Some of the
below terms are linked to definitions that I have culled from various sources
-- most notably the Victorian
Web. Others are topics that we have either discussed in class
or that have multiple connotations in texts we have read.
Literary
Terms
|
Cultural/
Historical Background
|
Cultural
& Thematic Concepts
|
Catachresis [catachrestic (adj.)]: "From the Greek for ‘misuse,’ a term referring to the incorrect or strained use of a word. Catachresis often involves a mixed or ‘illogical’ metaphor. The phrase tooth of a comb is a strict example of catachresis since combs do not really have teeth. The meaning of the word dry is strained when we refer to a town in which liquor cannot be purchased as ‘dry’" (Ross 41).
Genre [generic (adj.)]: "From the French genre for ‘kind’ or ‘type, the classification of literary works on the basis of their content, form, or technique" (Ross 146).
Gothic
[also gothic novel]: "A word that originally referred to a Germanic tribe,
the Goths, the term Gothic today is usually used to connote the medieval
world in general and, in particular, a style of architecture that originated
in France and that flourished ruing the Medieval Period… When applied
to literature, Gothic has been used both positively and pejoratively to
refer to a genre characterized by a general mood of decay, action that
is dramatic and generally violent or otherwise disturbing, loves that are
destructively passionate, and settings that are grandiose, if gloomy and
bleak.
… The gothic novel arose in late eighteenth-century England and… elements
of the Gothic novel and Gothic literature in general have persisted up
to our own day… Dark, mysterious medieval castles, chock full of secret
passageways and (apparently) supernatural phenomena are common elements
used to thrill the reader. Gothic heroes and heroines tend to be
equally mysterious, with dark histories and secrets of their own… Exaggeration
and emotional language are frequently employed by Gothic writers, who typically
emphasize story line and setting over character and characterization.
They seek to evoke an atmosphere of terror, often from an unidentifiable
source" (Ross 148-149).
Melodrama
[melodramatic (adj.)]: "Originally any drama accompanied by music which
was used to enhance the emotional impact and mood of the performance… In
the Victorian Period, melodrama came to emphasize the conflict between
pure good and evil. Its heroes and heroines were inevitably completely
moral and upright, but terrorized, harassed, or otherwise troubled by thoroughly
despicable villains. No matter what the ostensible subject matter,
the chief concern of melodrama was to elicit the desired emotional response
form the audience. To this end, writers frequently employed improbable
situations, malevolent intrigue, and stock elements to produce feelings
in the audience ranging from pity to terror to joy to moral indignation.
Today
melodrama and melodramatic are generally used pejoratively, although they
may still be used in a purely descriptive sense for any work that relies
on sensational events and improbabilities for dramatic effect" (Ross
209).
Metaphor [metaphoric (adj.)]: "A figure of speech… that associated two unlike things; the representation of one thing by another… [Unlike similes] metaphors use no connective word to make their comparison" (Ross 210).
Metonymy
[metonym (n.), metonymic (adj.)]: "A figure of speech (more specifically
a trope), in which one thing is represented by another that is commonly
and often physically associated with it. To refer to a writer’s handwriting
as his or her ‘hand’ is to use a metonymic figure.
Like other figures of speech (such as metaphor), metonymy involves the
replacement of one word or phrase by another; thus, a monarch might be
referred to as ‘the crown.’
…The following sentence from the opening paragraph of George Eliot’s Adam
Bede …involves metonymy: ‘With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I
will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Bruge, carpenter and guilder,
in the village of Hayslope.’ A ‘drop of ink,"’ of course, cannot
describe the workshop to readers, but the words used by a writer can.
The ‘drop of ink’ thus serves as a metonym for ‘words’" (Ross
214-215).
Pastoral: "1.) As an adjective, a term that can be applied to any work with a rural setting and that generally praises a rustic way of life. 2.) As a noun, a term that refers to a literary mode historically and conventionally associated with shepherds and country living… Pastoral elements, settings, and themes, moreover, …crop up in a variety of nonpastoral works" (Ross 270-271).
Tragedy
[tragic (adj.)]: "A serious and often somber drama… that typically ends
in disaster and that focuses on a character who undergoes unexpected personal
reversals" (Ross 403).
Works Cited
Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998.
DanielPool,
What
Jane Austen Ate and Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist - the
Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England.New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1993.