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Glossary

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(Expect this list of terms to grow as the semester progresses.)

allegory

a narrative in which each of the characters, in addition to the meaning he or she has in the story, possesses another significance which lies outside the story; further, all of these outer meanings, taken together, have the same relationships and conflicts as exist among the characters within the story.

alliteration

in poetry, a pattern created by repeating the first sounds of adjacent or nearly adjacent words.  In Old English poetry each consonant creates its own alliterative set with repetitions of the same consonant, but a vowel alliterates with any other vowel.  

analogue

one narrative whose structural design or plot resembles another's for which it may have served as a model without actually being a source.

aubade

one of several French lyric forms which give expression to the parting of lovers at dawn.  The other are the alba and the aube.  

ballad

song and narrative poem, in four-line stanzas, usually rhyming a b c b.  The narrative structure has been defined as "leaping and lingering": the story is told in separate incidents which the audience connects into a coherent narrative.  Dialogue is a frequent narrative device.

beast fable

an allegory in which a story ostensibly about animal characters serves to satirize or to point a moral about the ways of humans.

catastrophe

in tragedy, the final, irreversible defeat of the protagonist.

caesura

in poetry, a mid-line pause established by both rhythm and meaning.

carol

a song and narrative poem of celebration, consisting of narrative stanzas, usually of four-line stanzas and repeated refrain lines.  

climax

in tragedy, the pivotal decision of the protagonist which begins his (or her) descent into ultimate failure (the catastrophe); because the fate of the play depends upon it, the moment of this decision is often--but not always--one of great emotional intensity.

courtly love

a literary convention which described an adulterous relationship between persons of high social rank; the lady, who was married to someone other than her courtly lover, held dominance in the relationship, and the knightly lover became her perfectly obedient, life-long vassal, totally committed to preserving her honor by his utmost secrecy and discretion. Example: Guinevere and Launcelot.

crisis

in tragedy, the point in the escalating tensions between the goals and passions of the protagonist and the conflicting forces when the protagonist must make a fundamental, risk-everything choice (the climax). See also "turning point."

elegy

a poem of mourning for human mortality, often expressing grief at the death of a specific individual but always addressing the experience all people share, as well.  

epic

a narrative poem of considerable length recounting the exploits of a single great hero, and perhaps of others associated with him.  

exemplum

a narrative told specifically for the purpose of making the point of a homily; frequently the exemplum forms the main part of the homily.

exposition

1.in drama--the first segment of the play which sets the tone and introduces the characters and the conflict.
2. in fiction--that part of the story which is reported rather than presented in dialogue and action; distinguished from "scene."
3. in rhetoric--prose which explains and clarifies concepts, structures, or processes; distinguished from description and narration.

fabliau

a short, humourous, and earthy narrative, often bordering on the obscene.

falling action

in tragedy, the segment of the play between the climax and the catastrope; the protagonist's luck has gone bad, but he (or she) continues the struggle and there is some false hope for success.

frame narrative

a story--that is, a construction of characters, setting, and plot--that includes in it the telling of one or more distinct other stories.

kenning

a two-word metaphor, forming the name of a familiar object in less familiar terms; a popular device among Old English poets.  Thus, the sea might be called the "whale road,"  and a sword blade the "hammer's leavings."  

irony

a perceivable and perceived difference between what appears to be and what is, between what is said and the intended meaning, between what is intended or expected and what actually happens.

dramatic irony 

the audience's perception of significance which seemingly is not evident to one or more characters.

verbal irony

intending that the hearer understand the speaker to mean the opposite of what is said

morality play

drama in which abstract forces battle for the soul of man.

mystery play

one of a cycle of plays enacting various episodes in the history of salvation; also called a miracle play.

prosopopoeia

a form of personification in which an inanimate object, or perhaps an animal, is imagined as having consciousness and a voice; occurs frequently in riddles and is a prominent characteristic of the "Dream of the Rood."

protagonist

the character whose all-consuming struggle to achieve his or her goal is the center of attention in a tragedy.  

rising action

that part of a tragic plot in which the action appears to be moving toward the protagonist's articulated goals.

romance

a relatively long, loosely structured narrative about knights and ladies, motivated by love of adventure, religious zeal, or romantic love, and marked by marvelous and magical events.

source

an earlier work which a later author remakes as a new story, play, or poem; the term refers only to the work an author actually uses, not merely to one which is similar.

turning point

the moment in tragedy when the protagonist's fortunes manifestly shift from good to bad, as an immediate consequence of the crisis and the climax.

zodiac

the apparent daily path of the sun perceived as transiting a circular orbit within a hollow sphere on which the constellations were fixed; the 360° circle is divided into twelve 30° arcs, and in each arc the sun passes one of the constellations of the zodiac, starting each year with Ares, the ram, at the beginning of spring.  The diagram of this circular journey and its arcs drawn as a circle on a flat surface forms the chart on which an astrological chart or horoscope is cast.  

Questions?
Phone: (973)-618-3436e-mail: brigid@caldwell.edu