VOCABULAIRE CRITIQUE


(préparé par Dr. Bill Griffin
Appalachian State University)

les genres (m.) : Types of literary works; a word often used in English, e.g., "The novel is a relatively new genre."

Le Roman *** The Novel
MOTS UTILES

  • le caractère the character of a person
  • la caractéristique characteristic, quality; la qualité = the good quality
  • le conte short story
  • la coïncidence coincidence
  • le dénouement ending of a plot or story
  • dépeindre depict, portray
  • la description description
  • l'écrivain writer
  • l'intrigue plot
  • la nouvelle short novel
  • la peinture depiction, portrayal of a character
  • les personnages characters, people in the novel
  • raconter to tell a story; &laqno;N.B. L'auteur nous raconte l'histoire d'une femme de trente ans», never nous raconte d'une femme.
  • le romancier novelist
    •

    La pièce (dramatique) ou une pièce de théâtre
    ***
    The Play

    MOTS UTILES
  • l'acte (m.) act; acte premier = Acte I; le premier acte = the first act
  • l'acteur, l'actrice the actor, the actress; N.B. le comédien = actor in earlier style; l'artiste (f.) = actress in familiar style
  • l'aparté (m.) aside, spoken for the audience only
  • la coulisse wings, dans la coulisse= backstage
  • le dramaturge dramatist
  • se dérouler to take place, to occur
  • l'emphase (f.) grandiloquence, pomp (NOT "emphasis")
  • emphatique grandiloquent
  • l'entrée en scène (f.) appearance on stage
  • jouer un rôle play a part
  • la scène scene, stage
  • scène première = Scène I; la première scène = the first scene
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    La Poésie *** Poetry

    MOTS UTILES

    Adjectifs

  • sonore sonorous
  • musical musical
  • mélancolique melancholy
  • lyrique lyrical
    •

    Noms

  • la césure caesura
  • le lyrisme lyricism
  • la mélancolie melancholy
  • la musique music
  • l'ode (f.) ode
  • le poème poem, usually a long poem
  • le poème en prose prose poem
  • la poésie short poem
  • le poète the poet
  • le quatrain quatrain
  • la rime rhyme
  • le rythme rhythm
  • le sonnet sonnet
  • la sonorité sonorous quality
  • la strophe stanza
  • le ton tone, feeling
  • le vers line of poetry
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    MOUVEMENTS LITTÉRAIRES

    Noms**Name**Adjectifs**Adjectives

    Français

    Anglais

    Français

    Anglais

    le Classicisme

    Classicism

    classique

    classic, classical

    le Romantisme

    Romanticism

    romantique

    Romantic

    N.B. une histoire romanesque. N.B. le mot romanticisme existe, usé par Stendhal pour définir la littérature moderne opposée aux traditions classiques.

     

     

     

    le Réalisme

    Realism

    réaliste

    realistic, realist

    le Naturalisme

    Naturalism

    naturaliste

    naturalist

    le Symbolisme

    Symbolism

    symboliste

    symbolistic

    le Parnasse

    Parnassian

    parnassien

    Parnassian

    l'Existentialisme

    Existentialism

    existentialiste

    existentialist

    GENERAL CRITICAL TERMS

  • L'Alexandrin (m.) a line of 12 syllables, or (pieds) usually divided after the sixth; breaks can occur elsewhere.
  • L'antithèse (f.) opposition, contrast of words or thoughts
  • l'assonance (f.) imperfect rime depending on vowel alone; vowel does not necessarily have to be a t end of the word. Both la Chanson de Roland and Beowulf are written in assonant verse.
  • le calembour a pun
  • la césure a strong break or pause in a line of poetry
  • la coupe generic term for the pause or pauses in a line of verse
  • l'ellipse (f.) suppression of one or more words; "Alive, he was worth something; dead, nothing.&laqno;Je fais mon travail et lui le sien. »(ellipse du verbe &laqno;fait»)
  • l'épithète (f.) adjective or qualifying word
  • l'hémistiche (f.) divisions in a line of poetry which come before or after the césure
  • l'hyperbole (f.) any sort of strong exaggeration, un travail titanesque , une douleur infinie
  • l'image (f.) image or figure of speech
  • impair line of odd-numbered syllables
  • le jeu de mots play on words
  • la mesure number of syllables which form a rhythmical unit
  • la métaphore metaphor
  • le mètre meter
  • pair line of even-numbered syllables
  • le rejet a phrase carried over from one verse to the next without any punctuation
  • la rime rime
  • le rythme rhythm
  • la strophe strophe or stanza
  • le vers a line of verse; the word "ligne" is not used.
  • le verset a cadenced group of lines, supposedly similar to Biblical passages, favored by many modern French poets, including Claudel and Perse
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    FICTION

  • l'action series of events which make up the story
  • l'arrière-plan (m.) background la cadence pace of narration
  • le caractère that which is created by the qualities of un personnage ; his or her moral or other character
  • le conte a short story
  • la durée duration, time the action covers
  • l'événement (m.) event
  • l'héroïne (f.) heroine
  • le héros hero (aspirated "h")
  • le milieu setting
  • les moeurs manners, mores, customs
  • le narrateur narrator
  • la nouvelle a long short story or novella
  • le personnage a character in a story or drama
  • le protagoniste term used frequently in modern criticism to denote a character who is central to the action of a work but who does not seem to merit the label of "hero"
  • le roman picaresque novel of diverse adventures and settings usually unified through the hero
  • le roman personnel autobiographical novel
  • le roman épistolaire novel in letter-form
  • le roman d'analyse novel in which psychological analysis is more important than the presentation of action
  • le roman novel
    •

    Le Drame***Drama

  • l'acte (m.) act, formal division of a play
  • l'actrice (f.) comédienne
  • l'acteur (m.) actor, often used to distinguish film actor from stage actor (artiste or comédien)
  • l'aparté (m.) side remark or aside; indicated in the stage directions as à part
  • le canevas broad lines of an action as in tracer son canevas
  • la comédie originally any play, now usually a comedy
  • le comédien originally any actor, now usually a comic actor
  • la coulisse wing of the stage
  • côté cour stage right
  • côté jardin stage left
  • le décor stage setting
  • le dénouement resolution of the conflict
  • le Deus ex machina device introduced into a play to resolve a conflict which cannot be resolved on its own terms
  • le dramaturge playwright
  • la dramaturgie dramaturgy
  • le drame any dramatic genre which is primarily serious; the moment of most intense conflict, or the locus of such conflict
  • l'entre-acte (m.) intermission
  • l'épilogue (m.) epilogue
  • l'exposition (f.) exposition, setting-up of a conflict within a play
  • un four flop play
  • l'intrigue (f.) plot
  • le jeu de scène stage business
  • le mélodrame melodrama
  • le metteur-en-scène person who stages a play
  • la mise-en-scène staging of a play
  • le monologue monologue
  • le mur idéal fourth or imaginary wall through which the audience sees the play
  • la pièce à thèse didactic play with a single thesis
  • la pièce play
  • la pièce bien faite well-made play, generally a slightly pejorative term indicating shrewd workmanship but little else
  • le porte-parole author's spokesman in the play
  • le prologue prologue
  • le public audience la rampe footlights
  • la repartie spirited reply or series of replies
  • la répétition rehearsal
  • la réplique line of dialog or reply to a question, also a cue
  • la représentation staging or playing of a play; a performance
  • la scène stage, also the scene as a formal sub-division of an act; usually in French theater a new scene is indicated whenever a new character comes on the stage or one already on the stage leaves
  • le soliloque soliloquy
  • le souffleur prompter
  • la cage du souffleur the prompter's box
  • le tableau formal division of an act comparable to a scene; frequently a part of a play given to pantomime
  • la tension tension, suspense
  • la tirade long speech
  • la tragédie tragedy
  • la tragi-comédie tragedy which contains comic elements and which ends happily
  • les (trois) unités (f.) unities of time, place, and action
    •

    Vocabulaire utile

  • affectif emotional
  • l'apostrophe (f.) direct address to someone
  • l'atmosphère (f.) atmosphere ampoulé ornate, flowery
  • l'ambiance (f.) atmosphere
  • l'agencement (m.) order in arrangement of thoughts or words alambiqué subtle, complicated
  • banal unoriginal, banal
  • les bienséances (f.) rules of propriety or good taste
  • le cliché hackneyed expression
  • la Comédie Française: French National Comedy troupe; France's most renowned theater with a reputation similar to London's Old Vic
  • la convention assumption or rule about what should or should not be done; a literary rule or practice which is accepted as a necessary means of expression coulant flowing, smooth
  • la couleur locale local color
  • la crise climax or crisis usually preceding the "dénouement
  • la critique criticism
  • le chef-d'oeuvre masterpiece
  • le choix des mots diction, choice of language
  • l'explication de texte close analysis of a text from the point of view of its style, ideas, and expressions
  • le décor setting
  • le dénouement solution le dénuement bareness, sobriety
  • l'écrivain (m.) writer, male or female emphatique bombastic, NOT emphatic
  • l'emphase (f.) bombast
  • l'enchaînement (m.) linking of events and ideas faire ressortir emphasize
  • la fantaisie fantasy
  • le fil conducteur main thread of the plot
  • le goût taste (bon goût, mauvais goût)
  • l'idée maîtresse (f.) central or guiding idea
  • imagé rich, even profuse, in images
  • l'inversion (f.) inverted word order (Ainsi est-il que....)
  • le lecteur reader
  • la lecture reading, the act of reading
  • le lieu commun common place or setting
  • la litote understatement
  • mettre en relief to bring out, to set off (from something else), to set apart
  • mettre en valeur to highlight
  • la mise au point definitive shape or meaning given to something, a work or a judgment
  • le mobile motive
  • le moment pivotal key moment, turning point
  • le mot juste right word
  • le mot-clé key word
  • le motif theme or pattern which stands out, also the motive of a character
  • la nuance fine distinction
  • la péripétie sudden reversal of the action
  • le point culminant climax or crucial moment in the action
  • le point de repère reference point
  • précieux precious, elaborate, artificial in a deliberate manner
  • le procédé device or technique
  • réaliste realistic
  • saccadé jerky, abrupt
  • le sens meaning
  • la sensibilité sensibility or feeling
  • la signification meaning (significatif = adjective)
  • la structure structure
  • le ton tone, impression created
  • l'unité d'impression unity of impression, overall impression or view
  • la vigueur vigor
  • la vraisemblance verisimilitude (appearance of truth or reality)
  • vraisemblable true to life (sometimes: apparent, likely)
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