Sunday, January 27, 2013

Lit Terms 31-56 Remix

The continuation of my Harry Potter nonsense. :) Again the link to the definitions if you don't already know them.

Dialect:
Harry Potter and the gang all talk in British dialect, since this is set in England kind of. Just listen to 'em!

Dialectics:
Now, the definition on Preston's website says that it means "formal debates usually over the nature of truth." But this person, JordynH2012, wrote this quick little bit about Harry Potter and Voldemort. She mentions dialectics quite a bit, although I'm not sure if it's in the correct way. You decide!

Dichotomy:
I believe all of the houses in Hogwarts could be considered dichotomies. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin are all separate places a student can live in, yet they are still a part of the school Hogwarts itself.

Diction:
Okay, here's one I wanted to throw out there. I think the diction of Fred and George in the movie is very difficult to understand sometimes. Their British accents can be so thick that when they say something too fast I'm like what?? See if it's that hard for you.


Didactic:
Here's a sort of didactic line from the book! "Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies." 

Dogmatic:
The word was used in the book! Here's an excerpt from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 
"'I bought it,' said Xenophilius dogmatically, 'two weeks ago, from a delightful young wizard who knew of my interest in the exquisite Snorkack.'"

Elegy:
As you might have had noticed, there was a lot of sadness when the series was finished. This person with the username of StrangeJade wrote a touching elegy for the ending of the Potter series titled "Elegy for Potter." Very touching.

Epic:
An interesting question could be: Is the Harry Potter series considered an epic? Let's weigh our options. There is a central hero, whose destiny is to fight a strong enemy and defeat him. He partakes in battles and fights against other beings as well. Harry is a wizard, like most of his peers and comrades, but at times his nation is not sided with him. Let me know what you think. :)

Epitaph:
One of the saddest, simplest, and truest epitaphs I know.
"Here lies Dobby, a free elf."
Such a strong moment in the book and the movie.

Epithet:
A real popular epithet used in the book would be Mudblood. Draco Malfoy, a bully, hurls that name at Harry's good friend Hermione countless times. A Mudblood is a wizard who was born from Muggle (non-wizard) parents. It is definitely not a nice term. A nicer epithet would maybe be "The-Boy-Who-Lived," which is what people call Harry since he survived Voldemort's death spell.

Euphemism:
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" could be an example of a euphemism. This is what people say when referring to Voldemort. It's not exactly insulting, although I guess Voldemort could take it that way if he wanted to. 

Evocative (Evocation):
In the story, Harry definitely goes through a lot of evocation, especially in his dreams. He has a lot of nightmares of Voldemort and the death of his parents, which he witnessed as a very little boy. He usually wakes up in a sweat because the sensations are so real feeling. And in a way, they are a bit real, since he sees these visions and memories because of the tie that he has with Voldemort.

Exposition:
The beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has the Dursleys in their house, and they sort of set up the scene talking about other random stuff. Then McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Hagrid show up in the night, with a young Harry Potter swaddled in a blanket, and they discuss the death of his parents and what to do next.

Expressionism:
Okay so I couldn't really figure one out for Harry Potter, but here's this painting as an example of expressionism!

Fable:
Hermione receives a book called the The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which is a kind of storybook for wizard children. In it, there is a fable about the three Peverell brothers who receive gifts from Death. It's an interesting read. There's a good synopsis on the Harry Potter Wiki page.

Fallacy:
Since I couldn't think of a good fallacy myself, I went to Google for help. This girl Mayrone Negash (here's her English blog!) pointed out that Dolores Umbridge used many fallacies when speaking to others. When someone was negative to her, she would turn things around in such a way that her horrible attitude would be dismissed and instead would focus on the other person being unprofessional. She would also come to conclusions with little or no facts. If someone was against her, she came to the conclusion that they were also against the Ministry of Magic. All credit goes to Mayrone. :)

Falling Action:
The most memorable falling action I could think of in the series is when Harry had just been transported back with Cedric Diggory's body. He is hysterical, and all the audience can see is him clutching Cedric's corpse, crying out about Voldemort returning. The big climax before was the murder of Cedric by Voldemort.


Farce:
Oh goodness, I've been waiting for this word. :) Ladies and Gentlemen, if you don't watch ANY of the videos on this post, I urge you to still view this one. It is THE best.


Figurative Language:
Here's some examples of figurative language from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
"On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passerby stare…"
(figurative language: split)
"Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, “The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around."
(figurative language: shot, sharp)

Flashback:
Here's an example of flashback being used in the movie, but Hagrid telling the story is also in the book.


Foil:
I consider Draco Malfoy to be a huge foil for Harry. He is just an overall rotten kid, who doesn't do one good thing until the very end of the book. And even then I'm not even sure I can call it a "good thing."
Here's his face.

Folk Tale:
Well, we first hear the story of the Three Brothers when it's retold by Xenophilius Lovegood to Harry and his friends. So in a way, it kind of is a folk tale in the story since it is told by word of mouth.

Foreshadowing:
There are lots of little bits of foreshadowing that you really have to pay attention to, especially since the future events could happen in any of the 7 books. In Prisoner of Azkaban there are two examples. One is in the beginning, where Harry dreams of following a silver figure in the woods, which turns out to be the Patronus of a doe in Deathly Hallows. Towards the end, Dumbledore asks Harry "You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us?" which could be taken as a foreshadowing of his own death and maybe others'.

Free Verse:
Here's a cute little poem titled "An Ode to Harry Potter" written by user NicoleS from Philadelphia. Check it out! :)

Genre:
I would classify the Harry Potter series as a fantasy/adventure genre. It's full of magic and creatures, and plenty of adventure throughout the story. 

Alright well there's vocab 31-56! If my examples did not help you at all, make sure to click on the link to Preston's page and memorize that vocab! Have a good day/evening. :) 

No comments:

Post a Comment