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  2. Pessimism - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pessimism

    The term pessimism derives from the Latin word pessimus, meaning 'the worst'.It was first used by Jesuit critics of Voltaire's 1759 novel Candide, ou l'Optimisme.Voltaire was satirizing the philosophy of Leibniz who maintained that this was the 'best (optimum) of all possible worlds'.

  3. Glossary of literary terms - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_literary_terms

    Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...

  4. Catachresis - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catachresis

    Example Crossing categorical boundaries with words, because there otherwise would be no suitable word. [3] [4] The sustainers of a chair being referred to as legs. Replacing an expected word with another, half rhyming (or a partly sound-alike) word, with an entirely different meaning from what one would expect (cf malapropism, Spoonerism ...

  5. Escapist fiction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapist_fiction

    The word "escapism" was born in the 1930s and grew rapidly in usage. In the 1940s and the 1950s the term escapism in terms of literature was largely criticised. In the 1960s and 1970s the concept of "escape" in literature emerged as a mode of dealing with imperfect existence where the reader could temporarily escape reality. [5]

  6. Mental disorders in fiction - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorders_in_fiction

    Filled with despair, Orlando travels through Europe and Africa destroying everything in his path. The English knight Astolfo flies up in a flaming chariot to the Moon, where everything lost on Earth is to be found, including Orlando's wits. He brings them back in a bottle and makes Orlando sniff them, thus restoring him to sanity.

  7. List of epic poems - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epic_poems

    Beowulf (Old English) Waldere, Old English version of the story told in Waltharius (below), known only as a brief fragment; Alpamysh, a Turkic epic; Karolus magnus et Leo papa (Carolingian, Latin, before 814) Daredevils of Sassoun ; Bhagavata Purana "Stories of the Lord", based on earlier sources

  8. List of literary movements - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_movements

    Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing and discussing literary works. These terms are helpful for curricula or anthologies. [1]

  9. Synonym - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonym

    Synonym list in cuneiform on a clay tablet, Neo-Assyrian period [1] A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. [2] For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are ...