A posteriori

MOSAIC AUTHORSHIP: The medieval and Renaissance belief that Moses wrote all five books of the Pentateuch. Click here for more discussion.

MOTIF: A conspicuous recurring element, such as a type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature. For instance, the "loathly lady" who turns out to be a beautiful princess is a common motif in folklore, and the man fatally bewitched by a fairy lady is a common folkloric motif appearing in Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci." In medieval Latin lyrics, the "Ubi sunt?" [where are . . .?] motif is common, in which a speaker mourns the lost past by repeatedly asking, what happened to the good-old days? ("Where are the snows of yesteryear?" asks Francois Villon.) The motif of the "beheading game" is common in Celtic myth, and so on. Frequently, critics use the word motif interchangeably with theme and leit-motif. See also folkloric motif.

MULTICULTURAL NOVEL: As Robert Harris defines the term in his glossary, a multicultural novel is

A novel written by a member of or about a cultural minority group, giving insight into non-Western or non-dominant cultural experiences and values, either in the United States or abroad. Examples:

• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
• Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife
• Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree
• Margaret Craven, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
• James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Chaim Potok, The Chosen
• Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Penitent
• Alice Walker, The Color Purple. (Harris)

MULTICULTURALISM: In literature, multiculturalism is the belief that literary studies should include writings, poetry, folklore, and plays from a number of different cultures rather than focus on Western European civilization alone. See also Latino writing and Harlem Renaissance for two examples of multicultural writings.

MUSES, THE NINE: The nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who had the power to inspire artists, poets, singers, and writers. They are listed below along with their spheres of influence:

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  Calliope (epic poetry)
  
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  Clio (history)
  
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  Euterpe (lyric poetry)
  
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  Melpomene (tragedy)
  
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  Terpsichore (choral dance)
  
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  Erato (love poetry)
  
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  Polyhymnia (hymns and sacred poems)
  
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  Urania (astronomy)
  
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  Thalia (comedy)