Today, I had a lot of free time since the TAKS test was going on, and I was one of the few people not giving one. So, I started making a memory sheet for a student who’s going to state later this week in Literary Criticism. I decided on this memory sheet to do as I’d done in high school and attach silly examples with the definitions of terms the student needed to memorize. I mainly, of course, made fun of myself.

Anyway, I needed to blog something. I thought I’d share some of my examples.

Acronym – a word formed from the first letter of several words (think ‘acrostic’)

Radar – radio detecting and ranging

Pierce – perfection in everything [is] really clear evidenced

Adage – a wise saying

“No honey, no bees.”

“Don’t eat yellow snow.”

Aesthetics – the study of beauty.

Just think about me, of course.

Alazon – the braggart in Greek drama.

See my example for aesthetics.

Ambiguity – the definition of this word is sort of unclear to me. Sort of.

Anastrophe – word of a sentence, in their logical, normal order, are not

Yoda, think of.

Antihero – a figure in many postmodern works. The antihero’s the protagonist, but at the same time, he lacks a lot of key hero traits. He might be graceless, incompetent, dishonest, sometimes immoral.

Yeah, here’s the one where you should really picture me. Imagine me trying to be James Bond.

Archaism – Thou shouldst rememberest that thisith word refereths to out-of-date phrasage.

Catachresis – the misuse of a word. I promise you that’s what “catachresis” means.

Chivalry – all that good stuff from the knights. Fidelity to God and king, honesty (especially to women), a striving to fight for justice, a readiness to save poor damsels in distress, a willingness to open car doors and to pay for the date, etc.

Dues ex machina – something improbable that makes things turn out right

The torturer had just made his final move, turning on the Kenny G music, when two asteroids slammed through the roof, destroying the stereo and the bad guy.

Epanalepsis – The same word that begins the line is repeated as the last word in the line. The.

Hyperbole – exaggeration

I am so handsome that women have been known to immediately gouge out their eyes, wanting their last vision to be of me.

Litotes – a form of understatement where something is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite. Get it.

“She was not unenormous.” = “She was planetary.” or “She could not fit into a rowboat.”

Malediction – A curse.

I always thought it would have been really cool had my family curse been called the “Pierce Malediction.” It’s not, though. It’s just the “Pierce Curse.” Even my curse’s name is cursed.

Maxim – Not the magazine. Stop thinking about it. (Ok, that’s probably just a guy problem.)

The same as ADAGE, AXIOM, PROVER, APHORISM.

Ockham’s Razor – “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” In other words, the simplest answer to something should be considered the truest answer.

I’ve always really thought it would be cool for Gillette or Bic or somebody to put out a product called Ockham’s Razor. It would work well, and I would buy it.

Portmanteau – Word formed by combining two different words.

“smoke” + “fog” = “smog”

“breakfast” + “lunch” = “brunch”

“supercalifratulistik-expialidocious” + “superb” = “superbcalifratulistik-expialidocious”

Saga – Norse & Icelandic adventure stories from the middle ages.

Or normal high school life, I guess.

Seven Deadly Sins – I find it best to learn these in order of fun. You can rank them yourself.

( ) pride, ( ) envy, ( ) sloth, ( ) gluttony, ( ) wrath, ( ) avarice, and ( ) lust

Surrealism – art emphasizing the imagination as expressed in dreams and presented without conscious control.

My second favorite joke of all-time:

How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? fish

Tetralogy – It’s a trilogy, but with one more book.

Utopia – a world sort of unlike Winters.