“School: A group of artists working under the same influence—whether a single master, a local style, or a regional style—whose work shows a general stylistic similarity, e.g. Rubens school, Barbizon school, Tuscan school.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged art/architecture/design, readings/research, term of art
“Culture Shock: A term coined in the 1960s to refer to an occupational disease suffered by those suddenly immersed in a culture very different than their own. The term generally implies a negative reaction (physical, cognitive, and psychological) to moving within or between societies, but some authors have suggested it may have benefits for the individual concerned. Those who become partially, or fully, immersed in a new culture may suffer culture shock when re-entering their own society.”
Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
“Argot (noun): The special idiom used by a particular class or group, especially an underworld jargon; distinctive parlance.
‘She smoked cigarettes one right after the other, and did not care who knew it; and she was never more than five minutes out of the office before she was talking in newspaper argot, not all of it quite accurate.’ John O’Hara, Appointment in Samarra“
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Cognitive Theory: A major cluster of theories in social psychology, which focus upon the links between mental processes (such as perception, memory, attitudes, or decision making), and social behavior. At a general level such theories are opposed to behaviorism, and suggest that human beings are active in selecting stimuli, constructing meanings, and making sense of their worlds. There are many branches of cognitive theory, including Fritz Heider’s cognitive balance theory, Leon Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory, George Kelly’s personal construct theory, and attribution theory. (See J.R. Eiser, Cognitive Social Psychology, 1980).”
Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
“Exegesis: In Roman times the exegetes were professional and official interpreters of charms, omens, dreams, sacred law and oracular pronouncements. Thus the term has come to mean an explanation or interpretation and is often applied to biblical studies. As far as literature is concerned, it covers critical analysis and the elucidation of difficulties in the text. A variorum edition (q.v.), for example, contains a great deal of exegesis.”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Weltanschauung: A German term which refers to the ‘world-view’ or ‘philosophy of life’ of different groups within society. For example, it is sometimes argued that the long-term unemployed have a fatalistic outlook, the middle classes an individualistic approach to life, while members of the working class hold a set of beliefs and attitudes which emphasize collectivism. Sociologists have posed a number of interesting questions around this topic. Do particular social groups actually adhere to identifiable world-views? If so, how do individuals come to hold specific images of society, and what is the relationship between membership of a group and an individual’s subjective representations of it? The major problem confronting sociologists who address these issues is that of defining and describing a world-view itself. What beliefs and values may be said to constitute a world-view? Should we even expect people to hold to consistent world-views, given that (for example) research on class imagery suggests that, more often than not, people’s attitudes and values are inconsistent or ambiguous, and rarely form a coherent whole? In short, use of this term usually points to a certain imprecision in an argument, and almost invariably indicates that data appropriate to the particular case are wanting.”
Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
“Autarky (deriv. Gk autarkeia, self sufficient). In economic terms, a policy aimed at total home-production to the exclusion of imported goods. Pre-World War II Germany’s search for a blockade-proof economy provides a good example of economic autarky.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged term of art
[As school closures, and therefore homebound children, mount during this COVID19 crisis, I cannot think of a better time to post this squib on the way I was educated in high school and college, and a particularly sound method of education for children in our current circumstances.]
“project-based learning: A teaching technique in which students learn by doing, engaging in activities that lead to the creation of products based on their own experiences. The project method was first described in 1918 by William Heard Kilpatrick of Teachers College, Columbia University, who hoped to replace subject-matter teaching with real-life projects chosen by students.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Humanism: In the first place, the humanists of the Renaissance period were students of literae humaniores (q.v.); the literature of Greek and Latin poets, dramatists, historians and rhetoricians. At the Renaissance (q.v.) there was a great revival of interest in Classical literature and thought and this revival was, to some extent, at the expense of medieval scholasticism (q.v.). The long-term influences of this revival were immense and incalculable, and they led to an excessive devotion to Classical ideals and rules in the late 17th and 18th centuries.
Humanism, a European phenomenon, was a more worldly and thus more secular philosophy; and it was anthropocentric. It sought to dignify and ennoble man.
In its more extreme forms humanistic attitudes regarded man as a the crown of creation; a point of view marvelously expressed in Hamlet by Hamlet:
‘…What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty. In form and moving how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god. The beauty in the world. The paragon of animals.’
It would have been inconceivable that anyone in the 14th century should have expressed such a view. Then Hamlet adds: ‘And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?’ And in that one line he summarizes another attitude or feeling, which a man in the 14th century would have responded to instantly.
At its best, humanism helped to civilize man, to make him realize his potential powers and gifts, and to reduce the discrepancy between potentiality and attainment. It was a movement that was at once a product of and a counteraction to a certain prevalent skepticism; a way of dealing with the disequilibrium created by the conflict between belief and doubt. Humanism turned out to be a form of philosophy which concentrated on the perfection of a worldly life, rather than on the preparation for an eternal and spiritual life.
The popularity of the courtesy book (q.v.) in the 16th and 17th centuries, for instance, suggests what a radical change there had been in man’s view of himself. He was increasingly regarded as a creature perfectible on earth. Hence the secular emphasis on courtesy books.
Humanistic ideas and beliefs pervade much other literature of the Renaissance period. Ficino (1433-1499); Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494); Erasmus (1466-1536); Guillaume Bude (1468-1540); Sir Thomas More (1478-1535); Juan Luis Vives(1492-1540); and Montaigne (1533-1592) were outstanding humanists.”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
“absolutism (deriv. Lat. legibus absolutus, absolved from the laws.) System of unlimited government in which the governed possess no representation, right to vote or part in the administration and in which there are no legal or constitutional restraints on the ruler.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion, term of art
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