LCGFT—LITERATURE—MASTER SOURCE, M-R
Macaronic poetry
Source: Morgan, J.A. Macaronic poetry, 1872.
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p. 107 (Macaronic
verse)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dict. of literary terms, 2008 (macaronic verse. Poetry in which
two or more languages are mixed together. Strictly, the term denotes a kind of comic verse in
which words from a vernacular language are introduced into Latin (or other foreign-language)
verses and given Latin inflections. More loosely, the term is applied to any verses in which
phrases or lines in a foreign language are frequently introduced)
Source: The American heritage dictionary of the English language, via WWW, May 7, 2006
(macaronic 1. Of or containing a mixture of vernacular words with Latin words or with
vernacular words given Latinate endings: macaronic verse)
Source: Encyc. Britannica online, May 7, 2006 macaronic (originally, comic Latin verse form
characterized by the introduction of vernacular words with appropriate but absurd Latin endings:
later variants apply the same technique to modern languages) Italian literature/The Renaissance/
Poetry (Macaronic poetry is a term given to verse consisting of Italian words used according
to Latin form and syntax. Teofilo Folengo, a Benedictine monk, was the best representative
of macaronic literature, and his masterpiece was a poem in 20 books called Baldus (1517);
macaronic verse.)
Source: LCSH (Macaronic poetry)
Magic realist fiction
Source: Oxford dictionary of literary terms (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 5, 2012 (magic
realism: also magical realism; kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events
are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the ‘reliable’ tone of objective realistic
report; associated chiefly with certain leading novelists of Central and South America; term has
also been extended to works from very different cultures, designating a tendency of the modern
novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies of fable, folktale and
myth while retaining a strong contemporary social relevance; the fantastic attributes given to
characters in such novels—levitation, flight, telepathy, telekinesis—are among the means that
magic realism adopts in order to encompass the often phantasmagoric political realities of the
20th century)
Source: Britannica online academic edition, Nov. 15, 2012 (magic realism: chiefly LatinAmerican narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or
mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction; although a historically widespread literary
strategy, the term magic realism is a relatively recent designation, first applied in the 1940s by
Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, who recognized this characteristic in much Latin-American
literature; prominent among the Latin-American magic realists are the Gabriel García Márquez,
Jorge Amado, Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, and Isabel Allende)
Source: Books and beyond: The Greenwood encyclopedia of new American reading, 2008: p.
918 (Magic realism is a genre in which supernatural elements or events are integrated seamlessly
into a realistic setting without surprise or commentary from the characters. Important writers
of magic realism include Latin American authors Gabriel García Márquez, Luis Jorge Borges,
and Isabel Allende. Because of its inclusion of fantastical elements, magic realism can be
incorporated within a discussion of speculative fiction)
Source: Speculative Literature Foundation website, Nov. 6, 2012 (FAQ: Speculative literature
is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing
literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and
fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making)
Manga
Source: Fletcher-Spear, K. Library collections for teens : manga and graphic novels, c2011:
glossary (Manga: The Japanese term for comics. In America, it is used to distinguish Englishtranslated Japanese comics from other countries’ comics; Manga-style: A comic that utilizes
artwork or storytelling conventions from manga, but is produced in America or another Western
country; sometimes called Ameri-manga, Original English Manga (O.E.L.), or faux-manga;
Manhua: Chinese and Taiwanese comics; Manwha: Korean comics) p. 34 (Currently, in the
United States, manga is published in a Japanese style. This means that the publishers have kept
the book in its original right to left format … Manga reads from the right page’s top right panel
inward and downward and then it repeats on the left page. … The next thing librarians may
notice about these volumes is their lack of color. Manga is usually drawn and published in black
and white. … Finally, the most notable characteristic of manga that librarians will observe is of
the character designs: the characters usually appear more Caucasian than Japanese. A distinctive
set of facial characteristics is one of the most visible elements of manga, a visual style formed
after years of melding Eastern and Western conventions of beauty. … manga characters have
unusually large eyes and small triangular noses that are not depicted when the character is drawn
face on. … Another stylistic feature in many manga titles is lanky character designs which make
the characters appear tall. When familiar with the style, one will be able to distinguish manga
from other countries’ comics.)
Source: Karp, J. Graphic novels in your school library, 2012: p. 19 (Manga is a Japanese word
meaning “disreputable pictures” or “whimsical pictures” and is simply the Japanese version of a
comic book. But even within that straightforward distinction there is room for a great deal of
divergence.) p. 20 (Manga in its original Japanese form is meant to be read from right to left, and
is thus designed that way. This isn’t just a matter of the page and panel sequence, but applies to
the imagery and word balloons within the panels themselves. Many manga are reproduced in this
country with the original sequence intact, and reading them can take some getting used to. …
manga focuses genre through the lens of gender and age in very specific way, targeting not only
reading levels and genre interest, but also gender in a clear, intentional manner that American
publishers do not. ...Manga series are usually finite, running anywhere from four to thirty
volumes, though not as a rule. The point is that a manga series is conceived as a story with a
beginning, middle, and an end, while comics generally are not.) pp. 21-22 (comics are nearly
always in color, while manga are, by vast majority, not; there is little mistaking the art style in
one for the other. Depending on the genre, manga figural art tends to contain more extreme
stylization than comics, the figures being more pliable, elongated, and what many would call
“cartoonish”. The art is, by and large, less literal, if you will, often intended to suggest the
emotion of the character or situation rather than the actual appearance. Meanwhile, manga
background or object art tends toward realism of an intensely acute variety. Images of guns, cars,
trees, buildings, can be so realistic that they border on the fetishistic.) p. 25 (American sequential
art is about action, which is to say the effect of the movement. Manga strives to capture the
action as it happens, which is to say the movement itself.) p. 27 (prevalence of abstract or
spiritual elements in manga, which are largely absent from comics and GN)
Source: Lyga, A.A.W. Graphic novels in your media center, 2004: glossary (manga: The
Japanese word for “comic book.” Outside Japan, the term has come to refer specifically to comic
books produced in the style most associated with Japanese comic books. Some elements of this
style include exaggerated facial expressions and proportions to convey emotion, focus on the
eyes, the use of trailing lines (“speed lines”) to evoke swift movement, and deliberate pacing that
can make actions occur over many panels or pages.)
Source: Miller, S. Developing and promoting graphic novel collections, c2005: p. 22 (Manga.
While actually a style of Japanese comic art, Manga has a very dedicated following among
American youth. Because this foreign style is so popular, it is often convenient for libraries to
consider it as a separate genre, despite the fact that any genre of story can be illustrated in this
art style. Patrons who enjoy Manga do not often differentiate between science fiction Manga,
romance Manga, and so forth. For most teens, Manga is Manga.) pp. 24-25 (several things that
distinguish this style from Western/American comics: characters possess exaggerated physical
features; motion takes place subjectively, rather than objectively; the story relies heavily on
visual cues rather than on text; large eyes, stylized hair, and exaggerated mouths; motion takes
place from the character’s point of view; the world blurs as the character moves. American
comics, on the other hand, show the background scenery as static, with the character moving,
trailed by motion lines; Manga is an artistic style, not a distinct genre. Considering Manga as
a separate genre is an oversimplification … However, many American readers of Manga are
avid collectors and will seek out more of the same. Inversely, readers who do not like the style
will generally not read a graphic novel in the Manga style regardless of its theme. Labeling and
shelving Manga in a consistent fashion will help dedicated readers find them. Another reason to
separate Manga as a unique genre is that it is not often written for children; most Manga titles are
for teenagers and adults.)
Source: Wikipedia, Dec.5, 2012 (Manga comics are created in Japan, or by Japanese
creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th
century...”Manga" as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published
in Japan.)
Maqāmāt
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica online, November 5, 2012 (maqāmah, ( Arabic: “assembly”)
Arabic literary genre in which entertaining anecdotes, often about rogues, mountebanks, and
beggars, written in an elegant, rhymed prose, are presented in a dramatic or narrative context
most suitable for the display of the author’s eloquence, wit, and erudition.)
Source: NIH, November 5, 2012: Islamic Medical Manuscripts (maqāmah, an essay in rhymed
prose)
Source: Oxford dictionary of Islam, November 5, 2012: Maqamah Arabic rhythmic prose genre,
usually translated as "assembly" or "seance," commonly compared to the European picaresque
genre.)
Source: The free dictionary online, November 5, 2012: (Maqama UF Maqamah a picaresque
novella genre that arose in Arabic literature of the ninth and tenth centuries and later spread to
Persian-Tadzhik and Hebrew literatures. Maqama novellas were written in rhymed prose (saj)
in accordance with carefully elaborated rules of form. They abounded in puns, complicated
stylistic figures, quotations, and maxims, which often made them accessible only to a narrow
circle of connoisseurs of belles-lettres. The most well-known practitioners of the maqama genre
include Badi al-Zaman (969-1007), founder of the genre, and al-Hariri (1054-1122), both Arabs;
in Iranian literature, Khamid al-Din Balkhi (died 1164); and in Hebrew literature, Judah Ben
Solomon al-Harizi (1165-1225). The maqama is sometimes considered the direct predecessor of
the European picaresque novel.)
Source: Source: Cuddon, J. A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, c1998
(Maqāma: An Arabic term for stories in rhymed prose. The two great masters of the form were
Abu al-Fadl Ahmed ibn al-Husain al-Hamadhani (967-1007) and Abu Mohammed al-Qasim alHariri (1054-1122). Most of the tales come into the category of picaresque.)
Source: Badī’ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī. The Maqāmāt of Badi’ al-Zamān al-Hamādhāni, 1915,
viewed online at www.sacred-texts.com, May, 24, 2013: book description (A Maqama (plural,
Maqamat) is an Arabic rhymed prose literary form, with short poetic passages. Maqama is from
a root which means 'he stood,' and in this case it means to stand in a literary discussion in order
to orate.)
Source: Hämeen-Anttila, J. Maqama : a history of a genre, 2002 : p. 65 (singular, maqāma;
plural, maqāmāt.)
Source: Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa, 1996: v. 1, p. 509 (maqāma, plural maqāmāt:
narrative form of rhymed prose first developed by al-Hamadhāni (d. 1007).)
Source: LCSH (Maqamah, Hebrew)
Marāsī
Source: Russell, R. The pursuit of Urdu literature, c1992: p. 24 (The major forms which the
poets of the classical period used were the ghazal (a love lyric), the qasida (a panegyric ode), the
masnavi (a love narrative poem), and the marsiya (an elegy on the death of Imam Husain, the
Prophet’s grandson); Marsiya means simple ‘elegy’, but the word is generally used to refer to
the long poems lamenting the martyrdom of Husain and his companions at Karbala—an event of
great significance in the history of Islam—and narrating the events to which this was the climax.)
Source: Bailey, T.G. A history of Urdu literature, 1932: p. 2 (Marsiya or elegy, nearly always
on the death of Hasan, Husain, and their families, but occasionally on the death of relatives or
friends. It is usually in six-lined stanzas with the rhyme aaaabb. The recitation of these elegies
in the first ten days of Muharran is one of the great events in Muslim life. A fully developed
marsiya is almost an epic.)
Source: Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa, 1996: v. 1, p. 509 (marsiya (P), mersiye (T):
an elegy.)
Source: Hyder, S.A. Recasting Karbala in the Genre of Urdu Marsiya, in Sagar, spring 1995, via
WWW, May 24, 2013 (Urdu marasi, or elegies, have not only rendered to the Urdu language
literary and poetic beauty, but also a medium of religious, cultural, and intellectual expression.
Although some Urdu marasi deal with topics other than the seventh-century battle of Karbala,
most of them have focused on the events that paved the path to this battle and the agonizing
aftermath of this event … The tradition of marsiya has its roots in the pre-Islamic Arab and
Persian worlds, where human sentiments and pathos were expressed in form of elegiac poetry
… The main purpose of Urdu marasi is to praise the heroes of Islam, who fought on the side of
Imam Hussain in Karbala, and to induce empathy for the family of Ali and Fatima.)
Source: Britannica Academic Edition online, under the article “South Asian arts, viewed May 24,
2013 (Marsīyeh: Mars̄iyeh means “elegy,” but in Urdu literature it generally means an elegy on
the travails of the family and kinsmen of Ḥusayn (grandson of Muḥammad) and their martyrdom
in the field of Karbalā, Iraq. These elegies and other lamentatory verses were read at public
gatherings, especially during the month of Muḥarram. Although a large number of mars̄iyehs
were written in the Deccan and at Delhi, it was in Lucknow, with the patronage of Shīʿite elite
and royalty, that mars̄iyehs gained the tenor and magnitude of epic poetry. The two great masters
of that 19th-century period were Mīr Anīs and Mīrzā Dabīr, who together established musaddas
(a six-line stanza with an aaaa bb rhyme scheme) as the preferred form for mars̄iyehs and added
several new topics and details to the ranks of associated themes, thus carrying the form beyond
a simple lament. An interesting aspect of these elegies is that, although the scene and personae
are Arab, there is no attempt at verisimilitude: Arab gallants and maidens speak and gesture like
the elites of Lucknow. Perhaps this added to the pathos and effectiveness of the poems at public
readings.)
Source: Poetry Magnum Opus online, viewed May 24, 2013 (The Marisya or Marsia, an early
19th century Persian stanzaic form was originally developed to frame an elegy honoring Hazrat
Imam Hussain and the martyrs in the 7th century Battle of Karbala. Such poems are still often
recited during the first 10 days of the Muslim, Muharram. Later Marsias were written simply to
mourn the loss of one close. There are 2 parts to the Marsia, "lamentation and burning of heart".
The Marsia usually is: stanzaic, written in any number of sixains made up of a quatrain followed
by a couplet, rhymed, rhyme scheme aaaabb ccccdd etc., and meter not specified.)
Source: Chagla, A.G. The masters of marsiya: Anees and Dabeer, viewed via http://
akchagla.com, May 24, 2013 (Marsiya is not only an elegy. It is descriptive poetry, natural
poetry and portrayal of a wide range of emotions, except the erotic. A marsiya is thus a
miniature epic poem at its best … a marsiya is the very opposite of a qasida. A qasida or
laudatory poem praises in an exaggerated manner the virtues, real or imagined, of a living person
in the hope of obtaining some gift from him in return. On the other hand a marsiya is in essence
an elegy written on some dead person of repute … Usually a marsiya is preceded by some
rubaiyat or quatrains (in the style of Omar Khayyam) and then a salam, in the style of a ghazal,
followed by the marsiya proper.)
Source: New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 (Urdu poetry: Marsiya literally
means "elegy," but in Urdu lit. hist. it chiefly refers to poems that honor the martyrdom of
Imam Husain—a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad—and his companions in the battle of
Karbala (68O CE). These elegies form an integral part of the ritual of public mourning during
certain months for the Shi'a Muslims of South Asia. Initially, a marsiya could be written in any
form. But in the early 19th c., both the writing of a marsiya and its public declamation—often
accompanied with hand gestures and facial expressions—became profound arts at the hands
of several masters, who exclusively used the six-line stanza form called musaddas (aaaabb).
A marisya ultimately seeks to produce a cathartic effect in its listeners. It is never exclusively
lachrymose; it makes an effort to exhilarate the devout by presenting, at various moments,
descriptions of natural beauty, amusing details of familial relationships, and awe-inspiring battle
scenes.)
Source: Anis, Mir Babara, The Battle of Karbala: A Marsiya of Anis, 1994
Source: Wikipedia, Dec. 21, 2012 (Marsiya (Marsia) is an elegiac poem written (especially
in Persia and India) to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hussain ibn Ali and his
comrades of the Karbala.)
Masnavis
Source: Rumi, Masnavi, bk one, 2008
Source: Arberry, A. J. Tales from the Masnavis, 2002
Source: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, c2012 (Masnavī, also mathnavī.
Also referred to as muthannā (doubled), anthnayn anthnayn (two by two), masnavī is one of the
oldest poetic forms in the Persian world. Its most prevalent uses historically have been in epicnarrative, epic-romantic, epic-didactic, and homiletic expressions.)
Source: Britannica Academic online, viewed June 7, 2013 (mas̄navī, also spelled mas̄nawī, a
series of distichs (couplets) in rhymed pairs (aa, bb, cc, and so on) that makes up a characteristic
type of Persian verse, used chiefly for heroic, historical, and romantic epic poetry and didactic
poetry.)
Source: Russell, R. The pursuit of Urdu literature, c1992: p. 24 (The major forms which the
poets of the classical period used were the ghazal (a love lyric), the qasida (a panegyric ode),
the masnavi (a love narrative poem), and the marsiya (an elegy on the death of Imam Husain,
the Prophet’s grandson) p. [83] The earliest narrative fiction in Urdu appeared in verse rather
than in prose, in masnavi form. Broadly speaking, these masnavis are of two kinds, and love is a
theme in both. The first kind, which developed earlier than the second, comprises relatively short
poems (one may describe them as being of short-story length (which describe in directly realistic
terms the tragic stories of lovers—tragic, because in the society of the day love necessarily was
a tragedy … The other kind of masnavi is a much longer poem and tells the story of how young
lovers, separated from each other by the magic powers of jinns and peris, are ultimately reunited
to live happily ever after.)
Source: Von Grunebaum, G.E. Islam : essays in the nature and growth of a cultural tradition in
the American anthropologist, v. 57, no. 2, pt. 2, memoir no. 81, April 1955, p. 178: (mathnawî
(literally: couplet [-poem])
Source: Rypka, J. History of Iranian literature, c1968: p. 98 (mathnavī, a series of distichs
rhyming in pairs (aa, bb, cc, etc.). It contains the whole of heroic, historic and romantic epic
poetry, together with the didactic poetry of more considerable compass.)
Source: Arberry, A.J. Classical Persian literature, 1958: p.13-14 (The mathnavī, as the rhyming
couplet was called in Persian, served not only for heroic and romantic narratives, but also for
didactic compositions; among its greatest exponents were Sanāʼī, Naẓāmī, Rūmī, Sāʼdī and
Jāmī.)
Source: Essa, A. Studies in Islamic civilization, c2010: p. 167 (mathnavi, a series of two
lines connected by a rhyme; a “doublet.” Other than the metrics and rhyming required for the
“doublet,” there are no other restrictions on the mathnavi. Some works in this form extended to
thousands of lines.)
Source: Poetry Magnum Opus online, viewed June 7, 2013 (The masnavi or mathnawi: a long
narrative, the ancient Middle Eastern epic form which dates back to the 8th century. Although
it is believed to originally be Persian, the form has been composed in Persian, Turkish, Urdu
and Arabic and the poet Rumi used the form to write 6 books containing 25000 verses which
he titled Mathnawi. The masnavi is: a narrative, an epic; composed with one of three themes: a
heroic tale, religious or didactic story, or a romantic tale; longer, much longer than any ghazal
which usually ends after a maximum of 15 couplets (the masnavi are usually hundreds or even
thousands of couplets); stanzaic, written in rhyming couplets. The couplets are complete and
closed with one exception, the Arabic Masnavi is written in triplets, complete and closed;
rhymed, the rhyme is never to be repeated throughout the poem rhyme aa bb cc dd ee ff gg etc. ,
in Arabic the rhyme is aaa bbb ccc ddd eee etc…; syllabic, Persian Masnavi stick to a strict 11
syllables per line. This tradition loosens up a bit in Turkish, Urdu and Arabic; composed with
alliteration, especially the Arabic Masnavi.)
Source: www.poetrysoup.com, viewed June 7, 2013 (Masnavi, in the majority of cases is a
poetic romance. It may extend to several thousand lines, but generally is much shorter. A few
masnavis deal with ordinary domestic and other occurrences. Mir and Sauda wrote some of this
kind. They are always in heroic couplets, and the common metre is bacchic tetrameter with an
iambus for last foot.)
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 29, 2012 (Urdu poetry principle forms include Masnavi, in the majority
of cases a poetic romance. It may extend to several thousand lines, but generally is much shorter.
A few masnavis deal with ordinary domestic and other occurrences.
Source: LCSH (Masnavis)
Masques
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (masque: In the
Renaissance, an elaborate entertainment that combined drama, poetry, and music. Although
employed in Italy and France, the masque achieved its most elaborate development in England
during the Jacobean and Caroline periods. In those years, playwrights were commissioned to
write masques for the royal court to mark ceremonial occasions. The structure of the masque
centered on the dancing of a group of elaborately costumed members of the aristocracy whose
movement, interspersed with poetry and song, enacted the “plot.” Their appearance was
preceded by an “antimasque,” in which professional performers would enact scenes of disorder
and ribaldry. These performers would then be banished by a verse announcing the arrival of the
masquers. At the conclusion of the entertainment the audience would be invited to join in the
dance.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008: masque (mask) (A spectacular
kind of indoor performance combining poetic drama, music, dance, song, lavish costume,
and costly stage effects, which was favoured by European royalty in the 16th and early 17th
centuries, especially to celebrate royal weddings, birthdays and other special occasions.
Members of the court would enter disguised, taking the parts of mythological persons alongside
professional performers, and enact a simple allegorical plot, concluding with the removal of
masks, a dance joined by members of the audience, and a banquet. The parliamentary Revolution
of the 1640s brought this form of extravagance to an abrupt end.) anti-masque (A comic and
grotesque piece of clowing that sometimes preceded the performance of a masque (hence the
alternative spelling, antemasque). Ben Jonson introduced this farcical prelude to some of his
masques from 1609 onwards, using it as a kind of burlesque of the main action.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dict. of literary terms and literary theory, 1998: masque (A masque was
a fairly elaborate form of courtly entertainment which was particularly popular in the reigns of
Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, as it was in Italy (where the masque first acquired a distinctive
form), and in France; combined poetic drama, song, dance, and music; costumes were often
sumptuous. A prologue introduced a group of actors known to the audience. They entered in
disguise or perhaps in some kind of decorated vehicle. Plot and action were slight. Usually
the plot consisted of mythological and allegorical elements. Sometimes there might be a sort
of ‘debate.’ At the end there was a dance of masked figures in which the audience joined. In
short, it was a kind of elegant, private pageant.) anti-masque (An innovation by Ben Jonson in
1609. It took the form of either a buffoonish and grotesque episode before the main masque or
an interlude, similarly farcical, during it. When performed beforehand, it was known as an antemasque. One form of it was a burlesque of the masque itself, in which case it had some affinity
with the Greek satyr play.)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 5, 2012 (The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that
flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in
forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque
involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the
architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a
deferential allegory flattering to the patron.)
Source: Merriam-Webster online, Nov. 5, 2012 (masque: a short allegorical dramatic
entertainment of the 16th and 17th centuries performed by masked actors)
Source: Wilson, E. The theater experience, c2004, via McGraw-Hill Higher Education
online learning center, Nov. 14, 2012: glossary (Masque: Lavish form of private theatrical
entertainment which developed in Renaissance Italy and spread rapidly to the courts of France
and England. The masque combined poetry, music, elaborate costumes, and spectacular effects
of stage machinery.)
LCSH (Masques. UF Masks (Plays). BT Drama. BT Pageants. BT Theater)
Source: Jonson, B. The masque of augures, 1621.
Source: Jonson, B. The masque of queenes, 1609.
Source: Beaumont, F. The masque of the Inner Temple and Grayes Inne, 1613.
Source: Hunt, L. The descent of liberty: a mask, 1815.
Source: Milton, J. Comus : a mask, 1735.
Medical drama
Source: Blessing, L. Patient A, 1993.
Source: Kearns, M. T-cells & sympathy : monologues in the age of AIDS, c1995.
Source: Mersand, J.E. Three plays about doctors, 1961.
Source: Allen, F. The country doctor : drama in three acts, ©1915.
Source: Reach, J. Doctors and nurses : a comedy in three acts, c1964.
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (Medical drama (Films); Medical drama (Television programs); Medical
novels)
Source: LCGFT (Medical films (Motion pictures). SN This heading is used as a genre/form
heading for fiction or nonfiction films that feature medical personnel and the practice of
medicine; Medical radio programs. SN This heading is used as a genre/form heading for fiction
or nonfiction radio programs that feature medical personnel and the practice of medicine;
Medical television programs. SN This heading is used as a genre/form heading for fiction or
nonfiction television programs that feature medical personnel and the practice of medicine)
Source: The moving image genre-form guide, via WWW, Nov. 12, 2002 (Medical. Fictional
work telling of the milieu of health practitioners, from doctors to nurses, their profession, and
their patients. Romances among them are frequent, and the presentation ranges from the most
scandalous behavior to idealized portraits of selfless doctors and nurses. The milieu may be
portrayed under both emergency as well as day-to-day conditions, with patients struggling to
overcome physical and sometimes mental challenges.)
Source: Krajewski, S. Life goes on, and sometimes it doesn't : a comparative study of medical
drama in the US, Great Britain, and Germany, 2002: table of contents (The genre of medical
drama -- The development of hospital drama in Great Britain, U.S.A. and Germany)
Source: OCLC, Mar. 12, 2014 (titles: TV medical drama through the decades; Casualty :
reception study of a medical drama; Medical professionalism and the fictional TV medical drama
House MD; As seen on TV : health policy issues in TV's medical dramas; Breaking the rules
of communication : verbal and nonverbal impoliteness in the American hospital drama House
M.D.; Body trauma TV : the new hospital dramas)
Medical fiction
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (Medical novels: use for fiction with a medical setting, including
hospitals, and usually involving medical personnel, doctors, nurses, etc.;UFs: Doctor novels;
Hospital novels)
Source: LCSH (Medical fiction. UF Hospital fiction. BT Fiction)
Melic poetry
Source: Smyth, H.W. Greek melic poets, 1900: pp. xviii-xxix (More appropriate than lyric, as an
exact and comprehensive designation of all poetry that was sung to a musical accompaniment,
is melic, the term that was in vogue among the Greeks of the classic age; the term melic was not
extended to cover elegiac, iambic, and even epic, poetry because the musical accompaniment
was not so vital a feature of these forms as it was in the case of melic verse) p. xx (Originally
almost all melic poetry was led by a single voice, while the chorus sang only the refrain)
Source: Clapp, E.B. Hiatus in Greek melic poetry, 1904.
Source: Greek lyric poetry : the poems and fragments of the Greek iambic, elegiac, and melic
poets (excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) down to 450 B.C., 1993.
Source: The new Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 1993, via Literature online, Feb.
15, 2013 (Melic Poetry (Gr. melos, "member," "song"). Later called lyric poetry (q.v.) by the
Alexandrians, m. p. refers loosely to Gr. poetry composed from the 7th through 5th cs. B.C.,
exclusive of epic, dramatic, elegiac, and iambic. M. p. was sung to the accompaniment of a lyre
or woodwinds or both and was divided into two broad categories, monodic and choral. Monodic
m. p., whose chief representatives were Sappho, Alcaeus, and Anacreon, was sung by a solo
voice and often consisted of short stanzas, the two most important of which became known
as Sapphic and Alcaic. Monodic m. p. reflected Aeolic and Ionian trads., and its lang. tended
to be more conversational and personal. Choral m. p., whose chief composers were Alcman,
Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides, was sung and danced by a chorus
and was often arranged in triads consisting of strophe, antistrophe, and epode. In contrast to
monodic m. p. its character was more public, and it employed a highly artificial lang. with strong
Doric coloring. Choral m. p. was classified by Alexandrian editors into various genres, the most
important being hymns, paeans, dithyrambs, prosodia, partheneia, hyporchemata, encomia,
dirges, and epinikia.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (melic poetry. Lyric
poetry to be sung and danced to. It was mostly composed by Aeolians and Dorians, and the best
work dates from the 7th to the 5th c. BC. There were basically two kinds: the monodic and the
choral. The former was sung by a single voice and expressed one’s individual feelings. The latter
expressed the feelings of a group and were sung by a chorus.)
Source: Dictionary.com, Feb. 15, 2013 (melic 1. intended to be sung. 2. noting or pertaining to
the more elaborate form of Greek lyric poetry, as distinguished from iambic and elegiac poetry.)
Source: Britannica online, Feb. 15, 2013 (under Greek literature - Lyric poetry: The word lyric
covers many sorts of poems. On the one hand, poems sung by individuals or chorus to the lyre,
or sometimes to the aulos (double-reed pipe), were called melic; elegiacs, in which the epic
hexameter, or verse line of six metrical feet, alternated with a shorter line, were traditionally
associated with lamentation and an aulos accompaniment; but they were also used for personal
poetry, spoken as well as sung at the table. Iambics (verse of iambs, or metrical units, basically
of four alternately short and long syllables) were the verse form of the lampoon. Usually of an
abusive or satirical--burlesque and parodying--character, they were not normally sung.)
Melodramas
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 6, 2012 (The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that
exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre
which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them. It is
usually based around having the same character traits, for example a hero (always the fearless
one), heroine (the love of the hero, usually the one that the hero saves), villain (usually likes the
heroine too) and villain's sidekick (typically gets in the way of or annoys the villain). It is also
used in scholarly and historical musical contexts to refer to dramas of the 18th and 19th centuries
in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. An alternative English
spelling, now obsolete, is "melodrame.")
Source: Merriam-Webster online, Nov. 6, 2012 (melodrama. a : a work (as a movie or play)
characterized by extravagant theatricality and by the predominance of plot and physical action
over characterization. b : the genre of dramatic literature constituted by such works)
Source: Dictionary.com, Nov. 17, 2012 (melodrama 1. a dramatic form that does not observe
the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the
expense of characterization. 2. melodramatic behavior or events. 3. (in the 17th, 18th, and early
19th centuries) a romantic dramatic composition with music interspersed.)
Source: Wilson, E. The theater experience, c2004, via McGraw-Hill Higher Education online
learning center, Nov. 14, 2012: glossary (Melodrama: Historically, a distinct form of drama
popular throughout the nineteenth century which emphasized action, suspense, and spectacular
effects; generally melodrama used music to heighten the dramatic mood. Melodrama had stock
characters and clearly defined villains and heroes, and it presented unambiguous confrontations
between good and evil.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dict. of literary terms, 2008 (melodrama. A popular form of
sensational drama that flourished in the 19th-century theatre, surviving in different forms in
modern cinema and television. The term, meaning ‘song-drama’ in Greek, was originally applied
in the European theatre to scenes of mime or spoken dialogue accompanied by music. In early
19th-century London, many theatres were only permitted to produce musical entertainments,
and from their simplified plays--some of them adapted from Gothic novels--the modern sense
of melodrama derives: an emotionally exaggerated conflict of pure maidenhood and scheming
villainy in a plot full of suspense.)
Source: Quinn, E. A dict. of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (melodrama. A type of drama
that highlights suspense and romantic sentiment, with characters who are usually either clearly
good or bad. As its name implies, the form frequently uses a musical background to underscore
or heighten the emotional tone of a scene; first achieved great popularity on the 19th-century
stage; its appeal continues today in many films and television plays)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (melodrama, type of play popular all over
Europe in the 19th century. The term derives from the use of incidental music in spoken drama,
which became customary in German theatres during the 18th century, and from the French
mélodrame, a dumb show accompanied by music; its application to Gothic tales of horror
and mystery, vice, and virtue triumphant, stems from the early works of Goethe and Schiller;
gradually the music became less important and the setting of the plays less Gothic)
Source: The UVic writer’s guide, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014 (The term melodrama (from the
Greek melos, or song) originally referred to musical plays such as opera and some nineteenthcentury drama in which music heightened the emotional effects of the story. Just as farce
is a "low" form of comedy that appeals to the audience on a purely emotional level through
absurdly exaggerated character types and spectacle (boisterous physical play), melodrama is a
tragedy in which characters are extremes of good and evil, and emotional effects are achieved
through violence and intrigue at the expense of realism.)
Source: LCSH (Melodrama)
Memorates
Source: Simpson, J. A dictionary of English folklore (via Oxford reference online), Dec.
16, 2012 (memorates: A technical term for narratives describing how the speaker personally
encountered a supernatural being or experienced a paranormal event, which he/she interpreted in
terms of traditional beliefs. Some scholars, but not all, extend the term to cover those where it is
a close relative or friend of the speaker who had the experience.)
Source: Greenwood encyclopedia of folktales and fairy tales, 2008, vol. 2: p. 615 (Swedish
folklorist Carl Wilhelm von Sydow coined the term “memorate” in 1934 to refer to a firstperson story about a personal supernatural experience to distinguish it from what he called a
“fabulate,” a traditional folk story told in the third person that is well known and shared in and
across communities, the legend being a prime example. Von Sydow argued that recognizing
generic distinctions between these story forms allowed scholars more accurate understandings
of underlying folk beliefs. Other scholars, however, have seen the relationship between firstperson and third-person folk narratives as an intricate, overlapping one. Currently, “memorate”
is often generalized to refer to all personal experience narratives, not only to those about the
supernatural, and so connects folk narratives to autobiography and memoir)
Source: LCSH (Memorates. UF: Memorats. BT: Folk literature)
Source: Warner, E. Introduction to Russian Myths, 2002 (Bylichki: “Russian tales mainly
about the lesser demigods and spirit-beings, wood demons, water nymphs, spirits of the dead,
who populated the familiar universe of the Russian peasantry. This form of memorate, or tale
about events that had supposedly taken place in real life and were 'remembered' by the storyteller, shows deeply entrenched patterns of belief about the relationship between the natural and
supernatural world in the traditional rural community”)
Source: Marshall, B. The Snow Maiden and Other Russian Tales, 2004 (Finally come tales of
spirits and the supernatural. Here are five bylichki (memorates) that tell of encounters with a
supernatural being supposed to have been experienced by the narrator or someone known to
the narrator. Their inclusion is important because folklorists have traditionally put bylichki in a
different genre from skazki folk tales proper.)
Source: LCSH sh 85018458 (Bylichki. UF: Byval’shchiny)
Metadramas
Source: The UVic writer’s guide, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014 (Metadrama and metafiction are
modes of writing that comment on their own activities: they are self-reflexive. When
Shakespeare has Hamlet commenting on the tendency of actors to overact, or when Jane Austen
as narrator comments that Northanger Abbey has few pages left, so the problems facing the hero
and heroine must soon be over, the reader is being deliberately reminded of the relationship
between reader and author. Metadramatic and metafictional techniques were less frequently
employed in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but have returned in many recent
plays and novels: Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, Italo Calvino's If on a Winter Night a
Traveller, Sharon Pollock's Blood Relations, and plays by Tom Stoppard and Peter Shaffer are
examples.)
Source: Wikipedia, Feb. 20, 2014 (Metatheatre. The word "metatheatre" comes from the Greek
prefix 'meta', which implies 'a level beyond' the subject that it qualifies; "metatheatricality" is
generally agreed to be a device whereby a play comments on itself, drawing attention to the
literal circumstances of its own production, such as the presence of the audience or the fact that
the actors are actors, and/or the making explicit of the literary artifice behind the production;
five distinct techniques that may be found in metatheatre: ceremony within a play, role-playing
within a role, reference to reality, self-reference of the drama, and play within a play)
Source: The concise Oxford dictionary of literary terms, ©2004, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014
(metadrama or metatheatre, drama about drama, or any moment of self‐consciousness by which a
play draws attention to its own fictional status as a theatrical pretence. Normally, direct addresses
to the audience in prologues, epilogues, and inductions are metadramatic in that they refer to
the play itself and acknowledge the theatrical situation; a similar effect may be achieved in
asides. In a more extended sense, the use of a play‐within‐the‐play, as in Hamlet, allows a further
metadramatic exploration of the nature of theatre, which is taken still further in plays about
plays, such as Luigi Pirandello's Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Six Characters in Search of an
Author, 1921). See also foregrounding, self‐reflexive.)
Source: Oxford encyclopedia of theatre and performance, ©2003, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014
(Metatheatre. Self-reflexive drama or performance that reveals its artistic status to the audience.
The reflexivity may be embedded in a script's structure by the playwright, when it can be called
metadrama, or superimposed in production by the director or designer. In either instance,
aesthetic self-consciousness is often presented in both artistic and metaphysical terms, especially
in works that speculate on alternative versions of reality, including the artifice of representation.
The play-within-the-play in Hamlet (c. 1600) set the standard for the elevation of theatricality to
metaphysical proportions in Western drama.)
Source: Gibson, T. Plays of plays, by plays, and for plays : the self-reflexive drama of the 17th
and 18th centuries, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014.
Source: Wiktionary, Feb. 20, 2014 (metadrama (plural metadramas) A play that features another
play as part of its plot.)
Source: OED online, Feb. 20, 2014 (metatheatre/metatheater: Theatre which draws attention
to its unreality, esp. by the use of a play within a play; (also) those particular parts of a drama
which exemplify this device.)
Source: MetaDrama and MetaTheatre: drama, theatre and performance about drama, theatre and
performance, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014 (an inordinate number of plays exercise a self-reflexive
interest the possibilities and responsibilities of playwright, actor, and audience. From medieval
morality plays through to postmodern pastiche, we can find actors breaking through fourth
walls, plotlines penetrating narrative frames, playwrights staging themselves and their audiences
in powerful and compromised positions, and performers performing performance; metafiction, meta-drama, and meta-theatre; plays within plays; broken narrative frameworks; selfreferentiality and self-consciously marked theatrical play; theatrical performances of everyday
rituals and performance)
Source: Clements, E. Metatheatrical gender, 2002: p. iv (Metatheater is drama about drama; it is
drama that reflects back on itself through such means as the play-within-the play)
Source: Jones, C. Musical about a musical is still clever despite showing its age, via Chicago
tribune website, May 14, 2002, viewed Feb. 20, 2014 (“Before there was the rapidly atrophying
NBC sitcom ‘Smash,’ there was ‘[Title of Show],’ a cleverly metadramatic little show by Hunter
Bell and Jeff Bowen, wherein a couple of young guys trying to write a hit musical decide that
their best option is to write a musical about their writing a musical, and thus the musical they are
trying to write simultaneously becomes the musical you are paying to see.”)
Source: Brüster, B. Das Finale der Agonie : Funktionen des "Metadramas" im deutschsprachigen
Drama der 80er Jahre, c1993.
Source: Jensen, K. Formen des episierenden Metadramas : ausgewählte Dramentexte José
Sanchis Sinisterras und anderer spanischer Gegenwartsdramatiker, 2005.
Source: Milward, P. Shakespeare's meta-drama, c2003.
Source: The play within the play : the performance of meta-theatre and self-reflection, 2007.
Source: Haring-Smith, T. From farce to metadrama, 1985.
Source: Angus, W.J. "A hawk from a hand-saw" : early modern metadrama and the staging of
the informer, 2006.
Source: Witt, M.A.F. Metatheater and modernity, c2013.
Source: Desai, M. Metadramatic and metatheatrical elements in Restoration comedy, 1980.
Source: Bach, G.T. Aristophanes' metatheatrical Acharnians, 2000.
Source: Charalabopoulos, N. The stagecraft of Plato, 2001: t.p. (metatheatrical prose drama)
Source: Müller-Wood, A. Early modern metadrama, 2007, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014: p. 5
(metadramatic theatre; the term “metatheater” was coined in the 1960s by Lionel Abel, who
argued that this self-reflective theatre must be seen as a third genre besides comedy and tragedy)
p. 6 (Metatheater ... encompasses all forms of theatrical self-referentiality--not only plays within
the play, but also role playing, self-conscious reference the conventions of drama and to other
plays as well as the inclusion of ritualistic and ceremonial enactments; metadramatic play)
Source: Romantic drama, 1994, via Google books, viewed Feb. 20, 2014: p. 42 (the
metadramatic play)
Source: Barr, R.L. Rooms with a view, c1998, via Google books, viewed Feb. 20, 2014: p. 20
(“As You Like It … ends with an epilogue that self-consciously divorces boy actor from female
role. … this metadramatic play”)
.
Source: Timmermans, G.H. The self-reflexive playwright : the drama of Brian Friel, 1994.
Metafiction
Source: Oxford dictionary of literary terms (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 2, 2012
(metafiction: fiction about fiction; or more especially a kind of fiction that openly comments on
its own fictional status)
Source: Waugh, P. Metafiction, 1984, p.2 (metafiction is a term given to fictional writing which
self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artefact in order to pose
questions about the relationship between fiction and reality; in providing a critique of their own
methods of construction, such writings not only examine the fundamental structures of narrative
fiction, they also explore the possible fictionality of the world outside the literary fictional text)
Source: Wheeler, K. Literary terms and definitions, via WWW, Jan. 3, 2013 (metafiction: fiction
in which the subject of the story is the act or art of storytelling of itself, especially when such
material breaks up the illusion of "reality" in a work. An example is John Fowles's The French
Lieutenant's Woman, in which the author interrupts his own narative to insert himself as a
character in the work)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 9, 2012 (metafiction: common metafictive devices in literature include:
a story about a writer creating a story; a story about a reader reading a book; a story that features
itself as its own prop; a story containing another work of fiction within itself; narrative footnotes,
which continue the story while commenting on it)
Source: MetaDrama and MetaTheatre: drama, theatre and performance about drama, theatre and
performance, via WWW, Feb. 20, 2014 (meta-fiction)
Source: Merriam-Webster online, Feb. 20, 2014 (self-reflexive: marked by or making reference
to its own artificiality or contrivance <self-reflexive fiction>)
Source: Modern language studies, Autumn 1998, via JSTOR, viewed Feb. 20, 2014: p. 57 (Philip
Roth's self-reflexive fiction)
Missionary plays
Source: LCSH (Missionary plays. BT Religious drama)
Source: Applegarth, M.T. Short missionary plays, 1930.
Source: Five missionary plays, 1978 (Written for the Missions playwriting contest for the 200th
anniversary of the Brethren in Christ Church)
Source: Allyn, M.C. A greater vision : a missionary play in three acts, c1931.
Source: Conaway, V. The harvest abundant : a missionary play, 193-?
Source: Six prize winning plays, c1947 (Winners of one act missionary play contest conducted
by Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1946)
Source: Declare his name : a selection of missionary hero sketches, dramatic readings, and
dramas for adults and children, c2001.
Source: Watson, P.L. A missions Carol, 1992: cover (a mission drama)
Source: Fraser, B.C. Two masters : a missionary drama, 1926.
Source: Russell, M. Dramatized missionary stories, c1922.
Source: Christian drama and mime, via missionaryresources.org website, May 13, 2013 (“Drama
and Mime plays a major role in thousands of short-term Christian missions trips and long-term
ministries alike. The great thing about drama (be it puppets, skits, mime, etc...) is that it connects
with people in a way that the spoken word often cannot. This section of the resource center is
designed to provide you with ideas, books, videos, and resources for starting or expanding your
drama ministry.”)
Source: Bignell, M. Little grey sparrows of the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury, Western Australia,
1992: p. 104 (In October 1936 Sister Katherine organized a missionary play, entitled ‘Five
Pounds Down’, with seventy children … The idea was to illustrate how a deficiency of £5 in
missionary giving could mean the failure of a particular mission.)
Source: Luther League review, Dec. 1923, via Google books, viewed May 13, 2013: p. 6 (“We
all know the attractiveness of missionary dramatics. There is no better way to bring knowledge
to the indifferent ones than by giving a missionary pageant or play. The person who refuses to
attend a study class or a missionary program will go to see a missionary play. Often a young
person who refuses to take part in a program will delight in having part in a pageant. Many
instances are known of such young persons who first became interested in this way. We should
not underestimate the good results derived from presenting a good missionary play or pageant.”)
Source: Hart, S.M. A companion to Latin American literature, 2007: p. 30 (The first examples
of theatre brought by the Spanish were related to Franciscan missionary activity … Missionary
drama notably took the form of the presentation of the fundamentals of the Christian gospel in
the church-sponsored Corpus Christi celebrations. … A good example of early missionary drama
is the anonymous Coloquio de Nueua conberción Y bautismo delos quatro Vltimos Reyes de
Tlaxcala en la Nueua España, written and performed at the end of the sixteenth or beginning
of the seventeenth cenutry. … The four kings of Tlaxcala are presented in the opening scene
as wrestling with the dilemma posed by the arrival of the Spanish. They are first visited by
their god, called Hongol and later revealed to be none other than the devil, then by an angel of
the Lord, who manages to persuade them to convert instantly to Christianity. … the kings are
baptised and the play concludes with the partaking of mass.) p. 31 (The important point to be
retained from the above is that the early missionary activity as expressed through drama was
profoundly assimilationist and synchretistic.)
Source: The Cambridge history of Latin American literature, 1996, via Cambridge histories
online, viewed May 13, 2013: v. 1, p. 263 (The missionary theatre that flourished in the
mid sixteenth century was the first great artistic product of the encounter of the Spanish and
indigenous races. Mixing, as it did, Spanish and native languages, as well as European and
indigenous dramatic modes, it may be considered a truly mestizo art form. While relatively
few texts of the genre survive today, other sources of information are available, including
descriptions written by clerical chroniclers who witnessed it. Not surprisingly, missionary theatre
was practiced mostly in the areas corresponding to the seats of the
former Aztec and Incan empires. In these areas, the genre responded to the exigencies of
converting large and concentrated Indian populations, as well as to the opportunities offered by
cultures possessing their own vigorous dramatic traditions.) p. 264 (While the Spanish friars
were usually the authors (or adaptors) of the dramatic pieces, their Indian proselytes were active
in every other aspect of production and staging, and in two areas in particular--scenography
and acting--their contribution must have dominated. Scholars of the genre remind us that in the
most developed indigenous civilizations, aspects of dramatic representation were both highly
specialized and technically sophisticated. One of the many ironies of the Conquest was that the
Spanish missionaries, makeshift playwrights, had at their disposal theatre professionals of the
highest caliber among their conquered flock.)
Mock-heroic drama
Source: Beck, T. The triumph of the sons of Belial, or, Liberty vanquished : a mock heroic
tragedy in five acts, 1810.
Source: Nash, G. Man and his mistress, or Woman's revolt : a mock-heroic melo-drama, 1842.
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (mock-heroic. Written in an
ironically grand style that is comically incongruous with the ‘low’ or trivial subject treated;
commonly applied to mock epics, but serves also for works or parts of works using the same
comic method in various forms other than that of the full-scale mock-epic poem. Theatrical
burlesques of heroic drama, such as Henry Fielding’s Tom Thumb (1730) are also referred to as
mock-heroic.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (mock-heroic.
In the style of mock-epic, but the term has a slightly wider application. The heroic manner
is adopted to make a trivial subject seem grand in such a way as to satirize the style, and it is
therefore commonly used in burlesque and parody. Fielding’s Tom Thumb (1730) is a good
example of a mock-heroic play)
Source: Harmon, W. A handbook to literature, c2009: Mock Drama (A term applied to
plays whose purpose is to ridicule the theater of their time. Henry Fielding’s The Tragedy of
Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1731) held up to boisterous ridicule
the conventions of the heroic drama, as the Duke of Buckingham’s The Rehearsal (1671) had
done sixty years earlier.) Mock Epic (or Mock Heroic) (Terms for a literary form that burlesques
the epic by treating a trivial subject in the “grand style” or uses the epic formulas to make a
trivial subject ridiculous by ludicrously overstating it.)
Mock-heroic poetry
Source: Oxford dictionary of English (3 ed.), 2010 (mock-heroic; adjective: (of a literary work
or its style) imitating the style of heroic literature in order to satirize an unheroic subject; noun: a
burlesque imitation of the heroic character or literary styles)
Source: New shorter Oxford English dictionary, 1993 (mock-heroic: an imitation in a burlesque
manner of the heroic character or literary style)
Source: Britannica online academic edition, Nov. 5, 2012 (mock-epic, also called mock-heroic,
form of satire that adapts the elevated heroic style of the classical epic poem to a trivial subject)
Source: Concise Oxford companion to English literature (3 ed.), 2007 (mock-epic, or mockheroic; a satirical form that produces ridicule and humour by the presentation of low characters
or trivial subjects in the lofty style of classical epic or heroic poems. Almost invariably a poem
in heroic couplets, the mock‐epic typically employs elevated poetic diction (which Pope said
should generate ‘pompous expressions’), focuses on a single ‘heroic’ incident or action, and
incorporates selected elements from the machinery of classical epic. Although the mock-epic
satirical poem, which flourished in the later 17th and 18th centuries, portrayed real characters
and events (often thinly disguised) in contemporary and local settings, its literary ancestry may
be traced back to classical antiquity. The pseudo‐Homeric Batrachomyomachia (‘Battle of the
Frogs and Mice’), and Virgil's mock-heroic aggrandizing of the bees (‘little Romans’) in Georgic
IV, though lacking any satirical design, supplied precedents for the display of trivial subjects
comically elevated by the heroic manner, and for the heroic manner comically debased by trivial
subjects)
Monodramas
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 27, 2012 (A monodrama (also Solospiel in German; "solo play") is a
theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.)
Source: Britannica online, Oct. 27, 2012 (monodrama, a drama acted or designed to be acted
by a single person. A number of plays by Samuel Beckett, including Krapp’s Last Tape (first
performed 1958) and Happy Days (1961), are monodramas. The term may also refer to a
dramatic representation of what passes in an individual mind, as well as to a musical drama for a
solo performer.)
Source: The American heritage dictionary of the English language, c2000 (monodrama: A
dramatic composition written for one performer; adj. monodramatic)
Source: Collins English dictionary, c2003 (monodrama: a play or other dramatic piece for a
single performer; adj. monodramatic)
Source: Dictionary.com, Oct. 27, 2012 (monodrama: a dramatic piece for only one performer.
Related form: monodramatic)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (monodrama: A
theatrical entertainment in which there is only one character; monopolylogue: An entertainment
in which one performer plays many parts, as in some forms of monodrama)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (monodrama: A play or
dramatic scene in which only one character speaks; or a sequence of dramatic monologues all
spoken by the same single character. The second sense is rarely used, except of Tennyson’s
Maud (1855), to which the author attached the subtitle A Monodrama in 1875.)
Source: Catron, L.E. The power of one : the solo play for playwrights, actors, and directors,
c2000: p. 2 (may be a drama or comedy; may be a story of one person or it may involve a
number of other characters that the actor evokes in the audience’s imagination--but there is only
one actor; one-person productions are popular in theatres all over the country) pp. 3-4 (solo
plays; one-person dramas; one-person plays; one-person comedies and dramas; one-man play;
solo dramas) p. 7 (the solo theatrical form is what some prefer to call the monodrama) p. 15 (the
monodrama is a complete work, in contrast to soliloquies, which must be seen in the context of
the entire play)
Source: Mortensen, R.F. A musical mono-drama, The mind's eye, 2000.
Source: Peake, R.B. A night with Punch : a mono-dramatic entertainment, 1843.
Source: Hardy, B. Mono-dramas, c1930.
Source: Lewis, M.G. Lines to be spoken in The captive : a mono drama, 1803.
Source: Going it alone : plays by women for solo performers, c1997.
Source: Thompson, S. Solo plays from the repertory of Sydney Thompson, 1939.
Source: Shepard, J. Meaty monologues : the monologues & one-person plays of Jane Shepard,
c2008.
Source: Pownall, D. Plays for one person, 2003.
Source: Burchard, R.C. Troupers & tramps : one-person plays, c1994.
Monologues
Source: Lamedman, D. 111 one-minute monologues, 2002.
Source: The actor's book of contemporary stage monologues, 1987.
Source: Kehret, P. Acting natural : monologs, dialogs, and playlets for teens, 1991.
Source: Majeski, B. 50 great monologs for student actors, c1987.
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (monologue. A long
speech by one speaker. If the speaker is alone such a speech is called a soliloquy. If the speaker
addresses someone absent or an abstract idea, it is an apostrophe. If the speech is addressed to
someone present, it is a dramatic monologue. An interior monologue represents a character’s
fleeting thoughts and impressions, or inner speech.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (monologue. An extended
speech uttered by one speaker, either to others or as if alone. Significant varieties include the
dramatic monologue (a kind of poem in which the speaker is imagined to be addressing a silent
audience), and the soliloquy (in which the speaker is supposed to be ‘overheard’ while alone).
Some modern plays in which only one character speaks, are known either as monodramas or
as monologues. In prose fiction, the interior monologue is a representation of a character’s
unspoken thoughts, sometimes rendered in the style known as stream of consciousness.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (monologue. A
term used in a number of senses, with the basic meaning of a single person speaking alone-with or without an audience. Most prayers, much lyric verse and all laments are monologues,
but, apart from these, four main kinds can be distinguished: (a) monodrama; (b) soliloquy; (c)
solo addresses to an audience in a play; (d) dramatic monologue--a poem in which there is one
imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience)
Monostichs
Source: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, c2012 (Monostich. A poem consisting
of a single line; monostichs)
Source: Harmon, W. A handbook to literature, c2009 (Monostich. A poem consisting of one line)
Source: Chambers 20th cent. dict. (Monostiches; single line poem)
Source: Web. 3 (Monostiches; consisting of a single verse)
Source: Shorter Ox. English dict., 1973 (Monostiches; a poem or epigram consisting of but one
metrical line)
Source: Wikipedia, Apr. 10, 2013 (Monostich. A monostich is a poem which consists of a single
line; one-line poems)
Source: Dictionary.com, Apr. 10, 2013 (monostich: 1. a poem or epigram consisting of a single
metrical line. 2. a single line of poetry. Related forms: monostichic, adjective)
Source: LCSH (Monostiches. UF Monostichs)
Source: Finlay, I.H. Four monostichs, between 1990 and 1992.
Source: Middleton, C. Just look at the dancers : canticles, fumes, monostichs : poems, c2012.
Source: Middle, M. Two one line poems, 2006.
Morality plays
Source: Britannica online, Oct. 27, 2012 (morality play, also called morality, an allegorical
drama popular in Europe especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the characters
personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in
which moral lessons are taught. Together with the mystery play and the miracle play, the
morality play is one of the three main types of vernacular drama produced during the Middle
Ages. The action of the morality play centres on a hero, such as Mankind, whose inherent
weaknesses are assaulted by such personified diabolic forces as the Seven Deadly Sins but who
may choose redemption and enlist the aid of such figures as the Four Daughters of God (Mercy,
Justice, Temperance, and Truth). Morality plays were an intermediate step in the transition from
liturgical to professional secular drama, and combine elements of each.)
Source: Dictionary.com, Oct. 27, 2012 (morality play: an allegorical form of the drama current
from the 14th to 16th centuries and employing such personified abstractions as Virtue, Vice,
Greed, Gluttony, etc.)
Source: Merriam-Webster online dictionary, Oct. 27, 2012 (morality play 1. an allegorical play
popular especially in the 15th and 16th centuries in which the characters personify abstract
qualities or concepts (as virtues, vices, or death))
Source: The American heritage dictionary of the English language, c2000 (morality play 1. A
drama in the 15th and 16th centuries using allegorical characters to portray the soul’s struggle to
achieve salvation)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (Morality Play.
Basically, a Morality Play is an allegory in dramatic form. Its dramatic origins are to be found
in the Mystery and Miracle Plays of the late Middle Ages; its allegorical origins in the sermon
literature, homilies, exempla, romances and works of spiritual edification. In essence a Morality
Play was a dramatization of the battle between the forces of good and evil in the human soul.
The long-term influence of the Moralities is discernible in the pageant and masque)
Source: Wilson, E. The theater experience, c2004, via McGraw-Hill Higher Education online
learning center, Nov. 14, 2012: glossary (Morality play: Medieval drama designed to teach a
lesson. The characters were often allegorical and represented virtues or faults, such as good
deeds, friendship, or avarice. The most famous example is Everyman.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (A kind of religious drama
popular in England, Scotland, France, and elsewhere in Europe in the 15th and early 16th
centuries. Morality plays are dramatized allegories, in which personified virtues, vices, diseases,
and temptations struggle for the soul of Man as he travels from birth to death. They instill a
simple message of Christian salvation, but often include comic scenes; most are anonymous;
earliest surviving example in English is Castle of Perseverance (c.1420), and the best-known is
Everyman (c.1510))
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (morality play, medieval form of drama
which, together with the Creed and Paternoster plays (whose provenance is self-evident), aimed
to teach through entertainment. Unlike the Christmas and Easter (and many other religious)
plays, the Morality play, which in its shorter form became known as an Interlude, was not tied
to any specific Church festival; a debate in dramatic form could be presented at any time in any
place where sufficient spectators could be found.)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (morality play: A form
of English drama of the 15th and early 16th centuries in which characters exemplify moral
or religious abstractions. Morality plays were didactic in intent, designed to instill fear of
damnation while showing the path to salvation.)
Source: The Cambridge guide to literature in English, 2006 (morality plays Where the miracle
plays of the late Middle Ages derived from the liturgy and celebrated God as manifest in the
life and death of Jesus, the morality plays took their inspiration from the sermon and treated the
problems and dilemmas confronting Man. Their form was usually allegorical, with abstractions
such as Mercy or Justice and Envy or Lust representing the opposed forces which accompany
Man in his progress through life. The morality play did not die with the Middle Ages, for
examples abound in England up to 1550. But by then the form had become flexible enough to be
used for satire and comedy, and for abstraction to give way to character.)
Source: McGraw-Hill encyc. of world drama, c1972 (Morality Play. Late medieval religious
drama, performed on a stage in the vernacular, that served a didactic intent, the commendation to
the viewing public of a morally upright life. Two main themes: the struggle between the forces
of good and evil, each personified and named for the particular virtue or vice it represents, for
the salvation or the damnation of man’s soul at the moment of death; the depiction of the ages
of man, each of which is fraught with the perils of immortality. Usually the presentation is
allegorical, and the protagonist is a character symbolic of all of mankind.)
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 27, 2012 (The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor
theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader
term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in
which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt
him to choose a Godly life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the
15th and 16th centuries. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle
Ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre. Morality plays
after the Protestant Reformation are of a distinctly different didacticism than the morality plays
before the Reformation. Morality plays before the Reformation teach a Catholic approach to
redemption. The post-Reformation morality plays worked to destroy Catholic credibility and
demonize the Catholic Church.)
Source: wiseGEEK website, Oct. 27, 2012: What is a Morality Play? (A morality play is a type
of theater performance that uses allegorical characters to teach the audience a moral lesson.
This type of play originated in medieval Europe, first appearing in the 1400s, and typically was
of a Christian nature. It could be considered an intermediate step between the Biblical mystery
plays of the medieval period and the secular theater of the later Renaissance, such as the plays
of William Shakespeare. The morality play has remained a cultural influence to some degree,
although it has waned in popularity. The basic premise of the morality play, in which the main
character--who represents all people and to whom audiences can relate--makes a journey and is
influenced by characters along the way, is still common in many works of theater and film.)
Muʻāraḍāt
Source: Anṣārī, A. Anthology of Arabic poetry, 2009: p. 15 (Muʻāraḍāh: to compose poetry
imitating some other poet’s poem as far as rhyme and meter (and often subject matter).)
Source: Brugman, J. An introduction to the history of modern Arabic literature in Egypt, 1984:
p. 31 (Muʻāraḍāh, poems with the same metre and rhyme as famous examples from classical
literature on related subjects.)
Source: Badawī, M. A short history of modern Arabic literature, 1993: p. 27 (muʻāraḍāh, poems
that by following the rhyme and meter of earlier works were meant to vie with the original
models or at least invite comparison with them, in the way, but not quite with the same degree of
originality as Pope, for instance, imitated Horace, or Johnson Juvenal.)
Source: Reorientations/Arabic and Persian poetry, c1994: p. 229 (By muʻāraḍāh, al-Jurjāni
means the imitation of a passage in point of style with a view to outdoing the predecessor. If later
critics did not discuss muʻāraḍāh in this sense, however, poets regularly practiced muʻāraḍāh
in its more technical meaning: writing a poem in response to an earlier poem in the same meter
and rhyme. Examples of this form of imitatio can be found throughout the history of Arabic and
Persian poetry.)
Source: Modern Arabic literature, 1992 (muʻāraḍāh (pl. muʻāraḍāt), a term used for a poem
identical in its metre and rhyme (and often in its thematic substance) with a classical model.)
Source: LCSH sh 92005140 (Muaradat)
Mummers’ plays
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 29, 2012 (Mummers Plays (also known as mumming) are seasonal folk
plays performed by troupes of actors known as mummers or guisers (or by local names such as
rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, galoshins, guysers, and so on), originally from England
(see wrenboys), but later in other parts of the world. They are sometimes performed in the street
but more usually as house-to-house visits and in public houses. Although the term mummers
has been used since medieval times, no play scripts or performance details survive from that
era, and the term may have been used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds.
Mummers' and guisers' plays were formerly performed throughout most of English-speaking
Ireland, Europe and Great Britain, as well as in other English-speaking parts of the world
including Newfoundland, Kentucky and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In England, there are a few
surviving traditional teams, but there have been many revivals of mumming, often associated
nowadays with morris and sword dance groups.)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Mummers’ Play, or Men’s Dramatic
Ceremony, the best known type of English folk-play, which appears to derive from the folk
festivals of primitive agricultural communities; common theme is the death and resurrection of
one of the characters, an obvious re-enactment in human terms of the earth awakening from the
death of winter; texts of the mummers’ play have been collected from all over England, from
Scotland, and from Ireland; they show a remarkable similarity, though no common prototype has
been traced. The play is first mentioned towards the end of the 18th century and flourished until
the mid-19th; extant texts have been divided into three groups: the Hero-Combat Play, the Sword
Play, and the Wooing Ceremony; all-male cast; the mummers’ play has a number of alternative
names, such as the Johnny Jacks’ Play, the Jolly Boys’ Play, and the Tipteerers’ Play, while the
players were sometimes known as Guizards or Guizers, from their disguise.)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (mummers’ play/mumming
play: A form of folk play performed during Christmas time in English villages in the 16th and
17th centuries. Many of the plays feature the folk hero of the Red Cross, St. George. The basic
plot involves a fight between St. George and the Turkish Knight, one of whom is killed. The
dead man is brought back to life by the Doctor, who is also Father Christmas. Mummers’ plays
continue to be performed in some remote villages of Northern England and Scotland.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998: mumming play (A
primitive form of folk drama associated with funeral rites and seasonal fertility rites, especially
the spring festival. As recently as the middle of the 19th c. it was widespread throughout Britain;
reliable evidence that it has been performed regularly as far afield as the islands of Nevis and
St Kitts. Though the ‘texts’ stem from oral tradition there is a good deal of uniformity in the
mumming play, which is performed by Mummers. The main characters are St (or Sir) George, a
Turkish knight, a doctor, a fool in a cap and bells, and a devil (usually Beelzebub). Sometimes
there is a Father Christmas and Jack Finney, or Johnny Jack the sweeper. The plot (which is
probably not earlier than the 17th c.) and action are very simple. The theme of the mumming
play is clearly death and resurrection, which suggests that it may be connean spring-festival
rite. But there is no evidence for such rites until long after the Middle Ages) pace-egging
play (A mumming play; usually the play of St George (or Sir George); the Mummers called
themselves ‘pace-eggers’ after the Eastertide custom of staining hard-boiled eggs and rolling
them against one another until they broke, after which they were eaten)
Source: The Cambridge guide to literature in English, 2006 (mummers’ play: The mummers’
with its central theme of death and resurrection, belongs less to literature than to anthropology.
Associated with the death of winter and the new birth of spring, it is presumed to have survived
from the folk festivals of agricultural communities; more than 3,000 texts have been recovered
by 19th- and 20th-century researchers, who have divided them into three main groups: the
Hero-Combat Play, the Sword Play (mainly from the north-east of England), and the Wooing
Ceremony (mainly from the east Midlands).)
Source: LCSH (Mumming plays. BT Carnival plays. BT Christmas plays. BT Folk drama,
English. BT Masques)
Muwashshahāt
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Nov. 5, 2012 (muwashshaḥ, (Arabic: “ode”), an Arabic
poetic genre in strophic form developed in Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries.)
Source: New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 (Al-Andalus, Poetry of: By
the time of the establishment of the Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba in ca. 930 ce, the strophic
muwashshah had emerged as a distinctive local contribution to Ar. poetry, the only strophic form
ever to be cultivated to any great extent by poets writing in cl. Ar. The originator of the genre is
thought to be either Muammad Mahmud al-Qabrī (ca. 900 ce) or Ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi (ca. 860-940
ce). The muwashshah consists of five to seven strophes, each in two parts (ghun [pl. aghān] and
sim [pl. asmā]). The aghān all have the same metrical and rhyming patterns, but the rhyme sound
changes from strophe to strophe; the amā are uniform in meter and in rhyme sound throughout
the poem. The poem tends to begin with an opening simt. The final simt, around which the
whole poem was probably composed, is the much-discussed *kharja. The kharja is written either
in vernacular Ar., in Ibero-Romance, or in some combination of the two; and it is generally
believed to be a quotation from vernacular songs otherwise lost.)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 5, 2012 (Muwashshah or muwaššah: Arabic: literally "girdled"; plural
muwāshshahat or tawāshīh is an Arabic poetic form, consisting of a multi-lined strophic verse
poem written in classical Arabic, usually consisting of five stanzas, alternating with a refrain
with a running rhyme. It was customary to open with one or two lines which matched the second
part of the poem in rhyme and meter; in North Africa poets ignore the strict rules of Arabic meter
while the poets in the East follow them; also a secular musical genre using muwaššaḥ texts as
lyrics. This tradition can take two forms: the waṣla of Aleppo and the Andalusi nubah of the
western part of the Arab world.)
Source: Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula: A-k edited by Germán Bleiberg,
Maureen Ihrie, Janet W.. Pérez accessed online via books.google.com May 13, 2013: p. 900
(“Although the Muwashshahāt (plural form of muwashshah) in both Arabic and Hebrew had
been known for some time before …”)
Source: Menocal, M. The literature of Al-Andalus, 2000 : p. 167 (The muwashshah is defined
vis-a-vis the qasida first and foremost by its strophic organization and its peculiar system of
rhymes; the difference in form also entails a difference in function, for whereas the qasida is
meant to be recited, the muwashshah is a song. Unlike classical poetry, the muwashshah is made
up of strophes, usually five in number, and is polyrhyme. The form is said to owe its name to
the wishah, a girdle encircling the body and embroidered with alternating colors; indeed, two
elements do alternate regularly through the poem. These are the aghsan (branches: sing. ghusn)
whose rhyme is uniform within each strophe but changes from one strophe to another; and
teh asmat (threads on which pearls are strung; sing. simt), whose rhymes are common to all
strophes)
Source: Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, accessed online via books.google.com
May 13, 2013: p. 613 (The muwashshah, as it was known, in Arabic (Hebrew, shir azor, “girdle
poem”) was usually devoted to the genre of “love poetry”, or, in a secondary development, to
panegyric. Conservative Arabic literati tended to regard the muwashshah with disdain because
it did not meet the strict prosodic requirements of classical Arabic poetry. The muwashshah
employed the quantitative meters used in the classical monorhyming poem but did so in a
highly irregular fashion, i.e. the meter of the first part of a strophe often differed from that
of the second part of the strophe. Additionally, the muwashshah used quantitative meters in
nonstandard patterns. Muwashshahāt also differed from poems of the classical type in allowing
great flexibility in the use of rhyme. Hebrew muwashshahāt frequently conclude with romance or
…)
Source: Compton, L.F. Andalusian Lyrical Poetry and Old Spanish Love Songs: The
Muwashshah and its Kharja, 1976.
Source: Muwashshah poems from Andalusia, 1985.
Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: Vol 13 - Muwashshah to Ory,
1995.
Source: LCSH (Muwashshah)
Mystery and miracle plays
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983: Mystery Play (medieval religious play
which derives from Liturgical Drama, but differs in being wholly or partly in the vernacular
and not chanted but spoken. Also, it was performed out of doors, in front of the church, in the
market square, or on perambulating Pageants. The earlier English name for it was Miracle Play,
now seldom used, and a better name would be Bible-histories, since each play was really a
cycle of plays based on the Bible, from the Creation to the Second Coming. Substantial texts
of English ‘cycles’ of such plays have survived from Chester, Coventry, Lincoln, Wakefield,
and York; ‘Christian epics’; the English Mystery play, the French Mystère, the German
Mysterienspiel, the Italian Sacra rappresentazione, and the Spanish Auto sacramentale arose
simultaneously) Miracle Play (in English medieval times a synonym for Mystery Play; in France
the term was used for plays in which the central incident was a miraculous intervention in human
affairs by the Virgin Mary or one of the saints, St Nicholas being a favourite subject)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008: miracle play (A kind of
medieval religious play representing non-scriptural legends of saints or of the Virgin Mary.
The term is often confusingly applied also to the mystery plays, which form a distinct body of
drama based on biblical stories. Thanks to the book-burning zeal of the English Reformation,
no significant miracle plays survive in English, but there is a French cycle of forty Miracles de
Notre-Dame probably dating from the 14th century.) mystery play (A major form of popular
medieval religious drama, representing a scene from the Old or New Testament. Mystery plays-also known as pageants or as Corpus Christi plays--were performed in many towns across
Europe from the 13th century to the 16th (and later, in Catholic Spain and Bavaria). They
seem to have developed gradually from Latin liturgical drama into civic occasions in the local
languages, usually enacted on Corpus Christi, a holy feast day from 1311 onwards.) pageant (A
wagon used as a mobile stage on which were performed mystery plays and related dramas in the
Middle Ages. The term is sometimes also applied to a play performed on such a moveable stage,
usually a mystery play. In a later sense, a pageant is a public procession displaying tableaux and
costumes appropriate to the commemoration of some historical event or tradition, sometimes
involving short dramatic scenes.)
Source: Wilson, E. The theater experience, c2004, via McGraw-Hill Higher Education online
learning center, Nov. 14, 2012: glossary (Mystery plays: Also called cycle plays. Short
medieval dramas presented in western Europe and England, based on events of the Old and
New Testaments. Many such plays were organized into historical cycles which told the story of
human history from the creation to doomsday.)
Source: The Cambridge guide to literature in English, 2006 (miracle [mystery] plays:
Dramatized versions of biblical stories from the Creation to the Resurrection, popular in the
Middle Ages.)
Source: McGraw-Hill encyc. of world drama, c1972 (Mystery Play. Vernacular drama of the
Middle Ages, based on a story from the Bible, the Apocrypha, church liturgy, or the lives of the
saints (the last-named is sometimes referred to as a miracle play). From the liturgical plays of the
Middle Ages performed inside churches there developed a new form, the mystery, or miracle,
play)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999: mystery plays (Medieval
plays that depict scenes from the Bible. The plays were made up of individual episodes that
formed a cycle covering the range of biblical history from the story of Adam to the Last
Judgment; productions were extraordinary spectacles, performed in cities in connection with
certain feast days, particularly the feast of Corpus Christi; in England, the mysteries were
produced by the local trade guilds of the town in which they appeared; the traditional belief that
mystery plays “evolved” directly from liturgical drama has been challenged substantially in
recent years; there is little doubt, however, that the plays performed a primary religious function;
performed from the 14th through the 16th centuries, the mystery cycles came to an end with
the advent of Protestantism in England; in Spain mystery plays were also known as autos (oneact plays). Dealing with the lives of the saints as well as biblical stories, they were eventually
replaced by the form known as auto sacramental) miracle play (A form of medieval drama
centered on a miracle performed either by the Virgin Mary or a saint. The earliest known miracle
play in French is Le jeu de Saint Nicholas (c. 1200) by Jean Bodel. This type of play resembles
the saint play but differs in that the latter focuses on the life or martyrdom of a saint. The term
miracle play is also sometimes used to describe the English cycle plays more commonly referred
to as mystery plays, although the latter term is usually reserved for plays based upon biblical
incidents.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (pageant:
Originally the movable stage or platform on which the medieval mystery plays were presented.
Later, the term was applied to plays acted on this platform. In modern usage it describes any
sort of spectacular procession which presents tableaux and includes songs, dances and dramatic
scenes. This sort of entertainment was fashionable in the early decades of the 20th c., especially
in depicting local history.)
Source: Pardoe, T.E. Pantomimes for stage and study, 1931: p. 42 (The mystery play originated
in liturgy and presented a series of events from Holy Scripture; the miracle play was built around
the life of a saint or martyr; the morality play was a dramatization of an allegory for the purpose
of teaching religion or some principle of life)
Source: OCLC, Mar. 12, 2014 (titles: English Corpus Christi cycle drama; The massacre of
the innocents in Corpus Christi cycle drama; The role of Moses in medieval Corpus Christi
cycle drama; Eve in the English cycle drama; The Magi character in the cycle drama; The Old
Testament plays of the middle English cycle drama; Secular roots of medieval cycle drama;
The comic elements in the Corpus Christi drama; Corpus Christi drama as medieval comedy;
Didactic artistry in Corpus Christi drama; The harrowing of hell in the English mystery cycles :
perspectives on the Corpus Christi drama; Memory, images, and the English Corpus Christi
drama; Two Coventry Corpus Christi plays; Mystery-drama from ancient to modern times;
Period pieces : remnants of mystery drama in Shakespeare; The saint's play in medieval England;
The saint's play in England during the Protestant transition; The saint play in medieval Europe)
Source: Encyc. Britannica online, Nov. 12, 2012 (sacra rappresentazione, (Italian: “holy
performance”), in theatre, 15th-century Italian ecclesiastical drama similar to the mystery
plays of France and England and the auto sacramental of Spain. Originating and flourishing in
Florence, these religious dramas represented scenes from the Old and New Testaments, from
pious legends, and from the lives of the saints. The plays were didactic, using dialogues drawn
from the sacred Scriptures to instruct the audience in lessons of good conduct by dramatizing the
punishment of vice and the reward of virtue.)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (sacra rappresentazione (pl. sacre
rappresentazioni), the religious play of 15th-century Italy, which like the Spanish auto
sacramental and the English and French mystery play, developed from liturgical drama, but
with the addition of the lauda. It was chiefly the product of Florence; free-flowing style of
composition and mingling of comedy and tragedy)
Source: Italian Wikipedia, Nov. 12, 2012 (under Sacra rappresentazione: sacre rappresentazioni;
rappresentazioni sacre; theatrical genre with religious subjects; developed in Italy in the 15th
century in Tuscany)
Source: DictionaryCentral.com, Nov. 12, 2012 (sacra rappresentazione: An early form of
religious drama in Italy, equivalent to the English mystery play, French mystères, Spanish auto
sacramentales, and German Geistspiele, all of which derived from the earlier liturgical drama.
Sacra rappresentazione, which retained aspects of the earlier lauda devotional drama, developed
to its highest form in 15th-century Florence. It was produced by educational and religious groups
and usually consisted of re-enactments of biblical stories.)
Source: Google search, Nov. 12, 2012 (23,200 results for “rappresentazioni sacre”; 52,400
results for “sacre rappresentazioni”; 35,700 results for “rappresentazione sacra”; 137,000 results
for “sacra rappresentazione”)
Source: LCSH (Mysteries and miracle-plays. UF Miracle-plays; Mysteries (Dramatic); Saint
plays; Saint’s plays; Rappresentazioni sacre. UF Sacre rappresentazioni; BT Religious drama,
Italian)
Mythological plays
Source: Calderón de la Barca, P. Three mythological plays of Calderón, 1990.
Source: Crumpton, M.N. Theseus : a mythological play for parlor and school in five acts, 1892.
Source: Crumpton, M.N. Ceres : a mythological play for parlor and school in three acts, c1890.
Source: Brough, W. Endymion, or, The naughty boy who cried for the moon : a classical
mythological extravaganza in one act, 1860?
Source: Talfourd, F. Thetis and Peleus, or, The chain of roses : a mythological love story, told in
one act, 1851?
Source: Byron, H.J. Pandora's box : a mythological extravaganza, in one act, 1875.
Source: Gilbert, W.S. Pygmalion and Galatea : an entirely original mythological comedy, in
three acts, 1875.
Source: Shelley, M.W. Mythological dramas : Proserpine and Midas, 1992.
Source: Shelley, M.W. Proserpine & Midas : two unpublished mythological dramas, 1922.
Source: The Oxford companion to Indian theatre, 2004 (Mythological drama; plays based on
themes taken from the Sanskrit epics and Hindu or Buddhist mythology; popularly known as
mythological plays)
Source: Hilliard, S. Dramatic allegory in the mythological plays of John Lyly and his
contemporaries, 1967.
Source: Kutch, L.M. The eloquence of silent retreat : paradox and ambiguity in Ilse Langner's
mythological plays from 1932-1977, 2006.
Source: Handley, A.N. The mythological plays of Lope de Vega, with a study of his sources,
1969.
Source: MacKinnon, D.N. The mythological dramas of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 1977.
Source: Bishop, C. Mythic plays, c2008.
Narrative poetry
Source: Parker, S.B. Ugaritic narrative poetry, 1997
Source: Pushkin, A.S. Collected narrative and lyrical poetry, 2009
Source: Myers, J. Dictionary of poetic terms, c2003 (narrative poem: a nondramatic poem that
tells a story)
Source: New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 (narrative poetry: Narrative
turns the raw material of story—the "telling" of a concatenation of events unfolding in linear
time—into a (more or less) artful organization of those events that may complicate their
chronology, suggest their significance, emphasize their affect, or invite their interpretation.
Narrative poetry heightens this process by framing the act of telling in the rhythmically and
sonically constructed lang. of verse. Although particularly monumental and foundational works
from many cultures (e.g., the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Sanskrit Mahābhārata
and Rāmāyana, the Homeric epics, the OE Beowulf, the MHG Nibelungenlied) and certain
poetic genres (e.g., epic, metrical romance, ballad) are particularly associated with narrative
poetry, poetic narrative is a capacious category and also embraces beast fable, satire, the
dramatic monologue, reflective spiritual autobiography (e.g., William Wordsworth's The
Prelude), allegorical anatomy (Roman de la Rose, Piers Plowman), some elegies (e.g., Walt
Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and G.M. Hopkins's "The Wreck of
the Deutschland"), and, albeit in fragmented or subverted form, the modernist lyric sequences of
Hart Crane, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and W.C. Williams)
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 29, 2012 (Narrative poetry is a form of poetry which tells a story, often
making use of the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is usually written in
metered verse. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to
may be complex. It is usually dramatic, with objectives, diverse characters, and meter. Narrative
poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays. Some narrative poetry takes the form of a novel
in verse. Broadly it subsumes epic poetry, but the term "narrative poetry" is often reserved for
smaller works, generally with more appeal to human interest. Much narrative poetry—such as
Scottish and English ballads, and Baltic and Slavic heroic poems—is performance poetry with
roots in a preliterate oral tradition.
Source: LCSH (Narrative poetry)
Nautical drama
Source: Smollett, T. The reprisal, or, The tars of old England, 1757.
Source: Jerrold, G.W. Black-ey'd Susan, or, All in The Downs : a nautical drama in three acts,
18--
Source: Jerrold, G.W. Black-ey'd Susan, or, All in The Downs : a nautical and domestic drama in
two acts, ca. 1829.
Source: Jerrold, G.W. Black eyed Susan, or All in The Downs : a nautical melodrama, in two
acts, 1830.
Source: Holl, H. Wapping Old Stairs! : a nautical drama, in two acts, 1837?
Source: Wilks, T.E. Ben the boatswain, or, Sailor's sweethearts : nautical drama, in three acts,
1839.
Source: Somerset, C.A. The sea : a nautical drama, in two acts, 1872?
Source: Haines, J.T. My Poll and my partner Joe : a nautical drama, in three acts, 1866.
Source: Tsai, A. T.-K. The British nautical drama (1824-1843), 1964.
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Nautical Drama, a type of romantic
melodrama popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which has as its hero a ‘Jolly Jack
Tar’, a lineal descendant of the sailor characters in the novels of Smollett, who was himself the
author of one of the earliest plays of this kind, The Reprisal; or, the Tars of Old England (1757).
The Jack Tar was further popularized by the elder Charles Dibdin and by the naval victories
of Nelson, before being given its final form in the noble-hearted William, hero of Jerrold’s
Black-Ey’d Susan; or, All in the Downs (1829). The character continued to flourish in the
minor ‘transpontine’ theatres, particularly at the Surrey, until well into the 1880s. Unlike Aquatic
Drama, in which the water itself often seems to have played the chief part, nautical drama
usually took place on dry land, and had nothing in common with the naumachiae, or mimic seafights, of Roman times, given in an amphitheatre specially built for the purpose by Augustus on
the right bank of the Tiber, or with the splendid water-pageants given in Renaissance Italy, often
with the help of complicated machinery.)
Source: McGraw-Hill encyc. of world drama, c1972 (under Jerrold, Douglas William: Blackeyed Susan (1829). Two-act melodrama with ironic undertones. Many men fall in love with
Susan, who though hard-pressed for money, remains faithful to her seafaring husband William.
When his captain falls in love with Susan and makes advances toward her, William strikes him.
As a result he is convicted of striking a superior officer and sentenced to death. But before the
sentence can be carried out, William’s discharge papers, effective before the incident took place,
arrive. The play ends as William is freed.)
Source: Haill, C. Nautical drama, via East London Theatre Archive website, May 17, 2013
(England was a seafaring nation, and in the 1820s and 1830s a mania for nautical drama gripped
the London stage. Plays featuring the exploits of brave, patriotic, honest sailors battling at sea
or safe in harbour included stirring songs, picturesque hornpipes, nautical jargon, spectacular
scenery and effects, and sentimental endings. They presented a hopelessly unrealistic view
of life in the British navy, and audiences adored them. The taste for nautical drama began
in London's West End. Covent Garden and Drury Lane staged tributes to the death of Lord
Nelson in 1805, and in 1806 The Battle of Trafalgar was re-enacted as the finale of The Rival
Patriots on the water tank of the Aquatic Theatre, Sadler's Wells, with miniature ships made by
Woolwich dockyard shipwrights. The craze really set sail however at the Adelphi Theatre, with
Edward Fitzball's plays including The Floating Beacon (1824), The Pilot (1825), and The Flying
Dutchman; or, The Phantom Ship (1827). Undoubtedly the biggest hit was Black Eyed Susan;
or, all in the Downs, by Douglas Jerrold at the Surrey Theatre, 1829, with Thomas Potter Cooke
(1786-1864) as the valiant sailor William. Both Jerrold and Cooke had served in the navy, and
their combined talents resulted in a sensation which became the mainstay of Cooke's career. …
Although the craze for nautical drama reached a peak in the 1830s, the Pavilion staged nautical
drama well into the 1870s)
Source: DictionaryCentral.com, May 17, 2013 (nautical drama: A typically British form of
melodrama that was introduced in the 1750s and remained popular for over a century. Its hero
was the 'Jolly Jack Tar,' a stock figure based largely on the naval characters created by the
novelist Tobias Smollett (1721-71). In 1757 David Garrick produced Smollett's successful and
much imitated nautical farce The Reprisal at Drury Lane. The actor Charles Dibdin the Elder
became particularly popular in the Jack Tar roles. In the 19th century Douglas Jerrold's BlackEy'd Susan (1829) presented a sentimental picture of the relationship between a sailor and his
faithful wife. Nautical drama continued to attract London audiences into the 1880s, especially at
the Surrey Theatre. By this time, however, it had become fair game for parody, the most notable
burlesque of the genre being Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore (1878).)
Source: The Cambridge history of English and American literature, via Bartleby.com, May
17, 2013: Volume 13, The Victorian Age, Part One. VIII, Nineteenth-Century Drama. Section
7, Melodrama (In character and content, melodrama was very various. It included the operas
of Isaac Pocock and Henry Bishop; the adaptations of Fitzball; the wild imaginings of Shirley
Brooks; the nautical drama made popular by T.P. Cooke, the actor; the equestrian drama of
Astley’s; the domestic drama of Tom Taylor; and the Irish drama of Dion Boucicault.)
Source: Williams, C. Gilbert and Sullivan, c2011: pp. 98-99 (Nautical Melodrama. An
authentically English, popular, and often radical genre, nautical melodrama flourished especially
in the 1820s and 1830s; nautical plays often alluded to specific historical events; nautical
melodrama focuses its attention through particular theatrical types and figures--like the Tar
and the pirate--as well as through such thematic obsessions as the hierarchical structure of
absolute authority on board ship and the traumatic disruptions of the family left on shore;
nautical melodrama clearly displays its commitment to loyal service and national pride, but
it also emphasizes the oppressive inequalities engendered on the common man and woman;
J.T. Cross’s The Purse; or The Benevolent Tar (1794) is generally taken to be the first nautical
melodrama, but Douglas Jerrold’s Black-Ey’d Susan; or, All in The Downs (Surrey, 1829) is
always considered to be the canonical example of the genre)
Source: Naval songs and ballads, 1908: p. cvii (Of nautical plays an enormous number were
produced during the first half of the nineteenth century. This species of drama reached its
greatest vogue around 1830. The most successful example of it was Douglas Jerrold’s Blackeyed Susan; or, All in the Downs, played at the Surrey Theatre in 1829)
Nō plays
Source: Wilson, E. The theater experience, c2004, via McGraw-Hill Higher Education online
learning center, Nov. 14, 2012: glossary (Nō: Also spelled noh. Rigidly traditional Japanese
drama which in its present form dates back to the fourteenth century. Nō plays are short dramas
combining music, dance, and lyrics with a highly stylized and ritualistic presentation. Virtually
every aspect of a production--including costumes, masks, and a highly symbolic setting--is
prescribed by tradition.)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983: pp. 433-434 (nō plays; Nō as we know it
today is the creation of two sarugaku players, Kan’ami (1333-1384) and his son Zeami (13631443); general tone of nō should be noble; the language is honorific and sonorous, whatever the
character for whom it is written; subject matter mainly taken from Japan’s classical literature;
players are all male; comic interludes called kyōgen (‘mad words’) were sometimes performed
between nō plays)
Source: McGraw-Hill encyc. of world drama, c1972 (Nō (Noh). Form of Japanese drama. The
Nō drama originated in the latter half of the fourteenth century; the form gradually became
highly structured and formalized and strictly aristocratic; there are five categories of Nō plays:
the god play (kaminō or wakinō); the warrior play (shuramono); the woman’s play, also
called the wig play (kazuramono), the most lyric form; a rather loosely connected group of
miscellaneous plays dealing with dead beings whose earthly passions cause them to return to
earth, to which belong the “living persons pieces” (genzaimono) and the “madwoman pieces”
(kyōjomono); and the “auspicious” plays (kirinō), in which demons, elves, goblins, and other
supernatural creatures appear. According to classical rules, a play of each category is to be
performed, followed by an appropriate short farce, the kyōgen, to vary the pace. The present
custom, however, is to perform only three plays, interspersed with kyōgen)
Source: Harmon, W. A handbook to literature, c2009 (Noh (or Nō) Plays. The most important
form of Japanese drama ... The noh plays are harmonious combinations of dance, poetry, music,
mime, and acting. There are 240 noh plays in the standard repertory, all written between 1300
and 1600; originally part of the religious ritual of the Japanese feudal aristocracy; short, one or
two acts, usually presented at a festival in programs consisting of one each of the five types of
noh plays)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (Nō: A highly ritualized
form of Japanese theater, whose fixed repertory of plays has remained unchanged for 400 years.
Nō plays incorporate music, dance, and poetry in austerely beautiful productions that aim not
at representing reality, but at creating a mood through visual and verbal imagery. The plays are
religious in tone, echoing the doctrines of Shinto or Buddhism)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (nō (noh): A traditional form
of Japanese drama characterized by highly ritualized chant and gesture, and its use of masked
actors. Combining music, dance, and speech in prose and verse, the nō play derives from
religious rituals, and is performed by an all-male cast, originally for an aristocratic audience.
More than 200 such plays survive from as early as the 14th century, mostly on religious and
mythological subjects.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (Nō (Noh). This
form of Japanese drama evolved in the 14th c., probably from ritual dances associated with
Shinto worship. They were lyric dramas (there are believed to be about three in all) and were
intended for aristocratic audiences. They therefore differed from the ‘popular’ kabuki. The
form became fixed in the 17th c. Nō plays are presented on a square stage; balcony at one side
accommodating a chorus of ten singers; usually between two and six actors; all the actors (except
the man playing waki) usually wear masks and elaborate costumes and they chant in low or highpitched voices to a musical accompaniment; women never act in it and men take the female
roles; Nō drama has had some influence in the West; Sturge Moore wrote some Nō plays; Ezra
Pound and Fenollosa adapted some)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 1, 2012: Noh (Noh (能 Nō), or Nogaku (能楽 Nōgaku)--derived from
the Sino-Japanese word for “skill” or “talent”--is a major form of classical Japanese musical
drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men
playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh “performance day” lasts all day and consists
of five Noh plays interspersed with shorter, humorous kyōgen pieces. However, present-day Noh
performances often consist of two Noh plays with one Kyōgen play in between. Noh plays are
divided by theme into the following five categories: Kami mono (神物) or waki nō (脇能); Shura
mono (修羅物) or ashura nō (阿修羅能, warrior plays); Katsura mono (鬘物, wig plays) or
onna mono (女物, woman plays); about 94 "miscellaneous" plays, including kyōran mono　(狂
乱物) or madness plays, onryō mono (怨霊物) or vengeful ghost plays, and genzai mono (現在
物), plays which depict the present time, and which do not fit into the other categories; Kiri nō
(切り能, final plays) or oni mono (鬼物, demon plays))
Source: The noh drama, 1937: p. 5 (the Noh drama has come down to this day, in form and
spirit practically unchanged since the days of its origin; the ancient Greek drama offers the
nearest resemblance to the Noh: performing out-of-doors; use of masks; combination of dancing,
music, and chorus; emphasis on the simple and symbolic; deriving the inspiration from religious
sources) p. 6 (nôgaku (Noh drama) p. 14 (Noh plays)
Source: Tsukui, N. Ezra Pound and Japanese noh plays, c1983: p. ix (Noh is a form of drama,
written partly in prose and partly in verse, dating from the late fourteenth century and consisting
of singing, dialogue and dancing, with the use of masks and a symbolic stage as its most unique
characteristics)
Source: Goff, J. Noh drama and The tale of Genji, c1991: p. 3 (Japanese noh drama)
Source: Zeami. On the art of the nō drama, c1984.
Noir comics
Source: Hart, C. Drawing crime noir for comics and graphic novels, 2006: p. 4 of cover ("crime
noir - the hottest genre of comics and graphic novels today")
Source: Wikipedia Nov.14, 2012 (“Noir fiction (or roman noir) is a literary genre closely related
to hardboiled genre with a distinction that the protagonist is not a detective, but instead either
a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. Other common characteristics include the self-destructive
qualities of the protagonist. A typical protagonist of the Noir fiction is dealing with the legal,
political or other system that is no less corrupt than the perpetrator by whom the protagonist is
either victimized and/or has to victimize others on a daily basis, leading to Lose-lose situation.”)
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (“Taken from the French word meaning ‘darkness’ or ‘of the night,’ noir
is a category of modern crime fiction. Use this term for fiction of crime and detection, often in
a grim urban setting, featuring petty, amoral criminals and other down-and-out characters, and
permeated by a feeling of disillusionment, pessimism and despair.”)
Source: LCSH (Noir comic books, strips, etc. UF Crime noir comic books, strips, etc. BT
Detective and mystery comic books, strips, etc.)
Noir fiction
Source: Oxford dictionary of literary terms (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 2, 2012 (noir:
a kind of crime novel or thriller characterized less by rational investigation (as in the classic
detective story) than by violence, treachery, and moral confusion; although noir fiction derives
in important ways from the hard-boiled school of detective writing and overlaps with it at some
points … it can be distinguished from most detective stories and from other kinds of thriller
by its powerful tendency to dissolve orderly distinctions between the roles of criminal and
hero; hard-boiled: a term applied both to a certain kind of detective character, usually a worldweary private investigator, and to a special tradition of American detective story in which these
characters are prominent)
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (noir fiction: a category of modern crime fiction; use for fiction of crime
and detection, often in a grim urban setting, featuring petty, amoral criminals and other downand-out characters, and permeated by a feeling of disillusionment, pessimism and
despair; BT: Mystery fiction)
Nonfiction comics
Source: Karp, J. Graphic novels in your school library, 2012: p. 51 (list of genres includes:
nonfiction)
Source: Serchay, D.S. The librarian’s guide to graphic novels for children and tweens, c2008:
pp. 33-34 (Nonfiction comic books have been around for more than 60 years; historical and
contemporary biographies, history, science, and current events; in recent years there has been a
rise in nonfiction graphic novels, often from non-comic book publishers; graphic nonfiction)
Source: Nonfiction comics blog, viewed on Dec. 11, 2012: About Nonfiction comics ("We're
big fans of comics as entertainment, but we're also fascinated by the ability of the comics
medium to do so much more. They can be biographies, historical accounts, news reports, artistic
criticisms, and how-to manuals; they can educate, enlighten, and instruct. This blog is intended
to unearth those 'comics with a higher purpose,' to organize and showcase them for those
interested in all the wonderful things comics can do.") Survival stories, December 3rd, 2012
("Graphic journalism continues to make headway into the field of “serious” comics, and this
time it’s available on the format/medium of our times, the iPad. Symbolia is a bi-monthly digital
magazine featuring long-form journalism in the form of sequential art")
Source: Butler, K. Comic books as journalism : 10 masterpieces of graphic nonfiction, 2011,
via The Atlantic website, viewed Dec. 11, 2012 ("I've put together a list of some of my favorite
graphic non-fiction. These hybrid works combine the best elements of art, journalism, and
scholarship ... Graphic nonfiction provides a clever solution to a perpetual problem--how to
make audiences care about new or challenging material. These 10 books bring a childlike
sense of wonder to their subjects, something that comes in part from the cross-disciplinary
collaborations between artists, designers, and writers that yielded the work in the first place. And
they're proof that you're never too old to pick up a comic book.")
Source: Wikipedia, Dec. 11, 2012: Non-fiction (Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is the form of
any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are
understood to be factual. This presentation may be accurate or not--that is, it can give either a
true or a false account of the subject in question--however, it is generally assumed that authors
of such accounts believe them to be truthful at the time of their composition or, at least, pose
them to their audience as historically or empirically true.) Non-fiction comics (Non-fiction
comics, also known as graphic non-fiction, is non-fiction in the comics medium, embracing
a variety of formats from comic strips to trade paperbacks. Traditionally, comic strips have
long offered factual material in this category, notably Ripley's Believe It or Not!, along with
Ralph Graczak's Our Own Oddities and King Features' Heroes of American History and others.
Dick's Adventures in Dreamland was another attempt by King Features to teach history with
comics. Clayton Knight created a strip about aviators, The Hall of Fame of the Air (1935-40),
later collected in a book. Texas History Movies, which began on October 5, 1926, in The Dallas
Morning News, received praise from educators, as did America's Best Buy: The Louisiana
Purchase, a 1953 daily strip in the New Orleans States.)
Source: Dictionary.com, Dec. 11, 2012 (nonfiction 1. the branch of literature comprising works
of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality,
including biography, history, and the essay (opposed to fiction and distinguished from poetry and
drama ). 2. works of this class. 3. (especially in cataloging books, as in a library or bookstore) all
writing or books not fiction, poetry, or drama, including nonfictive narrative prose and reference
works; the broadest category of written works. Related forms: nonfictional)
Nonfiction novels
Source: Oxford dictionary of literary terms (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 2, 2012 (new
journalism: genre of journalism also known as ‘faction’ or ‘non-fiction novel’ developed in
the United States in the 1960s and 1970s involving a new blend of fictional presentation with
journalistic research and reportage; faction: a short‐lived portmanteau word denoting works that
present verifiably factual contents in the form of a fictional novel; although still sometimes used
by journalists, the term suffers from the disadvantage of already meaning something else (i.e. a
conspiratorial group within a divided organization), so the preferred term is New Journalism.)
Source: WorldCat, Nov. 2, 2012 (titles: The nonfiction novel; The mythopoeic reality, the
postwar American nonfiction novel; Fact & fiction : the new journalism and the nonfiction
novel)
Source: LCSH (Nonfiction novel.UFs: Journalistic novel; New journalism.BTs: Fiction;
Reportage literature)
Nonsense verse
Source: Britannica online, July 16, 2013 (nonsense verse: humorous or whimsical verse that
differs from other comic verse in its resistance to any rational or allegorical interpretation.
Though it often makes use of coined, meaningless words, it is unlike the ritualistic gibberish
of children’s counting-out rhymes in that it makes these words sound purposeful. Skilled
literary nonsense verse is rare; most of it has been written for children and is modern, dating
from the beginning of the 19th century. The cardinal date could be considered 1846, when The
Book of Nonsense was published; this was a collection of limericks composed and illustrated
by the artist Edward Lear, who first created them in the 1830s for the children of the earl of
Derby. This was followed by the inspired fantasy of Lewis Carroll, whose Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872) both contain brilliant nonsense
rhymes. “Jabberwocky,” from Through the Looking-Glass, may be the best-known example of
nonsense verse.)
Source: Myers, J. Dictionary of poetic terms, c2003 (nonsense verse: a form of light verse
that is used to amuse or instruct through the creation of a highly rhythmic, melopoetic, and
onomatopoetic verse in which sense is subordinated to sound)
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000 (p. 115 Nonsense
verse).
Source:Jabberwocky and Other Nonsense: Collected Poems by Lewis Carroll, 2012
Source: Lear, Edward, Nonsense poems, 2011
Source: LCSH (Nonsense verses)
Novelle
Source: Jones, J.A. Renaissance novelle, via WWW, Nov. 2, 2012 (the novella is defined as
a short, prose narrative, usually realistic and often satiric in tone; the characters in a novella
are placed in a realistic setting, complete with the rhythms of everyday life and conversation;
unlike medieval romances that present an idealized world peopled with noble characters in grand
adventures, novelle narrate common incidents in the lives of ordinary townspeople; the genre
of the novella originated in thirteenth-century Italy as a brief, well-structured prose narrative
including stories of action, experience, brief anecdotes, and accounts of clever sayings with plots
of amorous intrigue, clerical corruption and clever tricks; novelle were often gathered together
in collections, using a frame tale to unify the stories with a common theme. While the teller of
a novella may claim a moral intention for the story, the underlying purpose of the Renaissance
novella is to entertain)
Source: LCSH (Novelle.UFs: Nouvelles; Novellas (Early literary form))
Novels in verse
Source: Kearney, Meg. The secret of me: a novel in verse, 2007
Source: Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translator, 2001
Source: LCSH (Novels in verse)
Novels of manners
Source: Britannica online academic edition, Nov. 11, 2012 (novel of manners: work of fiction
that re-creates a social world, conveying with finely detailed observation the customs, values,
and mores of a highly developed and complex society; the conventions of the society dominate
the story, and characters are differentiated by the degree to which they measure up to the uniform
standard, or ideal, of behaviour or fall below it; notable writers of the novel of manners from the
end of the 19th century into the 20th include Henry James, Evelyn Waugh, Edith Wharton, and
John Marquand)
Source: Wheeler, K. Literary terms and definitions, via WWW, Nov. 12, 2012 (novel of
manners: a novel that describes in detail the customs, behaviors, habits, and expectations of a
certain social group at a specific time and place; usually these conventions shape the behavior
of the main characters, and sometimes even stifle or repress them; often the novel of manners is
satiric, and it is always realistic in depiction)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (novel of manners. A type
of novel in which the social conventions of a given society--its speech, habits, and values--play
significant roles. The American version of the form is best exemplified in the novels of Henry
James and Edith Wharton)
Source: Abrams, M.H. A glossary of literary terms, c1999: p. 192 (If, as in the writings of
Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, and John P. Marquand, a realistic novel focuses on the customs,
conversation, and ways of thinking and valuing of a particular social class, it is often called a
novel of manners.)
Source: Goodreads, Nov. 15, 2012 (number of books tagged with term: novel-of-manners, 1213)
Nursery rhymes
Source: Gustafson, Scott, Favorite nursery rhymes from Mother Goose, 2007
Source: Prelutsky, Jack, Read-aloud rhymes for the very young, 1986
Source: Denton, C. M. A child’s treasury of nursery rhymes, 2004
Source: The big book of nursery rhymes, 2012
Source: Nursery poetry, 1859.
Source: Nursery poems & prayers, 1990.
Source: RBGENR, Nov. 29, 2012 (Nursery rhymes)
Occasional verse
Source: Padgett, R. Teachers & writers handbook of poetic forms, c1987: p. 124 (Occasional
poem: Occasional poetry is poetry written for a specific occasion about a particular event,
including weddings, funerals, and birthdays. Occasional poems also celebrate or memorialize
military, athletic, and political events. Occasional poems can be long or short, in strict forms or
in free verse.)
Source: Drury, J. The poetry dictionary, c2006 (Occasional verse: Poem written to commemorate
an occasion; a poem commissioned by someone to celebrate some happening, like the Olympian
odes of Pindar or the coronation ode by a poet laureate. The term is often used dismissively to
label a poem as a kind of “work for hire,” inspired not by imagination but by something external.
However, real poems do arise out of (and for) particular occasions. It matters, perhaps, who does
the choosing … Some kinds of occasional verse have time-honored names from the Greek. An
epithalamion celebrates a wedding. A genethliacon or genethliacum (jen-eth-li’-uh-con or –
cum) is a birthday ode, like Dylan Thomas’s “Poem on His Birthday,” or a poem that celebrates
a birth, like Helen Frost’s “First Deep Breath,” which was written as a blessing for poet Annie
Finch’s newborn daughter. Occasional verse might also be written on the spur of the moment,
about a time of day, for a birthday or holiday, or for a day of the week—anything that represents
a quick sketch of the ephemeral, of time fleeing.)
Source: Genre terms: a thesaurus for use in rare book and special collections cataloging, via the
Rare Books and Manuscripts Section website, May 7, 2013 (Occasional poems: Use for poems
written on or intended for a special occasion.)
Source: Poetry Magnum Opus online (www.poetrymagnumopus.com), viewed May 7, 2013
(Occasional poetry is verse written for an occasion such as a birthday, graduation or birth. It is
normally considered light verse, but it could loosely come under the genre of an ode. We usually
associate an ode with lofty purpose and expect it to be long. Occasional poetry need not be so
lofty nor need it be long, but the fact is, neither does the ode … The purpose is near the same in
that both are written in honor of a particular event or person. Occasional poetry may be written in
any structural pattern including some of the Ode patterns.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (Occasional verse: Poetry
written for or prompted by a special occasion, e.g. a wedding, funeral, anniversary, birth,
military or sporting victory, or scientific achievement. Poetic forms especially associated with
occasional verse are the epithalamion, the elegy, and the ode. Occasional verse may be serious,
like Andrew Marvell's ‘An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland’ (1650) and
Walt Whitman's ‘Passage to India’ (1871), or light, like William Cowper's ‘On the Death of
Mrs Throckmorton's Bullfinch’ (1789). Significant modern examples of occasional verse in
English are W.B. Yeats's ‘Easter, 1916’, and W.H. Auden's ‘September 1, 1939’, ‘August 1968’,
and ‘Moon Landing’.)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (Occasional verse: Poetry
written in response to a historical occasion or in commemoration of a public event, such as a
national holiday or the death of a celebrated person. Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the
Dooryard Bloomed,” written in response to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, is an example
of occasional verse. Other famous examples include Ben Jonson’s “On Shakespeare,” written
as a dedicatory poem to the First Folio (1623); Andrew Marvell’s “An Horatian Ode Upon
Cromwell’s Return From Ireland” (1650); W.B. Yeats’s “Easter 1916,” in praise of the Irish
uprising in 1916, and W.H. Auden’s “On the Death of Yeats” (1939).)
Source: Frye, N. The Harper handbook to literature, c1997 (Occasional verse: Poetry celebrating
an occasion … Personal love poems, the epithalamium, and the elegy are also sometimes
designated “occasional.”)
Source: Ruse, C. The Cassell dictionary of literary and language terms, 1992 (Occasional verse:
Verse composed to commemorate an occasion such as an important historical event; it can be
serious or light. The poet laureate is committed to writing verse for official occasions such as
royal weddings, births, coronations and jubilees.)
Source: Beckson, K. Literary terms: a dictionary, 1989 (Occasional verse: Poetry written in
commemoration of an event. Though much occasional verse succumbs to time, a number of
examples have survived the occasions for which they were written. Among the most notable
instances are Marvell’s “An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland and Mitlon’s
“On the Late Massacre in Piedmont.” Modern examples are Yeats’s “Easter 1916” and
Hopkins’s “The Wreck of the Deutschland.” Occasional verse sometimes takes the form of vers
de société when the sentiments are witty or satiric.)
Source: Poets’ Graves online (www.poetsgraves.co.uk), viewed May 7, 2013 (Occasional verse:
Verse written to celebrate an occasion such as a coronation, a wedding or a birth. At national
level, occasional verse would be one of the duties of the poet laureate.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (Occasional verse:
Verse written for a particular occasion, perhaps to celebrate some incident or event. It may be
light or serious. The elegy and the ode have been used to produce some memorable occasional
verse. The Poet Laureate is obliged to write a certain amount of it (e.g. for a coronation or a royal
wedding).)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular
occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance,
and patronage. As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work's purpose
and the poet's relation to subject matter. It is not a genre, but several genres originate as
occasional poetry, including epithalamia (wedding songs), dirges or funerary poems, paeans, and
victory odes. Occasional poems may also be composed exclusive of or within any given set of
genre conventions to commemorate single events or anniversaries, such as birthdays, foundings,
or dedications.)
Source: McGee, T.D. Canadian ballads, and occasional verses, [1923].
Source: Poetry from hidden springs : an anthology of occasional poetry by people better known
in other walks of life and designed to be enjoyed by people from any walk of life, 1962.
Source: Madras occasional verse, 1917.
Source: Major, W. Four satires : translated from the Latin, into English verse, to which are
added, some occasional poems on various subjects, 1743.
Source: Poems for special days and occasions, 1930.
Source: Heft, W. Occasional poems, 1794.
Source: Hime, R. Christmas roses : a volume of occasional verses, 1920.
Source: Light of the world : an anthology of seventeenth-century Dutch religious and occasional
poetry, 1982.
Source: Bartlett's poems for occasions, c2004.
Source: RMBS Genre terms (Occasional poems)
Source: LCSH sh 85093800 (Occasional verse)
Odes
Source: Horace, The complete odes and epodes, 2008
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000 (p.118 Ode)
Source: Poets.org, viewed Dec.26, 2012 (Poetic Form: Ode---"Ode" comes from the Greek
aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry.
Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey
their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person,
or a thing not present.
There are three typical types of odes: the Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular. The Pindaric is
named for the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who is credited with inventing the ode. Pindaric
odes were performed with a chorus and dancers, and often composed to celebrate athletic
victories. They contain a formal opening, or strophe, of complex metrical structure, followed
by an antistrophe, which mirrors the opening, and an epode, the final closing section of a
different length and composed with a different metrical structure. The William Wordsworth
poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is a very
good example of an English language Pindaric ode. The Horatian ode, named for the Roman
poet Horace, is generally more tranquil and contemplative than the Pindaric ode. Less formal,
less ceremonious, and better suited to quiet reading than theatrical production, the Horatian ode
typically uses a regular, recurrent stanza pattern. The Irregular ode has employed all manner of
formal possibilities, while often retaining the tone and thematic elements of the classical ode.
For example, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats was written based on his experiments with
the sonnet. Other well-known odes include Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind,"
Robert Creeley's "America," Bernadette Mayer's "Ode on Periods," and Robert Lowell's "Quaker
Graveyard in Nantucket." )
Source: New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 (ode: in mod. usage, the term
for the most formal, ceremonious, and complexly organized form of lyric poetry, usually of
considerable length. The serious tone of the ode calls for the use of a heightened diction and
enrichment by poetic device, but this lays it open, more readily than any other lyric form, to
burlesque)
Source: Myers, J. Dictionary of poetic terms, c2003 (ode: Pindaric ode tends toward occasional
verse; Horatian ode tends to be more meditative and personal; Cowleyan, or irregular ode, is
a loose form close to the lyric in its personal and emotional nature and the most common type
of ode in English. Typically the ode in its various forms is thought of as a long lyrical poem
displaying emotion)
Source: Merriam-Webster, via WWW, July 23, 2013 (ode: a lyric poem usually marked by
exaltation of feeling and style, varying length of line, and complexity of stanza forms)
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 29, 2012 (Odes were first developed by poets writing in ancient Greek
and Latin. Forms of odes appear in many of the cultures that were influenced by the Greeks and
Latins. Odes have a formal poetic diction, and generally deal with a serious subject. Odes are
often intended to be recited or sung by two choruses (or individuals), with the first reciting the
strophe, the second the antistrophe, and both together the epode. Over time, differing forms for
odes have developed with considerable variations in form and structure, but generally showing
the original influence of the Pindaric or Horatian ode. One non-Western form which resembles
the ode is the qasida in Persian poetry.)
Source: LCSH (Odes)
One-act plays
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 30, 2012: One-act play (A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as
distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes.
In recent years, the 10-minute play known as "flash drama" has emerged as a popular sub-genre
of the one-act play, especially in writing competitions. The origin of the one-act play may be
traced to the very beginning of drama: in ancient Greece, Cyclops, a satyr play by Euripides, is
an early example.)
Source: Collins dictionaries website, Oct. 30, 2012: English dictionary (one-act play: a short play
consisting of only one act)
Source: Nield, M. Kill me a dragon : a single-act play, 197-
Source: Nield, M. The passing of Cleverclogs : a single-act play for young people, 197Source: Breeze, P. Twilight : a single act stage drama, 2012.
Ottava rimas
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p. 124 (Ottava
rima)
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica online, Dec. 21, 2012: ottava rima (ottava rima, Italian stanza
form composed of eight 11-syllable lines, rhyming abababcc. It originated in the late 13th and
early 14th centuries and was developed by Tuscan poets for religious verse and drama and in
troubadour songs. The form appeared in Spain and Portugal in the 16th century. It was used
in 1600 in England (where the lines were shortened to 10 syllables) by Edward Fairfax in his
translation of Torquato Tasso. In his romantic epics Il filostrato (written c. 1338) and Teseida
(written 1340–41) Boccaccio established ottava rima as the standard form for epic and narrative
verse in Italy. The form acquired new flexibility and variety in Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando
furioso (c. 1507–32) and Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (published 1581). In English verse
ottava rima was used for heroic poetry in the 17th and 18th centuries but achieved its greatest
effectiveness in the work of Byron. His Beppo (1818) and Don Juan (1819–24) combined
elements of comedy, seriousness, and mock-heroic irony. Shelley employed it for a serious
subject in The Witch of Atlas (1824)) strambotto (strambotto, plural strambotti, one of the oldest
Italian verse forms, composed of a single stanza of either six or eight hendecasyllabic (11syllable) lines. Strambotti were particularly popular in Renaissance Sicily and Tuscany, and
the origin of the form in either region is still uncertain. Variations of the eight-line strambotto
include the Sicilian octave (ottava siciliana), with the rhyme scheme abababab; the ottava
rima, with the typical rhyme scheme abababcc; and the rispetto, a Tuscan form usually with the
rhyme scheme ababccdd or with ottava rima. Six-line variants usually rhyme ababab, ababcc, or
aabbcc. The subject of the strambotto was generally love or, sometimes, satire.)
Source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Dec. 26, 2012 (ottava rima, a stanza of eight lines
of heroic verse with a rhyme scheme of abababcc; Italian origin (literally “eighth rhyme”); first
known use 1820.)
Source: Concise Encyclopedia online, Dec. 26, 2012 (Italian stanza form composed of eight 11syllable lines, rhyming abababcc. It originated in the late 13th and early 14th centuries and was
established by Giovanni Boccaccio as the standard form for Italian epic and narrative verse.)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin.
Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of
mock-heroic works.
The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters.
Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the a-b-a-ba-b-c-c pattern. The form is similar to the older Sicilian octave, but evolved separately and is
unrelated. The Sicilian octave is derived from the medieval strambotto and was a crucial step in
the development of the sonnet, whereas the ottava rima is related to the canzone, a stanza form.)
Source: LCSH (Ottava rimas)
Pageants
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (pageant:
Originally the movable stage or platform on which the medieval Mystery Plays were presented.
Later, the term was applied to plays acted on this platform. In modern usage it describes any
sort of spectacular procession which presents tableaux and includes songs, dances and dramatic
scenes. This sort of entertainment was fashionable in the early decades of the 20th c., especially
in depicting local history. See also Masque; Morality Play)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (pageant: An elaborate
spectacle or procession. In the Middle Ages, a pageant was a moveable platform on which
Mystery Plays were performed. In the Elizabethan Age, processional pageants, celebrating a visit
of the queen or other dignitary, frequently included small dramatic skits.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (pageant: A wagon used as a
mobile stage on which were performed mystery plays and related dramas in the Middle Ages.
The term is sometimes also applied to a play performed on such a moveable stage, usually a
mystery play. In a later sense, a pageant is a public procession displaying tableaux and costumes
appropriate to the commemoration of some historical event or tradition, sometimes involving
short dramatic scenes.)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Pageant, a word which has over the
centuries completely changed its meaning, though retaining always its connection with the
idea of ‘pageantry’. In medieval times it was used variously to describe the ‘carts’, each one
manned and decorated by a different guild, which carried the notables of the city in procession
on civic occasions. ‘Pageant’ was also the word applied to those fixed points within a city’s
walls at which an entertainment, ranging from a short speech to a long dramatic debate, could
be given to welcome the visit of a Royal or noble or an important visitor from overseas. ... By
extension it was then applied to the ‘pageant wagon’, a wheeled vehicle on which a scene from
a religious play could be performed; these ‘pageants’ or perambulating stages were usually two
stories; lower story served as dressing-room. ... Early in the 20th century there arose a passion
for elaborate and partly processional open-air shows celebrating the history or legends of a
particular town, and these were referred to as ‘pageants’. The performers were usually amateurs,
directed by a professional who was responsible for the songs, dances, and short interludes of
dialogue which made up the whole, including sometimes re-enactments of medieval jousting and
tournaments. From the countryside, the pageant soon spread to the theatre, and during the First
World War several patriotic pageants were produced in London.)
Source: Dictionary.com, Nov. 6, 2012 (pageant: 1. an elaborate public spectacle illustrative of
the history of a place, institution, or the like, often given in dramatic form or as a procession of
colorful floats. 2. a costumed procession, masque, allegorical tableau, or the like forming part of
public or social festivities. 3. a show or exhibition, especially one consisting of a succession of
participants or events: a beauty pageant)
Source: The American heritage dictionary of the English language, c2003 (pageant: 1. An
elaborate public dramatic presentation that usually depicts a historical or traditional event. 2. A
spectacular procession or celebration. 3. Colorful showy display; pageantry or pomp.)
Source: Collins dictionaries online, Nov. 6, 2012 (pageant: 1. (obsolete) a. an individual scene
in a medieval mystery play. b. any of a series of movable outdoor platforms on which a mystery
play was performed. 2. a spectacular exhibition, elaborate parade, etc., as a procession with
floats. 3. an elaborate drama, often staged outdoors, celebrating a historical event or presenting
the history of a community)
Source: Mackay, C.D. America triumphant : a pageant of patriotism, c1926: p. vii (this pageant
has been specially designed for the celebratory years as some one has cleverly called the pageant
period through which we are now passing; it can be used as a municipal celebration outdoors on
the Fourth of July, or indoors on Washington’s Birthday; the city or town which has already had
its local pageant can here find a national theme) p. 53 (Pageantry is preeminently the drama of
numbers--gives every one a chance to participate; participants are acting with hundreds of others;
essentially an outdoor art; the one form of drama which can cover hundreds of years at a stretch)
p. 55 (outdoor form of drama)
Source: Lamkin, N.B. America, yesterday and today, c1917: p. 5 (Pageantry in America has
in a large degree taken the form of the Historical pageant, founded on the history of certain
communities)
Source: Fox, F.C. Childhood days in Washington’s time : a pageant for elementary schools,
1931.
Source: Sliker, H.G. Our heritage : (a tribute to the American Bill of Rights) : a one-act pageant,
c1941: p. 3 (“This play is the perfect choice for schools or other organizations celebrating Bill of
Rights Week, Constitution Day, or other similar patriotic occasions.”)
Source: Woodward, W.C. The pageant of Earlham College, c1922: foreword (“In the preparation
of this pageant, the writer has conceived of Earlham College as a Spirit, rather than as an
institution of brick and mortar. He has concerned himself with the development of Earlham as an
Ideal rather than with the achievements of individuals.”)
Source: Block, M. The pageant of Reading : to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the
founding of the city of Reading, 1923.
Palinodes
Source: Oxford Dictionaries online, Jan. 3, 2013 (palinode: a poem in which the poet retracts a
view or sentiment expressed in a former poem; a retraction of a statement)
Source: Merriam-Webster online dictionary, Jan.3, 2013 (palinode: an ode or song recanting or
retracting something in an earlier poem; a formal retraction)
Source: Dictionary.com, Jan.3, 2013 (palinode: a poem in which the author retracts something
said in an earlier poem; a recantation)
Source: Abrams, M.H. A glossary of literature terms, c1999 (Palinode. A poem or poetic passage
in which the poet renounces or retracts an earlier poem or type of subject matter. Palinodes are
especially common in love poetry.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (palinode. A poem or song
retracting some earlier statement by the poet. A notable example in English is Chaucer’s The
Legend of Good Women, written to recant his earlier defamation of women in Troilus and
Criseyde.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (palinode. A
recantation in song or verse. Usually a poem in which a writer retracts or counter-balances a
statement made in an earlier poem. As a theme the palinode is not uncommon in love poetry.)
Source: Poetry Foundation Glossary Terms, Jan. 3, 2013 (palinode: An ode or song that
retracts or recants what the poet wrote in a previous poem. For instance, Geoffrey Chaucer’s
The Canterbury Tales ends with a retraction, in which he apologizes for the work’s “worldly
vanitees” and sinful contents.)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (A palinode or palinody is an ode in which the writer retracts
a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem.)
Source: Abrams, M.H. A glossary of literature terms, c1999 (Palinode. A poem or poetic passage
in which the poet renounces or retracts an earlier poem or type of subject matter. Palinodes are
especially common in love poetry.)
Source: LCSH (Palinode)
Pantoums
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dict. of literary terms, 2008 (pantoum (pantun) A verse form of
Malay origin, employing quatrains rhyming abab and repetition of whole lines so that the second
and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next, and in the final
quatrain the poem’s first line appears as the final line, its third line as the second. Unlike the
villanelle and the triolet, which use similar kinds of repetition, it has no fixed number of lines.
The form, originally known as the pantun, was discovered and domesticated by French poets of
the 19th century, under the spelling ‘pantoum’, which has become standard in English.)
Source: The Princeton encyc. of poetry and poetics, c2012 (Pantun (Eng. and Fr. pantoum
or pantoun). In contemp. poetry, the pantun is a poem of indeterminate length composed of
quatrains in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of
the next. This pattern breaks in the final stanza, whose second and fourth lines are recurrences
of the first and third lines of the first stanza; thus, the pantun begins and ends with the same line.
The pattern that Westerners associated with the pantun is highly atypical of the Malay-language
verse form. The Malay-lang. pantun can have six to twelve lines, but it is usually in four lines
consisting of two end-stopped cross-rhyme couplets.)
Source: Cuddon, J. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (pantuns: A verse
form of Malayan origin. A poem of no determinate length, composed of quatrains with internal
assonance and rhyming abab. The second and fourth lines of each stanza become the first and
third lines of the next. In the last quatrain the first line of the poem re-appears as the last, and the
third line as the second. The form was introduced into Western poetry by Ernest Fouinet in the
19th c. Some distingushed French poets used it, notably Victor Hugo)
Source: Poets.org, viewed Dec.26, 2012 (Poetic Form: Pantoum---The pantoum originated
in Malaysia in the fifteenth-century as a short folk poem, typically made up of two rhyming
couplets that were recited or sung. However, as the pantoum spread, and Western writers
altered and adapted the form, the importance of rhyming and brevity diminished. The modern
pantoum is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and
fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of
a pantoum is often the same as the first. The pantoum was especially popular with French and
British writers in the nineteenth-century, including Charles Baudelaire and Victor Hugo, who is
credited with introducing the form to European writers. The pantoum gained popularity among
contemporary American writers such as Anne Waldman and Donald Justice after John Ashbery
published the form in his 1956 book, Some Trees. A good example of the pantoum is Carolyn
Kizer’s "Parent's Pantoum." One exciting aspect of the pantoum is its subtle shifts in meaning
that can occur as repeated phrases are revised with different punctuation and thereby given a new
context. Consider Ashbery's poem "Pantoum," and how changing the punctuation in one line can
radically alter its meaning and tone: "Why the court, trapped in a silver storm, is dying." which,
when repeated, becomes, "Why, the court, trapped in a silver storm, is dying!" An incantation is
created by a pantoum's interlocking pattern of rhyme and repetition; as lines reverberate between
stanzas, they fill the poem with echoes. This intense repetition also slows the poem down, halting
its advancement. As Mark Strand and Eavan Boland explained in The Making of a Poem, "the
reader takes four steps forward, then two back," making the pantoum a "perfect form for the
evocation of a past time.")
Source: Pantoums and other poems, 2012.
Source: Padgett, R. Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p.126 (Pantoum)
Parables
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (parable. A tale designed
to teach a moral lesson. Usually, as in the parables of Jesus in the New Testament, the story
involves human beings whose actions are clarified by the concluding moral. The parable differs
from allegory, in which the characters represent abstract qualities, and from fable, in which the
moral is unstated because it is presumed to be self-evident.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dict. of literary terms, 2008 (parable. A brief tale intended to
be understood as an allegory illustrating some lesson or moral. The forty parables attributed to
Jesus of Nazareth in Christian literature have had a lasting influence upon the Western tradition
of didactic allegory. A modern instance is Wilfred Owen’s poem “The Parable of the Old Man
and the Young” (1920), which adapts a biblical story to the 1914-18 war; a longer prose parable
is John Steinbeck’s The Pearl (1948). Adjective: parabolic. See also Fable)
Source: Wheeler, K. “Parables and Fables: From Symbolism to Allegory?,” via WWW,
March 7, 2013 (A parable always teaches by comparison with real or literal occurrences-especially "homey" everyday occurrences a wide number of people can relate to)
Source: Wikipedia, May 29, 2013 (Parable: A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse,
which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or (sometimes) a normative
principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and
forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human characters. It is a type
of analogy. A parable is a short tale that illustrates universal truth, one of the simplest of
narratives. It sketches a setting, describes an action, and shows the results. It often involves a
character facing a moral dilemma, or making a questionable decision and then suffering the
consequences. Though the meaning of a parable is often not explicitly stated, the meaning is
not usually intended be hidden or secret but on the contrary quite straightforward and obvious.
Modern stories can be used as parables. A mid-19th-century parable, the "Parable of the Broken
Window", exposes a fallacy in economic thinking)
Source: Lyke, L.L. King David and the wise woman of Tekoa : the resonance of tradition in
parabolic narrative, c1997.
Source: City Pastor. Parables and parabolic stories, 1829.
Source: LCSH (Parables BT: Exempla RT: Allegories)
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (Parables)
Paranormal comics
Source: Pawuk, M. Graphic novels : a genre guide to comic books, manga, and more, 2007: p.
359 (in chapter entitled Horror: Supernatural Heroes. Heroes can come in all shapes and sizes.
Some heroes even are vampires, devils, demons, ghosts, or other beasties from the supernatural
world ... Below are listed titles featuring paranormal fighters who battle against the forces of
evil. ... Mike Mignola's Hellboy series is an excellent example of this genre.)
Source: Serchay, D.S. The librarian's guide to graphic novels for adults, c2010: p. 48 (Horror
and the Supernatural. While the horror and supernatural genres have long appeared in comics, in
books, they have seen resurgence in recent years; vampires; zombies)
Source: Entities-R-Us website, Dec. 21, 2012 (tag: paranormal comic strip)
Source: Wikipedia, Dec. 21, 2012 (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense: the B.P.R.D.
or BPRD is a fictional organization in the comic book work of Mike Mignola, charged with
protecting America and the world from the occult, paranormal and supernatural. It maintains the
services of several supernatural persons, including Hellboy. The B.P.R.D. originally appeared in
the Hellboy comics but has also been featured in many stories under the B.P.R.D. title.)
Source: The paranormal comics and cartoons, via The Cartoonist Group website, Dec. 21, 2012
Source: LCSH (Paranormal fiction. UF Occult fiction; Parapsychology--Fiction; Supernatural-Fiction; Witchcraft--Fiction)
Source: Comixology website, Dec. 21, 2012: Comics > Genres > Supernatural/Occult (titles
listed include: Angel vs. Frankenstein; Angel: The Curse; Cthulhu Tales Vol. 1; Curse of the
Wendigo; Dark Shadows/Vampirella; Doctor Strange: The Oath; Demon’s Regret Vol. 1; Divine
Intervention; Ghost Rider; The Ghoul; Hellcity; Hellraiser; John Constantine: Hellblazer - City
of Demons Vol. 1; Satan’s Circus of Hell; Supernatural; This Haunted World; True Blood;
Victorian Undead; Werewolves: Call of the Wild; Wizard’s Tale)
Source: Comic vine website, Dec. 21, 2012 (Occult is a comic book concept. A blanket term
that describes hidden or secret knowledge; refers to knowledge not everyone should or can
know. Often bearing the double-meaning of forbidden or taboo knowledge, it is often used to
describe 'paths' that are considered better avoided. The word "Occult" is often interchangeable
with esoteric and arcane; all three have similar meanings, but differ in certain key aspects;
Many people believe that the Occult is the 'Paranormal', or the supernatural that exists outside
of religion, such as ghosts. There are a few comic creators that use the Occult to create comics.
Many of these comic creators are alumni of DC Comics' imprint Vertigo. The two most noted
Occult practitioners in comics would be Alan Moore (From Hell) and Grant Morrison (The
Invisibles). Both acclaimed writers have a lot of occult influence in their works, and are bitter
rivals. The Invisibles is an example of the Occult in Comics, since it serves as the first comic
Hypersigil. After reading and understanding The Invisibles, most of Grant Morrison's work is
said to be understood differently; The Invisibles serves as his "handbook" to the Occult. Neal
Gaiman, creator of such series as Sandman, can also be seen as utilizing Occult images and
themes, though his work generally leans more towards the fantastic, not esoteric. Character John
Constantine (The Vertigo Flagship character) is considered the original Occult detective. Other
Occult detectives would follow, such as Cal McDonald, William Gravel and Harry Dresden.
Before Constantine, most occult characters dealt primarily in multiple fields of magic, such as:
Doctor Strange, Zatanna and Madame Xanadu.)
Paranormal fiction
Source: Fang-tastic fiction : twenty-first-century paranormal reads, 2011: p. 1 (dictionary
definition of paranormal is “beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation,”
but this bibliography uses a much more limited definition; included here are works of paranormal
romance, fantasy, mystery, and suspense, mostly set in a relatively realistic modern world
inhabited by both human and paranormal beings; most take place in real time in the late
twentieth or early twenty-first century; all include human characters; this bibliography does not
include works set totally in fantasy worlds nor extraterrestrial, futuristic, apocalyptic, dystopic,
intergalactic or technology-based science fiction nor horror fiction, i.e., fiction with the primary
intent to scare the audience) p. 2 (twenty-first century paranormal fiction features big change in
roles for the supernatural beings; early literary vampires like Stoker’s Dracula were monstrous
beasts, Anne Rice’s vampires were more civilized but remote; with Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita
Blake series and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series vampires morphed into members of the
human community and even boyfriends) p. 5 (here are a few of the enhanced humans in these
series: psychics, necromancers, witches, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards, ghost busters, demon
hunters, voodoo priests; other character groups are the walking dead (vampires, chupacabras,
zombies) and shapeshifters, such as werewolves)
Source: Skeptical inquirer, 34.6 (Nov.-Dec. 2010), via Gale biography in context, Nov. 11,
2012: p. 51 ( the evolution of the widely read romance genre to include supernatural themes and
characters has spawned a relatively new--and increasingly popular and profitable--subgenre of
fiction: the paranormal romance; while vampires are currently running rampant among the pages
of these tales, other supernatural superstars are also emerging; werewolves, time travelers, shape
shifters, ghosts, and even angels are making their way into the imaginations of fans of the genre)
Source: Wikipedia, Dec. 21, 2012 (Supernatural fiction (properly, "supernaturalist fiction")
is a literary genre exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the
commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it. In its broadest definition,
supernatural fiction includes examples of weird fiction, horror fiction, fantasy fiction, and such
sub-genres as vampire literature and the ghost story; amongst academics, readers and collectors,
however, supernatural fiction is often classed as a discrete genre defined by the elimination
of "horror", "fantasy" and elements important to other genres.The one genre supernatural fiction
appears to embrace in its entirety is the traditional ghost story; Paranormal fiction)
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (occult fiction: use for works dealing with witchcraft, spiritualism,
psychic phenomena, voodooism, etc., and for works dealing with the mysterious or secret
knowledge and power supposedly attainable only through these and other magical or
supernatural means)
Source: LCSH (Paranormal fiction.UFs: Occult fiction; Occult stories; Paranormal stories)
Paranormal romance fiction
Source: Fang-tastic fiction : twenty-first-century paranormal reads, 2011: p. 1 (dictionary
definition of paranormal is “beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation,”
but this bibliography uses a much more limited definition; included here are works of paranormal
romance, fantasy, mystery, and suspense, mostly set in a relatively realistic modern world
inhabited by both human and paranormal beings; most take place in real time in the late
twentieth or early twenty-first century; all include human characters; this bibliography does not
include works set totally in fantasy worlds nor extraterrestrial, futuristic, apocalyptic, dystopic,
intergalactic or technology-based science fiction nor horror fiction, i.e., fiction with the primary
intent to scare the audience) p. 2 (twenty-first century paranormal fiction features big change in
roles for the supernatural beings; early literary vampires like Stoker’s Dracula were monstrous
beasts, Anne Rice’s vampires were more civilized but remote; with Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita
Blake series and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series vampires morphed into members of the
human community and even boyfriends) p. 5 (here are a few of the enhanced humans in these
series: psychics, necromancers, witches, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards, ghost busters, demon
hunters, voodoo priests; other character groups are the walking dead (vampires, chupacabras,
zombies) and shapeshifters, such as werewolves)
Source: Ramsdell, K. Romance fiction: a guide to the genre, 1999: p. 221 (Paranormal Romance:
this category is the most eclectic of the Alternative Reality Romance sub-genre, basically
incorporating everything not otherwise defined. Almost anything supernatural or unexplained
by natural causes is included here, and vampires, angels, psychics, ghosts, werewolves, witches,
spirits, reincarnated people, and other similar characters are all at home within this grouping.
Settings can be either historical or contemporary, and as with all romances, the love story drives
the plot. Occasionally, aspects of the Paranormal blend with another subtype, resulting in stories,
for example, about time--traveling witches or futuristic psychics)
Source: Skeptical inquirer, 34.6 (Nov.-Dec. 2010), via Gale biography in context, Nov. 11,
2012: p. 51 (the evolution of the widely read romance genre to include supernatural themes and
characters has spawned a relatively new--and increasingly popular and profitable--subgenre of
fiction: the paranormal romance; while vampires are currently running rampant among the pages
of these tales, other supernatural superstars are also emerging. Werewolves, time travelers, shape
shifters, ghosts, and even angels are making their way into the imaginations of fans of the genre)
Source: Wikipedia, April 18, 2013 (Paranormal romance is a sub-genre of the romance novel.
A type of speculative fiction, paranormal romance focuses on romance and includes elements
beyond the range of scientific explanation, blending together themes from the genres of
traditional fantasy, science fiction, or horror. Paranormal romance may range from traditional
category romances, such as those published by Harlequin Mills & Boon, with a paranormal
setting to stories where the main emphasis is on a science fiction or fantasy based plot with a
romantic subplot included. Common hallmarks are romantic relationships between humans and
vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, and other entities of a fantastic or otherworldly nature. Beyond
the more prevalent themes involving vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, or time travel, paranormal
romances can also include books featuring characters with psychic abilities, like telekinesis or
telepathy. Paranormal romance has its roots in Gothic fiction.)
Parodies (Literature)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (parody: A mocking imitation
of the style of a literary work or works, ridiculing the stylistic habits of an author or school
by exaggerated mimicry. Parody is related to burlesque in its application of serious styles to
ridiculous subjects, to satire in its punishment of eccentricities, and even to criticism in its
analysis of style. Adjective: parodic; travesty: A mockingly undignified or trivializing treatment
of a dignified subject, usually as a kind of parody. Travesty may be distinguished from the
mock epic and other kinds of burlesque in that it treats a solemn subject frivolously, while they
treat frivolous subjects with mock solemnity. Cervantes’s Don Quixote (1605) is a travesty of
chivalric romances, and James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is partly a travesty of Homer’s Odyssey.)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (parody. Imitation of a
particular style or genre for the purposes of satirizing it. The object of satire may be an author
with a distinctive style, such as Ernest Hemingway, or a formulaic structure, such as soap opera.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (parody. The
imitative use of the words, style, attitude, tone and ideas of an author in such a way as to make
them ridiculous. This is usually achieved by exaggerating certain traits, using more or less the
same technique as the cartoon caricaturist. In fact, a kind of satirical mimicry. As a branch of
satire its purpose may be corrective as well as derisive. See Burlesque; Lampoon; Mock-epic;
Mock-heroic; Skit)
Source: Austin, A.J. Confessions of a heroine addict : women's parodic romance, 1750-1820,
2000.
Source: Frandle, J.F. Critical humor : the parodic satire of hypocrisy and the news media, 2009.
Source: Lee, S. A discussion of the parodic ci poetry of Xin Qiji, 2008.
Source: Merriam-Webster’s encyclopedia of literature, c1995 (parody: a literary work in which
the style of an author is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule)
Source: RBGENR web site, Nov. 5, 2012 (Parodies: Use for humorous, sometimes satiric,
imitations of other works)
Source: LCSH (Parodies)
Participatory drama
Source: LCSH (Participatory theater. UF Audience participatory theater; Participation theater)
Source: NTC's dict. of theatre & drama terms, 1992 (Participatory theatre: a type of play in
which the audience is involved in the performance)
Source: Childdrama.com WWW site, Jan. 25, 2010 (Participation theater; theatre for young
audiences or for adults; consists of adapted or devised drama with an established story line
constructed to involve limited and structured opportunities for active involvement by all or part
of the audience; participation may range from simple verbal responses to an active role in the
outcome of the drama; participation theater give audiences the opportunity to retell history, by
playing the roles of men and women who helped write it)
Source: Spencer, J.D. Happy anniversary, Angel! Love, Gino : an audience participation play,
c2006.
Source: Cook, P. You have the right to remain dead : an audience-participation comedy mystery,
c2000.
Source: Wein, G. Grandma Sylvia's funeral : an interactive play in three acts, c1998.
Source: Izzo, G. The art of play : the new genre of interactive theatre, c1997.
Source: Stern, N. Murderous crossing : a comic Agatha Christie style interactive mystery, c2008.
Source: Wirth, J. Interactive acting : acting, improvisation, and interacting for audience
participatory theatre, c1994.
Source: St. John, B. The plot, like gravy, thickens : a murder mystery/comedy with audience
interaction, great storm effects, spiffy costumes, and lots of other good stuff, 1999.
Source: Mayoux, L. Participatory drama for gender transformation, 2012, via WWW, viewed
Dec. 16, 2012 (In traditional theatre, performance is limited to a designated stage area and the
action of the play unfolds without any interplay with audience members, who function as passive
observers. But recent developments in participatory theatre have experimented with approaches
where anyone can be an ‘actor’ and drama does not have to take place in a theatre. )
Source: Drama Donna presents a participatory Hanukkah drama, via examiner.com, viewed Dec.
16, 2012 (a participatory Hanukkah-themed drama; interactive drama)
Source: Journal of management education, Dec. 2007: p. 832 (Interactive drama increases
student engagement and explores complex issues in management. It features scenes from
organizational life being performed live by trained actors before a student audience, stopping at
pivotal points so the audience can interact with the actors.)
Source: Google search, Dec. 16, 2012 (participatory drama; participatory plays; audience
participatory plays; audience-participatory plays; children's participatory plays; audience
participation plays; audience-participation plays; participation drama; audience interactive
drama; audience-interactive drama)
Passion plays
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (Passion Play. A
religious drama presenting the Crucifixion of Christ, usually performed on Good Friday. The
first was performed in c. 1200 at Siena. In some places Passion Plays were incorporated in the
Corpus Christi cycle; in others they remained separate.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (passion play. A religious
play representing the trials, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Performances of
such plays are recorded in various parts of Europe from the early 13th century onwards, in Latin
and in the vernaculars. Some formed part of the cycles of mystery plays, others were performed
separately, usually on Good Friday)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (passion play: A play
dealing with the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. Originating in the Middle Ages,
passion plays frequently formed a part of Corpus Christi celebrations in many European
countries.
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 6, 2012 (A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the
Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several
Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition)
Source not found: McGraw-Hill encyc. of world drama, c1972.
Pastoral drama
Source: McGraw-Hill encyc. of world drama, c1972 (Pastoral Drama. Form of drama that
originated in Renaissance Italy. The form employs rural settings and stylized shepherds in
presenting a rustic life that is idyllic and artificial. In England Fletcher and Jonson attempted
pastoral plays, and Shakespeare used the form critically in As You Like It.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (pastoral. A highly
conventional mode of writing that celebrates the innocent life of shepherds and shepherdesses in
poems, plays, and prose romances. Pastoral literature describes the loves and sorrows of musical
shepherds, usually in an idealized Golden Age of rustic innocence and idleness; paradoxically,
it is an elaborately artificial cult of simplicity and virtuous frugality. Most forms of pastoral
literature died out during the 18th century.)
Source: Quinn, E. dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (pastoral. Originally a literary
form idealizing the lives of shepherds, more recently used to describe celebrations of innocent
country or small town life. Implicit in the idea of pastoral is the identification of happiness with
simple, natural existence. In the 20th century the term has undergone considerable expansion ...
particularly in American literature where the Western or novels of the rural South create a world
in which the natural and the human exist in fragile harmony; another distinctive sub-genre of
American pastoral is the writing on baseball, both fiction and nonfiction.)
Source: Wilson, E. The theater experience, c2004, via McGraw-Hill Higher Education online
learning center, Nov. 14, 2012: glossary (Pastoral: Idealized dramatization of rural life, often
including mythological creatures, popular during the Italian Renaissance.)
Pastoral elegies
Source: The pastoral elegy : an anthology, c1939.
Source: Kennedy, X.J. The Longman dictionary of literary terms, c2006 (under Elegy: One
kind of elegy that is especially important in English literary history is the pastoral elegy, whose
highlights include John Milton’s “Lycidas” (1637) and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais” (an
elegy for the dead John Keats, 1821). Pastoral elegies combine pastoral themes and images-nature deities, seasonal vegetation--with a memorialization of a deceased friend or comrade.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (under pastoral: English
pastorals were written in several forms … A significant form within this tradition is the pastoral
elegy, in which the mourner and the mourned are represented as shepherds in decoratively
mythological surroundings: the outstanding English example is John Milton’s Lycidas (1637).
While most forms of pastoral literature died out during the 18th century, Milton’s influence
secured for the pastoral elegy a longer life.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (under elegy:
The major elegies belong to a sub-species known as pastoral elegy … The conventions of
pastoral elegy are approximately as follows: (a) The scene is pastoral. (b) The poet begins with
an invocation to the Muses and refers to diverse mythological characters during the poem. (c)
Nature is involved in mourning the shepherd’s death. Nature feels the wound, so to speak. (d)
The poet inquires of the guardians of the dead shepherd where they were when death came. (e)
There is a procession of mourners. (f) The poet reflects on divine justice and contemporary evils.
(g) There is a ‘flower’ passage, describing the decoration of the bier, etc. (h) At the end there is a
renewal of hope and joy, with the idea expressed that death is the beginning of life.)
Source: OCLC, Feb. 4, 2013 (titles: A pastoral elegy; A pastoral elegy on the death of Mr.
John Playford; A pastoral elegy on the death of Mr. Joseph Addison; A pastoral elegy to the
memory of Miss Mary Urquhart; The sick rose : a pastoral elegy; Daphnis, or, A pastoral elegy
upon the unfortunate and much-lamented death of Mr. Thomas Creech; Three pastoral elegies;
Pastoral elegy, on Mr. J. Cunningham; Pastoral elegy in contemporary British and Irish poetry;
Wordsworth and the pastoral elegy; The nineteenth-century English pastoral elegy; Pastoral
elegies in English literature; The pastoral elegy in English)
Pastoral fiction
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (pastoral fiction: use for novels with a rural setting and a tone of romantic
nostalgia; UFs: Bucolic fiction; Pastoral romances)
Pastoral poetry
Source: Norton Anthology of Poetry online, Nov. 15, 2012 (pastoral: A poem (also called an
eclogue, a bucolic, or an idyll) that portrays the simple life of country folk, usually shepherds,
as a timeless world of beauty, peace, and contentment. From its beginnings (the Greek Idyls of
Theocritus, third century B.C.), pastoral has idealized rural life; poets have used the conventions
of this highly artificial form to explore subjects having little to do with any actual countryside.
There is also a large subgenre of pastoral elegy).
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p. 132 (Pastoral
poem)
Source: Wikipedia, Dec. 26, 2012 (Pastoral literature: Pastoral is a mode of literature in which
the author employs various techniques to place the complex life into a simple one. Paul Alpers
distinguishes pastoral as a mode rather than a genre, and he bases this distinction on the recurring
attitude of power; that is to say that pastoral literature holds a humble perspective toward nature.
Thus, pastoral as a mode occurs in many types of literature (poetry, drama, etc.) as well as genres
(most notably the pastoral elegy). Terry Gifford defines pastoral in three ways. The first way
emphasizes the historical literary perspective of the pastoral in which authors recognize and
discuss life in the country and in particular the life of a shepherd. This is summed up by Leo
Marx with the phrase "No shepherd, no pastoral." The second type of the pastoral is literature
that "describes the country with an implicit or explicit contrast to the urban." The third type of
pastoral depicts the country life with derogative classifications...Pastoral literature continued
after Hesiod with the poetry of the Hellenistic Greek Theocritus, several of whose Idylls are set
in the countryside (probably reflecting the landscape of the island of Cos where the poet lived)
and involve dialogues between herdsmen)
Source: Poets.org, viewed Dec. 26, 2012 (Poetic form: Pastoral--Viewed alternately as a genre,
mode, or convention in poetry (as well as in literature generally, art, and music), the pastoral
tradition refers to a lineage of creative works that idealize rural life and landscapes, while the
term "pastoral" refers to individual poems or other works in the tradition. The pastoral tradition
can be traced back to Hesiod, a Greek oral poet active between 750 and 650 BCE, roughly the
same time as Homer. His most famous poem, Works and Days, is part farmer's almanac and part
didactic exploration of the nature of human labor. Following Hesiod, the first written examples
of pastoral literature are commonly attributed to the Hellenistic Greek poet Theocritus, who in
the 3rd century BCE wrote Idylls, short poems describing rustic life. The term idyll means "little
scenes" or "vignettes." In 38 BCE, the Roman poet Virgil famously published his Eclogues (also
called the Bucolics) in Latin. His second great work, the Georgics, was modeled after Hesiod and
praise the experiences of farm life.)
Source: LCSH (Pastoral poetry)
Pastourelles
Source: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, c2012 (Pastourelle. A genre of
med. lyric poetry most frequently found in OF. In the "classical" type, the narrator, sometimes
identified as a knight, recounts his meeting with a shepherdess and his attempt to seduce her. ...
In the "augmented" pastourelle, a shepherd lover joins the cast (e.g., the girl quarrels with Robin,
and the poet takes her away); in the bergerie, the poet recounts his meeting with a group of
persons who dance or quarrel; in the pastoureau, the poet meets a shepherd and talks with him.
The genre originated in Occitan; the Fr. term shows influence of the Occitan word pastorela ...
Fourteenth-c. Fr. poets lost interest in the pastourelle, but it inspired the invention of the
serranilla in Sp.; more were written in Ger. and It., and a few in Gascon, Eng., and Welsh.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (Pastourelle: A
short narrative poem of the Middle Ages (in Provençal, pastorela) whose typical subject is
meeting between a knight and a shepherdess. A kind of ‘debate’ follows, and the shepherdess
may or may not succumb; or she may outwit the knight, or be rescued by shepherds. Pastourelle
was popular form of entertainment in OF in the 13th c.)
Source: Ruud, J. Encyclopedia of medieval literature, c2006 (Pastourelle (pastorela): The
pastourelle was a medieval lyric genre that took the form of a dialogue between a shepherdess
and a noble suitor (a knight or occasionally a cleric. In the classic form of the genre, the knight
recounts his meeting with the shepherdess and his attempts to woo her, but she rebuffs his
advances and the suitor generally fails in his attempts to seduce her. Thus the poem depicts an
idealized country setting free from the constrictions of the court, and a situation between persons
of unequal social class. But invariably the shepherdess, the suitor’s social inferior, proves to
be his intellectual equal. The genre is most frequently in Old French poetry, where nearly 200
examples survive, though it originated with the Old Provençal troubadours, where the genre was
called pastorela.)
Source: Beckson, K. Literary terms, 1989 (Pastourelle (pastorella): A type of medieval lyric
in dialogue form in which a knight or a man of equivalent social rank attempts to court a
shepherdess. His suit is usually unsuccessful, though the wooing is sometimes terminated only
by the arrival of a father or brother.)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (Pastourelle: A short narrative
poem in which a knight relates his encounter with a humble shepherdess who he attempts
(with or without success) to seduce in the course of their amusing dialogue. Such poems were
fashionable in France, Italy, and Germany in the 13th century.)
Source: Frye, N. The Harper handbook of literature, c1997 (Pastourelle: A French pastoral form
of the Middle Ages: a short narrative poem, with dialogue, in which a knight or other man of
high social rank courts a shepherdess, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.)
Source: Harmon, W. A handbook to literature, c2009 (Pastourelle: A medieval dialogue poem
in which a shepherdess is wooed by a man of higher social rank. In the Latin, pastorelia, a
scholar does the courting, in the French and English, a poet, knight, or clerk. Sometimes the suit
is successful, but often a father or brother happens along and ends the wooing. In the English
forms the poet asks permission to accompany the maid to the fields; she refuses and threatens
to call her mother. The pastourelle possibly developed from popular wooing games and wooing
songs, though one of Theocritus’s Idylls is much like the medieval pastourelle. The form seems
to have influenced the pastoral dialogue-lyrics of the Elizabethans and many have figures in the
development of early romantic drama in England. Robert Frost’s “The Subverted Flower” may
be read as a shocking, realistic inversion of the lineaments of the pastourelle.)
Source: Poetry Magnus Opus online (www.poetrymagnumopus.com), viewed May 9, 2013
(The Pastorela or Pastourelle (little young shepherdess) is the 12th century, Occitan-French
feminine version of pastoral verse. This thematic genre was popular among 12th century
troubadours, usually telling the story of a knight and his encounter with a shepherdess and all
of the possibilities that would result from such a meeting. Usually the knight was portrayed as
bumbling and the sweet young shepherdess as cunning and clever. The narrative verse is often
written as if by the knight himself in the first person which one might also categorize as dramatic
verse.)
Source: Merriam-Webster online (www.meriam-webster.com), viewed May 9, 2013
(Pastourelle: a conventional form of poetic pastoral composed in French during the late middle
ages and Renaissance and consisting of a love debate between a knight and a shepherdess.)
Source: Oxford dictionaries online (www.oxforddictionaries.com), May 9, 2013 (Pastourelle
(noun (plural same or pastourelles or pastorelas)) : a medieval lyric whose theme is love for a
shepherdess.)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (The pastourelle is a typically Old French lyric form
concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets
a shepherdess who bests him in a wit battle and who displays general coyness. The narrator
usually has sexual relations, either consensual or rape, with the shepherdess, and there is a
departure or escape. Later developments moved toward pastoral poetry by having a shepherd and
sometimes a love quarrel. The form originated with the troubadour poets of the 12th century and
particularly with the poet Marcabru. This troubadour form melded with goliard poetry and was
practiced in France and Occitan until c. 1230. In Spanish literature, the pastourelle influenced the
serranilla, and fifteenth century pastourelles exist in French, German, English, and Welsh. )
Source: The Medieval pastourelle, 1987.
Source: Altfranzösische Romanzen und Pastourellen, 1870.
Source: Pastorelle occitane, c2006.
Source: Adam, de La Halle, approximately 1235-approximately 1288. Le jeu de Robin et
Marion, suivi du Jeu du Pèlerin, 1924.
Source: Thibaut, de Blaison, -1229. Les chansons et pastourelles de Thibaut de Blaison,
Sénéchal du Poitou, trouvère angevin, XIIe - XIII siècles, 1930.
Source: Pastourelles : introduction à l'étude formelle des pastourelles anonymes françaises des
XIIe et XIIIe siècles, 1974-1975.
Source: Jones, W.P. The pastourelle : a study of the origins and tradition of a lyric type, 1973.
Source: Zink, M. La pastourelle : poésie et folklore au Moyen Age, 1972.
Source: LCSH (Pastourelles)
Patriotic plays
Source: Patriotic & historical plays for young people, c1987.
Source: Patriotic holiday plays, 1927.
Source: Gibbins, J.R. Becoming an American : a patriotic school drama, 1920.
Source: Patriotic plays, tableaux, and recitations, 1915.
Source: Tayleure, C.W. Horseshoe Robinson, or, The battle of King's Mountain : a legendary
patriotic drama in three acts, c1858.
Source: Fraser, J.A. Our starry banner : an original patriotic drama in five acts, c1897.
Patriotic poetry
Source: 101 patriotic poems, songs and speeches by McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Source: Reynolds, Michael L. Patriotism : patriotic poetry, 2008
Source: LCSH (Patriotic poetry)
Pattern poetry
Source: Encyclopedia britannica online, July 29, 2013 (pattern poetry: pattern poetry, also called
figure poem, shaped verse, or carmen figuratum, verse in which the typography or lines are
arranged in an unusual configuration, usually to convey or extend the emotional content of the
words. Of ancient (probably Eastern) origin, pattern poems are found in the Greek Anthology,
which includes work composed between the 7th century bc and the early 11th century ad. In the
19th century, the French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé employed different type sizes in
Un Coup de dés (1897; “A Throw of Dice”). Representative poets in the 20th century included
Guillaume Apollinaire in France and E.E. Cummings in the United States. In the 20th century,
pattern poetry sometimes crossed paths with concrete poetry; a basic distinction between the two
types of poetry is the ability of pattern poetry to hold its meaning apart from its typography—i.e.,
it can be read aloud and still retain its meaning.)
Source: Higgins, D. Pattern poetry: guide to an unknown literature, 1987: Ch. 1 (Pattern poetry
is both visual and literary art--visual poetry. The visual poetry of the twentieth century is rather
well known, and its subclasses--concrete poetry, poesia visiva, parole in liberta, etc.--are fairly
clearly defined. For the moment it will suffice to define pattern poetry in very general terms as
visual poetry from before the twentieth century but in any Western literature. Pattern poetry is
itself a fairly modern concept; the origin of the term is unknown, but it appeared some time in
the nineteenth century, along with the synonymous term, "shaped poetry." There are scattered
examples from antiquity through the middle ages; shortly after the beginning of the sixteenth
century we find the start of the largest body of pattern poetry of all, which continues through
the baroque and into the eighteenth century. Both pattern poetry and the knowledge of its
traditions gradually disappeared in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries--that is the fact.
Mallarme's "Coup de des" in 1897 and subsequent futurist and dadaist works were made without
any deep knowledge of the pattern poetry traditions of the specific literatures)
Source: Hutchinson encyclopedia, 2013 (Pattern poetry: or shape poetry. Poetry in which the
lines of text are used to form an image, usually one that illustrates the poem's subject or theme. A
well-known example is the poem Easter Wings by the 17th-century English poet George Herbert,
in which the lines are arranged to form wings. Among the earliest surviving examples of pattern
poetry are Greek poems written in the 3rd century BC, though the attempt to form verse into
descriptive shapes is almost certainly an ancient practice. It became popular in the 17th century,
and concrete poetry can be seen as a closely related 20th-century form.)
Performance poetry
Source: Anthony, Adelina, Tragic Bitches: An Experiment in Queer Xicana & Xicano
Performance Poetry, 2011.
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000 (p.134 Performance
poem)
Source: Encyclopedia of American poetry. The twentieth century, c2001 (Performance poetry;
poems designed expressly for live performance, often in collaborative or multimedia contexts
that incorporates music, dance, or the visual arts)
Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or
during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to
describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.)
Source: LCSH (Performance poetry)
Picaresque fiction
Source: Oxford dictionary of the Renaissance (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 3, 2012
(picaresque: A literary genre in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spain; the picaresque novel
was an episodic first-person narrative that related the adventures (often criminal or sexual) of
a shrewd rogue (pícaro) of humble origin; in this respect it was an antidote to the romance of
chivalry, which celebrated the high ideals of aristocratic heroes)
Source: Oxford companion to English literature (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 3, 2012
(picaresque: form of novel featuring roguish antiheroes or ‘tricksters’ that first appeared in 16 th
century Spain and flourished in 18th and 19th century English literature; nowadays the term is
commonly, and loosely, applied to episodic novels … which describe the adventures of a lively
and resourceful hero on a journey)
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (picaresque literature: use for episodic accounts of the adventures of an
engagingly roguish hero; the adventures are often used to satirize the society of the day)
Ping shu
Source: An international dictionary of theatre language, 1985 (pinghua, pʼing hua. Literally:
“comment talk.” A type of storytelling (quyi), usually presented by a single performer, which
arose c. 7th C; today forms exist in a number of regions including Sichuan and Hubei Provinces,
and parts of Jiangsu Province. Most forms are spoken, with little or no singing, in local dialect.
The performer is usually seated behind a table, and strikes it with a block of wood at high points
in the story. In some areas, called pingshu or pʼing shu, literally “comment book”)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 12, 2012: Pingshu (In Chinese culture, Pingshu (simplified Chinese:
评书; traditional Chinese: 評書; pinyin: Píngshū), meaning “storytelling”, is one of forms of
entertainment in mass culture in North China. Travelers in Beijing will often find taxi drivers
listening to it. A section of a story lasts half an hour, and its broadcast three times a day. Pingshu
performers often wear gowns and stand behind a table, with a folded fan and a gavel (serving
as a prop to strike the table as a warning to the audience to be quiet or as a means of attracting
attention in order to strengthen the effect of the performance. especially at the beginning or
during intervals). They often add their own commentaries on the subjects and the characters
in their storytelling. In this way, the audience, while watching their performances, is not only
entertained, but also educated and enlightened.) Pinghua (Pinghua is a variety of Chinese, spoken
mainly in parts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with some speakers in Yunnan
province; Pinghua may also refer to a dialect of Min Dong which is spoken in Fujian)
Source: ChinaCulture.org website, Nov. 12, 2012 (Pingshu (Popular Tales). Pingshu is a Quyi
art form of oral storytelling and it includes Pingshu that’s popular in northern China and Pinghua
in eastern China’s Yangzhou. It developed into an independent art form in the early years of the
Qing Dynasty (late 17th century). Though Pingshu is performed orally, artists in the early period
mainly hopped from the trade of Changqu (melody singing) and this shows that Pingshu has a
close relation with Changqu. The Pingshu performer wore a gown and sat behind a table, with
a folded fan and a gavel (serving as a prop to strike the table as a warning to the audience to be
quiet or as a means of attracting attention in order to strengthen the effect of the performance,
especially at the beginning or at the intervals). By the mid l920s, these props had all disappeared,
with the performer appearing only in a standing position in a gown or any other kind of clothes.
Pingshu performers talk in Putonghua (standard Chinese, based on the Beijing dialect). This is
the popular practice in north China and most of the northeast. The storytellers often added their
own commentaries on the subjects and the characters. They also explained the origins of and
material objects in the stories. So the audience, while watching their performances, was not only
entertained, but also educated and enlightened.)
Source: LCSH (Ping shu. UF Ping hua, Pinghua, Pingshu. BT Chinese drama)
Poetry
Source: LCSH (Poetry)
Political fiction
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 3, 2012 (political fiction: a subgenre of fiction that deals with political
affairs to provide commentary on political events, systems and theories; works of political fiction
often directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, sometimes fantastic, reality;
political fiction frequently employs the literary modes of satire, often in the genres of utopian
and dystopian fiction)
Source: Scheingold, S. A. The political novel, 2010: p. 1 (novels of political estrangement shift
attention from political actors and institutions to the general public--ordinary people whose
agency has been appropriated by autocratic regimes, by bureaucratic institutions; this shift is
from what politics do for people to what they do to people)
Source: WorldCat genres, Nov. 3, 2012 (political fiction: used for fictional works that feature the
political environment including candidates and elections).
Source: Goodreads, Nov. 15, 2012 (number of works tagged with term: political-fiction, 4062)
Political plays
Source: American political plays after 9/11, c2010.
Source: Wesker, A. Arnold Wesker’s political plays, 2010.
Source: Haas, B. Modern German political drama, 1980-2000, 2003.
Source: Durang, C. Why torture Is wrong, and the people who love them and other political
plays, c2012.
Political poetry
Source: Trillin, Calvin. Dogfight : the 2012 presidential campaign in verse, 2012.
Source: Ginsberg, Clausen, Katz. Poems for the nation : a collection of contemporary political
poems, 2000.
Source: Lipman, E. Tweet land of liberty : irreverent rhymes from the political circus, 2012.
Source: LCSH (Political poetry)
Pornographic comics
Source: LCGFT (Pornographic films)
Source: Carnal comics, 1994- (Note in OCLC bib. record: Pornographic comic books for mature
readers)
Source: Snatch Comics treasury : legendary underground comic book smut 1968-1969, 2011.
Source: Narukami, Y. Pretty poison, 2008: cover ("Explicit content")
Source: Pilcher, T. Erotic comics : a graphic history from Tijuana bibles to underground comix,
2008 (Summary note in OCLC bib. record: In the 1930s, American "Tijuana Bibles," little
pornographic comic books that parodied popular comics and comic strips, were widely available)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 30, 2012: Adult comics (Adult comics are comic books intended
for adults. They may tell stories of a more mature nature than other comics or may contain
material that might be considered disturbing, horrifying, obscene, profane, immoral, and even
pornographic. Adult comics include graphic novels, longer serialized comics, and shorter
stories.The term "adult comics" in the past generally referred to those with explicit sexual
content, and was sometimes separated from comics labeled for "mature readers".) Cartoon
pornography (Cartoon pornography is the portrayal of illustrated or animated fictional characters
in erotic or sexual situations. Cartoon pornography includes but is not limited to parody
renditions of famous cartoons and comics.) Pornography (Pornography (often abbreviated
as "porn" in informal usage) is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter. Pornography
may use a variety of media, including books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing,
painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, and video games. The term applies to the
depiction of the act rather than the act itself, and so does not include live exhibitions like sex
shows and striptease. Pornography is often distinguished from erotica, which consists in the
portrayal of sexuality with high-art aspirations, focusing also on feelings and emotions, while
pornography involves the depiction of acts in a sensational manner, with the entire focus on the
physical act, so as to arouse quick intense reactions.)
Source: Fletcher-Spear, K. Library collections for teens : manga and graphic novels, c2011:
glossary (Hentai: A Japanese term meaning “pervert.” This refers to pornographic manga or
anime; Ecchi: This Japanese term means perverted and is a milder term than hentai. Ecchi
applies to works that are erotic in nature, but not pornography.)
Source: Google search, Nov. 30, 2012 (comic porn; porn comics; porno comics; adult comics;
pornographic comics; pornographic webcomics; pornographic comic books; pornographic comic
strips; sex comics; cartoon pornography; x-rated comics; x-rated comic book porn; x-rated comic
strips; x rated comic books; sex picture comics; sexually explicit comics)
Priamels
Source: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, c2012 (Priamel. The term was
conceived to designate a sub-genre of epigrammatic poems composed primarily in Germany
from the 12th through the 16th cs. and characterized by a series of seemingly unrelated, often
paradoxical statements cleverly brought together at the end, usually in the final verse. Numerous
collections survive … The first scholars to study the priamel not as a form of the Spruch but
as a separate genre were G.E. Lessing and J.G Herder in the 18th c. In classic studies since the
pioneering work of Dornseiff and the dissertation of his student Kröhling, the term priamel refers
to a poetic (and rhetorical) form that occurs throughout Greco-Roman poetry but has receive
the most attention in connection with Pindar and Horace. As it is currently defined, the priamel
consists of two basic parts: the foil and the climax. The function of the foil is to introduce and
highlight the climactic term by enumerating or summarizing a number of other instances that
then yield (with varying degrees of contrast or analogy) to the particular point of interest or
importance.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (priamel: It denotes
a form of German folk verse which had some vogue from the 12th to the 16th c. It appears to
have developed from a kind of improvised epigram. Basically a priamel comprised a variety of
disconnected ideas and observations with a surprise conclusion.)
Source: LCSH (Priamel. BT Gnomic poetry)
Problem plays
Source: McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama, c1972 (Problem Play. Name given to the
type of play that dramatizes contemporary social problems, with the characters representing
or speaking for the forces involved. Problem plays were written and performed by the ancient
Greeks. Not until the late nineteenth century, however, did the problem play come into its
own as a popular theatrical genre, with the social problem as its primary reason for being. …
The problem drama reached its artistic apogee in the later works of Henrik Ibsen … Bjørnson,
Heiberg, Hjalmar Bergstrøm, and Strindberg also made notable contributions to the problem
play in Scandinavia … After World War I German and Italian playwrights began viewing such
social questions as the family, industry, and commercialism not in terms of individual morality
but in terms of the future of the state. The genre underwent further mutation in the United States
during the Depression, when “the system” became the malefactor rather than evil individuals or
social mores. In recent years, the exploration of social problems has remained an important part
of European and American theatre.)
Source: Quinn, E. A dictionary of literary and thematic terms, c1999 (problem play. A form of
drama that raises controversial social questions. The modern problem play was first developed
by the French playwright Alexandre Dumas in a series of plays attacking social evils. The
most celebrated name associated with the form is that of the great Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen focused on social problems in A Doll’s House (women’s rights), An
Enemy of the People (the moral individual in an immoral society), and Ghosts (religious
hypocrisy and venereal disease). Later practitioners of the form included George Bernard
Shaw, Lillian Hellman, and Arthur Miller. Shakespearean critics use the term in a different
way, to characterize plays that have created problems of interpretation for readers and viewers,
particularly All’s Well That Ends Well (1602), Troilus and Cressida (1602), and Measure for
Measure (1604).)
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (problem play. Usually a play
dealing with a particular social problem in a realistic manner designed to change public opinion;
also called a thesis play. Significant examples are Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), on
women’s subordination in marriage, and Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1902)
on prostitution. In studies of Shakespeare, however, the term has been used since the 1890s to
designate a group of his plays written in the first years of the 17th century: the ‘dark comedies’
Measure for Measure and All’s Well That Ends Well, and the tragicomedy Troilus and Cressida.
Critics have often been disturbed by the sombre and cynical mood of these plays, which seems to
clash oddly with their comic conventions. See also Discussion play)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (problem play: see
thesis play; thesis play: A drama which deals with a specific problem and, very probably, offers a
solution. This form appears to have originated in the 19th c. Both Dumas (fils) and Brieux wrote
a considerable number between 1860 and 1900. Elsewhere Ibsen was a major influence on the
genre, for example A Doll’s House (1879). … This type of drama is also known as a problem or
propaganda play. Arnold Wesker has also written something approximating to thesis plays. A
sub-species of the problem play is what has been called the ‘discussion play’. This is more like a
debate in which characters put forward different points of view.)
Source: Abrams, M.H. A glossary of literary terms, c1999 (Problem Play. A type of drama
that was popularized by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. In problem plays, the
situation faced by the protagonist is put forward by the author as a representative instance of a
contemporary social problem; often the dramatist manages--by the use of a character who speaks
for the author, or by the evolution of the plot, or both--to propose a solution to the problem
which is at odds with prevailing opinion. A subtype of the modern problem play is the discussion
play, in which the social issue is not incorporated into a plot but expounded in the give and take
of a sustained debate among the characters. In a specialized application, the term problem plays
is sometimes applied to a group of Shakespeare’s plays, also called “bitter comedies”--especially
Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, and All’s Well That Ends Well--which explore
ignoble aspects of human nature, and in which the resolution of the plot seems to many readers
to be problematic, in that it does not settle or solve, except superficially, the moral problems
raised in the play. By extension, the term came to be applied also to other Shakespearean plays
which explore the dark side of human nature, or which seem to leave unresolved the issues that
arise in the course of the action.)
Source: OCLC, Mar. 12, 2014 (titles: The thesis play in modern drama; Brieux's conception
of the thesis play; The thesis-play in France and England from Dumas fils to Shaw; American
social thesis drama on Broadway between 1918-1936; Development of the theme of materialism
in the social thesis drama of nineteenth century Spain; The love test : a modern problem drama in
three acts; A search for modern meaning in problem drama; The ambition of Annabella Stordie :
a problem play in one act; Aspects of the problem play from Heywood through Galsworthy;
Closure in the twentieth-century American problem play; The evolution of the problem play :
a study of five plays; A modern Japanese problem play; Father ex-officio : a father and son
problem play in three acts; Henry Fielding's comedies of manners : a study in the eighteenthcentury problem play; Pirandello's problem play; The present status of the problem play in
France; The problem play in British drama 1890-1914; The problem-play and its influence on
modern thought and life; Shaw and the problem play; Crack of the whip : a social problem play;
Her answer : a social problem play in one act; A study of the social problem play in the theatre of
Eugene Brieux)
Prose poetry
Source: Lehman, David, Great American Prose Poems : From Poe to the Present, 2003
Source: Friebert, Stewart, Models of the Universe : An Anthology of the Prose Poem, 1995.
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p. 142 (Prose poem)
Source: Poets.org, viewed Dec.26, 2012 (Poetic Form: Prose Poem--Though the name of the form may appear to be a contradiction, the prose poem essentially
appears as prose, but reads like poetry. In the first issue of The Prose Poem: An International
Journal, editor Peter Johnson explained, "Just as black humor straddles the fine line between
comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels
resting precariously on banana peels." While it lacks the line breaks associated with poetry, the
prose poem maintains a poetic quality, often utilizing techniques common to poetry, such as
fragmentation, compression, repetition, and rhyme. The prose poem can range in length from
a few lines to several pages long, and it may explore a limitless array of styles and subjects.
Though examples of prose passages in poetic texts can be found in early Bible translations and
the Lyrical Ballads of William Wordsworth, the form is most often traced to nineteenth-century
French symbolists writers. The advent of the form in the work of Aloysius Bertrand and Charles
Baudelaire marked a significant departure from the strict separation between the genres of prose
and poetry at the time. The form quickly spread to innovative literary circles in other coutries:
Rainer Maria Rilke and Franz Kafka in Germany; Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio
Paz in Latin America; and William Carlos Williams and Gertrude Stein in the United States.
Each group of writers adapted the form and developed their own rules and restrictions, ultimately
expanding the definitions of the prose poem. Among contemporary American writers, the
form is widely popular and can be found in work by poets from a diverse range of movements
and styles, including James Wright, Russell Edson, and Charles Simic. There are several
anthologies devoted to the prose poem, including Traffic: New and Selected Prose Poems and
Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present, as well as the study of the form in The
American Prose Poem: Poetic Form and the Boundaries of Genre.)
Source: Wikipedia, Oct. 29, 2012 (Prose poetry is a hybrid genre that shows attributes of both
prose and poetry. It may be indistinguishable from the micro-story (a.k.a. the "short short
story, "flash fiction"). While some examples of earlier prose strike modern readers as poetic,
prose poetry is commonly regarded as having originated in 19th-century France.)
Source: LCSH sh 85107566 (Prose poems)
Protest plays
Source: Williams, S.E. Three American protest plays, 1960.
Source: Sinclair, U. Plays of protest, 1912.
Source: Travis, J.E. Renegade : a full-length drama of Indian protest as affected by American
Indian culture and the new wave of Indian militancy, 1974.
Source: Kritika kultura, no. 14 (Feb. 2010), viewed online May 10, 2013: p. 100 (protest theater
under Martial Law) p. 101 (protest plays) p. 120 (protest drama during martial law; protest
drama in the rich theatrical productions during Martial Law 1972-1986)
Source: Allison, J.M. A study of the American racial protest drama of the mid-twentieth century,
1966.
Source: Roche, C.M. Speaking for themselves : early feminist rhetoric and protest drama in
Angelina Weld Grimke's Rachel and Mary Burrill's They that sit in darkness, 1998.
Source: Suss, I.D. The drama of social protest, 1928-1938, 1948.
Source: Kirk, J. The drama of social protest in America since 1914, 1949.
Source: Simonsen, W.R. A survey of the American drama of protest in the Depression years,
1951.
Source: Alter, N.M. Vietnam protest theatre : the television war on stage, 1996.
Source: Campbell, F.R. A correlation of plot structures and character types in protest plays of the
1930's about Negroes, 1968.
Source: Blitgen, M.J.C. Voices of protest : an analysis of the Negro protest plays of the 19631964 Broadway and off-Broadway season, 1966.
Source: Howard, J.E. Recurring trends in social protest plays : an examination of Waiting for
Lefty and The Laramie Project, 2001.
Source: Hambright, J.K. The journey out : contributions of German dramatic expressionism in
the social protest plays of Eugene O'Neill, 1971.
Source: Miller, M.L. Original Federal Theatre protest plays, 1936-1939 : New Deal contributions
to the American drama of social concern, 1968.
Source: Elam, H.J. Taking it to the streets : the social protest theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri
Baraka, c1998.
Source: Political and protest theatre after 9/11, 2012.
Protest fiction
Source: Netzley, P. Social protest literature, 1999: p. xiii (social protest novels such as Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, Ramona, and The Jungle have served as catalysts for reform; social protest
literature has appeared in every country in the world from ancient times to the present; social
protest authors have used poetry, memoirs, short stories, novellas, and novels of different genres)
p. xiv (no matter what genre or form a social protest author chooses, his or her intent is to
challenge the status quo)
Source: Cornwell, G. "Evaluating protest fiction", English in Africa 7:1 (Mar 1980):
(Uncompromising realism is the protest work's chief formal means of achieving the appearance
of documentation and hence the credibility; there is no disputing that much of the impact of
fiction by black South Africans derives from the reader's recognition of its authenticity; one may
even say that the more fact the work contains, or appears to contain ... the more effective the
protest; the protest writer creates an imaginary world, but at the same time is concerned to make
it as 'transparent' as possible, for it is central to his purpose that the reader identify the presented
world as the real world)
Source: American protest literature, 2006: foreword (anthology combining “literary and
documentary sources” under the umbrella of protest literature, including excerpts from
pamphlets, political essays, memoirs, novels, plays, song lyrics; protest literature defined broadly
to mean the uses of language to transform the self and change society; protest literature employs
three rhetorical strategies in the quest to convert audiences: empathy, shock value and "symbolic
action", or indeterminacy of meaning, ambiguity)
Lukin, J. Invisible suburbs: recovering protest fiction in the 1950s United States, 2008.
Drake, K. Subjectivity in the American protest novel, 2011.
Winn, S. Friends of the people: Chartists in Victorian social protest fiction, 1989.
Protest poetry
Source: Poetry and protest : A Dennis Brutus reader, 2006.
Source: Coleman, J.L. Words of protest, words of freedom : poetry of the American civil rights
movement and era, 2012.
Source: Norton anthology of poetry online, Nov. 15 2012 (protest poem: An attack, sometimes
indirect, on institutions or social injustices.)
Source: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, c2012 (Protest Poetry. Like the
protest song, protest poetry goes by many names: social, revolutionary, or topical poetry, or
occasionally poetry of commitment, or a subgenre of political poetry; two things distinguish
protest poetry from other poems with political content: a connection to a social movement and
a direct and obvious pertinence to events in the immediate present; protest poetry can take
the form of avant-garde manifestos, testimony, elegies, or ballads and is as widespread as the
resistance to power that it seeks to articulate; primarily a 20th- and even late 20th-c. form; the
term poetry of social protest was used to describe Af. Am. poetry of the 1920s, but protest poetry
did not reach wide usage and was not often applied to poetry outside the U.S. until the 1960s.)
Source: LCSH (Protest poetry)
Psychological fiction
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica online academic edition, Nov. 5, 2012 (psychological novel,
work of fiction in which the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters are of equal or
greater interest than is the external action of the narrative; plot is subordinate to and dependent
upon the probing delineation of character; events may not be presented in chronological order
but rather as they occur in the character’s thought associations, memories, fantasies, reveries,
contemplations, and dreams)
Puppet plays
Source: WordNet search, Nov. 12, 2012 (puppet show, puppet play (a show in which the actors
are puppets))
Source: Macleod, H. Top goon : puppet drama lampoons Syria's Bashar al-Assad, via GlobalPost
website, Dec. 12, 2011, viewed Nov. 12, 2012 (Puppet show)
Source: Anderson, D. Amazingly easy puppet plays : 42 new scripts for one-person puppetry,
c1997.
Source: Whanslaw, H.W. A book of marionette plays, 1951?
Source: Carter, S. A joke on the sun : a marionette play in four scenes, 1934.
Source: Schroeder, J. Fun puppet skits for schools and libraries, 1995.
Source: Dunn, C.J. The early Japanese puppet drama, 1966.
Source: LCSH (Puppet plays)
Purim plays
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Purim plays, associated with the Jewish
Festival of Purim on the 14th Adar (roughly the middle of March), appear to have originated
in France and Germany as early as the 14th century, mainly as extemporized entertainments
centring on the Old Testament story of Esther and Haman. Under the influence of the
masquerades and mumming of the Italian Carnival, they developed into plays featuring racy
dialogue, with interposed songs and dances, which widened their scope to include other Old
Testament figures such as Joseph and his brethren, David and Goliath, Moses and Aaron. Mostly
in one act, they featured comic rabbis, apothecaries, midwives, and devils, the whole ending with
a final chorus foretelling Israel’s salvation. The religious authorities, who at first opposed the
acting of Purim plays, finally bowed to public demand and tolerated them as long as they did
not overstep the bounds of decency. They had a considerable influence on the development of
Jewish drama, and took on a literary form in the 17th century.)
Source: OCLC, May 23, 2013 (titles: Ladino purim plays; Costumes for Purim plays; The origin
of the feast of Purim, or, The destinies of Haman & Mordecai : a sacred drama in three acts taken
principally from the book of Esther; Haman and Mordecai : a Purim play in five acts; Esther
the queen : a Purim play; The queen had a plan : a Purim play; How to present a Purim play;
Up Haman's sleeve : a Purim play; Moscow Purim plays; Purim drama; The great robbery at
Goldfarb's gulch : a Purim spiel; Purim-Spiel; The Purimshpil; Ester und die Ministerkrisen :
Wandlungen des Esterstoffes in jüdisch-deutschen und jiddischen Purimspielen)
Source: Troy, S.S. On the play and the playing : theatricality as leitmotif in the purimshpil of the
Bobover Hasidim, c2002: abstr. (The purimshpil (Purim playlet) is the quintessential Jewish folk
theatre form, which emerged from both the letter and the spirit of the law of the biblical Book of
Esther; traditional folk play) p. 336 (Purimshpil/n - Purim play/s)
Qasidas
Source: The new Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 1993 (Qasida: A monorhymed
lyric poem common to Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Pashto, and Urdu literature. The rhyme scheme
is aa ba ca, etc. and some qasidas run to over a hundred lines. The Arabic qasida generally
shows a tripartite structure consisting of an erotic prelude (nasib) wherein the poet weeps over
the deserted campground of his beloved, an account of a desert journey (rahil) which includes
a description of his mount, and the panegyric proper (madih). It originated among the Arab
Bedouin as an oral poem in praise of the tribe or denigration of an enemy, the earliest examples
being the seven mu’allaqat of pagan Arabia. The qasida took its basic form in the early ‘Abbasid
period (8th-9th century), when it became a courtly occasional poem in praise of a patron.
Qasidas survive in Persian from the 10th century, and under Persian influence the form spread to
other literatures. At the same time, the subject matter of the qasida expanded to include elegies,
mystical or philosophical subjects, and satire. The qasida gave way to the ghazal as the primary
lyric form in Persian after the 13th century, and it never rivaled the ghazal in Urdu. In the 20th
century the qasida lost its relevance and has all but disappeared as a poetic form. In English
literature, Tennyson imitates the form in Locksley Hall; it was also imitated by the German poet
Platen.)
Source: Islamic desk reference, 1994 (Qasida: A polythematic ode which numbers at least seven
verses, but which generally comprises far more. It consists of an amatory prologue (nasib), in
which the poet sheds some tears over what was once the camping place of his beloved now far
off; of the poet’s narrative of his journey to the person to whom the poem is addressed; and of
the central theme, constituted by the panegyric of a tribe, a protector or a patron, or by a satire
of the enemies. The Arabic qasida is a very conventional piece of verse, with one rhyme and in
a uniform metre. The Persian qasida is a lyric poem, most frequently panegyric. It is first and
foremost a poem composed for a princely festival, especially the spring festival and the autumn
one. It was connected with courtly life in Persia.)
Source: Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, 1998 (Qasida: Generic term denoting a polythematic
poem with identical metre and rhyme, usually beginning with amatory verses, the nasib, and
ending with the poet’s praise of himself or his tribe, sometimes in combination with satire, or
with a panegyric. It was the principal genre of pre-Islamic Bedouin poetry, the main expression
of tribal norms and values.)
Source: A history of Urdu literature, 1977: p. 2 (Qasida, a kind of ode, often panegyric on a
benefactor, sometimes a satire, sometimes a poem dealing with an important event. As a rule it is
longer than the gazal, but it always follows the same system of rhyme.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (Qasida: A type of
formal ode believed to have originated in the 6th century, and used by Arabic, Persian, Turkish
and Urdu poets. The themes were varied: elegy, eulogy, panegyric or satire. The length varied
also—between thirty and two or three hundred lines. The form was imitated by Tennyson in
Locksley Hall, using couplets in octameters, for the most part trochaic. Also used by Flecker in
his poetic drama Hassen (published 1922). In Spanish verse the qasida is probably of Bedouin
Arab origin, and was a kind of elegy in which the meter might vary whereas the subjects
(and their order) were fixed. The poet began with a nostalgic reference to a re-discovery of a
place which recalled his love; then dwelt on his love; then on the ensuing sufferings it caused.
There followed a lengthy account of the various journeys he had undertaken. Finally, he sang
the praises of one who, he hoped, would become the patron of his efforts. The verses were
transmitted orally at first; later they were written down.)
Source: Poetry Magnum Opus online, Feb. 15, 2013 (Qasida (purpose poem) sometimes spelled
kasida, is an ode that dates back to pre-Islamic Arabia and the Bedouins of the desert. It was
originally sung in praise of a tribe or to denigrate an enemy. The poem is made up of string
of complete couplets and can be as long as 100 couplets. It is a multi-sectional, poly-thematic
poem. Over centuries it developed into a courtly poem of praise of a patron and expanded into
elegies, satire and more philosophical subjects. The form has endured to the present, although it
has taken a back seat to its descendant the shorter, ghazal. It was brought to English literature
by Lord Tennyson in Locksley Hall. The Qasida is: (1) narrative poetry (2) stanzaic, written in
a string of shers (complete couplets), the poem is often long and may be as long as 100 shers,
length is optional (3) metered optional, the lines should be equal length (4) rhymed. There are
various opinions on rhyme scheme. Some sources say it should be mono-rhymed, all couplets
carrying the same rhyme aa aa aa. . . another source shows rhyme scheme aa bb cc dd. . . , it
carries a "running incremental refrain" reappearing in each even line, but the most common
suggestion is that, the couplets have a running rhyme aa xa xa xa xa xa … (5) originally written
as a desert poem in 4 units each can be one or several couplets long (a) opening setting describes
recalls ancient times (b) tale of lost love or things left behind (c) the struggles of the journey and
its endurance (d) plea for honor or praise.)
Source: Britannica Academic Edition online, Feb. 15, 2013 (qaṣīdah, also spelled kasida,
Turkish kasîde Persian qaṣīdeh, poetic form developed in pre-Islamic Arabia and perpetuated
throughout Islamic literary history into the present. It is a laudatory, elegiac, or satiric poem
that is found in Arabic, Persian, and many related Asian literatures. The classic is an elaborately
structured ode of 60 to 100 lines, maintaining a single end rhyme that runs through the entire
piece; the same rhyme also occurs at the end of the first hemistich (half-line) of the first verse.
Virtually any meter is acceptable for the qaṣīdah except the rajaz, which has lines only half
the length of those in other metres. The qaṣīdah opens with a short prelude, the nasib, which is
elegiac in mood and is intended to gain the audience’s involvement. The nasib depicts the poet
stopping at an old tribal encampment to reminisce about the happiness he shared there with his
beloved and about his sorrow when they parted; Imru al-Qays is said to have been the first to
use this device, and nearly all subsequent authors of qaṣīdah imitate him. After this conventional
beginning follows the rahil, which consists of descriptions of the poet’s horse or camel or of
desert animals and scenes of desert events and Bedouin life and warfare; it may conclude with a
piece on fakhr, or self-praise. The main theme, the madih, or panegyric, often coupled with hija
(satire of enemies), is last and is the poet’s tribute to himself, his tribe, or his patron. The qaṣīdah
has always been respected as the highest form of the poetic art and as the special forte of the preIslamic poets. While poets with a classical tendency maintained the genre, with its confining
rules, the changed circumstances of the Arabs made it an artificial convention. Thus, by the end
of the 8th century the qaṣīdah had begun to decline in popularity. It was successfully restored
for a brief period in the 10th century by al_Mutanabbi and has continued to be cultivated by the
Bedouin. Qaṣīdahs were also written in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu until the 19th century.)
Source: Merriam-Webster online, Feb. 15, 2013 (Qasida: a laudatory, elegiac, or satiric poem in
Arabic, Persian, or any of various related literatures. Variant: Kasida.)
Source: www.poetrysoup.com, Feb. 15, 2013 (Qasida, a kind of ode, often panegyric on a
benefactor, sometimes a satire, sometimes a poem dealing with an important event. As a rule it is
longer than ghazal, but it follows the same system of rhyme.)
Source: Forms of Urdu poetry, via www.poetrysoup.com, Feb. 15, 2013 (Qasida: A Qasida
is very long ballad that is written to praise a king or a nobleman. It sometimes also describes
great battles. It is not unusual to find a Qasida that is more than 100 couplets long. Like the
Ghazal, the Qasida starts with a rhyming couplet and uses the same qafiya, or rhyming pattern,
throughout the poem. The Ghazal as we know it today was originally derived from the Qasida.)
Source: Qasida and creation : selections for the Mufaddaliyat, 1988.
Source: Qasida and veda : with a selection from the Mufaddaliyat , 1988.
Source: Wormhoudt, Arthur, Gospel and qasida : nine poems, 1986.
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 5, 2012 (The classic form of qasida maintains a single elaborate
metre throughout the poem, and every line rhymes. It typically runs more than fifty lines,
and sometimes more than a hundred. Qasida means "intention" and the genre found use as a
petition to a patron. A qasida has a single presiding subject, logically developed and concluded.
Often it is a panegyric, written in praise of a king or a nobleman, a genre known as madîḥ,
meaning "praise". Qasida in Urdu poetry is often panegyric, sometimes a satire, sometimes
dealing with an important event. As a rule it is longer than the ghazal but follows the same
system of rhyme)
Score: LCSH (Qasidas)
Qu
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (Qu are type of Classical Chinese poetry form, consisting of
words written in one of a number of certain, set tone patterns, based upon the tunes of various
songs. Thus qu poems are lyrics with lines of varying longer and shorter lengths, set according
to the certain and specific, fixed-patterns of rhyme and tone of conventional musical pieces upon
which they are based and after which these matched variations in lyrics (or individual qu poems)
generally take their name. The fixed-tone type of verse such as the qu and the ci together with
the shi and fu forms of poetry comprise the three main forms of Classical Chinese poetry. In
Chinese literature, the qu form of poetry from the Yuan Dynasty may be called yuanqu. Qu may
be derived from Chinese opera, such as the zaju, in which case these qu may be referred to as
sanqu.)
Source: LCSH (Qu (Chinese literature))
Quatrains
Source: Free Online Dictionary, viewed April 18, 2013 (Quatrains, A stanza or poem of four
lines)
Source: Saberi, R. A thousand years or Persian Rubaiyat, 2000 (Reza Saberi translates over
1,500 quatrains from more than a hundred Iranian poets from the beginning of written Persian
poetry to the present. A ruba'i is a poem in four lines, which is complete in itself and expresses a
single feeling or thought in a very concise and elegant language. The subjects of rubaiyat include
divine love, the ecstasy of love, mystical knowledge, and the nature of life and existence.)
Source: Kennedy, X.J., Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh (Little Brown, 2002)
Source: Norton Anthology of Poetry online, Nov. 15, 2012 (A four-line stanza, whether rhymed
or unrhymed. This is the most common stanza form in English poetry)
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p.144 (Quatrain)
Source: LCSH (Quatrains)
Qurʼan stories
Source: LCSH (Qurʼan stories)
Source: Parvīnī, K. Taḥlīl-i ʻanāṣir-i adabī va hunarī-i dāstānhā-yi Qurān, 2000: added t.p.
(Koranic stories)
Source: Crook, J.R. Armageddon : a comparison of the Quranic stories of Surabadi with the
Bible, c2004.
Source: Qiṣṣihā-yi Qurān = Quranic stories, 2005.
Source: The Quranic stories, 2003.
Source: Ozgur Alhassen, L.A. Qurʼānīc stories, 2011.
Source: Hāshimī, ʻA. al-M. Quranic stories of women, 2009.
Radio plays
Source: Oboler, A. Fourteen radio plays, c1940.
Source: Best radio plays of ..., 1980.
Source: Barnouw, E. Radio drama in action : twenty-five plays of a changing world, 1945.
Source: Corwin, N. Thirteen by Corwin : radio dramas, 1942.
Source: De Fossard, E. Writing and producing radio dramas, 2005.
Source: Stoppard, T. Stoppard : the plays for radio 1964-1991, 1994.
Religious comics
Source: Hope, J. Introducing Buddha : a graphic guide, 2009.
Source: Furuya, M. Basic Buddhism through comics, 2009.
Source: Lal, V. Hinduism : a graphic guide, 2010.
Source: Comic book Siddur : for Shabbat morning services, c2008.
Source: Anderson, J. The Lion graphic Bible : the whole story from Genesis to Revelation, 2004.
Source: Burstein, C.M. The kids' cartoon Bible, c2002.
Religious drama
Source: LCSH (Religious drama. BT Drama; Religious literature)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Religious drama; religious plays; plays on
religious themes; religious subjects; with the disappearance of the medieval liturgical drama,
religion as a subject for plays was, with rare exceptions, replaced on the English stage by
classical history and mythology and plots drawn from contemporary life. It came back tentatively
in the late 19th century, when professional dramatists began to include religion and the clergy
in serious plays of contemporary life. Meanwhile the Biblical ‘spectacular’, of which Wilson
Barrett’s The Sign of the Cross (1895) is typical, was also popular until taken over by the
cinema.)
Source: López, D. Films by genre, c1993 (Religious film. Label applies to a motion picture
which revolves around an easily recognizable religious subject; also understood as being a film
of religious inspiration and fervor, not necessarily on an obvious religious subject)
Religious fiction
Source: LCSH (Religious fiction)
Religious poetry
Source: Mitchell, S. The enlightened heart: an anthology of sacred poetry, 1993
Source: Bloom, H. American religious poems: an anthology by Harold Bloom, 2006
Source: LCSH (Religious poetry)
Renga
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000: p. 148 (Renga)
Source: Poetry.org, viewed Dec. 26, 2012 (Poetic Form: Renga---Renga, meaning "linked
poem," began over seven hundred years ago in Japan to encourage the collaborative composition
of poems. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns composing the alternating threeline and two-line stanzas. Linked together, renga were often hundreds of lines long, though
the favored length was a 36-line form called a kasen. Several centuries after its inception, the
opening stanza of renga gave rise to the much shorter haiku. To create a renga, one poet writes
the first stanza, which is three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables. The next poet adds
the second stanza, a couplet with seven syllables per line. The third stanza repeats the structure
of the first and the fourth repeats the second, alternating in this pattern until the poem’s end.
Thematic elements of renga are perhaps most crucial to the poem’s success. The language is
often pastoral, incorporating words and images associated with seasons, nature, and love. In
order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only
the stanza preceding it. This leap advances both the thematic movement as well as maintaining
the linking component. Contemporary practitioners of renga have eased the form’s traditional
structural standards, allowing poets to adjust line-length, while still offering exciting and
enlightening possibilities. The form has become a popular method for teaching students to write
poetry while working together.)
Source: Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012: Renga (Renga is a once popular
but now seldom practiced genre of Japanese poetry in which verses (ku) alternately of 17 and 14
morae (see MORA) are joined into long sequences according to rules (jhikimoku) that govern
how constituent images are to be employed. By the latter half of the med. era (1185-1600),
orthodox linked verse (ushin renga) had become the most widely practiced form of Japanese
poetry in the vernacular; vast numbers of hundred-verse sequences (hyakuin) survive, and some
linked-verse practitioners rank among Japan's greatest poets. In the beginning of the early mod.
(Tokugawa or Edo) period (1600-1868), ushin renga was eclipsed by unorthodox or comic
haikai [no] renga (or renku, haikai linked verse), which has far fewer restrictions on topics and
vocabulary than the orthodox variety. The term renga usually refers to the orthodox form of the
art) Haikai (Haikai: (literally, "comic"), more properly called haikai no renga (comic linked
verse), refers to a number of poetic forms that emerged in the early mod. period in Japan (16151868). The term is used in Kokin waka shû (Ancient and Modern Waka Anthology, ca. 905;
see KOKINSHŪ) to refer to unconventional or humorous *waka. With the devel. of * renga
(linked verse) in the med. period (1185-1600), the term haikai no renga denoted a variety of
humorous linked verse that was written between sessions of orthodox renga composition. As a
courtly form, orthodox renga forbade the use of nonelegant words (such as Buddhist terms and
Chinese compounds); haikai no renga, however, permitted it. In the early mod. period, haikai
no renga evolved into a form independent of both waka and renga. It held a special appeal for
commoners, though members of all social status groups composed it. Haikai was most popular
from the middle of the 17th to the end of the 18th c.; by the end of the 19th c., literary reformers
abandoned it in favor of its modernized form, haiku)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (Renga (collaborative poetry) is a genre of Japanese
collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two stanzas, usually many more. The opening
stanza of the renga, called the hokku, became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry.)
Source: LCSH (Renga)
Rengay
Source: Zimmerman, J. The rengay verse form, via WWW, July 10, 2013 (The Rengay is a
North American variation on the Japanese linked verse form. The original form of rengay, a 6link collaborative poem by 2 poets, was invented in August 1992 by Garry Gay; attributes: 1. A
6-verse linked poem that follows a theme. The linkage means that the rengay is more than simply
six depictions by different poets of a theme. Each verse responds in some way (often by contrast
or by association) to the verse that precedes it. 2. The form acknowledges the renku tradition
of mingling the stanzas of different authors, with each stanza composed in the form of a 3-line
(haiku) verse or a 2-line verse. 3. The 2-person form of rengay. The initial form of rengay was
created for 2 collaborating poets with each poet writing two haiku and a total of three verses. 4.
The 3-person form of rengay. For 3 collaborators, which is closer to the renku form in structure.
Its content, however, remains in the rengay spirit. Each collaborator writes one 3-line verse and
one 2-line verse. 5. The rengay can be written as a solo rengay, when one poet explores the topic
in two independent voices. Length: The rengay is brief (6 verses). The renku is longer, with 36
links being popular. Historic renga of 1000 verses and more are recorded.)
Source: Rengay, via Graceguts website, July 10, 2013 (Rengay is a six-verse poem usually
by two or three writers using a set pattern of three-line and two-line haiku. Unlike renga or
renku, all six poems focus on at least one unifying theme. Having a theme is the most important
characteristic of rengay. Garry Gay invented the rengay form in 1992)
Source: Rengay : an introduction, via Graceguts website, July 10, 2013 (The renga and renku
forms of linked verse have a long, rule-bound, culturally dependent tradition in Japan. Many
English writers attempting these forms have questioned the relevance of the many rules in our
culture, and sometimes fail to enjoy the stringent renku-writing process. As a reaction to these
sometimes stifling rules and traditions, Garry Gay invented a renga alternative in the summer of
1992: the “rengay.” The rengay is a collaborative six-verse linked thematic poem written by two
or three poets using alternating three-line and two-line haiku or haiku-like stanzas in a regular
pattern. The pattern for two people is A-3, B-2, A-3, B-3, A-2, B-3, with the letters representing
the poets, and the numbers indicating the number of lines in each given verse. For three people
the pattern is A-3, B-2, C-3, A-2, B-3, C-2. Unlike renku, Garry proposes that a rengay stay
in one season and develop a single theme. Since they are brief, rengay are also more easily
remembered than renku, and more likely to be published in the various haiku journals.)
Source: Rengay poems, via PoetrySoup website, July 10, 2013 (Rengay poems; Rengay poetry)
Definition (Rengay is a contemporary six-verse form of linked haiku based on a unifying theme.
Written by 2-3 partners, each link should be able to stand on its own. Derived from renku, but
much different, theme development is the key element of rengay. Rengay incorporates the "link
and shift" idea of renku, but its brevity makes it easier to read (and publish). Because it is
thematic, it is more accessible. Rengay was developed in 1992 by Garry Gay)
Source: The rengay form, via Billie Dee kiku makura website, July 10, 2013 (The North
American rengay was invented in 1992 by Garry Gay (ren-Gay). Unlike renga, there are only a
few rules: 1. six haiku verses written by two or more poets; 2. verses alternate between 3-lines
and 2-lines; 3. each verse should be an independent haiku (including the 2-line verses), though
this is the least stringent requirement; 4. a theme should be followed, but without the tight link
and shift patterns in traditional renga. 2 person pattern: 3 lines, poet A, 2 lines, poet B, 3 lines,
poet A, 3 lines, poet B, 2 lines, poet A, 3 lines, poet B; 3 person pattern: 3 lines, poet A, 2 lines,
poet B, 3 lines, poet C, 2 lines, poet A, 3 lines, poet B, 2 lines, poet C; recently, 6-person rengay
have appeared in such journals as Sketchbook.)
Renku
Source: Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 (Haikai: (literally, "comic"), more
properly called haikai no renga (comic linked verse), refers to a number of poetic forms that
emerged in the early mod. period in Japan (1615-1868). The term is used in Kokin waka shû
(Ancient and Modern Waka Anthology, ca. 905; see KOKINSHŪ) to refer to unconventional
or humorous *waka. With the devel. of * renga (linked verse) in the med. period (1185-1600),
the term haikai no renga denoted a variety of humorous linked verse that was written between
sessions of orthodox renga composition. As a courtly form, orthodox renga forbade the use of
nonelegant words (such as Buddhist terms and Chinese compounds); haikai no renga, however,
permitted it. In the early mod. period, haikai no renga evolved into a form independent of both
waka and renga. It held a special appeal for commoners, though members of all social status
groups composed it. Haikai was most popular from the middle of the 17th to the end of the 18th
c.; by the end of the 19th c., literary reformers abandoned it in favor of its modernized form,
haiku) renga (In the beginning of the early mod. (Tokugawa or Edo) period (1600-1868), ushin
renga was eclipsed by unorthodox or comic haikai [no] renga (or renku, haikai linked verse),
which has far fewer restrictions on topics and vocabulary than the orthodox variety. The term
renga usually refers to the orthodox form of the art)
Source: Wikipedia, July 10, 2013 (Renku (連句 "linked verses”), or haikai no renga (俳諧の連
歌, "comic linked verse"), is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is
a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ushin renga, or orthodox collaborative
linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns providing alternating verses of
17 and 14 morae. Initially haikai no renga distinguished itself through vulgarity and coarseness
of wit, before growing into a legitimate artistic tradition, and eventually giving birth to the haiku
form of Japanese poetry. The term renku gained currency after 1904, when Kyoshi Takahama
started to use it.)
Source: Renku home website, July 10, 2013 (Haikai no renga, usually now called renku by
the Japanese, is a style of linked poem that reached its height in the work of Bashô (surname
Matsuo, 1644-1694) and his disciples. The tradition began almost a thousand years ago (some
would say longer ago than that), and is very much alive today in Japanese, English, and other
languages.) http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/
Source: LCSH (Renku)
Renshi
Source: Work cat.: No choice but to follow, c2010: p. 141 (the modern version [of renga and
renku], renshi, refers to linked free verse)
Source: What the kite thinks, c1994: p. 1 (renshi, a linked poem by several poets, is a new free
verse form of collaborative poetry adapted from the renga and renku forms favored by many
classical poets in Japan since the thirteenth century)
Source: Japan-Poetry International Web WWW site, April 19, 2011: Renshi: Writing without a
centre (renshi differs from renga in that it is written in shi, which are relatively flexible in content
and poetic rules; somewhat akin to jazz improvisation; but continually moves outward, treating
new themes and ideas; different types and styles of poetry in a simple renshi)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012 (Renshi (linked poetry) is a form of collaborative poetry
pioneered in the 1980s. It is a development of traditional Japanese renga and renku, but unlike
these it does not adhere to traditional strictures on length, rhythm, and diction. Renshi are
typically composed by a group of Japanese and foreign poets collaborating in the writing process
in sessions lasting several days.)
Source: LCSH (Renshi (Poetry))
Revenge tragedies
Source: Baldick, C. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 2008 (revenge tragedy. A kind
of tragedy popular in England from the 1590s to the 1630s, following the success of Thomas
Kyd’s sensational play The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1589). Its action is typically centred upon a
leading character’s attempt to avenge the murder of a loved one, sometimes at the prompting of
the victim’s ghost; it involves complex intrigues and disguises, and usually some exploration
of the morality of revenge. Drawing partly on precedents in Senecan tragedy, the English
revenge tragedy is far more bloodthirsty in its explicit presentation of premeditated violence,
and so the more gruesome examples such as Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus are sometimes
called ‘tragedies of blood’.)
Source: Harmon, W. A handbook to literature, c2009: Revenge Tragedy (A form of tragedy
made popular on the Elizabethan stage by Thomas Kyd, whose Spanish Tragedy is an early
example of the type. It is largely Senecan in its inspiration and technique. The theme is the
revenge of a father for a son or vice versa, the revenge being directed by the ghost of the
murdered man, as in Hamlet. Other traits often found in revenge tragedies include the hesitation
of the hero, the use of real or pretended insanity, suicide, intrigue, an able scheming villain,
philosophic soliloquies, and the sensational use of horrors (murders on the stage, exhibition of
dead bodies, and so forth). Examples are Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, Marston’s
Antonio’s Revenge, and Tourneur’s Atheist’s Tragedy. See Tragedy of Blood.) Tragedy of
Blood (An intensified form of the Revenge Tragedy popular on the Elizabethan stage. It works
out the theme of revenge and retribution (borrowed from Seneca) through murder, assassination,
mutilation, and carnage.)
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Revenge Tragedy, the name given to those
Elizabethan plays, of which Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1585-9) was the first, dealing with
blood deeds demanding retribution. Their sublimity could easily turn to melodrama; indeed, in
a cruder form, the revenge motif underlay many of the famous melodramas of the 19th century.
Among Shakespeare’s plays, Titus Andronicus (c. 1592) may be considered the lowest form of
the Revenge Tragedy and Hamlet (c. 1600-1) its finest flowering. Under the same heading come
such plays as Chapman’s Bussy d’Ambois (c. 1604), Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy (c.
1606) and The Atheist’s Tragedy (c. 1611), John Webster’s The White Devil (1612) and The
Duchess of Malfi (1614), and Middleton’s The Changeling (1622).)
Source: McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama, c1972 (Revenge Tragedy. Form of drama
in which the main theme is murder and revenge. Especially identified with the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, the revenge tragedy had its origins in classical drama, particularly in the
plays of Seneca. His plays Thyestes, Medea, and Agamemnon all employ the theme of bloody
deeds paid for in blood; typically retribution is exacted by a member of the murdered man’s
family. In the sixteenth century the neoclassical desire to follow Greek and Roman styles led
to a revival of the revenge tragedy. Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (ca. 1589) was the
first and the most popular of Elizabethan plays in this genre. This play and those that followed
gave a new dimension and moral depth to the revenge tragedy … the avenger in the Elizabethan
revenge tragedy is often shown to be morally and psychologically as much a victim of his thirst
for retribution as are those upon whom he wreaks his revenge. The form attained its highest
expression in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Other Elizabethan masters of the form were Cyril Tourneur,
George Chapman, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster. Such an exciting and popular theme
based upon such sublime emotions could, however, easily degenerate into melodrama and indeed
often did, even during the Elizabethan period. Later, in the nineteenth century, many a crude
melodrama was based upon the revenge motif.)
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (revenge tragedy.
A form of tragic drama in which someone (usually a hero or a villain) rights a wrong. Perhaps
the earliest instance of a kind of revenge tragedy is the Oresteia of Aeschylus. During the
Renaissance period two main ‘revenge’ traditions are discernible: first the French-Spanish
tradition, best exemplified in the work of Lope de Vega, Calderón, and Corneille. In their
treatment of revenge themes the emphasis is on the point of honour and the conflict between
love and duty. English revenge tragedy owed much to Senecan tragedy. It was Thomas Kyd
who established the genre of revenge tragedy in England with The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1586).
This play contains many of the basic features of the genre. It begins with the introduction of
a ghost and with the character of Revenge. In the course of the play they function as Chorus
to an elaborate intrigue in which Hieronomo seeks revenge for his murdered son. Hieronomo
pretends to be mad and presents a play in dumb show at court. Shakespeare’s first attempt at
the genre was Titus Andronicus (1594). This is similar in construction to The Spanish Tragedy
and deeply under its influence. Later, Shakespeare was to raise the genre to its highest level
with Hamlet (1603-4). In its decadence revenge tragedy became increasingly sensational and
macabre. Ghosts, apparitions, graveyards, charnel houses, incest, insanity, adultery, rape,
murder, infanticide, suicide, arson, poisoning and treachery were commonplace elements. Moral
and political corruption were displayed in lurid detail.)
Revolutionary poetry
Source: Latin American revolutionary poetry, 1974: Introduction (these poems are written
against the background of contemporary Latin American history and the global movement
for change. Their context is imperialism ... The poets fully recognize the existence of a larger
confraternity of suffering, and their work reflects their solidarity with liberation struggles
throughout the Third World and in the United States itself)
Source: Concise encyclopedia of Latin American literature, 2000 (protest literature: Spanish
American poetry today is full of protest, and one need only look at the shanty towns on the
outskirts of any major city to comprehend the reasons for its popularity. The contrasts between
poverty and wealth in the vast majority of Latin American countries is so blatant that the poets
of social protest must bear witness to the situations — they observe by writing poesía testimonial
(testimonial or “witnessing” poetry). The situations described usually relate to some kind of
social injustice (so this poetry is also poesía social), and since the poets are generally not only
deeply involved in the society that they portray but committed to a line of action, what they
produce is essentially poesía comprometida (engaged poetry). And, since there is discontent
with the social scene depicted, most of this poetry is likely to be poesía de protesta as well.
Protest can take many forms, however, some of which involve an attempt to alter the situation
by violent or undemocratic means. A poet's work, in this instance, may therefore be categorized
as revolucionaria, insurreccionista, guerrillera or subversiva (revolutionary, insurrectionist,
guerrilla, or subversive). The role of poetry in the liberation struggle itself has been a crucial
one, both as a force for mobilizing a collective response to occupation and domination and as
a repository for popular memory and consciousness. Often this poetry written in the context of
national liberation organizations and resistance movements remains singularly unavailable to the
literary institutions for two reasons: its limited production and dissemination in print, and the fact
that it does not conform to conventional and canonical criteria adhered to by poets in the North)
Source: Georgakas, D. Z an anthology of revolutionary poetry, 1968.
Source: LCSH sh 85113465 (Revolutionary poetry)
Rhopalic verse
Source: Crashaw, R. Wishes to his (supposed) mistress, via Famous poets and poems website,
Nov. 2, 2012.
Source: Hillman, B. Rhopalic aubade, 2006.
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (rhopalic verse:
Verse thicker at one end than the other, by dint of each word being a syllable longer than its
predecessor, or each line a foot longer. So, for example, Crashaw's Wishes to His Supposed
Mistress begins: Whoe'er she be//That not impossible She//That shall command my heart and
me; The first line is a dimeter, the second a trimeter, the third a tetrameter--and so the poem
continues for forty-two stanzas in all.)
Source: Poetry glossary, via Answers.com, Nov. 2, 2012 (Rhopalic: Having each succeeding
unit in a poetic structure longer than the preceding one. Applied to a line, it means that each
successive word is a syllable longer that its predecessor. Applied to a stanza, each successive line
is longer by either a syllable or a metrical foot. Rhopalic verse is also called wedge verse.)
Source: World wide words website, Nov. 2, 2012 (Rhopalic describes text in which each word
contains one more letter or syllable than the one preceding it. It derives from the Greek rhopalos,
for a club or cudgel which, like most of its kind, is thicker towards one end than the other. It is
commonly applied to poetry whose words advance each time by one syllable, or sometimes one
metric foot, but it can also apply to prose. In poetry, such wordplay has also been described as
snowball verse and wedge verse.)
Source: Merriam-Webster online dictionary, Nov. 2, 2012: (rhopalic: having each succeeding
unit in a prosodic series larger or longer than the preceding one: a : having each successive
word in a line or verse longer by one syllable than its predecessor b : having successive lines
of a stanza increasing in length by the addition of one element (as a syllable or metrical foot.
Variants: ropalic; wedge verse: rhopalic verse)
Source: Dictionary.com, Nov. 2, 2012 (Ropalic, see Rhopalic; Rhopalic: Applied to a line or
verse in which each successive word has one more syllable than the preceding.)
Source: Collins dictionaries website, Nov. 2, 2012: English dictionary (rhopalic (poetry)
describes verse in which each successive word has one more syllable than the word before)
Source: Brewer, E.C. Dictionary of phrase and fable, 1894, via Infoplease website, Nov. 2, 2012
(Rhopalic Verse (wedge-verse). A line in which each successive word has more syllables than
the one preceding it (Greek, rhopalon, a club, which from the handle to the top grows bigger.))
Source: Rhopalic poems : examples of rhopalic poetry, via PoetrySoup website, Nov. 2, 2012
(Rhopalic poems or Rhopalic poetry; Verse in which each line is a (metrical) foot longer than its
predecessor e.g. Richard Crashaw's Wishes to His Supposed Mistress.)
Source: Representative poetry online, Nov. 2, 2012: glossary (Rhopalic verse (Greek, 'like a
club') Poems whose lines start short and get longer and longer.)
Source: Everything2 website, Nov. 2, 2012 $b (Rhopalic. Webster 1913 definition: Applied to a
line or verse in which each successive word has one more syllable than the preceding. Webster
left something out here. Yes, a line is rhopalic when each word or group of words has one more
syllable than the next. But verse can also be rhopalic when each line is a foot (or so) longer than
the previous. Rhopalic verse is also known as wedge verse, or snowball verse.)
Rímur
Source: Cuddon, J.A. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, c1998: (Rimur: A form
of Icelandic metrical romance which originated in the 14th century. They were narrative poems
based on heroic tales and composed, for the most part, in alliterative four-line stanzas. They were
complex in meter and the kenning occurs frequently.)
Source: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 4th ed., c2012: (Rimur: plural
(singular: rima). A form of stanzaic narrative poetry, cognate ME rime, surviving from the mid14th century. Rimur are Icelandic poems in multiple fits, a rima having only one. The four-line
Latin hymn stanza was adapted to include alliteration and the complicated poetic vocabulary of
kenning and heiti borrowed from skaldic poetry. While the most popular meter was ferskeytt,
22 different varieties developed and it became traditional that no two consecutive fits should
be in the same meter. Subject matter was wide-ranging, but adaptations of stories set in ancient
Scandinavia (fornaldarsögur) or adaptations of chivalric romances (riddarasögur) were esp.
favored. Rimur were the most popular form in Iceland until well into the 19th century. They
were chanted not read.)
Source: Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of literature, c1995: (Rimur: singular rima. Versified
sagas, or episodes from sagas, a form of adaptation that was popular in Iceland from the 15th
century, One of three early genres of popular early Icelandic poetry (the other two being dances
and ballads), rimur were produced from the 14th to the 19th century. Originally used for dancing,
they combine an end-rhymed metrical form derived from Latin hymns with the techniques of
syllable counting, alliteration, and internal rhyme used by the earlier Norse court poets, the
skalds. Most rimur are long narratives based on native tradition or foreign romances. Often a
long prose cycle was converted into a rimur cycle.)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 20, 2012 (In Icelandic literature, a ríma (literally "a rhyme", pl. rímur)
is an epic poem written in any of the so-called rímnahættir ("rímur meters").)
Source: LCSH sh 85114111 (Rímur)
Ritterdrama
Source: Törring, J.A. Agnes Bernauerin, 1780.
Source: Lämmel, J.O. Andreas Baumkirchner : ein Ritterdrama, 1972.
Source: Krämer, W. Der Tod auf Schreckenfels, oder, Blondelin und Edelgardine : ein
blutigschaurigtrauriges Ritterdrama, 1951.
Source: Rieder, K. Robart und Radegund : ein groteskes Ritterdrama in drei Akten und einem
Vorspiel, 1951.
Source: Brahm, O. Das deutsche Ritterdrama das achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, 1880.
Source: Hassencamp, O. Das Ritterdrama von Schreckenstein, 2001.
Source: The Oxford companion to the theatre, 1983 (Ritterdrama, offshoot of the Sturm und
Drang drama, in which the valour of medieval knights was displayed in scenes of battle, jousting,
and pageantry, often with a marked vein of Bavarian local patriotism. Written in prose and
irregular in form, this ‘feudal drama’, had as its theme strong passions and contempt for the
conventions and fostered the taste for romantic and medieval settings kindled by Goethe’s
Götz von Berlichingen (1773) and Klinger’s Otto (1774). Among the authors of such plays
were Josef August von Törring (1753-1826), Bavarian Minister of State, with Kasper der
Thoringer (pub. 1785) and Agnes Bernauerin (1780), and Joseph Marius Babo (1756-1822),
with Otto von Wittelsbach (1782). Reactionary influences caused the Ritterdrama to be banned
from the Munich stage, but its vogue continued elsewhere, notably in Austria, where Karl
Friedrich Hensler (1761-1825) fused this type of drama with the native operatic fairy-tale in Das
Donauweibchen (1797).)
Source: Dictionary central website, May 14, 2013 (Ritterdrama (German: knight drama) In
late 18th-century German theater, a genre of historical drama that depicted the heroic days of
medieval knights. It derived from the Sturm und Drang movement, taking its romantic and
patriotic themes from the historical plays of Goethe and Klinger. With its staging of battles,
jousting, and other pageantry, the genre established new standards for historical realism in
settings and costumes. Successful Ritterdrama plays included Agnes Bernauerin (1780) by
Josef August von Törring (1753-1826) and Otto von Wittelsbach (1782) by Joseph Marius
Babo (1756-1822). At the end of the century the genre was banned from the Munich stage for
emphasizing Bavarian patriotism, but its popularity continued in Austria and elsewhere.)
Source: Universal-Lexicon website, May 14, 2013 (Ritterdrama. Synonym: Ritterspiel. Drama
in which the protagonist is a knight, for example, B.P. Corneille’s “Le Cid” (1637). In a
more narrow sense, used for dramas from late 18th/early 19th century, whose authors were
influenced by the new reception of the Middle Ages in the Sturm und Drang movement and by
Romanticism, and whose plot and characters derive from knighthood, such as Goethe’s “Götz
von Berlichingen” (1773), F.M. Klinger’s “Otto, ein Trauerspiel” (1775), J.A. Törring’s “Agnes
Bernauerin” (1781) and works by L. Tieck, H. von Kleist and L. Uhland.)
Source: Kosch, W. Deutsches Theater-Lexikon, 1953-2012 (Ritterdrama. Drama of the late
18th century, about the age of chivalry, based on Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen (1773) and in
prose. Examples of Ritterdrama: Klinger’s Otto (1774), Törring’s Agnes Bernauerin (1780) and
Kaspar der Thorringer (1785), and Babo’s Otto von Wittelsbach (1782). See Historisches Drama
(Historical drama))
Source: Catalogue of the German National Library, via WWW, May 14, 2013 (subject authority
record: Ritterdrama. BT Drama) http://d-nb.info/gnd/4178240-9
Road fiction
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (road fiction: use for works in which a journey, as a life-changing
experience, is a central part of the action)
Source: Worldcat, Jan. 3, 2013 (titles: Fast cars and bad girls: nomadic subjects and women’s
road stories; The road novels of Jack Kerouac; Journeys of the center: a migration through three
contemporary American women’s road novels)
Robinsonades
Source: Oxford companion to German literature (via Oxford reference online), Nov. 7, 2012
(robinsonade: term applied to novels of shipwreck and survival deriving from Defoe’s The life
and strange adventures of Robinson Crusoe)
Source: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe & the robinsonades, via WWW, Nov. 7, 2012 (the term
“Robinsonades” is used to describe literary works about survival without the aid of civilization,
frequently on a deserted island; typically the protagonist is suddenly isolated from the comforts
of civilization, usually shipwrecked or marooned on a secluded and uninhabited island)
Source: Cuddon, J. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (desert island fiction:
a form of fiction in which a remote and “uncivilized” island is used as the venue of the story and
action; the publication of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in 1719 marked the inception of a literary
genre which has attained universal popularity. In France desert island stories came to be known
as Robinsonnades; in Germany as Robinsonaden; Robinsonade: The German term for stories
which derived from Defoe’s ever popular The Life and Strange and Surprising Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe (1719). The first German translation appeared the following year and there
were numerous imitations. See desert island fiction)
Romance comics
Source: LCSH (Romance comic books, strips, etc.)
Source: Pawuk, M. Graphic novels : a genre guide to comic books, manga, and more, 2007:
p. 418 (Romance. Stories dealing with the love, confusion, heartache, hilarity, and ups-anddowns of teenage and young adult romance. Romance comic books have a long-standing history
in the U.S., from their inception in the 1940s through their decline in the 1970s. Like most
teen romance fiction as well as adult romance, the focus in a graphic novel romance title is
the blossoming relationship between two individuals. Romance knows no boundaries, so titles
may include off-beat couples, same-sex couples, faraway settings, and even a heavy helping of
comedy; several subgenres of romance, including romantic comedy and romantic fantasy)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 9, 2012 (“Romance comics (sometimes love comics) is a comics genre
depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce,
betrayal, and heartache.”)
Source: Fletcher-Spear, K. Library collections for teens : manga and graphic novels, c2011: p.
172 (Romance Graphic Novels)
Romance fiction
Source: Herald. D. Genreflecting, 2006: p. 253 (Romance novels celebrate the emotional
development of a love relationship. While mystery is moved by plot and horror by conflict, the
action of the romance novel is internal. A man and a woman must come to admit that they love
each other and form a pair bond. Beyond that focus, there may be any number of obstacles that
interfere with the admission of love, and these may comprise a significant plot, but the theme of
the romance novel is one of emotion.)
Source: Ramsdell, K. Romance fiction: a guide to the genre, 1999: p. 4 (the term "romance,"
as it is used today, has a much more specific meaning and refers to a particular kind of fiction-the love story; But there is more to it than that. Not just any love story will do. Certain criteria
must be met before a love story can qualify as a proper romance, at least by today's standards.
To begin with, there is the matter of focus. In a romance the central (and occasionally the only)
focus of the plot is the love relationship between the two main characters; Another criterion for
romance fiction is the Satisfactory Ending. Usually, but not always, this is the traditional happy
one, with the two protagonists forming some kind of committed relationship (usually marriage)
by the book's conclusion) p. 5 (for the purposes of this guide, a romance is defined as a love
story in which the central focus is on the development and satisfactory resolution of the love
relationship between the two main characters, written in such a way as to provide the reader with
some degree of vicarious emotional participation in the courtship process) p. 11 (From a literary
point of view, the genre has become more diverse and inclusive, expanding to incorporate
not only the traditional romance subgenres [Historical romances, Gothic romances, Romantic
suspense, Sensual romances], but several new ones as well. Two of the more important of these
are the Ethnic or Multicultural Romance, which features protagonists from various cultures and
ethnic backgrounds, and the eclectic Alternative Reality Romance, which covers a wide range of
love stories with paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, or science fiction themes.) p. 18 (romances
account for 55 percent of the mass fiction market)
Source: Worldcat, April 16, 2013 (selected titles found: Historical romance fiction; Romance
fiction of Mills & Boon, 1909-1990s; Fantasy and reconciliation : contemporary formulas of
women's romance fiction; New approaches to popular romance fiction; Rocked by romance: a
guide to teen romance fiction; Words of love: a complete guide to romance fiction)
Source: Goodreads, April 16, 2013 (number of books tagged with term: Romance, 100000
[max.]; Romance-novels, 7093; Romance-fiction, 3085; Romantic-fiction, 3675; Love, 27541;
Love-stories, 10982; Love-fiction, 44; Love-novels, 26)
Romances
Source: GSAFD, 2000 (romances: used for medieval tales, which embody the life and
adventures of a hero of chivalry; “Love stories” or “Romantic suspense fiction” are used for
contemporary novels)
Source: The new Oxford companion to literature in French (via Oxford reference online), Nov.
8, 2012 (romance: Term used in English‐language criticism of French literature for the roman
courtois, or courtly romance, a narrative genre that flourished in the 12th and 13th c., first in
verse and then in prose, and continued in various transformations throughout the Middle Ages;
as contrasted with the epic, or chanson de geste, romance focused on the inner dilemma or quest
of an individual knight, highlighted sentimental and chivalric education and the conflict of
knightly duty with private desire )
Romans à clef
Source: Britannica online academic edition, Nov. 5, 2012 (roman à clef, novel that has the
extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as
fictional characters)
Source: Wheeler, K. Literary terms and definitions, via WWW, Nov. 12, 2012 (roman à clef:
French, “novel with a key,” also called livre à clef, “book with a key”; a narrative that represents
actual historical characters and events in the form of fiction; readers in the know would
recognize the real figures but typically the explanatory “keys” would be published later; also
known in English as a key-novel)
Source: Cuddon, J. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (livre à clef: (F ‘book
with a key’) also known as a roman à clef, in English as a key novel and in German as a
Schlüsselroman. Usually a work of fiction in which actual persons are presented under fictitious
names)
Romans-fleuves
Source: Britannica online, Dec. 3, 2013 (roman-fleuve: French: "novel-stream" or "novel
cycle"; series of novels, each one complete in itself, that deals with one central character, an
era of national life, or successive generations of a family; Inspired by successful 19th-century
cycles such as Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine and Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart, the
roman-fleuve was a popular literary genre in France during the first half of the 20th century.
Examples include the 10-volume Jean-Christophe (1904–12) by Romain Rolland, the 7-part À la
recherche du temps perdu (1913–27; Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust, the 8-part
Les Thibault (1922–40) by Roger Martin du Gard, and Les Hommes de bonne volonté, 27 vol.
(1932–46; Men of Good Will) by Jules Romains. Proust’s work is the masterpiece of the genre.)
Source: Encyclopedia of the novel, 1998, v. 2 (roman-fleuve (series and novel cycles): A romanfleuve is an extended series of novels, each of which may be free-standing and read separately,
but which form part of a coherent and continuous narrative; the roman-fleuve draws upon the
tradition of recurrent characters peopling a large number of individual novels; the roman-fleuve,
unlike the multivolume modernist text, puts its length at the service of the development of plot
and theme; like the Bildungsroman, the roman-fleuve is a novel form rooted in the family)
Source: The Bloomsbury guide to English literature, 1995 (Roman-fleuve: A sequence of novels
in which some of the same characters reappear, and in which the plot of each novel continues
or complements that of others in the sequence. Well-known examples are Balzac's The Human
Comedy and Galsworthy's The Forsyte saga; the latter, since it is about a family, could also be
termed a saga novel)
Source: Cuddon, J. A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998: Roman-fleuve (A
term used in modern fiction for a series of novels, each of which exists as a separate novel in its
own right but all of which are inter-related because the characters (some or all) reappear in each
succeeding work; examples include Balzac's La comedie humaine, Zola's twenty-volume series
Les Rougon-Macquart, Galsworthy's The Forsyte saga, and Anthony Powell's A dance to the
music of time (1951-1976) in twelve volumes) Saga novel (so called from the Icelandic sagas
because it is a narrative about the life of a large family. The most notable example in English
literature is Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga - a series of novels written over a long period - which are
all linked together by the Forsyte family; also Roman cycle ; Roman-fleuve; chronicle novels)
Source: The Cambridge guide to literature in English (3rd. ed.), 2006 (roman fleuve: A sequence
of novels, in which the individual books are linked by recurrent characters. It may describe a
family or a social milieu)
Source: Merriam-webster (roman-fleuve: a novel in the form of a long usually easygoing
chronicle of a social group (as a family or a community)
Source: Wikipedia (Novel sequence: A novel sequence is a set or series of novels which share
common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing
storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence)
Source: Felber, L. Novels without end: the interdynamics of narrative and ideology in the
romans-fleuves of Anthony Trollope and Anthony Powell, 1987.
Source: Colatrella, C. The tragedy of the human beast: the 'romans-fleuves' of Balzac, Zola, and
Faulkner, c. 1987.
Source: Morris, R. Continuance and change: the contemporary British novel sequence, 1972.
Romantic comedy plays
Source: Miller, T. Pines '79 : a romantic comedy in two acts, c1982.
Source: Sharkey, T.M. Amy's wish : a romantic comedy, c2003.
Source: Allen, W. Play it again, Sam : a romantic comedy in three acts, c1969.
Source: LCGFT (Romantic comedy films. UF Romantic comedies (Motion pictures))
Romantic plays
Source: DiPietro, J. The last romance, c2011.
Source: Wesker, A. Arnold Wesker's love plays, 2008.
Source: Moses, I. Love/stories, or, But you will get used to it : five short plays, 2010.
Source: Types of romantic drama, 1928: p. 2 (“The conflicts in dramas of the romantic type ...
arise principally from the troubled course of profound and passionate love.”) p. 227 (love plays)
p. 335 (“Cyrano de Bergerac is easily the outstanding romantic play of our age.”)
Source: Yao, C.S. Cai-zi jia-ren : love drama during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods, 1982.
Source: Chorpenning, C.B. The prince and the pauper : romantic play in 3 acts, c1954.
Source: Ennery, A.d’. The two orphans : romantic play in four acts, 1939.
Source: Lewis, J.W. Saint Agnes' eve : a romantic play in one act, 1937.
Source: Spence, W. The house of the seven gables : a romantic play in a prologue and three acts
(based upon the immortal novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne), c1935.
Source: St. Clair, R. The final triumph : a romantic drama in three acts, c1938.
Source: Crawford, F.M. The white sister : romantic drama in three acts, 1937.
Romantic suspense fiction
Source: Ramsdell, K. Romance fiction; a guide to the genre, 1999: p. 87 (The novel of Romantic
Suspense is the feminine counterpart of the male adventure story; this subgenre is exemplified
by fast-paced tales filled with action, mystery, suspense, and, of course, romance; Although there
are several competent authors of Romantic Suspense, it is generally acknowledged that Mary
Stewart set the standard for this subgenre. Even though the subgenre has evolved significantly
since she first started writing, Stewart's works, especially the earlier ones, are considered classic
examples of the type and are still the ones against which all others are judged. In recent years,
the Romantic Suspense subgenre has grown phenomenally)
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 9, 2012 (romance novel/subgenres: romantic suspense involves an
intrigue or mystery for the protagonists to solve; typically the heroine is a victim of a crime or
attempted crime, and works with a hero in a protective field such as a police officer, FBI agent,
bodyguard, or Navy SEAL; by the end of the novel, the mystery is resolved and the interaction
between the hero and heroine has evolved into a solid relationship; primarily contemporary
settings, but some genre examples include historical timeframes; the blend of the romance and
the mystery was perfected by Mary Stewart, who wrote ten romantic suspense novels between
1955 and 1967)
Source: Thomas, C. Defining romantic suspense novels, via WWW, Nov. 9, 2012 (romantic
suspense combines the romance novel’s character emphasis and the mystery novel’s plot
development with the positive ending that is expected in both genres; defined by leading genre
author Nora Roberts as works blending the internal tension of the romance with the outside
tension created by the danger in which they are placed)
Source: Goodreads, April 16, 2013 (Genres/Romance/Romantic suspense: Romantic suspense is
any genre romance that features a prominent mystery, suspense or thriller plot)
Rondeaus
Source: Myers, J. Dictionary of poetic terms, c2003 (rondeau: a special form of the rondel
written in syllabic meter consisting of 15 lines (sometimes fewer) set down in a quintain (aabba),
a quatrain (aabR) and a sestet (aabbaR). The entire poem rests on one refrain which appears
twice and echoes, in part or whole, the first line, and two rhymes)
Source: New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics, 2012 (rondeau: The form by which
we know the rondeau today emerged in the 15th c. and by the beginning of the 16th c. had
displaced all competitors. The poem is constructed on two rhymes only with lines of eight or ten
syllables, and the first word or phrase of the first line is used as a refrain; this curtailed, repeating
line, called the rentrement, usually does not rhyme. Traditional lengths for the rondeau are 12 or
15 lines (if the two brief rentrements are not considered lines, 10 or 13) printed in two or three
stanza)
Source: Padgett, Ron, Teachers and writers handbook of poetic forms, 2000 (p.160 Rondeau)
Source: Poets.org, viewed Dec.26, 2012 (Poetic Form: Rondeau --- The rondeau began as a
lyric form in thirteenth-century France, popular among medieval court poets and musicians.
Named after the French word for "round," the rondeau is characterized by the repeating lines
of the rentrement, or refrain, and the two rhyme sounds throughout. The form was originally a
musical vehicle devoted to emotional subjects such as spiritual worship, courtship, romance,
and the changing of seasons. To sing of melancholy was another way of using the rondeau,
but thoughts on pain and loss often turned to a cheerful c’est la vie in the final stanza. The
rondeau’s form is not difficult to recognize: as it is known and practiced today, it is composed
of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically into a quintet, a quatrain, and a
sestet. The rentrement consists of the first few words or the entire first line of the first stanza,
and it recurs as the last line of both the second and third stanzas. Two rhymes guide the music
of the rondeau, whose rhyme scheme is as follows (R representing the refrain): aabba aabR
aabbaR. Where the rentrement appears in its traditional French form, it typically does not adhere
to the rhyme-scheme--in the interest of maintaining the line’s buoyancy and force. But when
nineteenth-century English poets adopted the rondeau, many saw (or heard) the rentrement as
more effective if rhymed and therefore more assimilated into the rest of the poem. An example
of a solemn rondeau is the Canadian army physician John McCrae’s 1915 wartime poem, "In
Flanders Fields":The challenge of writing a rondeau is finding an opening line worth repeating
and choosing two rhyme sounds that offer enough word choices. Modern rondeaus are often
playful; for example, "Rondel" by Frank O’Hara begins with this mysterious directive: "Door of
America, mention my fear to the cigars," which becomes the poem’s refrain. )
Source: Wikipedia, Nov. 20, 2012 (A rondeau (plural rondeaux) is a form of French poetry with
15 lines written on two rhymes, as well as a corresponding musical form developed to set this
characteristic verse structure. It was one of the three formes fixes (the other two were the ballade
and the virelai), and one of the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the
late 13th and the 15th centuries. Variant forms may have 10 or 13 lines. A similar form is the
French rondel and its English variant called roundel. The rondeau is a form of verse also used
in English language poetry. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized
pattern. It was customarily regarded as a challenge to arrange for these refrains to contribute
to the meaning of the poem in as succinct and poignant a manner as possible. The rondeau
consists of thirteen lines of eight syllables, plus two refrains (which are half lines, each of four
syllables), employing, altogether, only three rhymes. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is
as follows: (1) A A B B A (2) A A B with refrain: C (3) A A B B A with concluding refrain C.
The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line.)
Source: LCSH sh 85115230 (Rondeaus)
Rondels
Source: Myers, J. Dictionary of poetic terms, c2003 (rondel: consists of 13 lines (a rondel prime
has 14 lines) in two quatrains and a final quintet. The meter and rhyme are not fixed, but the
poem turns on two rhymes and two refrain lines: the first and second lines reappear as seven and
eight, and the last line mirrors the first line (ABba, abAB, and abbaA))
Source: Cuddon, J. Dictionary of literary terms and literary theory, 1998 (rondel: the most usual
rondel form consisted of three stanzas working on two rhymes, thus: ABab abAB abba (B); a
thirteen line poem in which the refrain came twice in the first eight lines and the opening line
was repeated as the last line. If it was fourteen lines, the refrain was repeated three times)
Source:
Yelland, H.L. Handbook of lit. terms, 1980: p. 178 (Rondel: Originally two
stanzas of four and five lines, but later changed to three stanzas making thirteen or fourteen lines
in all. The first two lines recur after the sixth line. This form was popular as early as the
fourteenth century, but later gave way to the rondeau.)
Source:
Williams, M. Patterns of poetry, 1986: p. 79 (Rondel. French in origin. A
thirteen-line poem in three stanzas of four, four, and five lines. Traditionally syllabic in English,
as in the French ... Line 1 is repeated as lines 7 and 13, line 2 is repeated as line 8)
Source: LCSH sh 99010488 (Rondels)