Literary Vocab

8/7/2019 Literary Vocab

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Literary/Rhetorical Terms

bstract: an abbreviated synopsis of a longer work of scholarship or research

ad hominem: directed to or appealing to feelings or prejudices instead of to intellet or reason

adage: a saying or proverb containing a truth based on experience and often couched in metaphorical language

allegory: a story in which people, things and events have another meaning

alliteration: repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables

allusion: indirect reference to another text or historic event

ambiguity: a vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings or interpretations

anachronism: a person, scene, event or other element that fails to correspond with the appropriate time or era

analogy: an extended comparison between two seemingly disimilar things

anaphora: the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses

anecdote: a short account of an interesting event

annotation: explanatory or critical notes added to a text

antagonist: a character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist, produces tension or conflict

antecedent: the noun to which a later pronoun refers

antimetabole: the repetition of words in an inverted order to sharpen a contrast

antithesis: parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas

aphorism: a short, astute statement of a general truth

Apollonian: in contrast to Dionysian, it refers to the most noble, godlike qualties of human nature and behavior

apostrophe: a locution that addresses a person or personified thing not present

appositive: a word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun

arch: characterized by clever or sly humor, often saucy, playful and somewhat irreverent

archaic diction: the use of words common to an earlier time period; antiquated language

archetype: an abstract or ideal conception of a type

argument: a statement put forth and supported by evidence

Aristotelian triangle: a diagram that represents a rhetorical situation as the relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience

assertion: an emphatic statement; declaration

assonance: the repetition of two or more vowel sounds in a group of words in prose or poetry

assumption: a belief or statement taken for granted without proof

asyndeton: leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, clauses

attitude: the speaker's position on a subject as revealed through his or her tone

audience: one's listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed

authority: a reliable, respected source - someone with knowledge

bard: a poet; in olden times, a performer who told heroic stories to musical accompaniment


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bathos: insincere or overdone sentimentality

belle-lettres: a French term for the world of books, criticism, and literature in general

bias: prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue

bibliography: a list of works cited or otherwise relevant to a particular subject

bombast: inflated, pretentious language

burlesque: a work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque imitation

cacophony: grating, inharmonious sounds

canon: the considered most important in a national literature or period; works widely read and studied

caricature: a grotesque likeness of striking qualities in persons and things

carpe diem: literally, "seize the day"

circumlocution: literally, "talking around" a subject

cite: identifying a part of a piece of writing as being derived from a source

claim: an assertion, usually supported by evidence

classic: a highly regarded work of literature or other art form that has withstood the test of time

classical, classicism: deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture

clause: a group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a complete sentence

climax: the high point, or turning point, of a story or play

close reading: a careful reading that is attentive to organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other literary and

structural elements of a text

colloquial/ism: an informal or conversational use of language

common ground: shared beliefs, values, or positions

comparision and contrast: a mode of discourse in which two or more things are compared and contrasted

complex sentences: a sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause

conceit: a witty or ingenious thought

concession: a reluctant acknowledgment or yielding

concrete detail: a highly specific, particular, often real, actual or tangible detail; opposite of abstract

connotation: that which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning (see denotation)

consonance: the repetition of two or more consonant sounds in a group of words or a unit of speech or writing

context: words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning

coordination: grammatical equivalence between parts of a sentence, often through a coordinating conjunction such as and, or but

counterargument: a challenge to a position; an opposing argument

credible: worthy of belief; trustworthy

critique: an analysis or assessment of a thing or situation for the purpose of determining its nature, its limitations, and its conformity to a set of

standards

cumulative sentence: an independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail


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cynic: one who expects and observes nothing but the worst of human conduct

de'nouement: the resolution that occurs at the end of a narrative or drama, real or imagined

declarative sentence: a sentence that makes a statement

deductive reasoning: a method of reasoning by which specific definitions, conclusions, and theorems are drawn from general principals

denotation: the literal meaning of a word; its dicitionary definition

descriptive detail: graphic, exact, and accurate presentation of the characteristics of a person, place or thing

deus ex machina: in literature, the use of an artifical device or gimmick to solve a problem

dialectal journal: a double-column journal in which one writes a quotation in one column and reflections on that quotation in the other column

diction: word choice

didactic: having an instructive purpose; intending to convey information to teach a lesson usually in a dry, pompous manner

digression: the use of material unrelated to the subject of a work

Dionysian: as distinguished from Apollonian, the word refers to sensual, pleasure-seeking impulses

documentation: bibliographic information about the sources used in a piece or writing

dramatic irony: a circumstance in which the audience or reader knows more about a situation than a character

elegiac: mournful over what has passed or been lost; often used to describe tone

elegy: a poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing or death of someone of something of value

ellipsis: the omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable

elliptical construction: a sentence containing a deliberate omission of words

empathy: a feeling of association or identification with an object or person

epic: a narrative poem that tells of the adventures and exploits of a hero

epigram: a brief witty statement

epithet: an adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality or a person or thing

eponymous: a term for the title character of a work of literature

ethos: a Greek term referring to the character of a person; one of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals

euphemism: a figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness

euphony: pleasing, harmonious sounds

exegesis: a detailed analysis or interpretation of a work of prose or poetry

explication: the interpretation or analysis of a text

explication of text: explanation of a text's meaning through an analysis of all of its constituent parts, including the literary devices used

expose: a piece of writing that reveals weaknesses, faults, frailties, or other shortcomings

exposition: the background and events that lead to the presentation of the main idea or purpose of an essay or other work

extended metaphor: a series of comparisons between two unlike objects

fable: a short tale often with nonhuman chacters from which a useful lesson may be drawn

facts: information that is true or demonstrable


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fallacy, fallacious reasoning: an incorrect belief or supposition based on faulty data, defective evidence, or false information

fantasy: a story containing unreal, imaginary features

farce: a comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose

figurative language: the use of tropes or figures of speech; going beyond literal meaning to achieve literary effect

figure of speech: an expression that strives for literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning

fragment: a word, phrase, or clause that does not form a full sentence

frame: a structure that provides a premise or setting for a narrative or other discourse

genre: a term used to describe literary forms, such as novel, play, and essay

harangue: a forceful sermon, lecture, or tirade

homily: a lecture or sermon on a religious or moral theme meant to guide human behavior

hortatory: urging, or strongly encouraging

hubris: excessive pride that often affects tone

humanism: a belief that emphasizes faith and optimism in human potential and creativity

hyperbole: exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis

idyll: a lyric poem or passage that describes a kind of ideal life or place

imagery: vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses

imperative sentence: a sentence that requests or commands

indirect quotation: a rendering of a quotation in which actual words are not stated but only approximated or paraphrased

inductive reasoning: a method of reasoning in which a number of specific facts or examples are used to make a generalization

inference: a conclusion or proposition arrived at by considering facts, observations, or some other specific data

invective: a direct verbal assault; a denunciation; casting blame on someone or something

inversion: a sentence in which the verb precedes the subject

irony: a contradition between what is said and what is meant; incongruity between action and results

irony: a contradiction between what is said and what is meant; incongruity between action and results

juxtaposition: placement of two things side by side for emphasis

kenning: a device employed in Anglo-Saxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by one of its functions or qualities

lampoon: a mocking, satirical assault on a person or situation

litotes: a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity

logos: a Greek term that means "word"; an appeal to logic; one of Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals

loose sentence: a sentence that follows the customary word order of English sentences. The main idea of the sentence is presented first and is

then followed by one or more subordinate clauses

lyrical prose: personal, reflective prose that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about the subject

malapropism: a confused use of words in which the appropriate word is replaced by one with a similar soud but inappropriate meaning

maxim: a saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or truth

melodrama: a literary form in which events are exaggerated in order to create an extreme emotional response


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metaphor: a figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, thus making an implicit comparison

metaphysical: a term describing poetry that uses elaborate conceits, expresses the complexities of love and life, and is highly intellectual

metonymy: use of an aspect of something to represent the whole

Middle English: the language spoken in England roughly between 1150 and 1500 A.D.

mock epic: a parody of traditional epic from

mock solemnity: feigned or deliberately artificial seriousness, often for satirical purposes

mode: the general form, patterm, and manner of expression of a piece of discourse

modifier: a word, phrase, or clause that qualifies or describes another word, phrase, or clause

montage: a quick succession of images or impressions used to express an idea

mood: the emotional tone or prevailing atmosphere in a work of literature or other discourse. In grammar, mood refers to the intent of a particular

sentence.

moral: a brief and often simplistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature

motif: a phrase, idea, or event that through repition serves to unify or convey a theme in an essay or other discourse

muse: (n.) one of the ancient Greek goddesses presiding over the arts; the imaginary source of inspiration for an artist or writer. (v.) To reflectdeeply; to ponder

myth: an imaginary story that has become an accepted part of the cultural or religious tradition of a group or society

narrative: a from of verse or prose that tells a story

naturalism: a term often used as a synonym for realism; also a view of experience that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic

nominalization: turning a verb or adjective into a noun

non sequitur: a statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before

objective: of or relating to facts and reality, as opposed to private and personal feelings and attitudes

occasion: an aspect of context; the cause or reason for writing

ode: a lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject

Old English: the Anglo-Saxon language spoken from approximately 450 to 1150 A.D. in what is now Great Britain

omniscient narrator: an all-knowing, usually third-person narrator

onomatopoeia: the use of words whose tone suggests their meaning

oxymoron: a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms

pacing: the relative speed that combines two contradictory terms

parable: a story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question

paradox: a statement that seems contradictory but is actually true

paradox: a statement that seems contradicotry but is actually true

parallel structure: a similar grammatical structure within a sentence or within a paragraph

paraphrase: a version of a text put into simplier, everyday words

parody: a piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another; used for comic effect or ridicule

pastoral: a work of literature dealing with rural life


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pathetic fallacy: faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects

pathos: a Greek term that refers to suffering but has come to be associated with broader appeals to emotion; one of Aristotle's three rhetorical

appeals (see ethos and logos)

pedantic: narrowly academic instead of broad and humane; excessively petty and meticulous

periodic sentence: a sentence that builds towards, and ends with the main clause

persona: the speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing

personification: assigning human characteristics to inanimate objects

plot: the interrelationship among the evnts in a story

point of view: any of several possible vantage points; omniscient, limited to that of a single character, and limited to that of several characters

polemic: an argument against an idea, usually regarding philosophy, politics, or religion

polysyndeton: the deliberative use of a series of conjunctions

predicate: the part of a sentence that is not the grammatical subject

premise; major, minor: two parts of a syllogism

pronoun: a word used to replace a noun or noun phrase

propaganda: a negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information

prose: any discourse that is not poetry

proverb: a short pithy statement of a general truth, one that condenses common experience into memorable form

pseudonym: a false name or alias used by writers

pulp fiction: novels written for mass consumption, often emphasizing exciting and titillating plots

pun: a humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings

purpose: one's intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing

realism: the depiction of people, things, and events as they really are without idealization or exaggeration for effect

rebuttal, refutation: the part of discourse wherein opposing arguments are anticipated and answered

reiteration: repetitin of an idea using different words, often for emphasis or other effect

repetition: reuse of the same words, phrases, or ideas for rhetorical effect, usually to emphasize a point

retraction: the withdrawal of a previously stated idea or opinion

rhetoric: the study of effective, persuasive language use; according to Aristotle, use of the "available means of persuasion"

rhetorical mode: patterns of organization developed to achieve a specific purpose; modes include but are not limited to narration, description,

comparision and contrast, cause and effect, definition, exemplificaiton, classifcation and division, process analysis, and argumentation

rhetorical modes: patterns of organization developed to achieve a specific purpose; include but are not limited to narration, description,

comparison and contrast, cause and effect, definiton, exemplification, classification and division, process analysis, and argumentation

rhetorical question: a question asked more to produce an effect than to summon an answer

rhetorical stance: language that conveys a speaker's attitude or opinion with regard to a particular subject

rhetorical triangle: a diagram that represents a rhetorical situation as the relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience

rhyme: the repitition of similar sounds at regualar intervals, used mostly in poetry but not unheard of in prose

rhythm: the pattern of stressed amd unstressed syllables that make up speech and writing


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romance: an extanded narrative abput improbable events and extraordinary people in exotic places

sarcasm: a sharp, caustic attitude conveyed in words through jibes, taunts, or other remarks

satire: an ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it

scheme: a pattern of words or sentence construction used for rhetorical effect

sentence structure: the arrangement of the parts of a sentence

sentence variety: using a variety of sentence patterns to create a desired effect

sentiment: a synonym for view of feeling; also a refined and tender emotion in literature

sentimental: a term that describes characters' excessive emotional response to experience

setting: the background to a story

simile: a figure of speech that uses "like" or "as" to compare two things

simple sentence: a statement containing a subject and predicate; an independent clause

source: a book, article, person, or other resource consulted for information

speaker: a term used for the author, speaker, or the person whose perspective (real or imagined) is being advanced in a speech or piece of writing

straw man: a logical fallacy that involves the creation of an easily refutable position; misrepresenting, then attacking an opponent's position

stream of consciousness: a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind

style: the distinctive quality of speech or writing created by the selection and arrangement of works and figures of speech

stylistic devices: a general term referring to diction, syntax, tone, figurative language, and all other elements that contribute to the "style" or

manner of a given piece of discourse

subject: in rhetoric, the topic addressed in a piece of writing

subject complement: the name of a grammatical unit that is comprised of predicate moninatives and predicate adjectives

subjective: of or relating to private and personal feelings and attitudes as opposed to facts and reality

subordinate clause: created by a subordinating conjunction, a clause that modifies an independent clause

subordination: the dependence of one syntactical element on another in a sentence

subtext: the implied meaning that underlies the main meaning of an essay or other work

syllogism: a form of deductive reasoning in which the conclusion is supported by a major and minor premise

symbolism: the use of one subject to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object

synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part

syntax: sentence structure

synthesize: combining or bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex

theme: the main thought expressed by a work

thesis: the central idea in a work to which all parts of the work refer

thesis statement: a statement of the central idea in a work, may be explicit or implicit

tone: the speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience

topic sentence: a sentence, most often appearing at the beginning of a paragraph, that announces the paragraph's idea and often unites it with the

work's thesis


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tragedy: a form of literature in which the hero is destroyed by some character flaw and by a set of forces that cause the hero considerable anguish

transition: a stylistic device used to create a link between ideas

trope: artful diction; the use of language in a nonliteral way; also called a figure of speech

understatement: lack of emphasis in a statement or point; restraint in language often used for ironic effect

verbal irony: a discrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words

verisimilitude: similar to the truth; the quality of realism in a work that persuades readers that they are getting a vision of life as it is

verse: a synonym for poetry; also a group of lines in a song or poem; also a single line of poetry

whimsy: an object, device, or creation that is fanciful or rooted in unreality

wit: the quickness of intellect and the power and talent for saying brilliant things that surprise and delight by their unexpectedness


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AP Vocab

abash: [vt] to destroy (someone's) confidence; to shame, humiliate, humble, abase, degrade

aberration: a departure from what is proper, right, expected, or normal, a lapse from a sound mental state

abeyance: [n] a state of being temporarily inactive, suspended, or set aside

abortive: failing to accomplish an intended aim or purpose

abstruse: hard to understand

ad hoc: for a special purpose, improvised, concerning this

adjunct: something added to something else as helpful or useful but not essential; added or connected in a subordinate or auxiliary capacity

aegis: a shield or breastplate, made of goat skin

affinity: [n] a natural attraction to a person, thing, or activity, a relationship, connection

ambivalent: [adj] having opposite and conflicting feelings, torn, mixed in feelings

apprise: to give notice to, to tell, to inform of, to make someone aware

auspicious: [adj] propitious, promising, encouraging, favored by fortune, likely to turn out well, boding good things

bane: the source or cause of death, destruction, or ruin

bathos: grossly insincere or exaggerated sentimentally, trite material presented in an elevated tone, the lowest phase

beleaguer: [v] to set upon from all side; to surround with an army

bellwether: the male sheep that leads the flock to the slaughterhouse, a leader, indicator of trends

bibulous: fond of drinking alcohol, absorbent

bilious: [adj] peevish or irritable, sickeningly unpleasant

bilk: to defraud; cheat out of something valuable

bruit: to spread news, reports, or unsubstantiated rumors

cantankerous: ill-tempered, quarrelsome, difficult to get along with, grumpy

caprice: [n] whim, vagary; a sudden unpredictable change of one's mind; the tendency to change one's mind w/o apparent/adequate reason

carte blanche: [n] full freedom or authority to act at one's own disgression

casuistry: deceptive, over subtle, or false reasoning, the determination of right and wrong in specific questions of conduct by the application of

general ethical principles

cataclysm: [n] a disaster, tragedy, a sudden, violet, or devastating upheaval

caterwaul: to howl or screech like a cat

chimerical: imaginary, absurd, wildly fantastic, or improbably

cognate: [adj] closely related to origin, essential nature, or function

commensurate: [adj] equal in size, extent, or duration, or importance, proportionate, measurable by the same standards

congenial: [adj] pleasant, agreeable; well-suited, compatible

contumelious: insolent or rude in speech or behavior, insultingly, abusive, humiliating

corollary: [n] a proposition that follows one already proven, a natural consequence or result

corpulent: having a large, bulky body


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corroborate: to confirm or give support to a statement, theory, or finding

cul-de-sac: [n] a blind alley or dead end street, any situation in which further progress is impossible, an impasse

de facto: actually existing or in effect, although not legally required of sanctioned, in reality, actually

debauch: [v] to seduce or corrupt, to lead away from duties [n] an uninhibited spree or party

denizen: a person who regularly frequents a place

depredation: the act of preying upon or plundering

deracinate: to pull up from the roots, to root out, to uproot, or dislocate, to eliminate all traces of

derring-do: [n] valor or heroism, daring deeds or exploits (often used to poke fun at false heroics)

diaphanous: [adj] very sheer and light, almost completely transparent

dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source

discursive: digressing from subject to subject; fluid and expansive rather than formulaic or abbreviated; related to discourse

divination: [n] the art or act of predicting the future or discovery hidden knowledge

edifice: [n] building, especially one of large size/imposing appearance; any large, complex system/organization

effete: weak, lacking wholesome vigor or energy, having lost character, vitality, or strength; worn out or exhausted, sterile or unable to produce,

out of date

eleemosynary: charitable; dependent upon or supported by charity; derived from or provided by charity

elixir: [n] a potion once thought capable of curing all ills and maintaining life indefinitely.

eminence: [n] high station, rank, or repute; outstanding reputation, distinction, reown; high elevation; title of honor for cardinals

emolument: [n] payment, profit derived from an office or employment, a fee or salary

empathy: a sympathetic understanding of or identification with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of someone or something else

ensconce: comfortably and firmly in position

ephemeral: lasting a very short time

epicure: a person who cultivates a refined taste in food and wine

epitomize: to be a perfect example

euphonious: pleasing to the ear

explicit: [adj] fully and clearly expressed or demonstrated; leaving nothing merely implied, unequivocal, definite and unreserved in expression;

having sexual acts or nudity clearly depicted

fait accompli: an accomplished fact

fastidious: [adj] excessively careful in regard to details, meticulous

folderol: [n] foolish talk, ideas or procedures; nonsense, a trifle

gambol: [v] to jump or skip playfully, to frolic

gamut: [n] an entire range or series

harbinger: a portent, herland, one that tells us something is coming, to indicate the approach of

hedonism: the belief that the attainment of pleasure in life's cheir aim, devotion to or pursuit of pleasure

hegemony: [n] predominant influence exercised by one nation over another; aggression or expansionism by large nations in an effort to achieve

world domination


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hidebound: narrow-minded and rigid, especially in opinions or prejudices, stubbornly and unthinkingly conservative

hoi polloi: [n] the common people, the masses

iconoclastic: attacking or seeking to over through popular or traditional beliefs, ideas, or institution

ignominy: [n] shame, disgrace; dishonor

imbibe: [v] to drink

imbue: [v] to instill feelings, opinions, etc., profoundly

immure: [v] to close or confine within walls, to imprison, to seclude, or isolate

in medias res: in or into the middle of the plot

incendiary: [adj] tending to arouse strife, inflammatory, pertaining to a criminal setting on fire of property. [n] a person who stirs up strife, an

agitator

inchoate: [adj] just beginning, not fully shaped or formed

incredulous: [adj] skeptical, doubtful, unwilling or unable to believe; showing disbelief; [adj] gullible, too willing to believe

indict: [vt] to charge (one) with committing a crime; to accuse, castigate

ineffable: [adj] not expressable in words, too great or too sacred to be uttered

inquiry: [n] seeking or requesting for truth, information, or knowledge, and investigation, as into an incident

insouciant: [adj] carefree, happy-go-lucky, blithely indifferent or unconcerned

internecine: mutually destructive, characterized by great slaughter and bloodshed

lachrymose: suggestive of or tending to cause tears

lackluster: lacking brillance/vitality; dull

laconic: expressing much in few words

lampoon: a harsh satire, usually directed against a person or institution; to make the subject of a ____, to ridicule

lexicon: a dictionary of language, the special vocabulary of a person, group, or subject

lucubration: [n] laborious study or thought, especially at night, the result of such work

maladroit: lacking skill or dexterity; lacking tact, perfection, or judgement

malcontent: dissatisified with or in open defiance of prevailing conditions; person who's _____

malleable: [adj] moldable, shapeable, adaptable, capable of being shaped by hammering or pressure

maudlin: excessively or effusively sentimental

melee: a confused struggle, a violent free for all

mellifluous: flowing sweetly, smoothly; honeyed

microcosm: [n] a group or system viewed as a model of a larger group or system

mien: [n] demeanor, air, manner, deportment, or bearing; the affect created by one's behavior & appearance

mnemonic: [adj] relating to or designed to assist the memory. [n] a device to aid the memory

modulate: the change or vary the intensity or pitch; to temper or soften; to regulate or adjust

morass: a patch of soft, wet grounds, a swamp, a quagmire; a confusing situation in which one is entrapped as in quicksand

nepotism: unethical favoritism to or excessive patronage of ones relative


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noisome: offensive to the senses; disgusting, foul smelling, noxious, harmful

obfuscate: to render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible

obloquy: [n] public abuse indicating strong disapproval or censure, the strong disgrace resulting from such treating

obsequies: [n] funeral rites or ceremonies

panache: [n] a confident and stylish manner; a strikingly elaborate or colorful display

pander: to cater to or provide satisfaction for low tastes or vices of other; in law, to sell/distribute by pandering; person who panders, pimp

parameter: [n] determining or characteristic element; a factor that shaped the total outcome, a limit, a boundary.

peccadillo: a minor sin or offence, a trifling fault or shortcoming

penitent: [adj] repentant, contrite, remorseful, sorry for having sinned & seeking atonement; [n] person who confess sin & submit to penance

peremptory: [adj] leaving no opportunity for denial/refusal, imperative dictatorial, decisive, authoritative

persona: [n] the outward character or role that a person assumes

philippic: [n] a bitter verbal attack

philistine: [adj] lacking in hostile to or smugly indifferent to cultural and artistic values or refinements

physiognomy: [n] "science" of determining a person's character from physical features of his/her face/body; a person's face, when used as an index

to his/her character

pice de rsistance: an outstanding accomplishment, the best part of something excellent, the main dish of a meal, incident, or item

polarize: to break one group into two separate, opposing, groups (polar opposites)

poltroon: a base, coward; characterized by complete cowardice

portentous: foreshadowing an event to come, having future significance

premise: [n] a basis stated or assumed on which reasoning proceed; a proposition supporting a conclusion; a tract of land including its buildings [v]

to set forth beforehand as by way of introduction or explanation

prescience: knowledge of events or actions before they happen, foresight.

progenitor: [n] ancestor; precursor, that which originates something & serves as a model

proselyte: a convert, disciple

prowess: skill or expertise in a particular activity or field

prurient: having or inspiring an excessive interest in sexual matters

pundit: [n] a learned person, one who gives authoritative opinions.

purport: [v] to claim/profess; to present appearance of being; to convey, express, or imply;

[n] the meaning, import/sense; purpose/intention

quid pro quo: something given in exchange for something else

raillery: banter, good natured teasing or ridicule

refractory: [adj] stubborn, intractable, difficult to manage, not responsive to treatment or cure

rejoinder: [n] an answer to a reply, a quick reply (especially a witty or critical one) to a question or remark

remand: to send or order back, in law, to send back to jail or to lower court

repudiate: [v] to reject as having no authority or binding force, to cast off or disown

rescind: to cancel, repeal, annul, make void


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retribution: [n] vengeance, revenge, payback, justice, requital or evil acts; in theology, the distribution of rewards

risible: [adj] pertaining to laughter, able to or inclined to laugh, laughable

sacrosanct: [adj] very sacred, extremely holy, inviolable, set apart or immure from questioning or attack

salubrious: conductive to health or well-being; wholesome

sanguine: [adj] having a ruddy complexion, of a naturally cheerful, or confident, or optimistic outlook.

saturnalian: characterized by wild, riotous, enrestrained partying, revelry, or licentiousness

savoir-faire: [n] the ability to say and do the right thing in any situation, social incompetence, tact

semantics: [n] the study of meaning, the meaning or interpretation of meaning, word, or sentence

sojourn: [n] temp. stay;

[vi] to stay somewhere temp.

solecism: [n] a nonstandard or ungrammatical usage; a breach of manners or etiquette, faux-pas, gaffe; any error, improperly, or inconsistency

superfluous: [adj] excessive, extra, unnecessary, being more than what is needed

supine: laying flat on one's back; lethargic, lazy

symptomatic: [adj] typical or characteristic being or concerned with a system or a disease

syndrome: a group of symptoms or signs that collectively characterize or indicate a disease, disorder or abnorality

tacit: [adj] understood without fully being said, implied, implicit

tendentious: [adj] intended to promote a particular point of view, doctrine, or cause; biased or partisan

touchstone: a means of testing worth or genuiness

traumatic: emotionally distressing, causing lasting and substantial psychological damage

urbane: reflecting elegance and sophistication

vacuous: having or showing a lack of thought or intelligence

verisimilitude: [n] the state of being life like, appearing to be true, real, likely, or probable

vicissitude: [n] a change, variation, or alteration, successive, changing phases, "ups and downs"

vitiate: to spoil or impair the quality of something

vivify: [v] to give life to; animate; to enlighten, brighten

volte-face: [n] an about face, a complete turn around, or reversal. 180.

waggish: fond of making jokes, characteristic of a joker, playfully humorous or droll

clat: [n] dazzling or conspicuous success or acclaim, great brilliance (of performance or achievement)

Abrogate: to repeal, to set aside, to nullify

Abscond: to leave quickly and secretively

Accolade: award or honor, high praise

Adjure: to command or urge solemnly and earnestly

Aggrieve: to distress, to mistreat

Ameliorate: to make better, to ease or improve

Anathema: something or someone loathed or intensely disliked


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Ancillary: subsidiary, subordinate

Antipodal: situated on opposite sides of the earth, or being exactly opposite

Apostasy: abandonment of a loyalty or religion

Assignation: a secret meeting, a tryst, or something assigned

Bandy: to toss back and forth, to exchange, to use in a glib way

Bathos: a transition from the illustrious to the commonplace, overdone pathos, triteness

Bilious: ill-tempered, cranky, angry

Bivouac: temporary encampment

Bumptious: pushy, conceited, noisily self-assertive

Byzantine: extremely intricate or complicated in structure

Cabal: a secret group of conspirators, a clique

Calumny: slander, deliberate false statements

Cavil: to quibble, to raise trivial objections

Comport: to behave

Concomitant: accompanying, attending, going along with

Conflagration: a large, disastrous fire

Coterie: an intimate group of people with a common interest

Decimate: to kill or destroy a large part of something

Depredate: to prey upon, to plunder with violence if necessary

Determinism: a philosophy that says things are determined in ways that are out of human hands

Dichotomy: division into two often contradictory parts

Dissipate: to break up, to squander, to indulge excessively in sensual pleasure

Draconian: severe, exceedingly harsh

Effete: exhausted, lost vitality, over-refined

Enervate: to weaken, to sap the strength

Ennui: boredom, listlessness, lack of interest

Ensconce: to settle in snugly, to hide in a secure place

Erudite: scholarly, deeply learned, well read

Feckless: lacking responsibility, ineffective

Feral: wild, like an wild animal, savage

Fetter: to impede, retrain, hamper

Flagellate: to whip, or to punish as if by whipping

Foment: to stir up, to incite

Forswear: retract, renounce or recant


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Gestalt: a structure whose parts cannot stand alone

Gesticulate: to gesture, especially when speaking

Gird: to invest with authority, to brace

Histrionic: overly dramatic, theatrical, deliberately affected

Ignominious: disgraceful, dishonorable

Impecunious: without money, penniless

Implacable: not capable of being appeased or mollified

Impugn: to attack the integrity of something

Inchoate: just beginning, not organized or orderly, incomplete

Iniquitous: evil, unjust

Insouciant: nonchalant, lighthearted, unconcerned

Intransigent: uncompromising, stubborn

Inveterate: habitual, deeply rooted or established

Juggernaut: a massive, unstoppable object

Lassitude: a weariness, listlessness, a state of lethargy

Libidinous: lustful, lascivious

Machination: scheming activity for an evil purpose

Malfeasance: an illegal actespecially by a public official

Martinet: one who adheres strictly to the rules

Mendacious: dishonest, deceitful

Myopia: nearsightendness, lacking foresight

Nave: charmingly gullible

Nepotism: showing favoritism to friends or family, as in granting positions in jobs or politics

Nihilism: the belief that there are no values or morals in the universe, that existence is senseless or useless

Noisome: harmful, unwholesome, stinking, putrid

Obdurate: stubborn

Obsequious: fawning, subservient, servile

Onerous: burdensome, oppressive, troublesome

Onus: burden, blame, obligation

Opprobrious: damning, extremely critical, disgraceful

Panacea: a remedy that cures everything

Paradigm: a model or example

Philistine: a smugly insensitive and ignorant person who has no knowledge of intellectual or artistic objects

Phlegmatic: calm, indifferent, not easily aroused


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Plebeian: common, vulgar, low class

Pluralism: a society in which distinct groups function together but retain their identities

Portent: an omen, a sign nor something coming, a foreshadowing

Probity: honesty, uprightness

Prurient: lascivious, have lustful thoughts or desires

Punctilious: meticulously attentive to detail, exacting

Recidivism: the act of repeating an offense

Redoubtable: formidable, fearsome, deserving of respect

Remuneration: payment, recompense

Rife: widespread, abounding, occurring frequently

Ruminate: to muse upon

Sallow: sickly, greenish-yellow

Saturnine: sullen, gloomy, depressed

Sententious: preachy, pompous, using wise sayings excessively

Slatternly: squalid, slovenly, foul, unclean

Somnolent: drowsy, sleepy

Spate: a sudden outburst

Stalwart: unwavering, robust, sturdily built

Tendentious: advancing a point of view, biased

Timorous: fearful, easily frightened

Umbrage: displeasure or resentment

Vagary: a whim, an unpredictable action

Venerate: to honor, to worship, to respect

Veracious: truthful, honest

Vitriolic: corrosive, biting, bitterly scathing

Wont: custom, habit


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Literary Criticism Terms

ABSENCE A felt lack of a particular quality,

particularly as that quality is called to

mind by other values in the text. In

deconstruction, the gap that is left after

the meanings implied in the text are

deconstructed; silence.

ABSOLUTIST Having a strictly defined sense of values

that are not open to question.

ADVERSARIAL A controversy in which two sides are opposed

with opposite and irreconcilable differences.

AESTHETIC DISTANCE A term from Hans Robert Jauss's reception

theory designating the distance between the

reader's expectations about a work (from the

horizon of expectations) and the work's

actual ability to fulfill these expectations.

AFFILIATION Having a connection, especially between two

theories.

AGENCY The power by which a particular individual,

group, or text could act, or the mode or

means of action.

AGENDA A program or plan for using one's theory to

arrive at a particular pre-determined

conclusion, usually for purposes that are

seen as political. Critics have agendas for

their projects.

AGON Contestatory or conflictual.

AHISTORICAL Denoting universal or ideal qualities; the

idea that a literary work transcends or

exists outside of its historical context. A

formalist reading attempts to be ahistorical.

ALEATORY Depending on chance or having a random

character.

ANALEPTIC Restorative or stimulating.

ANTI-COLONIAL Writing which attempts to resist the forces

of colonization.

ANTIHEGEMONIC A force of resistance to a dominant ideology

or power, with an attempt to weaken or call

into question that power.

ANTISYSTEMIC In opposition to a particular system or

theoretical stance.

APORIA A moment of undecidability in a text

(Lentricchia); a kind of gap in the meaning,

particularly as a part of deconstruction.

APPARATUS The methodological structure of a particular

theory.

APPROPRIATION Taking something over and using it for one's

own ends, particularly when one theory takes

over parts of another theory.

ARCHITECTONIC Relating to the scientific systemization of


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knowledge; relating to architecture. "All

the values of actual life and culture are

arranged around the basic architectonic

points of the actual world of the performed

act or deed" (Bakhtin, 54).

ART A signification system in which an audience

is expected to evaluate and respond to

individual works (structures, constructions)

according to a formal set of criteria

determined within the system. This

signification system (aesthetics) is bound

within and interdependent with other systems

(culture, language, etc.), but at the same

time contains its own logic, axioms,

hypotheses, definitions, terms, etc., which

go to make up the set of criteria used

(though the criteria may change according to

time, culture, viewer, and so on). A "work

of art" is an object, structure, or concept

that an artist, critic, or any person

choosing to operate from within this

aesthetic signification system chooses to

evaluate or respond to according to the

principles operating within the system,

making the object, structure, or concept a

subject of the aesthetic response.

AUTHORITY Having control or power or assumed or real

dominance.

AUTOELIC Bringing oneself forth.

AXIOMATICS General principles or initial hypotheses,

self-evident or universally recognized

truths.

BINARY OPPOSITION A dialectical relation in which there are two

units: a thing and its opposite or its

negative. The two opposing forces are

binaries. In Hegelian dialectics, a force

may generate an opposite or negative.

BOUNDARY That set of points which a theory marks out

for itself as the extreme limit of its

discursive reach or the sum total of the

negative oppositions that are generated by

qualities that lie at the center of the

theory; see also margins and centers.

CANONIZE To make a work of art part of a set of good

or pure or worthy works that everyone should

react to as being good or worth knowing

about.

CARNIVALESQUE Contravening expected social, ideological,

and traditional norms using different voices

as a subversive move (from Bakhtinian

dialogics).

CARNIVALIZATION From Bakhtinian dialogics, a linking, within

a discourse, such as a novel, of different,

disparate qualities, such as the sacred and

the profane, the high and the low, formal and

informal, and so on.

CATACHRESIS An improper use of words or misapplied term;

a "metaphor without an adequate literal


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referent" (Spivak).

CATHECT To concentrate psychic energy on a particular

person, thing, or idea.

CLOSURE A completion, a bringing together of open or

unreconciled themes, ideas, and images in a

text.

CODED A process in which a set of meanings may be

inscribed or written within a text or

discourse, though such meanings may not by

obvious or visible at first.

COMMODITY A Marxist conception that a thing or a person

or an idea may be turned into an object of

commercial exchange and thus subject to the

rules of capitalism. "Turning art into a

commodity leads to a valorization of concepts

that insists [sic] on its form as closed, on

its aspect as finished or polished product. .

. . True art resists commodification by

resisting this closure" (Godzich 44).

COMPLICITOUS Being a partner in some wrong-doing.

CONFIGURATION A pattern of images, ideas, or meanings.

CONJUNCTURAL Occurring together.

CONTAINMENT A process by which a potentially resistive or

confrontational or contestatory statement or

meaning is weakened or held in by other

factors.

CONTEXT The environment in which a discourse or a

section of a discourse occurs.

CONTINGENCY A pattern or set of meanings which limits or

controls another meaning pattern.

CONTRAPUNTAL Finding alternative viewpoints, used to

describe the critical approach of Edward Said

(and others): "Said, in other words, offers

a set of alternatives and at the same time

legitimates the most attractive alternative

of all for intellectuals: the image of the

non-dogmatic critic, who has not succumbed to

hermeticism, unstoppably generating

alternative images of intellectuals,

intellectual practice, and the social order

images whose value is determined

competitively in a battle for authority"

(Bove, 223).

CONVERSATION A dialogic relationship in a discourse

between two or more speakers.

CRISIS A point at which a paradigm or other

structure might seem to break down.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT Using a number of different techniques and

approaches in order to solve a particular

problem in a literary text.

CRITIQUE A statement of critical evaluation.

CULTURAL REPRESENTATION The creation of an image of a culture


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that

contains elements of key features of that

culture.

CULTURAL PRODUCTION The concept that a work of art is a product

of a

particular culture at a particular time, and

is influenced by such factors as publication

variables (price, market, editorial

policies), review policies, audience

awareness and expectations, etc.

DECENTER To undermine the usual hierarchy of a

dominant system by showing that its center

may hold only a relative, not a fixed point,

or that the center may be exchanged with a

place on the margins.

DECOLONIZATION The attempt to cleanse a particular culture

or its cultural productions of the influence

of a colonial culture.

DEDIFFERENTIATION The loss of a specialized form.

DEFAMILIARIZATION The process which occurs to make a

previously

known and accepted image, meaning, or idea

seem strange and unsuitable, to lose its

familiar nature.

DEFER To put off assigning meaning or value to an

item or concept until a larger framework or

system is completed. As in deconstruction

the larger framework is never completely

fixed, there will an ongoing deference of

meaning. Deference is conjoined, by Derrida,

with difference to create the concept of

diffrance, a constant play of meaning that

never reaches closure.

DEHISTORICIZE To deny that ideas and beliefs are "specific

to a particular time, place, or social group"

(Eagleton 59).

DEIXIS Indicating or pointing; deictic. "Deixis is

the linguistic mechanism that permits the

articulation of all of these distinctions

between the here and the there, the now and

the then, the we and the you. It establishes

the existence of an 'out there' that is not

an 'over here,' and thus it is fundamental to

the critical enterprise" (Godzich 166).

DELEGITIMATION To question or negate the legitimacy of a

particular position, usually by questioning

or contesting its underlying assumptions.

DENATURALIZE To make something which seems natural and

universal strange or incoherent by exposing

its devices, to defamiliarize.

DEPLOY To use, as one might use parts of a theory.

DEVALUATE To undervalue or lessen the value of a

particular text or theoretical position.

DIALECTIC The development which arises from the

resolution of contradictions inherent in a

particular aspect of reality (Hegel).


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DIALOGICS A system of literary analysis developed by

Mikhail Bakhtin emphasizing that meaning

develops from the interplay of different

voices in the text polyvalence. Dialogical

voices in a novel represent multiple and

unmerged voices.

DIEGESIS "The spatial and temporal universe in which a

story unfolds, the linguistic actualization

of linguistic structures" (Riffaterre).

DIFFERENCE The idea, from deconstruction, that the

meaning of a term derives primarily from the

differences between it and other terms.

DISCOURSE The actual use of language between particular

human subjects for the production of specific

effects (Eagleton 9).

DISCURSIVE Related to the particular discourse in which

the element under study is found.

DISCURSIVE SPACE The area in which a discourse takes place,

bounded by actual space or by an ideological

limit.

DISINTERESTEDNESS The concept that a work of art can proceed to

give pleasure without seeming to speak to any

particular ideological or cultural

requirements.

DISPLACEMENT The substitution of one set of theories or

ideas by another set, in distinction to a

development or evolution of ideas.

DOMAIN The area in which a particular discourse may

take place.

DOMINANCE The control that one particular ideology or

set of meanings may have over other

ideologies or ways of thinking.

DYSTOPIC An anti-utopic vision, in which the future is

seen only in negative terms often used to

comment on unfavorable qualities in

contemporary life.

CRITURE FMININE The new language of the female Other which

deliberately ruptures binary systems of

synchronic and diachronic oppression.

EFFACE To erase or to make one unaware of a thing.

ELITE One group that is assumed to have higher

powers of intelligence, cultural awareness,

or power.

EMERGING Coming forth, generally after a period of

oppression.

EMPLOTMENT The creation of a narrative plot.

EMPOWERMENT The gaining of economic, political, or

cultural power by a group or individual

previously oppressed.

ENABLEMENT Finding the power to express or develop a


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particular potential.

ENGAGE To come into contact with for the purpose of

changing, challenging, or otherwise altering

a set of ideas or principles that might

previously have been in control.

ENUNCIATIVE Spoken or pronounced publicly.

EPISTEMOLOGY The study of ways of knowing, the theory of

the nature and limits of knowledge. "What

gives this model such persuasive power is its

way of translating spatial or perceptual

metaphors into a semblance of epistemological

rigor" (Norris, 37).

ESSENTIALIST The idea that ideas, words, or meanings have

an actual reality which may be discovered.

ETHNICIST A reading or placement of ideas into a

specific ethnic context.

EXCHANGE The concept that there is a transference

between two subjects or a subject and an

object of some value.

EXHAUSTION The end result of studying for a Ph.D. in

literature; the point at which a particular

literary genre or critical theory has found

all possible explorations for its purposes.

EXPRESSIVIST The theory that a work of art is the direct

expression of qualities in the mind or

imagination of the artist and bears marks of

his or her personality, intentions, feelings,

etc.

FETISHIZED To create a sense that a material object, an

idea, a person, an institution, a work of

art, etc., may have magical or extraordinary

powers.

FORMALIST A system of theory which emphasizes that

meanings are found directly in the text, with

little input from the reader, and little hope

of finding there traces of the author or the

culture.

GAPS Points in a text or discourse in which there

is a silence something unsaid which might

be inserted by the reader or in which two

ideas are juxtaposed but not connected.

GENDERING Assigning a gender specificity to a

particular element of culture or pattern of

behavior or theme, idea, or image.

GENEALOGY An attempt to trace the history of an idea by

looking at the role of that idea in a

culture, the ways it influences other

cultural forms, and the traces that it

leaves.

GROUNDED Based upon a set of theories or principles.

GYNESIS The French feminist theory that looks to

undermine dualism in thought and culture,

believing that the Other, the female, must be


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resituated not in opposition but within, to

open the unconscious (Alice Jardine), destroy

polarity and balance, and explore new thought

modes employing chaos, flux, playfulness,

jouissance (Mellor). Anglo-Americans

critique French feminists as apolitical;

French feminists see Anglo-Americans as co-

opted by the repressive structures they fight

against.

GYNOCRITICISM The Anglo-American feminist theory that

women

read and write differently than men because

of their biological differences and the

cultural construction of gender, and the

critic is to define the differences located

in biographical experiences and cultural

ideologies the condition the behavior and

modes of discourse open to women (Showalter).

It finds anger at patriarchal oppression but

positive values in the community,

cooperation, self-sacrifice, and care, and it

has a definite political agenda (Mellors).

HEGEMONY The way a governing power wins consent to its

rule from those it subjugates, or the ways it

coerces those it rules (Eagleton citing

Gramsci 112). Having complete control over a

system or a structure. A hegemonic discourse

is a language that orders and organize the

things that it talks about.

HERMENEUTICS The study of interpretation and systems of

interpretation. "Hence the seductive power

of any theory that promises to reconcile

these disjunct dimensions, to provide an all-

embracing hermeneutic model" (Norris 39).

HETEROGLOSSIA Having many written or spoken voices; the

intertextuality of different discourses under

the main ideology of the work.

HISTORICAL MOMENT A point in a particular culture at a

particular time when one or more than one

forces may be seen empowered or dominant.

HISTORICITY Finding a historical occasion for a

particular ideology or event.

HOLISTIC Having to do with the whole meaning, work,

ideology, etc.

HOMOLOGOUS Having the same value, structure, or

function.

HORIZON OF EXPECTATION From Hans Robert Jauss's reception

theory

(Rezeptionasthetik), the "sum total of

reactions, prejudgments, and verbal and other

behavior that greet a work upon its

appearance" (Godzich, 40-41).

HYPOGRAM A semantic or other pattern which calls

attention to itself.

HYPOTAXIS A dependent or subordinate relationship of

clauses or ideas.

IDEOLOGY A pattern of beliefs held by a group of


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people, usually assumed to be the dominant

group, which beliefs may or may not have a

basis in reality, may or may not be

questioned by those who hold the beliefs, and

may or may not be propagated as "truths"

through representation or misrepresentation.

According to Althusser, ideology is "the

imaginary relationship of individuals to

their real conditions of existence" but at

the same time, "an ideology always exists in

an apparatus, and its practice, or

practices." Thus, "What is represented in

ideology is therefore not the system of the

real relations which govern the existence of

individuals, but the imaginary relation of

those individuals to the real relations in

which they live." For Lukacs, the "true

bearers of ideology in art are the very

forms, rather than abstractable content, of

the work itself" (Eagleton).

IDIOLECT One's individual mode of speaking.

INDETERMINACY The idea that within a text, there are

meanings that cannot be determined;

indeterminacy may focus more on the text,

undecidability on the reader.

INFRASTRUCTURES Structures within the body of the text,

discourse, or ideology that are specific to

it and serve to organize it and direct its

processes.

INSCRIBE To write, either physically or

metaphorically, especially with reference to

theories such as deconstruction which are

concerned with emphasizing the distinct

nature of the act of writing.

INSCRIPTION The "non-cognitive, material dimension of

language at the level of the letter, 'prior'

even, say, to its phenomenal presence in the

syllable or the word" (de Man). "Art, then,

is for Adorno at the inscription of social

conflicts, unfree and subject to ideological

control" (Godzich 43).

INSTITUTION A formally or informally organized unit

within society that has as its purpose the

accomplishment of a given set of goals or

objectives. Institutions tend to run on

their own inertia even when the goals are

accomplished or changed. "This is the

decisive proposition for modernity: language

is the originally instituting institution; it

provides the framework within which the

practice of the subject will be that of a

self-positing of the Self in language"

(Godzich 142).

INTERPELLATE To question formally, or to cause within the

reader formal questioning and interaction

with a text. "All ideology hails or

interpellates concrete individuals as

concrete subjects, by the functioning of the

category of the subject" (Althusser).

INTERPRETATIVE COMMUNITY That body within a larger culture or


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community which shares a set of assumptions,

terminologies, reading strategies, and

ideologies, who are assumed to be reading a

text in more or less the same ways with the

same results, or for whom the text was

assumed to be written, with the assumption

that they would read the text in a

particular, more or less fixed way.

INTERROGATION A questioning of the methods and assumptions

of a theory.

INTERSUBJECTIVITY The idea that individuals always exist in a

relationship with other individuals, with the

medium of language as mediating their

relationships. "For Kant, the fact that the

individual could not experience the object as

it was in itself required the postulation of

another dimension among individuals:

intersubjectivity" (Godzich, 46).

ITERABILITY Repeatability; capable of or performing

repetition.

LEGITIMATION "The process by which a ruling power comes to

secure from its subjects at least tacit

consent to its authority" (Eagleton 54).

LIBERAL HUMANISM A concept from the Enlightenment that

proposes that individualism is of a high

value and that rationalism and reason will

provide a means to work out problems.

LOCALIZED Confined to a particular area, said of a

culture or an interpretation.

LOCATE To situate, to place a particular idea within

a particular context.

LOGOCENTRISM A theory or proposition that language is at

the center of all things; a kind of extreme

nominalism. "To treat logocentrism as an

epoch, in the wake of Heidigger and

Nietzsche, is to still hold out for a

possibility of undeceived language" (Godzich,

188).

MAGISTERIAL Used pejoratively: Assuming the role as a

master; having inside knowledge. "Said or

any other magisterial intellectual modifies

and perpetuates one central component of

humanism: the sublime role of the leading

even if adversarial intellectual whose work

is able both to shake the order of forces and

make possible a new accommodation" (Bove,

31).

MARGINAL Existing at the edges of an authoritatively

or hegemonically defined structure,

institution, or culture, either by choice (as

from a desire to resist the structure or

institution) or not, as when the institution

or culture consigns individuals or groups to

the edges, with correspondingly fewer rewards

from the dominant group.

MARGINALIZATION The process of putting an individual or a

group at the margins and denying them access

to the main benefits that the dominant group


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has under its control.

MEDIATING Creating a relationship between two

individuals, groups, texts, etc., with the

purpose of gaining something new by this

connection.

MEDIATION The outcome of the act of creating a

relationship between two different things

where no relationship might normally exist.

Mediation creates a flow of meaning between

objects.

METALEPSIS A reversal.

METONYMY The use of a part to represent the whole

(eg., I saw two skirts coming down the

street). This is compared to metaphor, which

finds an identity between two unlike objects.

Metonymy is seen to be a mark of the novel,

especially the realistic novel, and metaphor

a mark of poetry.

MISE EN ABYME "A mini-narrative encapsulating the narrative

that contains it, a specularity, a mirroring

of text by subtext reminiscent of the

Romantic conceit of the oak tree potential

within the acorn" (Riffaterre).

MISE EN SCENE The stage space in which the action of a play

or a movie takes place, together with the

properties within that space; the physical

environment of the play or movie.

MISPRISION Misapprehension or misreading. Often used in

deconstruction.

MISREADING Bloom says that all readings are misreadings:

a recognition that when you read a text there

is always an interaction between you and the

text which will affect you and the your

interpretation. Strong misreadings open

bold, new interpretations; weak misreadings

only serve to capture and canonize the text

in limited structures.

MOMENT A key point within the text which a critic

can isolate as a center for interpretive

activity; the moment is related to the type

of theoretical approach. "What matters most,

in Adorn's view, is that each individual

analysis bring out the fundamentally critical

moment in the artefact, whereby it stands in

opposition to, and negates, the order and

ideology of its society" (Godzich 44).

MONOLOGICAL Having one single voice, or representing one

single ideological stance or perspective,

often used in opposition to the Bakhtinian

dialogical. In a monological form, all the

characters' voices are subordinated to the

voice of the author.

MOVES The process of applying critical or

theoretical procedures or methods to a text

in order to further the process of the

argument.


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MYSTIFICATION By looking at a text in a deconstructive way,

you may turn a certainty into an uncertainty.

This opens a space in the text and

recuperates the text for the reader.

NARRATIVE MOMENT That point in a narrative when a number of

issues and events take a major turn or change

or find momentary or complete closure.

NARRATIVE SPACE The setting or physical context in which the

work takes place. The narrative space may or

may not coincide with the actual space that

the writer may claim for the story (eg.,

Dickens's London in David Copperfield may be

different than the actual London).

NARRATIVIZE To turn something into a narrative

especially to take an historical event (the

Gulf War) and treat it as an unfolding story

(cops vs. robbers).

NATURALIZATION Making something purely fictional or mystical

seem real in opposition to denaturalization

or defamiliarization, in which the real is

made to seem unreal or exceptional.

NEGOTIATION A relationship that is worked out between a

reader and a text or characters within a

text, in which meaning (especially) is not

imposed by one on the other, but arises from

an interaction.

NEUTRALIZE To take a critical argument that makes a

strong assertion and undermine it by showing

that the premises of the argument are

incorrect.

NOMINALIST A philosophical idea beginning in the late

Middle Ages that believes names are merely

conventional something everyone agrees on

and not indicative of any higher reality

behind the names. This is in distinction to

Realism, Platonism or Idealism, which assumes

that there is a reality, especially a higher

reality, connected with names. Nominalism is

to Realism as Materialism is to Idealism.

Deconstruction can be seen as an extreme form

of nominalism.

NORMATIVE Making something conform to external norms or

standards or patterns, as a normative reading

of a work is a canonical reading. "It

[writing] opposes principles of

classification and is against normative rules

upheld by so many institutions that live off

them without any qualms" (Godzich 26).

NUANCE To make a thing more complex, more finely

tuned according to the standards and methods

of a theory. "Jauss's response was more

nuanced and addressed criticism from both

sides . . . " (Godzich 42).

OBJECTIFICATION "The moment of empathizing is always followed

by the moment of objectification, that is, a

placing outside oneself of the individuality

understood through empathizing, a separating

of it from oneself, a return into oneself"


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(Bakhtin 14).

OCCASION A moment for critical or theoretical inquiry.

ONTOLOGY The study of ultimate being and universal

truths. "The question does not make any

sense, for it presupposes an ontological

answer" (Godzich 28).

OPACIFICATION Making something that seemed clear opaque or

cloudy. "It [theory which seeks difference]

attempts to render visible all the language

that has been erased by the imperatives of

transparency, thus becoming a labor of

opacification, of restoring opacity where it

has been glossed over" (Godzich 26).

OPPOSITIONAL Attempting to resist a dominant theory or

practice, as in an oppositional pedagogy.

For Foucault, even the "leading oppositional

discourses, Marxism and psychoanalysis, do

not constitute break within the history of

power, but . . . completions of

impulses . . . already pervading culture"

(Bove, 225).

OTHER A notion from the psychology of Jacques Lacan

that we project negative feelings or fears

from within ourselves onto our images of

other people, creating a view of that other

person or group of people as being totally

opposite to ourselves.

PARABASIS "A gesture of address that suddenly confronts

the audience of a representation with the

framework of its performance"; "the author's

intrusion that disrupts the fictional

illusion" (de Man). Schlegel defines irony

as "permanent parabasis."

PARADIGM The way a discipline studies its subject,

including methods, theories, facts,

hypotheses, instrumentation, standards,

systems of knowledge production and

dissemination, and so on. "This essay . . .

examines a paradigmatic shift in the nature

of pleasure and its consequences for our

conception of art that occurred between the

Enlightenment and Romanticism" (Godzich 49).

PARADIGMATIC Relationships between words based on

similarities in sound, meaning, and so on, as

compared to syntagmatic relations based on

grammar.

PARALEPTIC Calling attention to a thing by stating its

omission, for example, "not to mention his

rudeness" (which is thereby mentioned and

emphasized).

PARATAXIS The coordinate relationship of clauses or

ideas that do not have connectives.

PATRIARCHAL Having to do with the idea that males

dominate in society.

PERFORMATIVE Language which attempts to get something

done, as opposed to constative language


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(Austin).

PHENOMENAL Existing in reality, directly apprehendable

by sense. The phenomenal aspects of language

are its sound and apparent formal structure.

POLYSEMOUS Having many meanings; a layered text with

many levels of meaning is polysemous and

there may be intertextual interweavings of

meaning. "With respect to the conceptual

system which establishes the organic unity of

the text, the discovery textual polysemy

takes on the form of an irruption which is

unexplainable" (Godzich, 178).

POST-ANTI-COLONIAL Theories which recognize the limits of anti-

colonial writing.

POSTCOLONIAL After a period of colonization. Postcolonial

literature is written when a colony achieves

freedom.

POSTMODERN A trend in modern art in which the creator

de-emphasizes the mimetic and defamiliarizes

the traditional generic forms. The work of

art calls attention to itself as artificially

constructed and claims itself to be a work of

art and only a work of art without denying

that art may have a function as social

comment. Often the structural seams of the

work are left visible and even highlighted

and commented upon (in architecture, the

first postmodern form, structural supports

may not be hidden; a novelist may comment on

the plot being created). Postmodern (Po Mo)

works often re-use earlier forms of the

genre, but do not try to integrate them with

one another; rather, they are dealt with

playfully.

POSTURE A particular critical or theoretical stand.

PRACTICE The employment of theory.

PRAXIS Employing theory and critical methods in a

particular way. The indissolubility of

action and significance (Eagleton re Marx

73).

PRIVILEGED Given a higher value than would be granted in

the normal course of events; assigning a high

value within a particular critical or

theoretical or ideological system. "What is

at issue here is the high valuation of

artistic creativity vested in privileged

poetic tropes, especially metaphor and

symbol" (Norris, 28).

PROBLEMATIC "A particular organization of categories

which at any given historical moment

constitutes the limits of what we are able to

utter and conceive" (Eagleton 137).

PROBLEMATIZE To concentrate on an issue or point or moment

in a text which seems to be easily resolved

and show that it is not easily resolved.

PROSOPOPEIA Impersonation of an imagined or removed


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speaker; personification.

PRODUCTION The cultural, historical, and physical

elements that create a text's material being

in the world.

PROJECT The methods and intentions of a particular

critic or theorist.

READING A process of interpretation in which all

parts of a text are made to fit one pattern.

RECEPTION The way a reader or a group of readers

receive a particular text, including the

reasons for their reactions to it and the way

it affects readers.

RECONTEXTUALIZATION After a thing is taken out of a particular

context, putting it into a new context in

order to reinterpret it.

RECUPERATIVE Recovering or remaking something that was

previously disregarded seem new and

important. "Echo can thus be transformed

from a symptom of loss into the force of

recuperation but always on the

understanding that recuperation does not look

backward but advances cumulatively" (Godzich

30).

REFLEXIVE Something which turns back on itself

(Barthes).

REGISTER In discourse theory, the way diction, syntax,

and other linguistic features go to create a

particular tone or feel or intention for a

part of a text.

REPRODUCE To recreate in a text the dominant forces in

a culture.

RESISTANCE A force which is put in opposition to a

dominant force, by direct or indirect means.

It might be claimed that direct resistance

(as in a dialectic) is co-opted by the

system, since the system defines the forms

which resistance might take. "This

resistance [of theory to a system] is not

determined by a negation. It results from a

calculated distanciation from identity"

(Godzich 30).

RETERRITORIALIZATION To put a thing back into its territory.

ROOM The area in which critical or theoretical

discourse can operate.

RUPTURE A moment in a text when there are

irreconcilable meanings or events that cannot

be brought together into a smooth meaning.

SELF-REFLEXIVITY Referring to itself and awareness of itself,

usually said of a text which calls attention

to itself as a text. Postmodern work is

often self-reflexive.

SIGNIFICATION The process of connecting a meaning with a

particular sign, usually a word.


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SIGNIFIED The object or idea that is purported to be

represented by a particular sign. In one

what, the signified can be seen as the object

or thing itself; in another way, it could be

that space that is created in terms of

difference from other signifieds.

SIGNIFIER The sign, such as a spoken or written word,

which is taken to represent a particular

signified, or object or idea.

SILENCE An emptiness that occurs when a text refuses,

as a result of a conscious or unconscious,

purposeful or non-purposeful decision by the

creator of the text to mention a particular

object or quality, but when there are

elements in the text that force us to

recognize that that particular thing is not

being mentioned. An excellent example of

silence is

SITUATE To place a text or theory or idea within a

particular context, and to examine it from

that point of view.

SOLIPSISM The theory that the self can be aware of

nothing but its own experience.

SPACE The bounded area in which something takes

place, such as a narrative space, a critical

space, usually referring to a place in which

the boundaries are purposefully set by the

artist, critic, or theorist.

SPECIALISM The confinement of a theory or critical

analysis to one particular set of procedures or

one particular point of view.

STANCE The position one adopts vis a vis a

particular issue or topic under discussion or

contestation.

STRATEGIES Methodological tactics for dealing with a

particular critical or theoretical problem or

issue.

SUBALTERN Having a lower rank or position, especially

in terms of existing in a role of being

dominated or subject to authority, as being a

woman or a member of a colonized or

previously colonized nation.

SUBJECT According to Althusser, an individual is

always a reaction to and in an ideology:

"there is no ideology except by the subject

and for subjects," while we all "are always

already subjects." The ideology

"interpellates individuals as subjects" and

at the same the individual himself or herself

always exists only in the subject, and thus

"individuals are always-already subjects."

SUBJECT-CONSTITUTING A discourse in which the topic of the

discourse or

the person speaking or the person spoken to

is created by that discourse.

SUBLATE "In Hegelian dialectics, negativity is the


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movement of the concept toward its 'other,'

and a necessary stage in the passage to

Aufhebung, the overcoming or sublation of the

initial concept" (Godzich, 44-45).

SUBSTANTIALIST Based on the assumption that there is a true

reality or identity to the thing being

discussed, such as a universalist or realist

might propose.

SUBVERT To undermine fixed or unquestioned

assumptions usually associated with a

particular ideology. "There are, according

to de Man, rhetorical forces at work in this

passage which effectively resist and subvert

that claim" (Norris, 50).

SURFACE The words themselves that make up a text,

together with their prosaic, everyday

meanings.

SUTURE A point in the text at which two divergent

meanings may be joined together.

SYNTAGMATIC Relationships between words which occur by

virtue of the syntactic context of the words,

as compared to paradigmatic relations (other

words that are like that word).

TACTIC The employment of a critical or theoretical

procedure to accomplish one part of a larger

position.

TELEOLOGICAL Finding within natural processes evidence of

a purpose related to the structure of the

whole system.

TEXT A combination of operations within a work

resulting in continuous, creative,

constructive activities, that could be

influenced by many stands.

TRACE A kind of clue showing the presence of an

idea, even when its actual appearance cannot

be seen. "In our effort to define things, we

look for origins

TRANSCENDENTAL Reaching beyond the everyday world to an

assumed higher reality.

TRANSFORMATIVE The act or process that occurs to change the

whole being of a subject to an Other which

might or might not be a part of this subject.

TRANSHISTORICAL Meanings or elements of a culture which are

said to be beyond the influence of the

particular time and place in which they may

be found; universal or essential.

TROPE The use of an artistic construction of a

typical form, such as metaphor, simile, or

metonymy.

UNDECIDABILITY The idea that within a work there may be

meanings that cannot be resolved either

within the work or within the reader, whether

by means of reason and logic, historical

analysis, critical method, or subjective


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interpretation. Compare indeterminacy.

UNGROUNDED Not based on a particular theoretical

approach.

UNIVERSALIZATION The idea that ideas and ideals may be true

for all people at all times.

UTTERANCE "A link in the chain of speech communication,

which cannot be broken off from the preceding

links that determine it both from within and

without giving rise within it to unmediated

responsive reactions and dialogic

reverberations" (Bakhtin). According to

Bakhtin, "the utterance is constructed while

taking into account possible responsive

reactions for whose sake, in essence, it is

actually created."

VALORIZE To treat a thing as being of higher worth

than it might otherwise deserve, generally

not because of valuable qualities in the

thing itself, but rather because it serves

some other agenda.

VERISIMILITUDE Seeming to be "true to life" or lifelike.

According to Riffaterre, fictional

verisimilitude can take two forms: a

"conformity with ideological models" or

"consecution rather than in the mimesis

superimposed on it" a kind of motivation in

the "visible coherence in the sequence of

causes and effects." They assume "two

[parallel] signifying chains" that create the

narrative and descriptive sequences. "The

former privileges the mimesis, a sign system

seemingly based on the referentiality of its

components" ie, words refer. "The latter

privileges the narrative sequentiality that

is entirely within the text's boundaries."

But R. argues that "exterior referentiality

is but an illusion" in that "verbal

representations in the text refer to verbal

givens borrowed from the sociolect" and that

these exist in the text, explicitly or

implicitly "as presuppositions." "Thus the

narrative sequence and its diegetic

implementation (the mimesis) are both

intratextual, since both are derivations from

a given that selects simultaneously the

abstract structure that serves as a model for

the narrative sequence and the representation

that will first actualize that structure and

make it visible and readable. The reader can

neither perceive nor decode the one without

the other, since the narrative structural

invariant must be actualized, and it is the

diegetic sequence that performs this function

by transforming it into coherent variants."

VICTIMIZATION The result of an act of oppression by a

dominant culture or ideology. In traditional

terms, the dominant group is at the center,

the victims are marginalized. In current

theories, the victims become the center, the

dominant forces marginalized.

VOICE The idea of a speaking consciousness.


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VOLITIONAL INTERDEPENDENCE Decisions are never completely free

or determined but rather rest upon an

interconnected set of factors, none of which

are, themselves, solely determinant (Murphy).

Literary Vocab

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