku

A 17-syllable Japanese poetic form arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, historically centered on emotional depictions of the natural world.

Tokugawa Shogunate

A Japanese historical period characterized by relative peace and stability rather than civil war, accompanied by the growth of print culture and vernacular language.

Matsuo Bashō

The Japanese poet most closely associated with elevating hokku into a serious literary art form.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

A celebrated travel narrative written by Matsuo Bashō, classified as a haibun.

Vernacular Literature

Literature written in everyday spoken language, which grew popular in Ming China and Tokugawa Japan due to rising literacy rates, expanding merchant classes, and print culture.

Wu Cheng'en

The author of the classic Chinese vernacular novel The Journey to the West.

Sun Wukong

The name given by the patriarch to the Stone Monkey, who emerged from a stone on Flower-Fruit-Mountain and set out to learn the secrets of immortality.

Xuanzang

The Buddhist monk tasked on the journey to the west with retrieving the true Buddha scriptures.

Cart Slow Kingdom

A kingdom where Daoists enslaved Buddhist monks after the monks failed to end a famine, keeping them captive through state bounties and promotions for capturing escapees.

Eighty-one Ordeals

The specific number of ordeals and tribulations that must be completed to attain enlightenment in The Journey to the West.

Bajie

A pilgrim traveling to the west who is not granted Buddhahood alongside Tripitaka due to being lazy, talkative, and ravenous.

Horatio

The loyal confidant who survives the tragic conclusion of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual era characterized by major social and cultural tension between the ideals of tradition and progress.

Enlightened Person

As defined by the French Encyclopédie, someone who dares to think for himself, actively rejecting prejudice, tradition, and external authority.

Immaturity (Enlightenment Definition)

The inability to use one's own understanding without guidance from an external authority.

Deist Watchmaker Metaphor

A theological concept likening God to a watchmaker, which encouraged separating ethics from religion and prompted individuals to rely on human reason instead of priests or princes.

"Aude sapere"

The Latin Enlightenment motto adopted by Immanuel Kant, meaning dare to know or dare to think for yourself.

"Cogito ergo sum"

René Descartes's fundamental philosophical statement, meaning "I think, therefore I am."

Encyclopédie

An extensive Enlightenment work edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert that served as a critical, ideological project rather than a neutral collection of global knowledge.

Pretend Self-Deprecation

The primary rhetorical strategy used by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to defend women's rights to an intellectual life in her response to the bishop.

Tyrants and Sensualists

Those identified by Mary Wollstonecraft who intentionally keep women in an intellectually subordinate state because power thrives on blind obedience.