CLEP Humanities key terms

A serious drama in which a protagonist of high standing suffers a downfall through fate, flaw, or circumstance, arousing pity and fear in the audience. Aristotle's Poetics provides the earliest surviving analysis of its structure.

The error, misjudgment, or flaw in a tragic protagonist that contributes to their downfall. It need not be a moral failing; Aristotle treats it as an intellectual mistake that sets catastrophe in motion.

The purging or emotional release that Aristotle says tragedy produces in spectators through pity and fear. Later critics debated whether the release is medical, moral, or purely aesthetic in nature.

A gap between what a character understands and what the audience knows, so that a line carries a meaning lost on the speaker. It builds suspense and often deepens the pathos of a scene.

A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing private thoughts to the audience rather than to other characters. It differs from a monologue, which may be spoken in company.

A brief remark spoken by a character that other figures on stage are not supposed to hear. It gives the audience confidential information about motives or reactions in the middle of dialogue.

A satirical play that exposes the follies and affectations of a social class through witty dialogue and intricate plotting, often set among the upper classes. Restoration England and Oscar Wilde are prime examples.

Comedy built on improbable situations, physical mishaps, mistaken identities, and rapid entrances and exits. Plot machinery matters more than character depth, and the aim is sheer laughter.

A poetic line of five metrical feet, each typically an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables with a rising rhythm. English verse drama and sonnets rely on it heavily.

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter. Its flexibility made it the standard medium for English dramatic and reflective verse from the sixteenth century onward.

A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, usually organized as an octave and sestet or as three quatrains and a couplet. The Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms differ in rhyme scheme and turn placement.

The turn in thought or feeling that typically occurs in a sonnet, often between the octave and sestet or before the closing couplet. It marks a shift in argument, image, or tone.

Poetry organized without a fixed meter or rhyme scheme, relying instead on line breaks, cadence, and imagery for structure. Walt Whitman and later modernists made it central to English-language poetry.

The continuation of a sentence past the end of a line of verse without punctuation, so meaning runs over into the next line. It can speed the reading or create tension against the meter.

A pause or break within a line of verse, often marked by punctuation or a natural speech rhythm. It can fall near the middle of a line or be used for dramatic emphasis anywhere.

The recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that gives a poem its rhythm. Feet such as the iamb and trochee are counted per line to name the meter.

The narrative perspective from which a story is told, such as first person, third-person limited, or omniscient. It governs what information readers receive and how they judge characters.

A storyteller whose account the reader has reason to distrust because of bias, ignorance, or deception. The gap between the narration and the implied truth becomes a source of meaning.

A narrative technique that renders the continuous, associative flow of a character's thoughts, often without logical transitions. James Joyce and Virginia Woolf are associated with its most famous uses.

The presentation of a character's inner thoughts in their own voice, sometimes at a pre-verbal level. It is the device through which stream of consciousness is often delivered on the page.

A novel tracing a protagonist's growth from youth to maturity, usually through a crisis that shapes identity and values. The German term literally means a novel of formation or education.

A novel told through letters, diaries, or other documents rather than an omniscient narrator. The form creates immediacy and lets readers compare multiple partial viewpoints.

Fiction in which supernatural or impossible events are narrated matter-of-factly alongside ordinary life. Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez made the mode internationally prominent.

A short prose work that develops a personal view or argument on a subject. Montaigne established the form as exploratory and self-revealing rather than systematic.

A concise statement expressing a general truth or observation with wit and compression. It often stands alone, as in the maxims of La Rochefoucauld or Nietzsche.

A philosophical or instructional work written as a conversation among speakers, allowing positions to be tested against objections. Plato's dialogues are the model for the genre.

A narrative in which characters, objects, and events stand for abstract ideas or moral qualities, producing a second level of meaning. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Plato's cave are familiar examples.

The use of strong contrasts between light and dark to model forms and create dramatic depth in painting or drawing. Caravaggio and Rembrandt exploited it to heighten emotional intensity.

A painting technique that softens edges and blends tones so forms appear veiled in haze, avoiding hard outlines. Leonardo da Vinci described and practiced it in works such as the Mona Lisa.

An extreme form of chiaroscuro in which figures emerge from near-total darkness under a single harsh light source. It is especially associated with Caravaggio and his followers.

Paint applied thickly enough that brush or palette-knife marks stand out from the surface. Van Gogh and Rembrandt used it to build texture and catch light.

A pose in which the weight rests on one leg so that hips and shoulders tilt in opposite directions, giving the figure balance and implied motion. Classical Greek sculpture established the convention.

A mural technique in which pigments are applied to wet lime plaster and bond with the wall as it dries. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling is a celebrated example.

An external arched support that transfers the outward thrust of a vault to a pier away from the wall. It allowed Gothic churches to have tall, thin walls pierced by large windows.

A vault reinforced by intersecting stone ribs that carry the load to supporting piers. The system, central to Gothic architecture, permitted higher and lighter ceilings than earlier barrel vaults.

A large circular window filled with radiating stone tracery and stained glass, common on the facades of Gothic cathedrals. Its geometry often frames a symbolic or narrative program.

A polyphonic composition in which a short subject is stated by one voice and then imitated and developed by others in overlapping entries. Bach's keyboard fugues are the standard reference.

The art of combining two or more independent melodic lines so that they sound together harmoniously. It is a core skill in Renaissance and Baroque composition.

A large-scale structure for a movement, usually with an exposition presenting themes, a development exploring them, and a recapitulation returning them in the home key. It dominated Classical instrumental music.

An extended orchestral work, typically in four movements, that became the central genre of Classical and Romantic concert music. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven shaped its standard form.

A recurring musical phrase tied to a character, object, or idea, developed and transformed as the drama unfolds. Wagner used the device systematically in his music dramas.

Instrumental music that follows an extra-musical narrative, scene, or image, often explained by a title or written program. Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique is a well-known example.

The assembly of shots into a sequence so that their juxtaposition generates meaning beyond any single image. Soviet filmmakers such as Eisenstein theorized it as the basis of film language.

Everything placed within the frame: setting, lighting, costume, props, and the arrangement of actors. The term, borrowed from theater, covers the visual composition of a shot.

The idea that a film's director is its primary creative author, imprinting a recognizable style and vision across many works. French critics of the 1950s popularized the view.

A film movement of the 1920s using distorted sets, stark shadows, and exaggerated performance to externalize inner states. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is its emblematic work.

Ballet dancing on the tips of the toes in specially reinforced shoes, allowing the dancer to appear weightless and extend line. It became central to Romantic and later classical ballet.