A posteriori

TSMESIS: See tmesis.

TUDOR: A reference to the period in England during which the ruling monarchs came from the Tudor family (1485-1603). Tudor was the name of a Welshman, Owen Tudor, born in the 1400s. His line became the ruling dynasty when his son Henry Tudor ended the War of the Roses by killing Richard III in 1485. The last ruling Tudor monarch was Henry Tudor's granddaughter, queen Elizabeth I, who died in 1603. After Elizabeth, the House of Stuart claimed the throne when Elizabeth's cousin James I of England (also known as James VI of Scotland) inherited her power. The Tudor period is largely synonymous with the early Renaissance in England. See Renaissance, above.

TUDOR INTERLUDE: Short tragedies, comedies, or history plays performed by either professional acting troupes or by students during the early sixteenth century.

TURN: Also called a volta, a turn is a sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion at the conclusion of the sonnet. This invisible turn is followed by a couplet called a gemel (in English sonnets) or a sestet (in Italian sonnets).

TWIST ENDING: Another term for an O. Henry ending.

TYNGED: A magical taboo or restriction placed on a hero in Welsh literature; the Welsh equivalent to the Irish geasa. One example from The Mabinogion would be how Culwch's mother places a "destiny" on him so that he can have sex with no woman except Olwen, the daughter of the Giant-king Ysbaddaden.

TYPE: An earlier figure, event, or symbol in the Old Testament thought to prefigure a coming antitype (corresponding figure, event, or symbol) in the New Testament. See discussion under typology. The term should not be confused with Jung's idea of an archetype.

TYPE CHARACTER: A literary character with traits commonly associated with a particular class of people.

TYPOGRAPHICAL JUSTIFICATION: See justification, typographical.

TYPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION: In linguistics, this schema is a "grouping of languages based on structural similarities and differences rather than genetic relations" (Algeo 332). Do not confuse this linguistic term with typology and typological criticism.

TYPOLOGICAL CRITICISM: A type of literary analysis of medieval or patristic texts in which critics read characters, objects, or events according to established interpretations of similar characters, objects, or events in biblical literature. See discussion under typology. Do not confuse this term with typological classification in linguistics.

TYPOLOGY: A mode of biblical interpretation introduced by Saint Paul and developed by Patristic writers as a means of reconciling the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) and the New Testament. Saint Augustine expressed the general principle in De Doctrina Christiana, in which he writes, "In the Old Testament, the New Testament is concealed; in the New Testament, the Old Testament is revealed." The theory is contested by Hebrew scholars, but in patristic and medieval Latin writings, it was accepted widely by Christians eager to reconcile their faith with Hebrew antiquity. In typological theory, key persons, events, and symbols in the Old Testament are viewed as "figures" or "figurations" (Latin figurae) that predict a matching figure in the New Testament. These figurae were seen as historically real in and of themselves, but also they served as "prefigurations" of similar persons, events, and symbols in the New Testament. The Old Testament figures were known as types and the New Testament figures were known as antitypes. Here are a few examples of such types and antitypes as identified by patristic and medieval writers: