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| Group of attitudes (current in philsophical, religious, and artistic thought during and after the Second World War) that emphasizes existence rather than essence and sees the inadequacy of human reason to explain the enigma of the universe as the basic philosophical question. Term is so broadly and loosely used that an exact definition is not possible. |
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| A term applied to criticism that emphasizes the form of the artwork, with "form" variously construed to mean generic form, type, verbal form, grammatical and syntactial form, rhetorical form, or verse form. |
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| Any device or style or subject matter which has become, in its time and by reason of its habitual usage, a recognized means of literary expression, an accepted element of technique. |
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| A general term for a movement aimed at the preservation of the Gaelic language, the reconstruction of early Celtic history and literature, and the stimulation of a new literature authentically Celtic (especially Irish) in spirit |
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| Latin for "Seize the day". can be applied to literature, especially lyric poems, which exemplify the spirit of "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die." |
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| In a figurative sense, a standard of judgment; a criterion. the term is applied to the authorized or accepted list of books belonging to the Christian Bible by virtue of having been declared to be divinely inspired. |
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| A term brought into literary criticism from the psychology of Carl Jung, who holds that behind each individual's "unconscious"--the blocked-off residue of the past--lies the "collective conscious" of the human race--the blocked-off memory of our racial past, even of our human experiences. Literary Critic applies the term to an image, a descriptive detail, a plot pattern, or a character type that occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore and is, therefore, believed to evoke profound emotions because it touches the unconscious memory and thus calls into play illogical but strong responses. |
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| To expurgate a piece of writing by omitting material considered offensive or indecorous especially to female modesty, according to Bowdler's intro. The word derirves from Thomas Bowdler who in 1818 published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare. |
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| The cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and which was used to catch his blood at the Crucifixion. Became center of a tradition of Christian mysticism |
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| The criticism practiced by John Crowe Ransom, allen Tate, R.P. Blackmur, Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth Brooks: concentrates on the work of art as an object in itself, finds in it a special kind of language opposed to--or at least different from--the languages of science or philsophy; and subjects it to close analysis |
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| Treats literature not as a self-standing transcendent entity capable of analysis on its own terms but rather as a part of history and, furthermore, as an expression or represenation of forces on history |
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| Based on doctrines of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and thier disciples: assumes the independent reality of matter and its priority over minnd |
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| Jacques Derrida: Once one realizes that what seems to be an event is really a construct of a quasi-linguistic system, then one is in a position to undo the construct or to recognize that the construct, by its very nature, has already undone, dismantled, or deconstructed itself--with far reaching implications |
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| Suggests that a piece of writing scarcely exists except as a text designed to be read; indeed, scarcely exists until someone reads it; does not so much analyze a reader's responding apparatus as scrutinize those features of the text that shape and guide a reader's reading. |
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