HSC Modern Greek Extension flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Mise-en-scène

Everything placed within the film frame: set, props, costume, lighting, colour and actor blocking. Analysing it shows how visual composition shapes the viewer's reading of character and theme.

Diegetic versus non-diegetic sound

Diegetic sound has a source inside the story world, such as a radio in a scene. Non-diegetic sound, such as a film score or voice-over, comes from outside it.

Cross-cutting

An editing technique alternating between two actions in different places, implying simultaneity or comparison. Directors use it to build tension or to invite the viewer to link two storylines.

Narrative point of view

The perspective from which a story is told: first person, omniscient third person, or limited third person. It controls what the reader can know and whose judgement is trusted.

Characterisation channels

A character is built through their own speech and action, what others say about them, and how the author or director frames them. Citing at least two channels strengthens a claim.

Close-up shot

A shot framing a face or object tightly. It concentrates attention and typically intensifies emotional access, so it is strong evidence when arguing how a film positions the viewer.

Motif

A recurring concrete element, such as an object, image or refrain, that points toward an abstract theme. Naming the motif and then the theme it serves produces analytical rather than descriptive writing.

Theme versus value

A theme is an abstract idea the text explores, such as memory or emigration. A value is a principle the text endorses, questions or critiques, such as hospitality or honour.

Asia Minor Catastrophe

The 1922 defeat of Greek forces in Asia Minor and the subsequent population exchange between Greece and Turkey. It underpins much twentieth-century Greek literature about displacement and loss.

Biographical fallacy

Judging a text by its author's life rather than by evidence inside the text. Author biography may illuminate context, but interpretive claims must be supported from the work itself.

Μοιρολόι

A Greek lament, traditionally sung by women at death and sometimes at departure. In literary analysis it functions as a cultural practice carrying grief, memory and community voice.

Adaptation analysis

Comparing a source text with its film or stage version by asking what each medium can do: film shows instantly what prose must narrate, and adaptation choices reveal interpretive emphasis.

Comparative criterion

A single shared axis, such as treatment of homeland loss, on which two texts are compared. Without a shared criterion, comparison collapses into two separate descriptions.

Thesis statement

The single defensible claim in an introduction that answers the question directly. Every body paragraph should support part of it, and the conclusion restates it without adding new evidence.

Greek question mark

Written Greek uses the semicolon-like raised stroke (;) as its question mark, and the ano teleia (·) where English uses a semicolon. Quotations take guillemets (« »).

Αναδεικνύω

A Greek analytical verb meaning to highlight or bring out. It suits sentences where a technique or scene foregrounds a theme, as in the text highlights the value of hospitality.

Σκιαγραφώ

A Greek verb meaning to portray or sketch a character. It is used in literary essays to describe how an author builds a figure gradually through detail and action.

Αντιπαραβάλλω

A Greek verb meaning to set side by side or contrast. It is the precise term for comparative sentences in which two characters, scenes or texts are placed against each other.

Aorist versus imperfect

In Greek narrative, the aorist presents completed events as single points, while the imperfect presents habitual or background action. Consistent aspect keeps an essay's narrative clear.

Signposting connectives

Greek academic connectives such as αρχικά, επιπλέον, ωστόσο, αντιθέτως, επομένως and συμπερασματικά. They mark the logical relation between claims and make an argument easy to follow.

Quotation integration

Embedding a short quotation, roughly two to eight words, inside your own sentence with a colon or comma, then immediately stating the interpretive point it supports.

Stance statement

An explicit sentence in the opening paragraph saying whether you agree or disagree, required when a question asks συμφωνείτε ή διαφωνείτε. The stance must be maintained throughout.

Πλάνο

The Greek term for a shot, the basic unit of film analysis. Essays on prescribed films use it alongside terms such as σκηνοθεσία (direction) and μοντάζ (editing).

Reader response versus authorial intent

Reader response claims what the text invites a reader to conclude; authorial intent claims what the author meant. The first is defensible from the text, the second usually needs external evidence.

Counter-reading

An acknowledged alternative interpretation, introduced with a phrase such as a different reading would be, then rebutted by showing your reading accounts for more textual detail.

Evaluative adjectives in Greek

Judgement words such as πειστικός (convincing), αποτελεσματικός (effective), ρεαλιστικός (realistic), μελοδραματικός (melodramatic), αμφίσημος (ambiguous) and προβλέψιμος (predictable).

Productive ambiguity

An unresolved symbol or open ending treated as generating interpretive instability rather than as a flaw. It is analysed by showing what competing readings the ambiguity permits.

Framing positionality analytically

Naming your own migrant or diaspora experience as the reason a scene resonates, then returning to specific textual detail so the response remains argument rather than autobiography.

Three moves of personal response

Observation, interpretation and evaluation: what the text does, what it means, and how well it does it. Balancing all three keeps first-person writing analytical.

Anachronistic judgement

Judging a text's values by present-day norms without marking the shift. Assess attitudes within the depicted world first, then label any modern critique explicitly.

Θεωρώ ότι

A Greek phrase meaning I consider that, used to introduce an argued personal position. It should be followed by a reason and textual evidence, not by unanchored opinion.

Ξενιτιά

The Greek concept of life abroad or emigration, often carrying exile and homesickness. It is a recurrent theme in Greek literature and a frequent focus for personal-response questions.