Literary Devices and Techniques

Literary Devices

• Literary devices are features of literature recognizable for interpretation and analysis, including literary elements and approaches

Literary Techniques

• Literary techniques involve precise, purposeful linguistic constructions used by authors to communicate meaning, though they are not always present

Alliteration

• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity, often in consecutive words within a sentence or line
• Example: "The willful waterbeds help me thrall, / the laving laurel turned my tide.”

Allusion

• Allusion refers to another work
• Example: "She has the face that could launch a thousand ships."

Apostrophe

• Apostrophe refers to when an entity that is not present is addressed by a speaker
• Example: "Heaven, help us!"

Assonance

• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words
• Example: "The light of the fire is a sight," which is a repetition of the long i sound

Blank Verse

• Blank verse is non-rhyming poetry typically written in iambic pentameter
• Example: "Mending Walls" by Robert Frost that has the line, "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall."

Consonance

• Consonance is the repetition, at close intervals, of the final consonants of accented syllables or important words, especially at the ends of words
• Example: "The lint was sent with the tent" showcases the repetition of the "nt" sound

Dramatic Irony

• Dramatic irony involves the reader or audience knowing something important that the characters in the story do not
• Example: Macbeth doubts the witches calling him Thane of Cawdor; unbeknownst to him, he had been granted that title

Double Entendre

• A double entendre contains a double meaning or interpretation
• Example: Hannibal Lecter saying, "I'm having an old friend for dinner," implies cannibalism

Flashback

• A flashback interrupts the current action to insert an earlier episode, providing context or insight
• Example: Harry Potter sees Voldemort's memory of the night Harry's parents were killed

Foreshadowing

• Foreshadowing uses hints or clues to suggest future events, piquing reader interest
• Example: "My life were better ended by their hate... " foreshadows Romeo's suicide in Romeo And Juliet

Hyperbole

• Hyperbole exaggerates facts for serious or comic effect
• Example: "Her eyes opened wide as saucers"

Imagery

• Imagery generates a mental image through sensory descriptions, allowing readers to see and feel what a character is experiencing
• Example: "The sweet aroma of the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies wafted from the kitchen..."

Litotes

• Litotes uses negative wording or terms to express a positive assertion/statement
• Example: "He is hardly unattractive."

Metaphor

• A metaphor compares two unlike things to highlight a similarity, without using "like," "as," or "than"
• Example: "Hot orange coals burned at the edge of the woods as the wolves watched..."

Metonymy

• Metonymy refers to an object or idea by the name of something closely associated with it
• Example: Antony says, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,”

Motif

• A motif is a recurring symbolic image or idea in a story, it can be symbols, sounds, actions, ideas, or words

Onomatopoeia

• The use of a word in which the sound imitates or suggests its meaning
• Example: "She sat by the window and listened to the pitter-patter of the rain."

Oxymoron

• A phrase that contains two or more words that are diametrically opposed to one another
• Example: Sweet sorrow, wise fool, honest thief, short eternity

Paradox

• A statement that reveals a kind of truth although at first it seems to be self-contradictory and untrue
• Example: A Tale of Two Cities opens with the famous paradox, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Personification

• Inanimate objects or abstract concepts are seemingly endowed with human self-awareness
• Example: Justice is blind and, at times, deaf.

Poetic Justice

• An outcome in a story where good is rewarded, and evil is punished
• Example: Cinderella marries the handsome prince.

Pun

• A humorous use of a word or phrase that has more than one meaning (or two similarly spelled words that sound alike)
• Example: This vacuum sucks.

Repetition or Anaphora

• A word, phrase, or structure is repeated several times, to emphasize a particular idea
• Example: Macbeth

Simile

• A figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of words “like” or “as”
• Example: A Red, Red Rose O my love is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June; O my love is like the melody That's sweetly played in tune.

Situational Irony

• The outcome of a situation is totally different from what people expect
• Example: A fire station burning down

Symbol

• Any object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, an attitude, a belief, or a value
• Example: In The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe's most famous poem, the huge black bird is a symbol for the narrator’s deep feelings of loss, regret, mourning, and loneliness.

Synecdoche

• A part of something is used to refer to its whole
• Example: Sails are used to refer to a ship; wheels are used to refer to a car

Understatement

• When the author presents something as less significant (important) than it really is
• Example: In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden says: “I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”

Verbal Irony

• The speaker says something that's the opposite to what they mean
• Example: “It’s so delightful to be home with a sick child twice in one week.”

Formalism Approach

• Examines a text by its "organic" form, excluding any external elements to analyze the text itself

Narrative Elements

• There are seven elements to help better analyze narratives

Theme

• An overarching idea that the writer wants the reader to understand

Plot

• The structure of the narrative as it moves through time
• Exposition - Introduction of settings and characters
• Rising Action - Events that build conflict for the protagonist
• Climax - Tension of conflict reaches highest, most intense
• Falling Action - Events following the climax, lowering intensity
• Denouement - Resolution of the conflict

Character

• People involved in the narrative

Conflict

• An issue or problem characters in a story are confronted by
• person vs. person
• person vs. nature
• person vs. self
• person vs. society

Setting

• Time and place the story is set in

Point of View

• Perspective the story is told from
• First-person - Uses "I" or "we"; the readers, as if from their own eyes, can envision the characters actions
• Third person - Story is told from an outside perspective of the characters
• Third-person limited narrator can relate events, actions, and thoughts, but is limited to a single character
• Third person omniscient narrators - The narrator knows all information, actions, and thoughts of the characters in the story

Style

• Refers to the way the writer uses language including diction, voice, tone, sentence style, etc.

Feminism Criticism

• Theory focusing on political, economic, and social equality of the sexes; organized activity that is against gender stereotypes and expectations

Marxist Criticism

Concerned with the difference between economic classes and implications of a capitalist system Bourgeoise

• The owners of the means of production in a society Proletariat
• The workers in the society Capitalism
• Economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit Socialism
• Economic system where the means of production are socially owned