anacrises

Noun

anacrisis (plural anacrises)

1. (historical) A stage of the Ancient Greek judicial process in which all of the evidence is produced prior to the trial.
   • If the plaintiff failed to appear at the anacrisis, the suit, of course, fell to the 'ground; if the defendant made default, judgment passed against him.1853, William Smith, A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, page 132
2. An interrogation that provokes its subject to make explicit his or her underlying assumptions and deeply held values.
   • Socrates is the archetypal high master of subtle, ironic anacrisis.1985, Aaron Fogel, Coercion to Speak: Conrad's Poetics of Dialogue, →ISBN, page 29
3. (literary criticism) A dialog or plot event that causes a character to reveal his or her beliefs and motivations.
   • As Bakhtin points out, the "classical Christian dialogic syncrises" (dyads) of the tempted and the tempter, the believer and the nonbeliever, the righteous and the sinner, the beggar and the rich man, etc., as well as the "corresponding anacrises" ("provocations through discourse or plot...1998, Terence J. Martin, Living Words: Studies in Dialogues Over Religion, →ISBN, page 228