| A | B |
|---|
| Raissoneur | a common character but also a confidant |
| Rann | a quatrain in Irish verse |
| Rap | improvised rhymed verser that is sung or chanted |
| Rationalism | thinking that relies on reason and not the senses |
| Reader-Response Criticism | criticism that suggests that writing only exists to be read |
| Realsim | 19th century American Movement that replaced naturalism |
| Realistic Comedy | any comedy that uses realism |
| Realistic Novel | a novel that emphasizes reality |
| Realsit Theory | in film criticism; the value of a film is its ability to present realtiy |
| Rebus | a text in which words are supplemented by pictures |
| Recalcitrance | coined by Austin M. Wright |
| Recalcitrance | argues that a successful novel gives the reader the right to self-discovery |
| Recantation | to take back--a formal repudiation of something said earlier |
| Recension | a "survey" text that combines the best readings taken from several sources |
| Recessive Accent | a rhyme pattern that forces the stress to fall on the first syllable of a word |
| Recto | the "front" side of a sheet of paper |
| Redaction | revising or editing a manuscript |
| Redende Name | German for "speaking name"; i.e. tailors named Taylor, dentists named Payne, etc. |
| Recitative | speaking in musical tones |
| Redondilla | a Spanish measure in verse |
| Reductio ad Absurdum | reducing something to absurdity |
| Reference | a direct referrel to a topic or a work; refernce book |
| Refrain | an end line or group of lines repeated from stanza to stanza |
| Reggae | a style of music and song that originated in Jamaica |
| Reification | representation of words as though they had concrete form; "Truth is a deep well" |
| Relativism | belief that there are NO absolutes; everything is relative to time and situation |
| Relief Scene | a part of the FALLING ACTION that provides emotional rest for the audience |
| Religious Drama | drama of the Middle Ages because it was based on religious subjects |
| Renaissance | the "rebirth" of classical art and literature |
| Repartee | a "comeback"; a quick and clever response |
| Repetend | a word or phrase that is repeated in a poem |
| Report Song or Poem | a verse which includes an "echo" |
| Requiem | a chant or prayer for the dead |
| Resolution | the dramatic events following the CLIMAX |
| Reversal | a change in luck of the protagonist |
| Review | a notice or summary of a current work or performance |
| Revue | light musical entertainment |
| Rhapsody | a selection from an epic poem that is sung |
| Resolved Stress | the same as hovering stress; when two syllables share an ictus--so that the stress "hovers" over both syllables |
| Rhetoric | the art of using language to PERSUADE |
| Rhetorical Accent | an accent that changes the meaning of a sentence; "Is she laughing at YOU?" |
| Rhetorical Criticism | emphasizes communication between writer and reader |
| Rhopalic | a stanza in which each line is one foot longer than the preceding one |
| End-Rhyme | rhyme that occurs at the end of a line |
| Internal-Rhyme | rhyme that occurs withing the line |
| Beginning-Rhyme | rhyme that occurs with the first syllable or syllables |
| Masculine-Rhyme | rhyme that falls on the last stressed syllable; i.e. "mount" and "fount" |
| Feminine-Rhyme | rhyme that has an additional unaccented syllable; i.e. "mountain" and "fountain" |
| Compound-Rhyme | rhyme within two parts of a word; i.e. "wildwood" "childhood" |
| Double-Rhyme | the same as feminine rhyme |
| Triple-Rhyme | the stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables; i.e. MERRily |
| Rhyme Royal | verse of seven decasyllabic (ten syllable) lines that rhyme ababbcc |
| Rime Couee | a "tail rhyme"; verse in which a short line is followed by a group of longer rhymes |
| Rime Riche | words with identical sounds but different meanings; bare/bear, hair/hare |
| Rising Action | the part of a play that comes before the CLIMAX |
| Rising Rhythm | when the stress pattern is thrown forward so that the last syllable carries the accent |
| Rocking Rhythm | coined by Gerard Manley Hopkins; also called an "amphibrach"--a stressed syllable falls BETWEEN two unstressed syllables te TUM te |
| Rococo | in literary terms it means elaborate, gay, and graceful |
| Rodomontade | bragging or blustering |
| Roman a Clef | a novel in which actual persons are presented under the guise of fiction |
| Roman Fleuve | "river novel"; a slow moving novel that chronicles the lives of several generations |
| Romany | language of the Gypsies |
| Roman Noir | a thriller novel |
| Romantic Epic | a long narrative poem developed by Italian Renassance poets |
| Romantic Novel | a novel with action with episodes based on love, adventure, and combat |
| Rondeau | a set French verse pattern--fifteen lines with the ninth and fifteenth as refrains |
| Rondel | a thirteen or fourteen line French poem; rhyme scheme is abbaabababbaab |
| Rondelet | a rare seven-line stanza |
| Roundelay | a short simple song with a refrain; i.e. "Three Blind Mice" |
| Rubaiyat | a name given to a collection of iambic pentameter quatrains |
| Round Character | coined by E.M. Forster to describe a complex character |
| Roundel | an eleven-line poem in three stanzas |
| Roundelay | a simple fourteen line poem with a refrain |
| Roundheads | during the English Civil-War they were members of the Puritan or Parliamentarian Party |
| Rubric | Latin for "red"--a title, description, or other element that explains the text |
| Rune | a character of the early German alphabet; a secret or mysterious symbol |
| Run-On-Line | a line of verse which runs into the next one without any grammatical break--also called enjambement |
