Allusion: A reference or quotation to a work of literature or other cultural artifact that readers are expected to recognize as a result of their cultural and literary awareness. A reader recognizing the allusion can then apply its context and meaning to the context of the work making the allusion and so gain a deeper understanding. For instance, the title of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury is taken from Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macbeth refers to time as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Recognizing the allusion, a reader is able to apply this knowledge to Faulkner's novel in order to better understand the novel.

Archetype: "[A] primary symbol, action, setting, or character-type that is found repeatedly in myth, folklore, and literature. Religious mystics have at various times proposed that there is a universal symbolic language of dreams and visions; and in the 20th cent. this notion was encouraged by the speculative anthropology of J. G. Frazer and the psychology of Jung, who claimed that human beings shared a 'collective unconscious' for which archetypal images, whether in dreams or in imaginative literature, provided evidence. Archetypal criticism . . . under Jung's influence has sought to trace the recurrence of such symbols and types as the Earth Mother, the Quest, the Paradisal Garden, and the Trickster. . . . The wider significance of archetypes in literature was explored by Frye" ("Archetype")

Binary oppositions: Paired opposities, such as off and on; left and right; right and wrong; good and evil; black and white. In Marx's view, one group is privileged while the other is marginalized in a society or culture.

Catharsis: "In Aristotle, the cleansing (purifying, purging) of feelings such as pity and fear by feeling them in an aesthetic context, such as the theatre. The aim of tragedy is to achieve this purification. According to the younger Freud a psychological disorder could be relieved by a process of catharsis when the original traumatic event was re-enacted, although he later held that other repressive factors might inhibit this outcome" ("Catharsis").

Chivalry: The "code of behaviour practised in the Middle Ages, especially in the 12th and 13th centuries, by the mounted soldier or knight. The chivalric ethic represented the fusion of Christian and military concepts of conduct. A knight was to be brave, loyal to his lord, and the protector of women" ("Chivalry").

Courtly Love: An extravagant, artificial, stylized relationship characterized by the following traits:

1. They must be aristocratic. Courtly love is practiced by lords and ladies (never commoners), and its proper place is the royal palace or the royal court.
2. They are ritualistic, exemplified by the exchanging of gifts. A lady is wooed according to ritualistic rules, given symbolic gifts, and made the constant theme of songs, poems, etc. She need only show a hint of approval or the mere shadow of affection to the man in return for his advances.
3. They are controlled by the lady.
4. They are secret. Lovers pledge strict secrecy which perhaps is the source of its special aura and exoticism in which the rest of the world is excluded. This secret world is a universe composed of rules, codes, and commandments the lovers create.
5. They are adulterous. One of the principle attractions of courtly love is that it offered an escape from the dull routines and boring confinements of noble marriage which was usually little more than a political or economic alliance.
6. They are literary. Before it was established as a real-life activity, courtly love gained attention as a subject and theme in imaginative literature. Nobles and their adored ladies were already popular figures in song and stories before they began spawning a host of real life imitators.

(Duncan)

Epic: A "[l]ong narrative poem in an elevated style that celebrates heroic achievement and treats themes of historical, national, religious, or legendary significance." Primary epics, also known as traditional or classical epics, were originally oral legends of a culture's heroes which have been recorded. Secondary epics, also known as literary epics, are works which began as literary forms and were "self-consciously produced by sophisticated poets who adapted aspects of traditional epic for specific literary and ideological purposes." Examples of primary epics include the Iliad and the Odyssey. Secondary epics include the Aeneidand John Milton's Paradise Lost ("Epic," par. 2), Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

Ethnocentrism: "A tendency or disposition to judge other ethnic groups, cultures, nations, or societies by the standards and customs of one's own, often accompanied by a dislike or misunderstanding of other such groups and a belief in the intrinsic superiority of one's own" ("Ethnocentrism").

Euhemerist: Someone "who interprets myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time-distorted accounts of long-past historical events." the term is based on the name of Euhemeros of Messene who argued the stories of the gods were embellished history about real persons (Leonard and McClure 5).

Exemplar: Model for behavior

Hamartia: "Literally 'a missing of the mark', hamartia could in ancient Greek range in meaning from innocent mistake to wilful evil. Aristotle's tragic protagonist is somehow responsible for an act he performs in ignorance of its true nature; and in some tragedies he undergoes a change in fortune (peripeteia) because of some hamartia. The traditional debate about hamartia as moral flaw or intellectual error makes it an attribute of character, but it is equally possible to see it as part of the plot, an action rather than a character flaw. We might also see it as ignorance itself, the human condition that renders the act tragic" (RWV, "Harmartia").

Homeric Hero: Above all else, the Homeric hero seeks aretê, the striving for excellence, "the power to achieve the fullest performance" (Kerferd 148). The Homeric hero emphasizes strength, competition (Keferd 148), courage (Kerferd 148; Rosenberg 119), moral responsibility, Intelligence, insight, ingenuity, and superiority in warfare (Rosenberg 119). The hero's worth is recognized through the preservation of his exploits in poetry, public approval, and his prize of honor, frequently a female captive taken in battle. This honor, value attached to someone, or public acknowledgement of value (timé) was a matter of glory, fame, and lasting reward (kleos) (Kiely). Honor denied, however, brings great shame (Rosenberg 120). In his struggle for excellence, the hero must avoid hubris, or excessive pride (often the result of menin - wrath). If he succumbs to pride, he is prone to até, "blind, rash behavior" and will suffer retribution, nemesis (Rosenberg 122).

In medias res: "[in med-i-ahs rayss] The Latin phrase meaning 'into the middle of things', applied to the common technique of storytelling by which the narrator begins the story at some exciting point in the middle of the action, thereby gaining the reader's interest before explaining preceding events by analepses ('flashbacks') at some later stage. It was conventional to begin epic poems in medias res, as Milton does in Paradise Lost. The technique is also common in plays and in prose fiction: for example, Katherine Mansfield's short story 'A Dill Pickle' ( 1920 ) begins in media res with the sentence 'And then, after six years, she saw him again.'" ("In Medias Res," par. 1)

Irony: "A subtly humorous perception of inconsistency, in which an apparently straightforward statement or event is undermined by its context so as to give it a very different significance. In various forms, irony appears in many kinds of literature, from the tragedy of Sophocles to the novels of Jane Austen and Henry James , but is especially important in satire , as in Voltaire and Swift. At its simplest, in verbal irony, it involves a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant, as in its crude form, sarcasm; for the figures of speech exploiting this discrepancy, see antiphrasis, litotes, meiosis . The more sustained structural irony in literature involves the use of a naïve or deluded hero or unreliable narrator , whose view of the world differs widely from the true circumstances recognized by the author and readers; literary irony thus flatters its readers' intelligence at the expense of a character (or fictional narrator). A similar sense of detached superiority is achieved by dramatic irony, in which the audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character's expectations, and thus ascribing a sharply different sense to some of the character's own statements; in tragedies , this is called tragic irony. The term cosmic irony is sometimes used to denote a view of people as the dupes of a cruelly mocking Fate, as in the novels of Thomas Hardy . A writer whose works are characterized by an ironic tone may be called an ironist. For a fuller account, consult Claire Colebrook, Irony (2003)" ("Irony").

Metaphor: "The most important and widespread figure of speech, in which one thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea, or action, so as to suggest some common quality shared by the two. In metaphor, this resemblance is assumed as an imaginary identity rather than directly stated as a comparison: referring to a man as that pig, or saying he is a pig is metaphorical, whereas he is like a pig is a simile . Metaphors may also appear as verbs (a talent may blossom) or as adjectives (a novice may be green), or in longer idiomatic phrases, e.g. to throw the baby out with the bath-water" ("Metaphor").

Mimesis: "The Greek word for imitation, a central term in aesthetic and literary theory since Aristotle. A literary work that is understood to be reproducing an external reality or any aspect of it is described as mimetic, while mimetic criticism is the kind of criticism that assumes or insists that literary works reflect reality" ("Mimesis").

Monomyth: A theory proposed by Joseph Campbell that hero stories reflect a cycle of birth and rebirth, paralleling the cycle of the seasons, an adventure from innocence to mature awareness which transforms the hero and helps the hero find his/her place in the world (Leonard and McClure 17).

Novel: "Nearly always an extended fictional prose narrative , although some novels are very short, some are non-fictional, some have been written in verse, and some do not even tell a story. Such exceptions help to indicate that the novel as a literary genre is itself exceptional: it disregards the constraints that govern other literary forms, and acknowledges no obligatory structure, style, or subject-matter. Thriving on this openness and flexibility, the novel has become the most important literary genre of the modern age, superseding the epic , the romance , and other narrative forms. Novels can be distinguished from short stories and novellas by their greater length, which permits fuller, subtler development of characters and themes. (Confusingly, it is a shorter form of tale, the Italian novella, that gives the novel its name in English.) There is no established minimum length for a novel, but it is normally at least long enough to justify its publication in an independent volume, unlike the short story. The novel differs from the prose romance in that a greater degree of realism is expected of it, and that it tends to describe a recognizable secular social world, often in a sceptical and prosaic manner inappropriate to the marvels of romance. The novel has frequently incorporated the structures and languages of non-fictional prose forms (history, autobiography, journalism, travel writing), even to the point where the non-fictional element outweighs the fictional. It is normally expected of a novel that it should have at least one character, and preferably several characters shown in processes of change and social relationship; a plot , or some arrangement of narrated events, is another normal requirement. Special subgenres of the novel have grown up around particular kinds of character (the Künstlerroman , the spy novel), setting (the historical novel , the campus novel ), and plot (the detective novel); while other kinds of novel are distinguished either by their structure (the epistolary novel , the picaresque novel ) or by special emphases on character (the Bildungsroman ) or ideas (the roman à thèse)" ("Novel," par. 1) [see also, Romance].

Ritual: "Generally, an often-repeated pattern of behaviour which is performed at appropriate times, and which may involve the use of symbols. Religion is one of the main social fields in which rituals operate, but the scope of ritual extends into secular and everyday life as well. For example, the dramaturgical sociology of Erving Goffman makes extensive reference to 'interaction rituals', the various ritualized codes of everyday behaviour by which actors co-operate in acknowledging a shared reality and preserve each other's sense of self " ("Ritual").

Romance: "A fictional story in verse or prose that relates improbable adventures of idealized characters in some remote or enchanted setting; or, more generally, a tendency in fiction opposite to that of realism . The term now embraces many forms of fiction from the Gothic novel and the popular escapist love story (also known popularly as romances) to the 'scientific romances' of H. G. Wells, but it usually refers to the tales of King Arthur's knights written in the late Middle Ages by Chrétien de Troyes (in verse), Sir Thomas Malory (in prose), and many others (see arthurian literature, chivalric romance ). Medieval romance is distinguished from epic by its concentration on courtly love rather than warlike heroism. Long, elaborate romances were written during the Renaissance , including Ludovico Ariosto 's Orlando Furioso ( 1532 ), Edmund Spenser 's The Faerie Queene ( 1590 – 96 ), and Sir Philip Sidney 's prose romance Arcadia ( 1590 ), but Cervantes 's parody of romances in Don Quixote ( 1605 ) helped to undermine this tradition. Later prose romances differ from novels in their preference for allegory and psychological exploration rather than realistic social observation, especially in American works like Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Blithedale Romance ( 1852 ). Several modern literary genres , from science fiction to the detective story , can be regarded as variants of the romance (see also fantasy, marvellous ). In modern criticism of Shakespeare, the term is also applied to four of his last plays--Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest--which are distinguished by their daring use of magical illusion and improbable reunions" ("Romance," par. 1) [see also, Novel].

Scapegoat: "One blamed, punished, or stigmatized for the misdeeds of others, after the classic atonement tale in Leviticus 16, in which one of two goats was sent into the wilderness after having the sins of the people symbolically placed upon it" ("Scapegoat").

Shaman: "[A] person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practise divination and healing" ("Shaman"). "Shamanism can best be defined as a technique of ecstasy, in which the soul of the shaman leaves the body and journeys through the spirit world. In their trances, shamans are able to communicate with the dead, and with demons, nature spirits, and the elements, without becoming subject to them. They speak secret or otherworldly languages, and, in the soul's 'magical flight', they can travel immense distances, ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld. Shamans cure illnesses, accompany the dead to the next world, and serve as mediators between people and the gods. They form a small mystical elite which directs the community's religious life and guards its 'soul'" (Hattori, par. 2)

Stock character: "A character of the same general type appearing in a number of different plays. The Italian commedia dell'arte offered traditional general types--the young lovers, the comic servants, the foolish old men--but also more specific stock characters that were also endlessly repeated: the flamboyant but cowardly Spanish captain, the foolish pedant, the elderly lover of the young wife. The comic tradition has continued through the centuries to make much use of this device, but stock characters have also been important in serious drama, every historical period developing certain type characters that were often repeated, such as the dashing heroes of the Spanish early modern 'cape and sword' plays or the darker and more introspective machiavels or revengers of England. During the English Restoration the stock comic characters of the fops, the witty couples, and the country bumpkins had their stock parallels in the noble leading figures of the heroic dramas, influenced by Corneille (MC, "Stock Character," par. 1).

"Nineteenth-century melodrama excelled in stock characters, noble heroes, persecuted maidens, aristocratic villains, stalwart British sailors, but before melodrama actors throughout the European tradition had specialized in noble fathers, male romantic leads, tyrants, soubrettes, and ingénues, since most stock companies hired, trained, and cast actors according to certain general stock types that were called emplois in France and lines of business in England. In India, the classic Sanskrit theatre manual, the Natyasastra, contains lengthy descriptions of a great array of traditional stock character types. Japanese kabuki contains similar carefully delineated traditional role categories, as does Beijing Opera ( jingju) (MC, "Stock Character," par. 2).

"The rise of modern realism with its emphasis upon the originality and uniqueness of each new drama, has muted (though by no means terminated) theatrical reliance upon stock types. Radio, film, and television continue to rely on stock characters, as in television series like soap operas or sitcoms" (MC, "Stock Character," par. 3).

Structuralism: "Twentieth-century school of critical thought. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that underlying the everyday use of language is a language system (langue), based on relationships of difference. He stressed the arbitrary nature of the relationship between the signifier (sound or image) and the signified (concept). Initially a linguistic theory, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes developed structuralism into a mode of critical analysis of cultural institutions and products. It is associated especially with the notion of a literary text as a system of signs" ("Structuralism").

Thespian: A term for an actor taken from the name of the Greek playwright Thespis who was first to use an actor separate from the chorus.

Tragedy: "[P]lay dealing in an elevated, poetic style with events which depict man as the victim of destiny yet superior to it, both in grandeur and in misery. The word is of Greek origin and means 'goat-song', possibly because a goat was originally given as a prize for a play at the Dionysia. The classic Athenian tragedies of Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles developed from the choral lyric, an art which reached its height among the Dorian peoples of the Peloponnese during the 6th century BC. The earliest plays began with the parados, or entrance of the chorus, which was soon preceded by a prologos for the actor or actors. Each formal ode, or stasimon, for the chorus alternated with a dramatic scene, or episode; lyrical dialogue between an actor and the chorus was called a kommos; and all that followed the final stasimon was the exodus. The chorus sang, or chanted, in unison, but probably spoke through its leader. As nothing is known about the music and dancing of the chorus, and the music-rhythms of the odes cannot be translated into speech-rhythms, it is impossible to dogmatize about the original productions of the great texts which have come down to us, and all translations and revivals can only be approximations. It was the subject-matter of the plays which exercised the greatest influence on the drama of the future. Taken from the myths of gods and heroes, it retained a link with its religious origins by the beneficent intervention, usually at the end of the play, of a god--the deus ex machina--who descended from above the stage by means of a crane or pulley. The Roman theatre produced excellent writers of comedy in Plautus and Terence, but no tragedies for the stage have survived; those by Seneca, which had an immense influence on later European drama, were closet plays" ("Tragedy," par. 1)

Trickster: Tricksters are "figures of play" (Leonard and McClure 247) whose "playfulness can carry with it serious, even tragic or transcendent, overtones. . . . embodying all the infinite ambiguities of what it is to be alive in the world" (Leonard and McClure 250). The trickster "'combines in his nature the sacredness and sinfulness, grand gestures and pettiness, strength and weakness, joy and misery, heroism and cowardice that together form the human character'" (Erdoes and Ortiz qtd. in Leonard and McClure 250).

Typology: Originally, "[a] system of interpretation applied by early Christian theologians to the Hebrew scriptures (the 'Old Testament'), by which certain events, images, and personages of pre-Christian legend could be understood as prophetic 'types' or 'figures' foreshadowing the life of Christ. Typology--literally the study of types--is thus a method of re-reading the Old Testament anachronistically in terms of the New Testament, so that Adam , Isaac , Jonah , and other characters are pre-figurings of Christ, the Tree of Knowledge in Eden is a type of the Cross, and so on" ("Typology," Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms). Applied more generally as a "[s]ystem of groupings that aids understanding of the things being studied by distinguishing certain attributes or qualities among them that serve to link them together into a closed set of items" ("Typology," World Encyclopedia).