Characteristics of a fairy tale

Fairy tales are one of the forms of text, which we listen to and encounter in childhood. They are familiar to us and the most important features of a fairy tale are even known to the smallest of us. In doing so, we have certain expectations when the wolf is led into the text and shudder when a witch rises into the story. Fortunately, however, we know that in the end everything will be good, because if they have not died, they still live today.

Read moreCharacteristics of a fairy tale

March

As a march, an oral narrative was described in middle-high German poetry, and later a kind of report. Since the Mar was spoken orally, it was mostly regarded as unreliable or unbelievable. Between the 13th and 15th century, the concept formed a distinct genre. This was fluctuating, mostly obscene, and a pair of rhymes from four-legged verses. Today the term is used for modern legends as well as for untrue events. The diminutive of Mar, the fairy tale, was already used in the baroque for an untrue, thus fictitious, narrative.

Read moreMarch

Makame

Makame, also Maqâma, is the Arabic term for a gathering of scholars and philospheres, which revolves around questions of grammar. In such disputations (see Disput), the conversation partner usually won a victory, which was characterized by word-wit and quick-wittedness. From the conversations of these assemblies, a literary genre emerged in prose, which is rooted in rhymes and is also referred to as makame. A makame is rhythmic rhyme prose, which is characterized by allusions and word games, but is traversed by proverbs and quotations. It includes several anecdotes, which are from the same protagonist.

Read moreMakame

Opus magnum

Opus magnum, also Magnum opus, is the most important work of an artist. The term is used primarily in connection with writers, poets and musicians, but is also used by scientists. The terms “summum opus” and “opus summum” are equally significant, whereby the œuvre means the total work of an artist. In alchemy, the term means the transformation of a substance into gold as well as the creation of the philosopher’s stone.

Read moreOpus magnum

Lyrisches Ich

The lyric self is the speaker of a poem. Consequently, the lyrical ego emerges only in the lyric, the literary genre of the epic being shown by a narrator. It is important that we differentiate the lyrical self from the author of the text. It is true that the author is the author, but not the authority which speaks in the poem and reveals itself to the reader (compare poetic analysis).

Read moreLyrisches Ich

Comedy

A dramatic work is described as a play. The play is the German-speaking counterpart to comedy, just as the trauers game is the counterpart to tragedy. The term is often used synonymously for comedy and has been used in this use since 1536. As a German-language translation of the comedy, however, Johann Christoph Gottsched’s theoretical … Read more

Pack of lies

A short narrative is described as lying history, which is fundamentally false. However, in a lie story, it is portrayed as if the narrations correspond to the facts, which is why an ego narrator speaks of the alleged acts, often choosing the form of the travel report. It is related to the rogue story (compare Schwank).

Read morePack of lies

Fill in the Blank

Gap text is a text in which individual letters, syllables, words, and complete word sequences have been omitted, creating gaps. These gaps must now be closed. This is usually referred to as a gaps test, also a gap test, in which the participants have to complete the missing parts. In this case, the text modules to be used can be predefined, but they must sometimes be opened up from the context (for example, the topic of the previous lesson). Completing such gaps requires a sufficient understanding of the language as well as an extensive knowledge of the vocabulary being requested.

Read moreFill in the Blank

Spoon language

A spoon language is a secret or spoken language. The spoon language is based on the exchange of the vowels of a word by fixed abbreviations, whereby the consonants of the word remain untouched. In order to decode the language, to learn or to speak, the abbreviated abbreviations must be known. Furthermore, the spoon language is also sometimes very difficult to understand for the initiate because it is spoken silently, thus ignoring the word boundaries. The play language is therefore incomprehensible for outsiders and sounds like gibberish or jargon. (→ online translator for spoon language).

Read moreSpoon language

Understatements

The litotes is a stylistic means which, by means of double negation, affirms a statement or pushes it into the foreground through understatement. This means that the litotes express the opposite or diminishes what is meant, in order to intensify it in the actual. The Litotes is a stylistic figure that highlights things and is related to hyperbola and irony.

Read moreUnderstatements

Debris literature

A German literature of literature, which begins immediately after the end of the Second World War in 1945 and can be imitated until the beginning of the 1950s, is being described as rubble literary literature, also home literature and literature of the hour zero, whereby it is replaced by more demanding forms. The representatives of the rubble literature had mostly returned home from the war and tried to draw a realistic and true picture of the world of the post-war period. At the same time, the language – which in the Nazi regime was regarded as an ideologue carrier – should not be lyrically transfigured, but clearly show the reality. Writers of the rubble literature portray the experiences of the war, but also show how the present is presented to them in post-war Germany. The language of prose was often denigrated by the Nazi period, which led to the creation of numerous lyrical works. Popular genres are the short story, the sonnet and the satire, while the drama contained only a few pieces, which found a large audience. The literary epoch of debris literature forms the prelude to what later is called “postwar literature.” Postwar literature can be documented in 1967. 

Read moreDebris literature

Literary genres

Literary genres describe literature from without. This means that the attempt is made to bring literary texts into order and to summarize them by their similarities and peculiarities. But sometimes this is not so easy, as there are many borderline cases.

Read moreLiterary genres

Letter to the editor

The reader’s letter is the written response to a published article (newspaper), which is why it serves to present a personal opinion. The reader ‘s letter, like the commentary and the review, falls into the journalistic realm. It makes it possible to present one’s own point of view to a public and is used in school to present a position and to train one’s own rhetorical abilities (→ writing).

Read moreLetter to the editor

Legend

A legend is used to describe a narrative text, which is related to the fairy tale, the legend, the myth and the fable. The legend, in its original meaning, meant a reading from the life and work of a saint, who was usually presented on his anniversary. Later on, the term was used to cover all the stories in prose or verse that related the life of a saint or a religious event that was not historically tangible.

Read moreLegend

Nomenclature

Onomatopoeia, including lute painting, sound painting, or onomatopoeia, is a rhetoric style used in all literary genres. Onomatopoeia means the reproduction and imitation of non-linguistic sounds by linguistic means. That is, words or phrases are intended to remind the receiver (reader, listener) of how this auditory sound or sound they actually sound sounds. Such onomatopoetic words therefore recall or mimic a sound, but are not always self-explanatory.

Read moreNomenclature

Laureate

A laureate is generally considered to be a prize-winner and consequently a person who is honored with a prize, an order, or a comparable award, such as a Nobel Prize winner who is awarded the Nobel Prize for his work or work. Most of these are scientists, politicians, poets and winners of a competition. In connection with poetry, there is the so-called Poeta laureatus, a crowned poet, who was already symbolically selected with a laurel wreath in the ancient world (see Dionysia), and he was also endowed with money, partly a pension, and additional rights , The Poet Laureate is derived from Poet Laureate, a poet who is distinguished by the state, which is especially common in Canada, England, and the United States.

Read moreLaureate

Flowing text

Der Fließtext, auch Lauftext, ist ein Text, welcher in einem Stück gesetzt wurde und somit nicht durch Unterbrechungen (Abbildungen, Absätze, Fußnoten, Tabellen, Überschriften etc.) durchzogen ist. Ein Fließtext ist demzufolge ein fortlaufender, durchgängiger Text. Für die literarische Gattung der Epik sind prosaische Fließtexte charakteristisch, wohingegen das Drama, aber vor allem die Lyrik durch zahlreiche Unterbrechungen gekennzeichnet sind (Verse, Hakenstil, Strophen usw.).

Read moreFlowing text

Master lamp

Master lamp, partly also only lamp, is the name of the hare in the fable. Consequently, the name is a fabier, such as Isegrim for the wolf, Grimbart for the badger or Adebar for the stork. Masterfetas in the fable are attributed to certain human character traits: he usually appears to be very anxious and cautious, but is sometimes preposterous and exuberant. What is decisive is that these characteristics do not change in the course of the narrative: Masterlamp does not develop, which is why readers and listeners can already see beforehand how they will behave in fables, fairy tales and legends.

Read moreMaster lamp

Cycle

The Kyklos is a stylistic medium that we encounter in lyric poetry. Basically, however, we can make the style figure in texts of all kinds. The Kyklos is a rhetorical figure of repetition. In this case, a sentence member or the beginning word of a sentence (verse) is used again at its end. In this way, the intensity, ie effectiveness, of a word can be intensified enormously.

Read moreCycle

Cross rhyme

A rhyme rhyme is described as a cross-rhyme in the lyric, which, in addition to the pair rhyme, the rhymed rhyme, and the rhyme rhyme, is one of the most famous rhyme schemata. The cross-rhymes meet us in numerous poems and poems of all literary epochs and exists in various variations, the rhyme scheme partly vary.

Read moreCross rhyme

Coryphae

As a coryphae, a personality is distinguished, which is outstanding in a specialist field or a leader. The term can be used to designate persons of all professions, usually leading scientists or outstanding artists. In the ancient Greek theater of the ancient world, the choral or singing leader was described as a coryphae, which is why the term was retained in the modern theater, where the leader of the ballets or a dancer spoke.

Read moreCoryphae

Controversy

The controversy is a debate or a dispute, which is conducted over a longer period of time. The issue of the controversy can be any nature, whereby it is not limited to a specific subject. Controversies can be conducted between two persons, certainly also privately, but also between groups or parties. If such a dispute occurs between large camps, this can lead to social unrest within the group. All media (literary works, films, etc.) can be controversially discussed. The concept is related to the dispute.

Read moreControversy

Declarative sentence

As a statement, also a declarative sentence, a proposition theorem, a narrative sentence, or a constant theorem, a sentence is designated in German which makes an assertion or assertion. Excerpts thus make a statement about a fact which can be true or false. In German, one differentiates sentences, call rates, question sets, wish phrases and exclamation sentences. This distinction is necessary because the position of the predicate varies according to the type of sentence. In the exposition the finite verb is in second place, ending with a point or a comma, the intonation is falling, and the mode is indicative or subjunctive (see types of sentences).

Read moreDeclarative sentence

Consonant

The consonant, also referred to as the consonant, is the term used to refer to any sound which, when pronounced, impedes the flow of the breath and narrows the voice of the speaker. The counterpart is formed by the vowels (a, e, i, o, u), the pronunciation of which neither leads to the closure nor to the narrow, so the air can flow unhindered. All other letters thus find a correspondence in the consonants.

Read moreConsonant

Comparative

As a comparative, one of the forms of the adjective (nouns) is called. The adjective knows three forms of development: the basic form (positive), the comparative (1st increment) and the superlative (2nd increment). Accordingly, the superlative is the highest form of the word. The comparative makes it possible to compare two things together (X is wiser than Y), the highest form compares a thing with several things, or even the whole (Z is the wisest).

Read moreComparative

Concrete poetry

The Concrete Poetry is an avangardistic flow of literature dealing with experimental poetry. Concrete poetry tries to solve the linguistic elements of their meaning. It is possible to differentiate between acoustic poetry and visual poetry. The acoustic seal solves all the linguistic elements of a text from its meaning and arranges them according to acoustic, ie sound, rules. Visual poetry experiments with the appearance of texts, whereby the text conveys a statement about its external form or actually becomes a picture.

Read moreConcrete poetry

Comment

A commentary is an opinion-based and journalistic text, which also includes the collection of comments on a literary text under this term, as well as a personal comment on any subject. These uses are explained below, with the focus on the journalistic text. This often refers to a current event and is a personal statement of the author. A special form is the column.

Read moreComment

Four-ear model

The four-ear model, also a four-page model, news square or communication square, is a communication model of Friedemann Schulz von Thun. The communication scientist Schulz von Thun assumes that the sending and receiving of a message always takes place in four ways. Whoever speaks, communicates the following levels: content, relationship, self-disclosure and appeal. The speaker thus speaks with four beaks. The receiver can also hear the content on these four levels. Thus he hears with four ears.

Read moreFour-ear model

Column

As a column, an opinion-forming and journalistic text is called, which is a form of the commentary. The column is often written by an editor or a changing guest pub, and always appears regularly in the same place of the respective medium. It is an opinion and thus reflects the views of the author on a matter of fact.

Read moreColumn

Knittelvers

As Knittelvers, Knüttelvers and Knüttel is called a German verse, which was particularly popular in the 16th century. The Knittelverse is a four-edged verse, which is characterized by a pair of rhymes: successive lines of rhymes are rhyming. However, the number of sinks is optional. A distinction is made between free and severe knights (see below).

Read moreKnittelvers

Cliche

As a cliché, also cliché, was originally a prefabricated printing block in the letterpress described. In most cases, however, the term means a pre-defined, prefabricated view, as well as a retracted idea of ​​a state of affairs. Clichés are often related to a particular group of persons (eg: Germans are punctual) and anchored in words (example: punctual as the masons). Such thoughtless, partly unreflected, thought patterns are often used in trivial literature.

Read moreCliche

Blurb

The cover text can be found on the respective folded-in ends of the protective cover of a book and often contains a striking description of the content of the work as well as further information on the author. Sometimes, there is also advertising on other books by the publisher. A book that does not have a protective cover presents these contents mostly on the second page. However, the text, which is on the back of the book, is sometimes also called “Klappentext”.

Read moreBlurb

Nursery rhymes

Children’s rhymes are often ancient folk, which have lasted over the years and have mostly been passed down orally. Children’s rhymes are used, among other things, in the kindergarten, to playfully expand the vocabulary of children. Since children ‘s rhymes are frequently melodic or sung in a kind of singing, they are often indistinguishable from children’ s songs.

Read moreNursery rhymes

Burden

The sweeping rhyme is a rhyme scheme without a clear pattern and is related to the refrain we know from the music. A recurring sequence of sounds, words, groups of words, and verses between the verses of a text, at the end, beginning, or a repetitive end-rhyme within a stanza, is designated as a sweep.

Read moreBurden

Gibberish

A gibberish is an incomprehensible or confused speech as well as language. It is incomprehensible because it is composed of various feminine elements, or a mixture of different foreign languages, which are partly used by false forms of genus, case, and number. Consequently, an incomprehensible pronunciation can also be called gibberish. Gingerbread is similar to Grammelot, a play language of the theater consisting of phantasies and sounds (see Nonsens).

Read moreGibberish

Katharsis

Der Begriff Katharsis geht auf die aristotelische Poetik zurück. Dabei schreibt Aristoteles der Tragödie die Wirkung zu, dass sie beim Zuschauer Jammer (eleos) sowie Schauder (phobos) erzeugt, was dann die Katharsis bewirkt. Als Katharsis bezeichnet er die Reinigung von diesen Leidenschaften (Jammer, Schauder) und ähnlichen Affekten (Gemütserregungen). Das Verständnis des Begriffs und die Frage, wer nun die Katharsis durchlebt (Zuschauer oder Figuren) ist seit jeher umstritten und führte in den vergangenen Jahrhunderten zu verschiedenen Deutungen und Interpretationsansätzen.

Read moreKatharsis

Katachrese

Katachrese is a rhetorical stylistic device that can be used in all literary genres. However, different situations are described as killing. On the other hand, a word is named that closes a language gap, using an extension label from another field of meaning (1). Furthermore, the disagreeable connection of several metaphorical images, which are partly contradictory, is conceived under the term (2).

Read moreKatachrese

Kasus

The 4 cases in German are called the case. These are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative. The case shows the relationship between the noun and the other elements in the sentence. The noun, its companion (article) as well as deputies (pronouns) are adapted to the case. This is called declination. Nouns, articles and pronouns are thus declined depending on the function.

Read moreKasus

Kalendergeschichte

The calendar story is a brief, easy-to-understand story in prose, which has been published in calendars since the 16th century. The calendar story is a form of the literary addition in the calendar, which is related to the sway, the anecdote, the short story, the saga, the narrative, the legend and the satire, and usually end with a pointe.

Read moreKalendergeschichte

Kalendergeschichte

The calendar story is a brief, easy-to-understand story in prose, which has been published in calendars since the 16th century. The calendar story is a form of the literary addition in the calendar, which is related to the sway, the anecdote, the short story, the saga, the narrative, the legend and the satire, and usually end with a pointe.

Read moreKalendergeschichte

Kakophonie

As a cacophony, also Übellaut, linguistics is the sequence of bad sounding sounds and in music a disagreement (dissonance) perceived as unpleasant. In language usage, however, cacophony also means the disagreement between several persons in relation to a particular question. The counterpart (antonym) of the concept is therefore the harmony, which is called euphony. Such phenomena can be regarded as stylistic means in literature and music.

Read moreKakophonie

Kafkaesk

The adjective kafkaesk, derived from the German-speaking author Franz Kafka, describes an unexpectedly threatening but also absurd situation, or the works of Kafka and also those which recall his style. The term can already be considered as Kafka-esque in the middle of the 20th century. This neologism soon made the leap into the Duden. As a synonym can be used eerily, oddly as well as strange and partly menacing.

Read moreKafkaesk

Kadenz

The cadence describes the end of a verse within a poem. The cadence can influence the rhythm and the effect of a work, as well as decisively our reading. We basically distinguish between three different cadences: the male, female, and rich cadence.

Read moreKadenz

Junges Deutschland

As Young Germany, a movement within the era of Vormarz is described. The Vormärz is dated to the decades between the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the March Revolution (1848) and is divided into two rough phases: the Young Germany and the actual Vormärz from 1840. The Young Germans opposed Metternich’s restorative and reactionary policies , advocated social justice as well as democratic rights of liberty and turned against opposing religious and moral ideas. The followers of the young Germany can be regarded as literary pioneers of the later March revolution. One of the most important representatives is the poet Heinrich Heine. The Vormärz is therefore radically democratic, although at that time a different current also had immense influx: the rather conservative Biedermeier.

Read moreJunges Deutschland

Jugendstil

As an art nouveau, a period of art history is defined, which is mainly around the turn of the century from the 19th to the 20th century and thus can be dated to approximately the years between 1896 and 1920. The Art Nouveau style is under the influence of the Fin de Siècle, an artistic and cultural movement that has been reflected in various styles such as symbolism, art nouveau, impressionism and aestheticism, as well as similar avangardist currents. Further names for the epoch are Art nouveau, Reformstil or Secession style, Modern Style in English, Floreale in Italian, Liberty in Russia, Modern in Modern Catalan. The notion of certain terms in architecture and design is very much in the foreground, with the epoch also being felt in literature and art. The essence is the attempt to depict nature in art through vigorous and floral ornaments.

Read moreJugendstil

Jōruri

Jōruri is the popular Japanese doll game. Here, valuable figures are used, which are about 150cm in size, but partly also the size of an adult. The figures are guided by several puppeteers, who mostly stand behind the dolls and are visible in the show itself, the dolls being operated by means of handles placed in the dolls. The play is accompanied by a ballad-like text, which is presented by a reciter for musical background. The Jōruri was created in the 16th century, but it was flourishing in the 18 th century (see Literaturepochen).

Read moreJōruri

Jargon

A jargon is a special language as well as speech or expression. The jargon is a socioelectric because it is often understood only by the members of a particular group or milieu, which can be characteristic of certain groups (eg artists, students, pupils) or occupations. Accordingly, the jargon can not be understood by every person and is often perceived by outsiders as gibberish (confused speech). The jargon was also the secret language, especially the special word treasure, the crooks, criminals in the Middle Ages, and a mixed or corrupted dialect

Read moreJargon

Jambus

The Yambus is a verse which we find in many lyrical texts. Several such verses form the metrum (→ verse) within a poem. The metrum rhythmizes a text because it indicates which syllables are emphasized in a text or remain unstressed. The jambus is formed of a light and a heavy syllable (unstressed, emphasized).

Read moreJambus

Isegrim

The wolf is described as the Isegrim in the fable. Consequently, the term means a fabier, whereby the wolf is given very clear characteristics: he symbolizes ruthlessness, grimness, greed, but also malignity and partial dolorousness. The title goes back to the epic, Reineke Fuchs, whose origins lie in the European Middle Ages (see Literaturepochen). In the epic, Isegrim, in the form of the wolf, embodies a baron, who is always led by the crafty fox. The characters are drawn one-dimensionally, which means that they do not develop and always present the same characteristics to the reader, which is also typical of the animals of the fable. Human characteristics are transferred to the animal kingdom.

Read moreIsegrim

Ironie

Irony is a rhetorical stylistic medium, which is used in all literary genres, in the speech as well as in the vernacular. The irony describes that the speaker expresses something, which means exactly the opposite of the expressed. It is important, however, that the recipient (listener, reader, viewer) or at least a certain audience recognizes that the utterance was ironic and the opposite. The figure resembles sarcasm, mockery and cynicism.

Read moreIronie