Elizabethan: Occurring in the time of Queen Elizabeth I's reign, from 1558-1603. Shakespeare wrote his early works during the Elizabethan period. This term is often juxtaposed with the Jacobean Period, the time following Elizabeth's reign when King James I ruled, from 1603 to 1625.

 

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Elizabethan: Occurring in the time of Queen Elizabeth I's reign, from 1558-1603. Shakespeare wrote his early works during the Elizabethan period. This term is often juxtaposed with the Jacobean Period, t . . . View Full Definition

Renaissance: The term applied to the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Italy. It was called so because of the 'rebirth of ideas after the restrictions of thought in the middle ages'.

Psychological Realism: The sense that characters in fictional narratives have realistic 'interiority' or complex emotional and intellectual depth, including perhaps subconscious urges and fears they are not aware . . . View Full Definition

Periods Of English Literature: The common historical eras scholars use to divide literature into comprehensible sections through periodization. Dividing literature into these sometimes arbitrary periods allows us to bette . . . View Full Definition

Naturalism: A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible, without artificial distortions of emotion, idealism, and literary convention. The school of thought is a product of post . . . View Full Definition

Soliloquy: A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alone. The technique frequently reveals a character's innermost thoughts, including his feelin . . . View Full Definition

Tiring-House: An enclosed area in an Elizabethan theater where the actors awaited their cue to go on stage, changed their costumes, and stored stage props. The term is an abbreviation of 'attiring house' . . . View Full Definition

The Body Politic: The monarchial government, including all its citizens, its army, and its king. Political theory in the Elizabethan period thought of each kingdom as a 'body,' with the king functioning as it . . . View Full Definition

Stock Character: A character type that appears repeatedly in a particular literary genre, one which has certain conventional attributes or attitudes. In the Old Comedy of Greek drama, common stock characters . . . View Full Definition

Metapoetry: Poetry about poetry, especially self-conscious poems that pun on objects or items associated with writing or creating poetry. Among the Romantic and Enlightenment poets, we find puns on leav . . . View Full Definition