Thursday, February 17, 2011

The word of the day is synoptic:


< modern Latin synopticus (whence also French synoptique, Italian sinottico, Spanish sinóptico, Portuguese synoptico), < Greek συνοπτικός, <σύνοψιςsynopsis n. (compare optic adj. and n.).
 1.
 

 a. Of a table, chart, etc.: Pertaining to or forming a synopsis; furnishing a general view of some subject;spec. depicting or dealing with weather conditions over a large area at the same point in time.

 

 b. Of a mental act or faculty, conduct, etc.: Pertaining to, involving, or taking a combined or comprehensive mental view of something.

 
 2.
 

 a. Applied distinctively to the first three Gospels (viz. of Matthew, Mark, and Luke) as giving an account of the events from the same point of view or under the same general aspect. Also transf.pertaining or relating to these Gospels.

 

 b. as n. Any one of the Synoptic Gospels (or of their writers = synoptist n. 1). Usually in pl.



"The camp episode is extraordinary also in its position within the novel.  Most works of fiction about the Holocaust take the events of the war as their primary focus, adopting the time line of history as the novel's own: they begin somewhere around the start of the war and end soon after liberation.  But 'Panorama' takes a synoptic view in which the camps are but a single moment: its peepholes are windows not only into Josef's life but also into the twentieth century.  At the same time, the camp chapter is linked thematically to earlier scenes."

 - Ruth Franklin, "The Long View: A rediscovered master of Holocaust writing", 31 January 2011 The New Yorker

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