New answers tagged terminology
4
These are very rare in English (I don't know how common they are in Spanish); I've identified two poems that have them.
Some of these are arguments. From Wikipedia
An argument in literature is a brief summary, often in prose, of a poem or section of a poem or other work. It is often appended to the beginning of each chapter, book, or canto. They were ...
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A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος prólogos, from πρό pró, "before" and λόγος lógos, "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prologue
While the above statement ...
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Epigraph has already been mentioned in the comments. An example in a language other than Spanish was asked for.
"S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al
mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma penciocche gammai di
questo fondo Non torno viva alcun, s'i'odo il vero, Senza tema
d'infamia ti rispondo"
This ...
1
As @Gareth Rees says in the comments, this is an example of a snowclone, a
linguistic phenomenon of "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants"
Some of the examples given are "In space, no one can hear you X" and &...
3
I asked @thestorygraph on Twittter:
What exactly are the criteria for the tag/mood "reflective" on @thestorygraph?
Or should I ask @nodunayo and @RobFrelow ?
(Nadia Odunayo and Rob Frelow are co-founders of The Storygraph.)
This was the answer:
There is no set criteria for it! Typically a book that is thought-provoking, deliberative, references ...
4
There are many epics in English besides Paradise Lost. Technically speaking, the "epic" is a narrative mode rather than a genre. What makes a narrative "epic" is a distinction between subject and object: the speaker (the subject doing the telling) is not the topic (the object being treated). Compare with the lyric, in which poets write ...
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This is not a direct answer to the question in the sense of a general term, but there is a very well-known term for a specific example: the teichoskopia in Book III of the Iliad, where Helen stands atop the wall and catalogues the Greek chieftans.
Depending on the context and your audience, you may be able to use "teichoskopia" as a general term, ...
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Such introductions and descriptions are called epic catalogues. Barbarians are sometimes known to refer to them as epic catalogs.
The term catalogue is not restricted to characters. Lists of armies, ships, places, etc. are also covered by the term. As far as I am aware, there is no specific term for any of these; they are all just called catalogues and ...
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