Agon

Literally it means contest of any kind. In Greek tragedy it was a prolonged dispute, often a formal debate in which the CHORUS divided and took sides with the disputants. In the OLD COMEDY in Greece this debate, called EPIRRHEMATIC AGON, involved elaborate exchanges between the chorus and the debaters, and addresses to the audience. In discussions of PLOT, agon has come to mean any conflict.

Agnomination (also Adnomination, Annomination)

A term used between 1600 and 1800 to mean, variously, any PLAY ON WORDS, especially such as involved names of persons, as in Robert Greene's distortion of Shakespeare's name to "Shake-scene"; also applied to ALLITERATION in general.

Agrarians

Literally it means people living in an agricultural society, or espousing the merits of such a society, as the PHYSIOCRATS did. In this sense most espousers of PASTORAL traditions are agrarians. Thomas Jefferson was a noted early American agrarian. In literary history and criticism, however, the term is usually applied to a group of Southern American writers in Nashville, Tennessee, who published The Fugitive (1922-1925), a little magazine of poetry and some criticism championing agrarian REGIONALISM but attacking "the old high-caste Brahmins of the Old South."

Agroikos

A character added by Northrop Fyre to the traditional three STOCK CHARACTERS of Greek OLD COMEDY. The usual agroikos is a rustic who is easily deceived.

Alazon

A character who believes they are better than they actually are. He is a braggart or impostor in Greek comedy. He takes many forms: the quack, the religious fanatic, the swaggering soldier, the pedant--anyone pretentious who is held up to ridicule. Alazon is one of the stock characters employed in the Greek Old Comedy of Aristophanes. The two other characters are Eiron who is the ironic opponent to Alazon and the Buffoon known as Bomolochus