Terminology List #2

The following is the result of a collaborative learning project for Assignment #1. This is an on-going project that will develop over the course of this semester.
All definitions and examples of word usage have been generated by the students of ENGL101W D109 and D116 (Spring 2007). I have combined both class lists.


Aesthetic (adjective): 1.concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty 2.study of things perceived by the senses
Word Use: Margaret Avison uses color as an aesthetic in the poem “Cement Worker on a Hot Day” to give beauty to the “yellow hydrant.”
Aesthetic: pertaining to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality.
Word Use: Most of the poems that Margret Avison wrote would be most described as
aesthetic.

Affective fallacy (noun): a literary term used to assert that the meaning of a literary work should be analyzed and described in terms of its own internal structure and not in terms of the emotional response it arouses in the reader.
Word use: Through the interpretation of Margaret Avison’s collection of poems, we are able to test the validity of the theory of affective fallacy.
Affective fallacy (noun): the theory that a poems internal structure should be analyzed and described as opposed to its emotional effect on the reader.
Word use: The theory of affective fallacy can be linked with Margaret Avison’s poetry.
Affective Fallacy: n. Judging art by what it does (Professor Ogden's definition.) Judging a text based on its emotional effect on reader.
Word use: Eustace Flowerview's statement " I trust you do not still regard as being on any way connected with morality" suggests that he does not judge art with the affective fallacy.
Affective fallacy: A supposed error of judgment of a literary text or poem on the basis of its emotional effects on a reader.
affect: emotional effects
fallacy: false
Word use: The critique was considered an affective fallacy because the reviewer heaped praise on Avison’s poem solely for its power to make the reviewer think tearfully of her own mother’s death

Alienation: The state of being withdrawn or isolated from the objective world, either through indifference and or disaffection.
Word use: In the novel Hey Nostradamus! Jason felt completely and utterly alienated after Cheryl’s death. Not only because he felt that everything changed for him because of it maybe even more so than others, but also because he knew that no one had faith in the fact that he had nothing to do with her death.

Analogy (noun): A similarity made between two otherwise dissimilar objects.
Word use: Margaret Avison uses many analogies in her poetry, mainly concerning the weather and seasons.
Analogy (noun): a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based.
Word use: On February 5th, Dr. Ogden discussed the significance of the concept of time in Ethel Wilson’s, The Innocent Traveller. During this discussion, he presented an analogy between time and water.

Anthropomorphize (verb): to ascribe human form or attributes to
Word Use: In Hey Nostradamus! Reg identifies with the Sasquatch and wants to anthropomorphize him by planning to teach him how to speak, put clothes on him, and save him in any way possible.
Anthropomorphize: to ascribe human form or attributes to (an animal, plant, material object, etc.).
Word Use: Topaz was seen as childish because she would anthropomorphize her bike.

Cadence: n. The fall of the voice; the rhythm; measured movements as on marching.
Word use: The cadence in the poem "CNR London To Toronto" by Margaret Avison imitates the noise of a train.
Cadence: The rhythmic flow of sounds or words in poetry or oratory. The flow or rhythm of events.
Word use: When Raton and Playboy, in Gibson’s All Tomorrow’s Parties take too much of a black drug they begin to talk too fast and the cadence of their speech becomes incoherent.

Chick lit (noun): Literature that mainly appeals to women.
Word use: Chick lit features hip, stylish female protagonists, as can be seen in Ethel Wilson’s The Innocent Traveller.

Colonial Narrative (noun): Text written with the purpose of appealing to an audience belonging to a colonial period.
Word Use: Martin Granger’s “In Vancouver” is a colonial narrative; it is written for adventurous people in Britain who lead dull lives.
Colonial Narrative: A narrative concerning colonial themes or produced in colonial times.
Word use: The Innocent Traveller is Topaz’s life story of the colonial times in England and Canada.

Contrive (verb): to plan with creativity/cleverness
Word use: Topaz’s father contrives to marry his sister-in-law after his wife’s death, due to the fact that the law was briefly changed.
Contrive (verb): to plan with ingenuity
Word use: Initially, the characters in William Gibson’s In All Tomorrow's Party are fragmented--- living their own lives. But a series of stimulating and exhilarating events brought them all together. This is the impressively contrived plot that readers can examine in the said novel.

Credo: a set of beliefs which expresses a particular opinion and influences the way you live
Word use: In Ethel Wilson’s The Innocent Traveller it is evident that every character, with the exception of Topaz, follows a personal credo based on cultural norms.
Credo (noun):
1 a statement of a person’s beliefs or aims.
2 (Credo) a creed of the Christian Church in Latin.
— ORIGIN Latin, ‘I believe’.
Word Use: In Hey Nostradamus!, Cheryl joined Youth Alive to pursue Jason but ended up conforming to the group’s credo.

Cultural: relating to a culture, cultivation or civilization and relating to the ideas or ways of certain people
Word use: When comparing Grainger’s immigrant loggers and Johnson’s First Nations, we are able to notice significant cultural differences. There are cultural differences in the opposing views towards the Vancouver land and contrasting actions of land use. The logger culture chooses to use the land for industrial progression while the First Nations culture enjoys using the land to celebrate life and appreciate its’ beauty.

Cultural Resonances- resounding or echoing, there is a lasting presence or effect.
Word use: In Always Now, by Margaret Avison’s and Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland’s, the cultural resonance is religion. Both authors emphasize and repeatedly mention religion and the concept of belief and doubt in their writing.

Cynicism (noun): there are two sides of cynical belief: a) faith-doubt: charitable to other. b) skeptical-cynical: arrogant and superiority
Word use: In the novel Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland, Reg is being cynical before having doubts about his religious belief. He thinks that Jason, “my son is a murderer” (Coupland, 77) instead of a hero after his son helped safe many lives from the massacre; therefore, Reg is being close mindedness and also considered as cynicism as an unhealthy trait of character.
Cynicism: an attitude of scornful or weary negativity and having morose views and opinions
Word use: According to Dr. Ogden, Reg is portrayed as a person that is sneered at in our society. We see Reg’s cynicism through Jason’s eyes as he speaks about how Reg looks down on anyone who does not take religion seriously. He makes us see an evil kind of cynicism: self-righteousness.

Darwin(ian) (noun): the theory of the evolution of species by natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin
Word Use: Douglas Coupland does not use the Darwin theory as a central theme in his novel; instead he uses the faith-doubt concept of Christianity.
Darwinism: the Darwinian Theory that species originate by descent, with variation, from parent forms, through the natural selection of those individuals best adapted for the reproductive success of their kind.
[Darwinian: a follower of Charles Darwin; a person who accepts or advocates Darwinism.]
Word Use: The professor’s views on society were Darwinian.

Denunciation: public censure or condemnation
Word use: In Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus!, Reg gives sneering off-hand self righteous denunciations of other human beings because he is in a destructive state.
Denunciation: a formal accusation of crime before a prosecutor
Word use: In Hey Nostradamus!, by Douglas Coupland, the town that Jason and Cheryl live in act in denunciation towards Jason when they suspect him as the mastermind of the massacre.

Deprecating Dialectic: To develop ones expressed disapproval of the nature of logical argumentation.
Deprecating: to express obvious disapproval of something, belittle in the process of trying to protest against a purpose and or scheme.
[Dialectic: the nature of logical argumentation]
Word use: in the novel, Hey Nostradamus! Reg’s deprecating dialect was evident through the way he viewed, spoke to and treated Jason over the years of their not so active relationship.

Destabilization: to make something unstable, or rid of its stabilizing attributes
Word Use: In dystopic literature, there is often some element of destabilization involved with society characterized by flaws such as an oppressive government.
Destabilization: To make unstable; causing a questioning of a person’s values or beliefs which leads to discomfort.
Word Use: Dr. Ogden argued that Douglas Coupland had the intention of destabilizing his audience when he made religion such a central part of the book and presented it in such a deliberate way.

Dystopia (noun): an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it possibly can be, or a vision or description of such a place
Word Use: In All Tomorrow’s Parties, life on the bridge resembles a dystopia.

Dystopic literature: literature that usually involves a future world where utopian ideals have been subverted.
Word Use: All Tomorrow’s Parties is an example of dystopoc literature in that it is set in a postmodern society where crime and mess permeate into society

Effete (adjective): Of material substances: That has lost its special quality or virtue; exhausted, worn out; Of persons in an intellectual sense, of systems, etc. that has exhausted its vigour and energy; incapable of efficient action. Also, of persons: weak, ineffectual; degenerate.
Word Use: The Edgeworth family grew smaller after the deaths of various members and also due to those that moved out. As a result, their once lively house had become effete.

Epiphany: the realization of the meaning of something.
Word Use: Margaret Avison had an epiphany when she realizes that things in nature could possibly have a different meaning from what she sees.
-In Hey Nostradamus!, the character Reg had an epiphany when he discovers that he cannot find an answer to everything in religion.
-I had an epiphany when I saw the irony in that the one-dimensional Topaz can be so easily forgotten after she died, even though she lived the longest.
Epiphany: a moment of sudden and great revelation in oneself.
Word Use: In Munro’s “Forgiveness in Families” the epiphany is a recognition of personal failing by the first-person narrator, and the newly acquired knowledge of her own flawed character is uncovered

Etymology: n. The science or investigation of the derivation and original meaning of words; the source and history of a word.
Word use: The etymology of the word innocent is from the latin words in, meaning not, and nocens, meaning no harm.
Etymology: The origin and development of a word. The history of a particular word.
etymon: (Greek) literal sense of a word
logy: theory
Word use: In Hey Nostradamus!, Cheryl, wanting to know the etymology of the word faith, learns from the dictionary that it derives from the Latin word fides-fidere, meaning to trust or confide in.

Eurocentric (adjective): implicitly regarding European culture as pre-eminent
Word Use: The Innocent Traveller is very Eurocentric because the story takes
place when the settlers came to Canada.
Eurocentric: Centred or focused on Europe or European peoples, especially in relation to historical or cultural influence
Word use: Ethel Wilson’s The Innocent Traveller leads us to believe the world of early Vancouver was Eurocentric.

Existential:
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with existence
2. Based on experience; empirical
3. Of or as conceived by existentialism or existentialists
Word use: The character of Jason in Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus! undergoes existential analysis in the years following the massacre.
Existential (adjective): relating to existence
Word Use: The Youth Alive group in Hey Nostradamus! is governed around the
existential nature of God.

Foible: a minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect
Word use: Topaz’s inability to grow up could be viewed as a foible as it limited the manners in which she could interact with the world around her.
Foible: weakest part of an opponent; a distinctive part of an individual’s personality
Word Use: In the novel Hey Nostradamus, Jason believes that Reg's foible is his religion because he sees it as keeping Reg ignorant.

Fragmentation: the act of fragmenting, breaking into pieces
Word Use: All Tomorrow’s Parties is broken up into many fragmentations, and contain several story arcs following numerous characters.
Fragmentation: The breakdown, collapse, or breakdown of norms of thought, behaviour, or social relationship.
Word use: The way that Jason viewed life in Hey Nostradamus! was a sort of fragmentation, because of the collaboration of occurrences through out his life that resulted in a lack of faith and collapse in the way he saw personal and social relationships.
Fragmentation: The breaking apart of something into pieces; a separation or breakdown of a unifying ideal, norm of thought or social relationships.
Word Use: All Tomorrow’s Parties represents a fragmentation in the near future where society is completely separated from the previously widespread norm of defined city-states.
Fragmentation (noun): the process or an instance of breaking into parts
Word Use: Fragmentation is what happened to Jason’s heart and life when Cheryl died.

Homonym: words that are identical to other words in spelling or pronunciation, or both, while differing from them in meaning and usually in origin.
Word use: I pared a pair of pears off the tree.
Homonym: Two words with the same sound or spelling but different meanings
Word Use: Margaret Avison uses homonyms in her poems to make us aware of a deeper double meaning.

Humility (noun): Condition of being humble; modest opinion of ones own importance, rank, status, etc.
Word Use: Margaret Avison poses questions in her poems to display a sense of humility. She uses this to display that she is not an expert at what she had written.
Humility: The quality or condition of being humble. Not proud or arrogant; modest.
Word Use: Margaret Avison asks questions in her poetry, and this shows that she has uncertainties like everyone else. She is reasonable, respectful and demonstrates humility.

Iambic Pentameter (noun): A meter in poetry. It is in reference to a line that has five iambic feet and “pentameter” means there are five feet in a line. Therefore,iambic pentameter contains five iambs.
Word Use: In the book titled Always Now by Margaret Avison, one may come across an iambic pentameter when examining pieces of her poetry.

Idiosyncratic: a quirk, behavior, habit or characteristic of an individual or group that is distinctive or peculiar to that individual or group.
Word use: In “Forgiveness and Families,” by Alice Munro, Val the main character would distinguish her brother, Cam as idiosyncratic for his unexplainable behaviours and decisions in life.
Idiosyncratic: a characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the norm, that is considered peculiar to an individual
Word use: The novel Hey Nostradamus! is not idiosyncratic because it appropriates religion and is a sacrament.

Imaginative Truth: Something that has “undeniable resonance for the human imagination”, or a concept that appeals to the imagination.
Word Use: In lecture, Dr. Ogden argued that even people who have no religious beliefs whatsoever can appreciate religion as an imaginative truth.
Imaginative truth: Things that we seem to have known all along.
Imaginative truth (noun): A situation where the truth is conveyed from multiple angles, so that any distortions and bias is lost where if it was told by a single viewpoint.
Word use: Hey Nostradamus! utilizes imaginative truth as a base for the novel where Coupland has four characters telling their side of the story for the Delbrook massacre.

Immediacy: what we immediately see in something, without any interpretation or distortion.
Word use: The short story “In Vancouver” gives us immediacy in the form of a realistic description of the town.
-We see the immediacy of the prairies in The Innocent Traveller by the author’s descriptions.
-Margaret Avison sees beyond the immediacy of everyday life and questions the meaning of that immediacy.
Immediacy: Occurring or done at once
Word Use: The immediacy of Jason’s departure left Heather confused and in a state of limbo, in the hopes that he would return.

Invective (noun): abusive or venomous language that is used to express blame or bad thoughts.
Word Use: In The Innocent Traveller, the ‘women’s literary’ group act a bit invectively, in more of a ‘bad thoughts’ sense, when they gossip about other people amongst themselves.

Invective Irony (noun): Discredits misconduct by directly stating to the public audience.
Word Use: Rachel loves looking after two older women, loves looking after her brother, and loves looking after her younger sister’s child as well. She loves how she never married Tom Shaw, or even Mr. Calverley when he asked her. She just loves growing old unmarried and being relied on day and night. If Rachel were to express such emotions in this way, this would be invective irony.

Irony (noun): an incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result
Word use: The heavy religious tones presented in Hey Nostradamus! are ironic due to the fact that Douglas Coupland, himself, is not religious.
Irony (noun): the use of words to convey a meaning that is opposite of its literal meaning; distance between what is said and what is meant (lecture)
Word use: Douglas Coupland employs irony to convey his message. In Hey Nostradamus, his least ironic book, irony is used to highlight Reg’s isolation. Although Reg can identify with the Sasquatch’s loneliness, by feeling love and compassion towards it; it is still inevitable for him to turn into a “Sasquatch”.

Katharsis/Catharsis: the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions
Word use: By writing the letters to Jason, Cheryl’s family underwent the process of catharsis.
Catharsis/Katharsis: emptying, cleansing, purging-ending misery and misery; cleansing through experiencing an overwhelming emotional experience
Word Use: In The Innocent Traveller, Topaz goes through an emotional catharsis when Mr. Sandbach did not return the love she felt for him. Even though it was great misery to realize the unrequited love, she grew emotionally from it.

Lacuna (noun): something is missing as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument
Word use: In the novel All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson, Hardwood is the lacuna in the story because he is twofaced; the audience does not know whether he is a good character or a bad character, since something is missing in the novel that has not reveal yet. There is some information about him that is not told, and this may serves curiosity and mystery for the reader.

Lexical Cue (adjective): pertaining to the words or vocabulary of a language, mainly in a grammatical or syntactical sense that helps make more sense of the sentence.
Word Use: In the February 28th lecture Dr. Ogden claims that a lexical cue occurs on pg. 90 of Hey Nostrodamus that helps make more sense of the sentence, but I can’t find it.
Lexical cue (noun): A word that cues the reader into what is going on in the text.
Word Use: The lexical cue that tells the reader of Reg’s state of heaven, is on page 242 when he says, “I’m in a Kinko’s writing this…I think heaven must be a little like this place – everybody with a purpose, in a beautiful clean environment.”
Lexical cue: A vocabulary prompt or signal identifying a particular language, field, social class, or person.
Word Use: Martin Allerdale Grainger uses many lexical cues in “In Vancouver” to appeal to the aristocrats and upper class in Britain in the early nineteen hundreds.

Limbo (noun): Place after death meant for virtuous pagans that is somewhere in between Hell and bliss.
Word Use: In Hey Nostradamus!, we know that Heather is in Limbo due her desire but inability to connect with Jason (154).

Materialism: a philosophy that says that everything must have a physical form and are composed of matter.
Word use: The character Reg in Hey Nostradamus! does not believe in materialism because of his believe in God and other spiritual beings.
-Materialism is in contrast to modernism, in which the depiction of formless, spiritual, and mythological beings is common.
-Although Margaret Avison lives in a realistic world, she there are higher beings beyond materialism that we do not know.
Materialism: To consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.
Word Use: In the “Jade Peony”, the children are exposed to westernization, new technology and materialism, causing them to “forget” their original heritage, as a means to “fit in”.

Matriarchy (noun): Organization in which the mother is the head of the house.
Word Use: Rachel in The Innocent Traveller runs the matriarchy of the family despite not having children or husband. (pg 143)
Matriarchy: a form of society in which power is with the woman and especially with the mothers of a community.
Word use: In The Innocent Traveller, Topaz lived in England where matriarchy was not looked up on. When they decided to move to Canada they were surprised that matriarchy existed, as their views from England were that woman were not equal to men.

Metaphysical (adjective): relating to metaphysics; a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses such as the subjects of existence, causality, or truth
Word use: The writings of Coupland attempt to promote doubt regarding many metaphysical topics.
Metaphysics: a branch of philosophy, which includes, in particular, ontology. Alternatively, an underlying idea, principle, or theory.
Word Use: Although Margaret Avison’s poetry is arguably modernist because of its’ abstract construction, her reliance on natural imagery invokes a sense of metaphysics into her work.
Metaphysics (noun): The theory which embodies, and attempts to understand abstract concepts such as identity, life, conflict, and time.
Word Use: Douglas Coupland deals with the metaphysical concepts of faith and doubt in his novel Hey Nostradamus!

Metaphysical modernist (adjective): *defined separately- highly abstract, subtle or abstruce (metaphysical); a person who follows or favours modern ways, tendencies, etc. (modernist)
Word use: Evidently, Margaret Avison is a metaphysical modernist because she examines Canada’s real objects (e.g. geographical features, fire hydrants) in her poems; but she does not stop there. She examines these real objects further by articulating an abstract meaning (e.g. hydrants mean “more”).

Modernism:1) modern ideas, methods, or styles.
2) a movement in the arts or religion that aims to break with traditional forms or ideas.
Word Use: Modernism is present in “A Cup of Coffee”, and “In Vancouver” to portray the narratives as realities.

Modernist: a person who has an adherent of modernism in theological questions.
Word use: The way Margaret Avison question the meaning of objects in nature and everyday life makes her a modernist.
-A progression from realism is modernism, in which modernists questions the traditional realistic literary work and begin to do work with aesthetics and other artistic form.
-Topaz in The Innocent Traveller is a creation of a modernist, as she is quite an unrealistic character because of her childish attitudes even when she is over fifty years old.
Modernist (noun): the deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the 20th century
Word use: As we moved out of Pauline Johnson’s First Nations legends the stories read in class became more modernist.

Neologism: a new word, which is generally made up of words already in common use.
Word Use: Certain authors in recent times have coined neologisms; Douglas
Coupland, for instance, first coined the terms “Generation X” and “McJob,” while a short story written by William Gibson during the 1980’s is the first well-documented usage of “cyberspace.”
Neologism (noun): The use or expression of new words of phrases
Word Use: The Vancouver author Douglas Coupland can be described as a neologist for creating the term “Generation X,” a phrase which has defined an entire generation.

Ontology (noun): The branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence
Word Use: Rei Toei can think and interact with humans, but however is a creation in virtual reality. With this said; does she have an identity and “exist”, or is she simply a complex program that is built to respond to people in certain ways? This is the subject of ontology.
Word use: All Tomorrow’s Parties can be considered a type of ontology because it is a novel that fully describes people’s existence in present day and in the future.

Orthodox (adjective): Conforming to the ‘accepted’ or ‘traditional’ and established faith, especially in religion.
Word Use: In a sense, the character Cheryl in Hey Nostrodamus acted orthodox in her actions when she joined the ‘worship’ group just to be with Jason, but she ended up appreciating faith for herself once she understood what it meant to have religion.

Orthodox Christian (adj.): A denomination of Christianity, which most effectively preserves the traditions of the early church.
Word Use: Because it is early tradition in the Christian faith, that humans are to be created through acts of love within marriage, as an orthodox Christian, Reg does not agree with the attempt to clone a human being.

Penultimate:(adj) The second to last.
Word use: In the Penultimate sentence in The Innocent Traveller, Ethel Wilson describes the world as "timeless and impersonal", before implying in the last sentence that Topaz will leave this world.
Penultimate: Next to the last.
penult: the next to the last
ultimate: last/final
Word use: In Hey Nostradamus!, Barb’s penultimate action upon sleeping with Jason was committing a murder.

Perceptual constructs: an abstract image, idea, or theory, especially a complex one, formed from a number of simpler elements.
Word use: Margaret Avison uses perceptual constructs as her technique to help us form mental images of abstract ideas.

Peripeteia (noun): a sudden turn of events or an unexpected reversal especially in a literary work
Word Use: When Val comes to the peripeteia that she was the one actually killing her mother in “Forgiveness in Families,” she learned a lot about herself.
Word Use: The peripeteia of John marrying his cousin put the whole family in a
very uncomfortable setting.

Polemical (adj.): Of or involving dispute or controversy.
[Polemic (noun) is a vigorous dispute. A controversy, especially in politics and religion.]
Word Use: A polemical dispute breaks out between Jason’s mother and father after Reg accuses his son of murder. Jason’s mother yells, “Crawl to your God, you arrogant bastard. See if your God doesn’t look at the slime trail you leave behind you and throw you to the buzzards” (78).
Polemical (adjective): The act of arguing in opposition to something; being controversial.
Word Use: I was very polemical towards Dr. Ogden’s ideas on society as a ‘nebulous thing’ in the February 12th lecture. What did he mean would make society vague and indefinable?

Pre-recognative Capability: The ability to foresee the future; to recognize that something is going to happen before it actually happens.
Word Use: Cecilia/Allison, the “psychic” in Hey Nostradamus! pretends to have pre-recognative capabilities when she decided to start scamming people to make money.
Pre-recognitive capability (noun): Ability of a literary genius to present in fiction attitudes or forms of behaviour ahead of their full-blown appearance in culture.
Word use: All Tomorrow’s Parties has a pre-recognitive capability because it describes in detail, events that will take place in the future.

Purgation: To rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify.
Word Use: In Hey Nostradamus!, Cheryl undergoes purgation when she writes GOD IS
NOWHERE / GOD IS NOW HERE on her binder. She does this because she wants to“clear out [her] head and think of nothing” (Copeland 9).
Purgation (noun): Act of purging. Or to cleanse oneself of stigma or charge. In a religious aspect: to strip oneself of all sins.
Word Use: Cheryl went through purgation after she died to cleanse herself of all sins.

Purgatory (noun): Place after death where one supposedly purges his or her sins.
Word Use: In Hey Nostradamus!, we know that Cheryl is in purgatory due to her description of her current location (13), and from certain lexical cues such as on page 30, “purgatory”.
Purgatory: a belief of the Roman Catholic Church; according to the current Bible: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heave. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.”
Word use: The profs notes about Hey Nostradamus! and how Jason was like
Purgatory [?????], Reg was like Hell [????], Cheryl was like Heaven [????], and Heather was like limbo.

Resonances: richness or significance that evokes an association or a strong emotion or an underlying meaning, the effect of an event beyond its immediate or surface meaning or the quality of richness or variety of sounds in poetic texture
Word use: “Katharsis” is a literary term that purges bad emotions and adds good emotion. Katharsis triggers resonances when the addition of a good emotion arouses an association in the reader or listener. The association that the reader/listener makes from the resonances can be a past memory or emotion.
Word use: The emotions of the prayers after the shootings in Hey Nostradamus! resonated throughout the novel.
Resonances: animation, spiritedness; reverberation in a clear tone
Word Use: The ways in which Topaz expresses herself in The Innocent Traveller is with much resonance, which is how people come to the conclusion that she is eccentric.

Sacrament: a religious action or symbol or an outward, visible sign that conveys an inward, spiritual grace
Word use: Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus! discreetly portrays different religious ideas of sacrament. One example is when Reg speaks about how “the water felt like an ongoing purification” (231), during his time as a young boy near the Fraser River. This spiritual cleaning represents a form of sacrament that we know as baptism.
Sacrament (noun): a sign which accomplishes what it signifies
Word use: In the novel Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland, Jason demonstrates a sacrament of marriage by referring that he and Cheryl being one unit/flesh after marriage rather than two individuals.

Scepticism: A doubt or questioning attitude or state of mind (usually concerning religion)
Word use: In Hey Nostradamus!, by Douglas Coupland Cheryl found her belief in God when she joined a youth group, Alive! However, at the scene of the massacre when the schoolboys were shooting all the students Cheryl was skeptical about her belief when she starting doubting His existence.
Scepticism: doubt or disbelief regarding religion
Word use: Jason [REG?], in Douglas Coupland’s novel Hey Nostradamus!, is a good example of scepticism in the beginning of the story. He is close-minded and has an alienating attitude but near the end of the story he becomes open-minded and has a more charitable attitude towards others.

Secular (adjective): not overtly or specifically religious
Word use: Even though Douglas Coupland’s Hey Nostradamus! contains blatantly religious imagery, his own beliefs are more secular.
Secular (adjective): of pertaining to worldly things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred
Word use: To Reg, from Coupland's Hey! Nostradamus, subjects or objects that do not conform to his idea of God are secular (e.g. cloning). This is an evidence of Reg’s close-mindedness and cynicism.

Self-reflection (noun): a method to help us to understand ourselves, our relationships and the fundamental nature of human existence
Word use: In the novel Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland, there is a self-reflection going on in Reg after he has nothing; his wife left him, Ken died, and Jason disappeared. When Reg loses his family, he starts to doubt (become open minded) about what he believes in, which leads him to learn more about himself and his surroundings.
Self-referential (adj.): To refer to oneself
Word use: Douglas Coupland’s characters in Hey Nostradamus! could be considered self-referential.
Self-referential (adjective): reference made to oneself or one’s own experience.
Word use: Ethel Wilson’s, The Innocent Traveller, is an example of a self-referential novel.
Self-reflection: self-examination, the detailed mental examination of your own feelings, thoughts, and motives
Word use: In Reg’s section of Hey Nostradamus!, we see growth in his character as he begins to self-reflect on his beliefs. He starts to realize that his own actions and beliefs were the cause of his flawed relationships with the most important people in his life.

Stratagem (noun): An operation or act of generalship; usually, an artifice or trick designed to outwit or surprise the enemy.
Word Use: In “The Two Sisters,” the Chief invites the Upper Coast Indians to his daughters’ womanhood celebration. Upon receiving the invitation, the
Upper Coast Indians may have thought that the party was a stratagem. However, once they are at the party, all barriers are broken and the peace is restored.

Synæsthesia: a situation in which one sensation triggers another one of the senses, such as a sound producing a mental image of a particular colour.
Word Use: Margaret Avison’s poetry relates certain actions and activities occurring in her poems to colours, creating a sense of synæsthesia in which the reader feels colours through Avison’s descriptions.
Synesthesia (noun): The impression of one sense, brought on by the stimulation of a different sense.
Word Use: In Margaret Avison’s poem, “From a Train Window (Leamington to Windsor) in March,” “the pale wintergreen air” is an example of Synesthesia. The use of a word typically associated with sight, “pale” is used to describe or heighten the senses associated with air: smell and touch.

Synecdoche (noun): A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versa; as whole for part or part for whole
Word Use: The character Topaz from The Innocent Traveller can be described by the use of synecdoche. For instance, Topaz has often been criticized of speaking without using her head (brain).

Synonym (noun): A word that has the same or similar meaning to another word in a language.
Word Use: Margaret Avison frequently uses the word ‘quiet’ in her poems. This word has many synonyms, some of which include: quiet, still, continuing, and potential. This continuous word use builds meaning for readers as they eventually discover hope through her poems.
Synonym: a word that has the same, or almost the same meaning as another
Word Use: Margaret Avison rarely uses synonyms in her poetry, as she does not want to waste words.

Syntax: the study of the rules governing sentence structure, the way words work together to make up a sentence
Word use: The fragmented sentence structure of William Gibson’s All Tomorrow’s Parties is a syntax rarely used in novels.
Syntax (noun):
1 the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences.
2 a set of rules for or an analysis of this.
Word Use: The use of syntax in Hey Nostradamus! creates easy to read casual
sentences.

Transcendental: something which is superior or supernatural
Word Use: Hey Nostradamus! offers a transcendental viewpoint in the first quarter of the novel, during which Cheryl recounts her story while in a state of purgatory.
Transcendental (adjective): Relating to the spiritual, or non-physical realm; In Kantian philosophy, a necessity in gaining experience.
Word Use: In William Gibson’s novel, All Tomorrow’s Parties, the character of Laney deals with information and data in a transcendental fashion, due to his mutant abilities.

Trochee (noun): A poetic technique composed of one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.
Word Use: Margaret Avison’s “CNR London to Toronto (I)” used a trochee to subtly create the sound of a train.
Trochee: a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.
Word use: Margaret Avison’s “Hid Life”.
“Are these iron stems? Or is this tree in a lee out of the clattering winds?

Visual amplitude: a concept that involves the intensification of visual images.
Word Use: Margaret Avison creates visual amplitude when she uses her “conceptual clusters” such as nearly-April (17) and Niagara-no-Falls (153). She also creates visual amplitude in her poem “Silent Night in Canada in 1848” when sound is omitted due to the freezing of Niagara Falls.