Disgrace Study Guide

Glossary of Terms

"From the fairest creatures we desire increase"

Line from Shakespeare's Sonnet #1

abattoir

a slaughterhouse

assignation

rendezvous; an appointment of time and place for a meeting

balaclava cap

winter headgear shaped like an oversized mitten

Byron

Romantic poet best known for his poem's Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; also noted for his passionate and adulterous personal life

bywoner

agricultural laborer, tenant of a farm

Cronus

Greek god who married his sister, Rhea; and ate all of his children in order to maintain his throne; Rhea managed to save one of their children, Zeus

cul de sac

a street or passage closed at one end, a blind alley

cycads

often mistaken for palms or ferns, plant has large compound leaves and a thick trunk

duiker

small to medium-sized antelopes

Emma Bovary

central character in Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary; a doctor's wife who has affairs to enrich her boring bourgeoise life

Eros

Greek god of love and sexual desire

George Grosz

German expressionst painter; known for his caricature like drawings od Berlin life

Handlanger

German for handyman

historical piquancy

fitting, suitable, or justifiable because of Afrikaaners's history of oppression of Africans; poetic justice

Inferno

one of the three canticas of Dante's Divine Comedy

Kaaps

Cape Malay accent of Afrikaans

kombi

passenger van

Land Affairs grant

government assistance program that made it possible for more people to own land in South Africa

Lethe

river of forgetfulness in Greek mythology

Losung

German for resolution, name Bev and Lurie use for the process of putting the dog's to sleep.

Luxe et volupte

luxury and pleasure

omnis gens quaecumque se in se perficere vult

The meaning of this quotation has been a source of debate among Latin sholars. See http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/2000/06/0241.php

Origen

Christian theologian and philosopher; an idealist who disregarded material things and castrated himself

Ovral

emergency contraception pill

Petrus

common name in ancient Roman times; from Latin word meaning Rock

Pollux

well-known boxer in Greek mythology, twin brother of Castor (a great horseman)

Rape of the Sabine Women

1635 painting by Nicholas Poussin, based on classical myth about the founding of Rome: Romans needed women for their city to flourish and raided a nearby town forcing the women to marry them

Schadenfreude

German word meaning to delight in the misfortune of others

Sunt lacrimae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt

Latin for "These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart;" lines grom Virgil's Aeneid as Aeneas recognizes the cost of war

tessitura

the range of a melody or vocal piece

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Charles Dickens' final novel whose ending was not finished by the time he died.

vedi l'anime di color cui vinse l'ira

Italian "now see the souls of those whom anger has defeated"

William Blake

Romantic poet of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience; also illustrated famous works such as Dante's Inferno and Milton's[Paradise Lost]