y y

y y y y y y y y y y y y

Allegory - a symbolic representation i.e. The blindfolded figure with scales is an allegory of justice. Alliteration - the repetition of the initial consonant. There should be at least two repetitions in a row. i.e. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Allusion A reference to a famous person or event in life or literature. i.e. She is as pretty as the Mona Lisa. Analogy - the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship. i.e. shoe is to foot as tire is to wheel Assonance - the repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence. Climax - the turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work. Foreshadowing - hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story Hyperbole - a figure of speech involving exaggeration. Metaphor - A comparison in which one thing is said to be another. i.e. The cat's eyes were jewels, gleaming in the darkness. Onomatopoeia - the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. i.e. The burning wood crackled and hissed. Oxymoron - putting two contradictory words together. i.e. bittersweet, jumbo shrimp, and act naturally Personification - is giving human qualities to animals or objects. i.e. The daffodils nodded their yellow heads. Pun - A word is used which has two meanings at the same time, which results in humor. Simile - figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though. i.e. She floated in like a cloud.

http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/resources/litdevices/index.html

Metaphor and simile. Comparisons. A simile uses the words as or like; a metaphor does not. Personification. Attributing human or other animate characteristics to an inanimate object. Symbolism. Using one object to stand for something else or to mean something else Irony. Conveys the opposite of what is meant or what would be expected. Examples: Saying Youre so graceful! to someone who has just tripped is verbal irony. A lifeguard drowning in a bathtub is irony of situation. A special kind of literary irony is when the reader (or viewer) knows something the character doesnt. This is common in horror movies. An example of this is when the heroine runs to Jason for help, when we know hes the slasher. Sarcasm is verbal irony with attitude, with a mean edge. Hyperbole. Literary exaggeration. Examples: Gilgamesh and Enkidu carried thirty score pounds of weaponry. Ill give you the moon and stars. Rhythm and meter. Rhythm is the up & down, high & low series of emphases in speech. All speech has rhythm, and each language has its own particular rhythm. Meter is regular rhythm, as in poetry or music. Rhyme. Sounding alike at the end. Examples: maysay, pattermatter. Assonance. Sounding alike in the middle. Example: moody blues. Alliteration. Sounding alike at the beginning. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. Repetition. Saying the same thing over again. Seems obvious, but notice that the author has intended to do this, for emphasis. Onomatopoeia. Words or phrases that sound like what they mean. Examples: pop, click. The pitter-patter of little feet is full of the T sound, which emphasizes the meaning.

http://www.maxellute.net/Literary%20devices.htm

Name Alliteration Anthropomorphis m Poetic

Type

Notes Repeating the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words Form of personification that applies human-like characteristics to animals or objects Concise statement that contains a cleverly stated subjective truth or observation aphorisms typically use alliteration, anaphora, and rhyme. The aphorism is considered a compressed poetic genre in itself. When sentences do not use conjunctions (eg: and, or, nor) to separate clauses, but run clauses into one another, usually marking the separation of clauses with punctuation. An example is when John F. Kennedy said on January the 20th 1961 "...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Character who speaks for the author sometimes an intentionally or unintentionally idealized version of the author. A well known variation is the Mary Sue or Gary Stu (selfinsertion). Story that precedes events in the story being toldpast events or background that add meaning to current circumstances Mood that overstates its own pathos or drama. A type of novel concerned with education, development, and maturation of a young protagonist. Essentially, a bildungsroman traces the formation of a protagonist's maturity (the passage from childhood to adulthood) by following the development of his/her mind and character. An author or character addresses the audience

Personification

Aphorism

Asyndeton

Stylistic Scheme

Author surrogate

Character

Back-story Bathos

Background exposure

Bildungsroman

Breaking

the fourth wall

directly (also known as direct address). This may acknowledge to the reader or audience that what is being presented is fiction, or may seek to extend the world of the story to provide the illusion that they are included in it. Plot Insertion of an apparently irrelevant object early in a narrative for a purpose only revealed later. See foreshadowing and repetitive designation. The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future episode for the resolution. An extended metaphor associated with metaphysical poetry that pushes the imagination's limits to portray something indescribable. The cut-up technique is an aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. Most commonly, cut-ups are used to offer a nonlinearalternative to traditional reading and writing. Forcing the reader to recognize common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, to enhance perception of the familiar A romantic relationship not referred to in the current story. Resolving the primary conflict by a means unrelated to the story (e.g., a god appears and solves everything). This device dates back to ancient Greek theater, but can be a clumsy method that frustrates the audience. The literary method of copying and improving other writers. In Ancient Greece was first formulated by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the subsequent Latin rhetoricians adopted this literary method instead of Aristotle's mere imitation of nature.

Chekhov's gun

Cliffhanger

Plot

Conceit

Cut-up technique

Defamiliarization

Deleted affair Deus ex machina(a machination, or act of god)

Plot

Dionysian imitatio

Dramatic visualization

Descriptive

Representing an object or character with abundant descriptive detail, or mimetically rendering gestures and dialogue to make a scene more visual or imaginatively present to an audience. This technique appears at least as far back as the Arabian Nights.[1] A sudden revelation or insightusually with a symbolic role in the narrativein a literary work. Novel in the form of a series of documents (letters, e-mails, etc.) exchanged between characters. Classic examples include Pamela by Samuel Richardson (1740), The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett (1771), Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782) and Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897). Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, it refers to the sudden turn of events at the end of a story which result in the protagonist's well-being. Named from Euphues (1579) the prose romance by John Lyly. A deliberately excessive use of balanced antitheses emphasised by alliteration. Fiction in the form of, or about, apparently real, but actually fake documents. Examples include Robert Graves's I, Claudius, a fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor, H.P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon, and the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser. The short stories of Jorge Luis Borges are often written as summaries or criticisms of imaginary books. A text presented from the point of view of a character (esp. the protagonist) and written in the first person. General term for altering time sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale, for

Epiphany

Epistolary novel

Literary genre

Eucatastrophe

Euphuism

False documents

Literary genre

First Person Narration Flashback (or analeptic

reference)

instance Also called prolepsis, an interjected scene that temporarily jumps the narrative forward in time. Flashforwards often represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future. They may also reveal significant parts of the story that have not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail. This has been highly popularized by the television seriesLost. Plot Hinting at events to occur later. See also formal patterning, repetitive designation, and Chekhov's gun. Rigorously organizing events, actions, and gestures that constitute a narrative and shape a story. When done well, formal patterning helps the audience discern and anticipate the plot structure as it unfolds. This technique dates back at least to Arabian Nights,[1] and is also used in Romeo and Juliet. See also foreshadowing. A main story that organizes a series of shorter stories. Early examples include Panchatantra, Arabian Nights and The Decameron. A more modern example is Brian JacquesThe Legend of Luke. A single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at the beginning and end of a work. The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall. Exaggeration used to evoke strong feelings or create an impression which is not meant to be taken literally. Forming mental images of a scene using descriptive words, especially making use of the human senses. Setting::Backgroun Gradually exposing the reader to background

Flashforward

Foreshadowing

Formal patterning

Frame story, or astory within a story

Framing

Framing device

Framing

Hamartia

Hyperbole

Imagery Incluing

d exposure

information about the story's worldto subtly clue the readers into the world the author is buildingsuch in as Brave New World. It's the opposite of Infodumping.

The author puts a concentrated amount of background material, all at once, into the story, often in the form of a conversation between two Infodumping (also, Setting::Backgroun characters, both of whom should already know plot dump) d exposure the material under discussion. (The so-called "As you know, Bob" conversation) This is the opposite of Incluing. Beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events. The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer are prime examples. The latter work begins with the return of Odysseus to his home of Ithaka and then in flashbacks tells of his ten years of wandering following the Trojan War. This discrepancy between expectation and reality occurs in three forms: situational irony, where a situation features a discrepancy between what is expected and what is actualized; dramatic irony, where a character is unaware of pivotal information already revealed to the audience (the discrepancy here lies in the two levels of awareness between the character and the audience); and verbal irony, where one states one thing while meaning another. The difference between verbal irony and sarcasm is exquisitely subtle and often contested. The concept of irony is too often misunderstood in popular usage. Unfortunate circumstances and coincidences do not constitute irony (nor do they qualify as beingtragic). See the Usage controversy section under irony, and the term tragedy. Using two themes, characters, phrases, words, or situations together for comparison, contrast, or rhetoric Purposefully repeating words that usually

In medias res

Narrative hook

Irony

Contextual

Juxtaposition Leitwortstil

Contextual Poetic

express a motif or theme important to the story. This dates back at least to the Arabian Nights.[1] Describing events realistically, but in a magical haze of strange local customs and beliefs particularly popular with Latin American authors like Gabriel Garca Mrquez. Elsewhere, Salman Rushdie's work provides good examples. Word or phrase in a figure of speech in which an attribute of something stands for the thing itself. This is not to be confused with synecdoche, in which a part of the whole stands for the thing itself (Metonomy: The boxer threw in the towel. Synecdoche: She gave her hand in marriage.) Coined by Charles Dickens and, as used by G. K. Chesterton, meaning "the queerness of things that have become trite, when they are seen suddenly from a new angle." Narrative hook Story opening that "hooks" readers' attention so they will keep reading Exaggerating something, often for emphasis (also known as hyperbole) Poetic Word that sounds the same as, or similar to what the word means, e.g., "boom" or "squish" A term made of two words that deliberately or coincidentally imply each other's opposite, e.g. "terrible beauty" A phrase that describes an idea composed of concepts that conflict, e.g., "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." (A Tale of Two Cities) Ridicule by overstated imitation, usually humorous, as in MAD Magazine Using forms and styles from another author, generally as an affectionate tribute, such as the many stories featuring Sherlock Holmes not

Magical realism

Literary genre

Metonymy

Mooreeffoc (also written Moor Eeffoc) Narrative hook Overstatement Onomatopoeia

Oxymoron

Contextual

Paradox

Contextual

Parody

Genre, Contextual

Pastiche

Genre

written by Arthur Conan Doyle, or much of the Cthulhu Mythos. Reflecting a character's (usually the protagonist) mood in the atmosphere or inanimate objects for example, the storm in William Shakespeare's King Lear, which mirrors Lear's mental deterioration. Emotional appeal, one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric that the author uses to inspire pity or sorrow towards a character typically does not counterbalance the target character's suffering with a positive outcome, as in Tragedy. Personification Plot Using comparative metaphors and similes to give living characteristics to non-living objects. Object or character whose sole purpose is to advance the plot Unexpected change ("twist") in the direction or expected outcome of the plot. See also twist ending. Virtue ultimately rewarded, or vice punished, by an ironic twist of fate related to the character's own conduct Time travel paradox where a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" them to travel back in time Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, this provides a sense of exaggeration designed to wear down the audience. An example of this is in the first chapter of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: "A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin".

Pathetic fallacy

Pathos

Personification Plot device

Plot twist

Plot

Poetic justice

Plot

Predestination paradox

Plot

Polysyndeton

Stylistic Scheme

Quibble

Plot device

Plot device based on an argument that an agreement's intended meaning holds no legal value, and that only the exact, literal words agreed on apply. For example, William Shakespeare used a quibble in The Merchant of Venice: Portia saves Antonio in a court of law by pointing out that the agreement called for a pound of flesh, but no blood, so Shylock can collect only if he sheds no blood. A rhetorical tactic of diverting attention away from an item of significance. For example, in mystery fiction, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspicious through emphasis or descriptive techniques to divert attention from the true guilty party. Repeated references to a character or object that appears insignificant at first, but later suddenly intrudes in the narrative, a technique that dates back, at least, to Arabian Nights.[2] See also foreshadowing and Chekhov's gun. Prediction that, by being made, makes itself come true. Early examples include the legend of Oedipus, and the story of Krishna in the Mahabharata. There is also an example of this in Harry Potter.

Red herring

Plot device

Repetitive designation

Plot device

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Sensory detail

Descriptive

Imagery, sight, sound, taste, touch, smell Background narrative that explains the world of the main story. Examples include Mahabharata, Ramayana, Gundam, Do ctor Who and The Matrix A story told within another story. See also frame story. Technique where the author writes down their thoughts as fast as they come, typically to create an interior monologue, characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that trace a

Side story

Story within a story(Hypodiegesi Framing s) Stream of consciousness

Literary genre

character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. Symbolism Applied use of symbols: iconic representations that carry particular conventional meanings. Distributing recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea disparate events and disparate frames have in common. Threat of impending disasteroften used in thrillers where salvation and escape are essential elements Overall attitude an author appears to hold toward key elements of the workthe novel Candide makes fun of its characters' suffering, while The Sorrows of Young Werthertakes its protagonist's suffering very seriously. Strictly speaking, tone is generally an effect of literary techniques, on the level of a work's overall meaning or effect. The tone of a whole work is not itself a literary technique. However, the tone of a work, especially in a discrete section, may help create the overall tone, effect, or meaning of the work. Contextual A diminishing or softening of a theme or effect. Examples include The Informers and Norwegian Wood. The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in his narration and possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.

Thematic patterning

Ticking clock scenario

Tone

Understatement

Unreliable narrator Plot device

Alienating or distancing the audience from a Verfremdungseffe Literary technique play's emotional contentpopularized by 20th kt century playwright Bertolt Brecht. Word play Writer's voice Sounds of words used as an aspect of the work. Combination of the various structural aspects of

an author's writing style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_technique

Allegory: It is a symbolic aspect of a story that conveys a lesson or a teaching which is not present in it. Generally, its a narrative that contains an abstract idea to be delivered or conveyed through a figurative use of one subject for the other. Classics such as Aesop's Fables or John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' and films like 'The Matrix' or 'Casablanca' are examples of allegory. Alliteration: Words or sentences that begin with similar-sounding words are said to employ alliteration. 'Careless cutting cars', ' wonderfully whistling woods' or tongue twisters like, 'she sells sea shells by the sea shore' are examples of alliteration. Allusion: This device is a reference to any event or happening in real life or a literary work. For example, 'The battle between the countries was World War II revisited' or 'Oh, don't be such a Romeo!'. Here, World War II and Romeo are allusions. Anastrophe: Also known as inversion, it is a sentence or a poetic expression which reverses or changes the order of words for greater emphasis. 'Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown' or 'Ten thousand saw I at a glance' are anastrophic expressions. Aposiopesis: Its the sudden breaking applied in a prose or a poem to increase the emotional aspect or dramatic feel. The following extract from Shakespeare's play, 'King Lear' is a good example of aposiopesis. 'I will have a revenge on you both, That all the world shall.... I will do such things, What they are, and yet I know not'. Apostrophe: It is a direct address to the dead or an inanimate object creating an emotional surge. 'Caesar, only if you were alive' or 'O stone, O might, O heart of manmade God, Thou art the emblem of our hope', are examples of apostrophe. Climax: It is the arrangement of ideas in an increasing order of their importance. It emphasizes the meaning in a clear and effective way. Examples include, ' He came, he saw, he conquered, 'Her village, her state, her nation were her pride', 'Eat, drink and sleep' and so on. Ellipsis: It is the omission of a word or words from a sentence which may sound grammatically incorrect but the meaning is easily conveyed. Examples: 'He won all the

games, hands down', or 'I got Sam and Sam me'. Hyperbole: It is an exaggeration, used often to ridicule, create humor or any drastic emotional appeal. 'The waves rose as high as the mountains,' 'I am so hungry that I can eat a whole cow' or 'She wept and wept until there was a sea of tears', are sentences which substantiate the use of hyperbole. Irony: It is the expression of ideas which are exactly opposite to the implied meaning. There is a discord or disagreement between the presented words and their use. 'A student of psychology going insane', a quote such as, 'A bank lends you money provided you show that it's not needed' or the warning found on every cigarette pack, 'Smoking is injurious to health' is an irony! Litotes: It is an understated expression when the actual idea to be expressed is quite significant. It is like downplaying an idea when it seems to be the best possible course of action or description. Statements such as, 'I am not a bit amused' or 'He has a modest earning in billions of dollars' are some examples of litotes. Metaphor: The direct comparison of two entities where one entity is expressed as the other. Examples are, 'He was a lion in the fight', 'The birth of laughter', 'stealing eyes', 'noisy looms' and so on. Metonymy: It is an associative substitution technique like, 'A press conference by the Pentagon'. Here, Pentagon refers to the officials of the Pentagon who will be holding the press conference. The English grammar permits the use of a reference word in place of the actual subject as long as the meaning is clear. Onomatopoeia: 'Crackling sound', 'hissing away', 'screeching noise', 'Boo-hoo' are examples of onomatopoeia. It is a sound expression where the word is similar to the sound made. Oxymoron: This figure of speech includes words or ideas opposite in meaning placed one after the other. 'True lies', 'open secret', 'pretty ugly face', 'feeling alone in a crowd', are some forms of this literary device. Parallel construction: In this literary device, the idea to be stated is repeated in some other form to emphasize the articulation. 'She cried, she wept but he was unmoved', or 'Show me your strength, your stamina, your energy only where it is needed' are some expressions of parallel construction.

Personification: It is a representation of abstract ideas or inanimate objects as having human attributes or qualities. 'Death laid its icy hands on kings', 'Love and friendship had crippled his sense of judgment' and 'Tormenting idea' exemplify the use of personification. Pun: It is an idea or expression which has two meanings implied at the same time. Quite often it is used to pass a witty remark or bring about a sarcastic effect. Examples are, 'I knead the dough so that I can eat', 'learn the art of silence such that nothing is left unsaid', 'there are three types of people: The ones who can count and the ones who can't'. Satire: It is a mimicry, a mockery, a witty remark or a ridicule related to a person, place, animal or a thing, generally for leisure and is completely wrong or absurd. TV shows like 'Saturday Night Live' or movies like 'The Tailor of Panama' are examples of satire. Simile: It is an indirect comparison made between two different entities showing some common aspect or relation. Examples include, 'as cool as a cucumber', 'as white as snow', 'Life is just like an ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts'. Synecdoche: The representation of a whole aspect by a part or a part by the whole is called as synecdoche. Example: 'He has several mouths to feed'. Here mouths represent people. 'The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world'. Here 'hand' refers to the mothers in general. Zeugma: It expresses the control of one subject or a part of speech over the entire sentence composed of different objects or other parts of sentence. 'He succumbed to the public pressure and the wounds inflicted by his lady', 'She crossed the seas and all the obstacles holding her back', or 'Beauty glows with sunshine, laughter and a sense of deep satisfaction', are some examples of this literary device. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/literary-devices.html

Allegory Where an entire story is representative/symbolic of something else, usually a larger abstract concept or important historical/geopolitical event (e.g. Animal Farm is an allegory of Soviet totalitarianism). Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds, usually used consecutively in the same sentence (e.g. Silly Sally saw sixty slithering snakes). Anthropomorphism Where animals or inanimate objects are portrayed as people. (e.g. in Animal Farm the animals can talk, walk, and interact like humans). Deus ex machina Latin for "God out of the machine", this term describes the primary conflict being solved out of nowhere, as if God or a miracle could only solve the complex conflict. Dramatic irony Where the audience or reader is aware of something important, of which the characters in the story are not aware. Situational irony is different in that the readers are not aware; the results are unexpected and mocking in relation to what was expected (the usual use of the term irony). Verbal irony is an expression that is opposite of what it is intended to mean (e.g. the Ministry of Love is actually a place of torture and brainwashing in the novel 1984). Exposition When an author interrupts a story in order to explain something - usually to provide important background information. An exposition can also be essential information which is given at the beginning of a play or short story, about the plot and the events which are to follow. Foil A character who is meant to represent characteristics, values or ideas which are opposite to another character (usually the protagonist). Foreshadowing Where future events in a story, or perhaps the outcome, are suggested by the author before they happen. This suggestion can be made in various ways such as a flashback, an object, or a previous minor situation which reflects a more significant situation later on. This sort of warning sign can also be called a red herring. Hyperbole A description which uses exaggeration or extremes to convey emphasize a characteristic; e.g. "I told you a thousand times!" does not mean the person has been one thousand times. Metaphor vs. Simile

A metaphor is direct relationship where one thing IS another (e.g. "Juliet is the sun"). A simile, on the other hand, is indirect and usually only likened to be similar to something else. Similes usually use "like" or "as" (e.g. "Your eyes are like the ocean"). Parallelism The use of similar or identical language, structures, events or ideas in different parts of a text. Pathetic fallacy When the mood of the character is reflected in the atmosphere (weather) or inanimate objects. Personification Where inanimate objects or abstract concepts are given human thoughts, actions, perceptions and emotions. E.g. "The moon danced mournfully over the water" - you see that a moon cannot actually dance or with mourning, therefore it is being personified in order to create artistic meaning. Repetition When a specific word, phrase, or structure is repeated several times, usually in close proximity, to emphasize a particular idea.

http://english.learnhub.com/lesson/4025-literary-devices