Groups
Group of 19th century English novelists who emphasized gentility and etiquette. Members included Frances Trollope, Theodore Hook, Lady Blessington, Lady Caroline Lamb, and Benjamin Disraeli.
Silver-Fork School
Cheap sensational novel, 19th cent. Issued in instalments.
penny dreadful
A literary or dramatic speech spoken by a solitary character
soliloquy
having each word one syllable longer than that before
rhopalic
a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses or to two others of which it grammatically suits only one
Syllepsis
stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect.
Polysyndeton
group of pioneer English dramatists who wrote during the last 15 years of the 16th century and who transformed the native interlude and chronicle play with their plays of quality and diversity. Marlowe, Greene,Nashe
University Wits
is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action.
psychological novel
14 line poem
sonnet
the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm.
Scansion
verse form in which the poem or its stanzas begin with where are ...or their equivalent in another language and which has as a principal theme the transitory nature of all things.
Ubi Sunt
refers to something commonly accepted as true or thought by most to be true
Putative author
a member of a group of English 19th-century artists, including Holman Hunt, Millais, and D. G. Rossetti, who consciously sought to emulate the simplicity and sincerity of the work of Italian artists from before the time of Raphael.
Pre-Raphaelism
A form of tragic drama in which someone rights a wrong.
revenge tragedy
a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.
terza
dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse, used as a stylistic device in ancient Greek drama.
Stichomythia
the specific name for the turn in thought from the octet to the sestet in a sonnet
volta
A quick, witty reply
repartee
Mid-nineteenth century literary and scientific people who were based in Boston and Cambridge. They came together for social purposes. Major writers: Emerson, Prescott, Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier.
Saturday Club
a literary genre closely related to hardboiled genre with a distinction that the protagonist is not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator.
Roman noir
an Italian form of poetry first used by Dante Alighieri. A terza rima consists of stanzas of three lines (or tercets) usually in iambic pentameter. It follows an interlocking rhyming scheme, or chain rhyme.
Terra rima
the omission of sounds or letters from within a word, e.g., when probably is pronounced ˈpräblē.
Syncope
A general term describing when one part of speech (most often the main verb, but sometimes a noun) governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series).
zeugma
short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, idea, setting, or object.
Vignette
A club organized in London in 1714 by Jonathan Swift to satirize literary incompetence. It expressed its opinions of the false taste of the age, particularly of learning, through satiric fragment.
Scriblerus Club
a poem, structurally similar to haiku, that highlights the foibles of human nature, usually in a humorous or satiric way
Senryu
A 19 line form using only two rhymes and repeating two of the lines according to a set pattern
villanelle
A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable
trochee
dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse, used as a stylistic device in ancient Greek drama.
Stichomythia
relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero.
Picaresque
A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's, in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature, and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter, intuition is valuable, that each soul is part of the Great Spirit, and each person is part of a reality where only the invisible is truly real. Promoted individualism, self-reliance, and freedom from social constraints, and emphasized emotions.
transcendentalism
A style of Hebrew literature that meditates on important truths. Wisdom literature utilizes poems, teachings, and other means of communicating these truths.
wisdom literature
A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable
trochee
a piece of fine-grained dark schist or jasper formerly used for testing alloys of gold by observing the color of the mark that they made on it.
Touchstone
marked use the sibliant sounds represented by s,z, sh, zh, ect (hissing sound)
sigmatism
a literary genre closely related to hardboiled genre with a distinction that the protagonist is not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator.
Roman noir