English Literature A-Level
Epigrams
What Epigrams means in English Literature A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definition of Epigrams
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Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Epigrams in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: AQA
Wilde's witty sayings that invert conventional moral statements, so that the wit exposes rather than merely decorates Victorian values.
Topics that use Epigrams
- Aspects of comedy - Set texts: Drama and further texts (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- Comedy and satire
- Death, mortality and mock-elegy
- Expectation versus reality
- Love, seduction and gender relations
- Memory and narrative perspective
- Migration and belonging
- Myth, art and rewriting tradition
- Race, empire and prejudice
Using Epigrams in the exam
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