Some
Important Literary Terms
1- Ambiguity – Multiple
meaning / plurisignation – In ordinary usage ‘ambiguity’ is applied to a fault
in style.
2- Conceit – The term
indicated and particularly fanciful expression f wit. ( Term is related to
concept) :
( sonnet 130 – My Mistress’
eyes are nothing like the sun. )
Sidney’s Arcadia – My true
love hath my heart , and I have his .
3- Paradox: “ A situation or phrase that appears to be
contradictory but which contains a truth worth considering “ In order to
preserve peace, we must prepare for war”.
4- Pathetic fallacy – John
Ruskin ( Invented 1856)
-
Representation of inanimate natural objects that ascribes
to them human capabilities , sensation and emotion( modern painters) .
5- Synecdoche – ( Greek
taking together)
A part of something
is used to represent whole
( Ten hands for ten works
men)
6- Transferred Epithet – (
Interchange, Exchange) – Happy Morning , restless night .
7- Metonymy – Greek ( Change
of name)
8- Antithesis –
Antithesis is a contrast or opposition – the rape
of the lock (1714) – Belinda resolved to win , he meditates the way by force to
ravish , or by fraud betray.
-
May be a small step for men but giant step for
mankind.
-
Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities – unforgettable
antithesis
“ It was the best of time,
it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom and it was the age of
foolishness.”
9- Morality Plays –
Dramatized allegories of a representative
Christian life in a plot form of a quest for salvation.( The best known M.P is
15th Cent. Everyman.)
10- Interlude – ( Latin
“Between the Play” )
Is a term applied to a variety of short stage
entertainments , such as secular farces and witty dialogues with a religious or
political point.
11- Oxymoran, Paradox,
Antithesis-
If the paradoxical utterance conjoins two terms
that in ordinary usage are contraries, is called oxymoran.
Alfred Lord Tennyson-
“O, Death in life, the days
that are no more.”
12- Rhetorical Question:
A rhetorical question is a sentence in the
grammatical form of a question which is not asked in order to request
information but to achieve a greater expressive force than a direct assertion.
I- Alexander Pope’s The Rape
of the Lock( 1714) asks Belinda-
Gods ! Shall the ravishes display your hair,
While the folps envy , and ladies stare?
II – Shelly’s ode to west
wind (1820) …. Closes with –
O, wind
If winter , comes , can spring be far behind?
III- Irony: A contradiction
of expectation between what is said and what is meant .
I) Verbal Irony
II) Situational Irony- What
is expected in particular situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment