| A | B |
|---|
| loan word | a word that passes in its native form from one language to another |
| calque | a loan-translation. EX: kindergarten |
| drottkvaett | a measure of skaldic poetry with an eight-line stanza with variable rhythm and three stresses per line, alliteration, and internal rhyme |
| eisteddfod | a Welsh festival of poetry and song, dating back many centuries |
| samizdat | underground system of publication and distribution in the former Soviet Union of literature that was out of favor, such as solzhenitsyn's THE FIRST CIRCLE |
| stornello/stornelli | Italian short lyric, sometimes improvised |
| cynghanedd | originally a Welsh term for a wide variety of verse devices; now, usually,cross-alliteration |
| rubric | "red," a title, description, or other element independent but explanatory of the text; now used for any heading, label, or category |
| locus classicus | that place or passage invariable cited as the "classic example" of a principle or type |
| sententia | a short, pithy statement of general truth; like an aphorism, maxim, or sentence |
| ultima thule | the farthest possible place |
| comitatus | the band of military adherents and independents around a king, hero, or other leader, to whom they are bound by mutual ties of fidelity and allegiance; supporters like the warriors in Beowulf |
| in media res | "in the midst of things;" a story begins in the middle of the action, common in epics |
| vulgate | from "crowd," and means "common" or "commonly used" |
| carpe diem | "seize the day," common theme of the 16th and 17th centuries: yield to love while you still have youth and beauty |
| nihil obstat | "nothing obstructs," used in the Roman Catholic Church to grant permission to publish a book; same as imprimatur which literally means "let it be printed." |
| speculum | "mirror," an important concept in medieval and Renaissance literature, representing reflection and portraiture for the sake of mimesis and for purposes of instruction |
| ubi sunt | formula--a convention much used in verse, rhetorically asking "where are those who were before us?" |
| omnibus | "for all," a volume of selected works, usually by one author but sometimes by several on one subject |
| de casibus | concerning the "falls from greatness" |
| fin de siecle | "end of the century," often applied to the last ten years of the 19th century because of three characteristics of the period: decadence, realism, and radical or revolutionary social aspirations |
| dolce stil nuovo | the "sweet new style" of thirteenth century lyric poets; the precursor of modern rhymed verse in Indo-European languagaes |
| obiter dicta | things said "by the way," incidental remarks |
| hapax legomenon | "something said only once," like "Moby" in MOBY DICK or "wuthering" in WUTHERING HEIGHTS |
| apollonian/dionysian | used to designate contrasting elements in Greek tragedy. |
| dionysian | a term used for the spirit in Greek tragedy associated with Dionysus: states of the ecstatic, orgiastic, or irragional |
| Areopagus | "the hill of Ares," the seat of the highest judicial court in ancient Athens; now represents any court of final authority |
| Parnassus | a Greek mountain famed as the haunt of Apollo and the Muses, also title for a collection or anthology of poetry ("Poetry in Review") |
| buskin | a boot, thick-soled and reaching halfway to the knee, worn by Greek tragedians to increase their stature; by association, it means tragedy |
| cothurnus | same as the buskin |
| sock | the low-heeled slipper conventionally worn by the comic actor on the ancient stage; by association it means comedy |
| parados | in ancient Greek drama, the odes sung by the chorus when they first enter |
| symposium | "a drinking together," or banquet, characterized by free conversation, the word came to mean a discussion by different persons on a single topic |
| koine | the language spoken throughout the ancient Greek world, language of the New Testament, any local dialect that becomes the official language |
| prothalamion | "before the bridal chamber," coined by Spenser as the title of a poem celebrating the double weddings of Lady elizabeth and Lady Katherine Somerset; like epithalamion or epithalamium |
| epithalamium | a poem written to celebrate a wedding |
| encomium | in Greek literature a composition in praise of a living person, object, or event, but not a god, delivered before a special audience. |
| apophrades | the unlucky or unclean days that fell toward the end of a month in the ancient Greek calendar, thought to be unlucky or forbidden time when the dead visit their old houses |
| mimesis | "imitation," applies to Aristotle's theory of imitation |
| apo koinou | "in common," a construction in which two distinct clauses share an unrepeated element in common so that the element serves two grammatical functions |
| technopaegnion | "craft-play," a jeu d' esprit, a game or trick that involves a display of wit or cleverness |
| montage | "mounting" or "editing," in film making, juxtaposing different shots or scenes, sometimes used in the interior monologue |
| pastiche | French for parody or literary imitation, also applied to literary patch works formed by piecing together extracts from various works by one or several authors |
| explication de texte | a method involving the analysis of the meanings, relationships, and ambiguities that make up a literary work, used by the New Critics |
| new novel | a term from the French "nouveau roman," often applied to the antinovel |
| debat | a type of composition, usually in verse, in which two contestants debate a topic and refer it to a judge |
| fabliau | a humorous tale popular in Medieval France, has a humorous, sly style, conventional verse vorm is eight-syllable couplet |
| aube | the French word for either "alba" or "aubade" |
| gallicism | diction characteristic of the French language, or a custom or turn of thought suggestive of the French people, applied to any borrowing from French |
| cliche | from the French word for a stereotype plate; a block for printing, any expression used so much that its freshness and clarity have worn off |
| differance | a virtually untranslatable French neologism; combines various denotations and connotations of difference, differing, deferring, and deferral. |
| mot juste | French for "apt or proper word," associated with Flaubert's principle of using lucid, correct words |
| conte | French for "tale," applies to short stories, short tales of adventure in France; English used it for a work shorter than novel, but longer than a short story, so it can be a tale of marvelous adventures, a tightly-knit story, or a novella |
| chanson de geste | a "song of great deeds," applied to the early French epic |
| roman de geste | same a chanson de geste |
| tombeau | "tomb" or "tombstone," used by 17th century composers for memorial works |
| vers de circonstance | occasional verse, verse written for a particular occasion |
| vers d'occasion | occasional verse |
| bildungsroman | a novel that deals with the development of a young person usually from adolescence to maturity, frequently autobiographial, same as apprenticeship novel |
| kunstlerroman | a form of the apprenticeship novel in which the protagonist is an artist struggling from childhood to maturity toward an understanding of his or her creative mission |
| entwicklungsroman | a German term for a type of bildungsroman that emphasizes the development of the principal character, much like the erziehungsroman |
| erziehungsroman | novel of upbringing or education |
| redende name | "speaking name," a name that is significant (Taylor for tailor; Payne for dentist; Hammerdown for an auctioneer) |
| schlusselroman | a "novel with a key," more frequently known as roman a clef (a novel in which actual persons are presented under the guise of fiction |
| doppelganger | "double goer," a mysterious double; a common figure in literature |
| verfremdungseffekt | German for alienation effect, advocated by Bertolt Brecht as a means by which performers and audiences could avoid undue emotional identification with a work--needed if a work is to have its intended intellectual and political influence |
| gotterdammerung | "the twilight of the gods," it is the title of the last of Richard Wagner's music dramas in THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG, in English the word is used to describe a massive collapse and destruction with great violence and disorder |
| kitsch | "gaudy trash," shallow, flashy art designed to have popular appeal and commercial success |
| rahmengeschichte or rahmenerzahlung | "framework story" |
| festschrift | German for celebration and writing; learned essays presented on some special occasion |
| stoffgeschichte | German equivalent of thematics |
