Literary Devices and Techniques 1

Absolute

A word free from limitations or qualifications such as 'best,' 'all,' 'unique,' 'perfect.'

Adage

A familiar proverb or wise saying.

Allegory

A literary work where characters, objects, or actions represent abstractions.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial sounds in successive or neighboring words.

Allusion

A reference to something literary, mythological, or historical that the author expects the reader to recognize.

Analogy

A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way.

Anaphora

Repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive lines or sentences.

Anecdote

A brief narrative focusing on a particular incident or event.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.

Antithesis

A statement balancing two opposing ideas.

Aphorism

A concise statement expressing a general truth or idea, often using rhyme or balance.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech directly addressing an absent or imaginary person or abstraction.

Archetype

A detail, image, or character type occurring frequently in literature and myth, appealing universally to the unconscious.

Argument

A statement of the meaning or main point of a literary work.

Asyndeton

A construction presenting elements in a series without conjunctions.

Balanced Sentence

A sentence setting off words, phrases, or clauses against each other to emphasize a contrast.

Bildungsroman

A novel dealing with the formative years of the main character, focusing on psychological development and moral education.

Chiasmus

A statement with two parallel parts structurally reversed, like 'Fair is foul and foul is fair.'

Cliché

An overused expression lacking freshness.

Climax

The point of highest interest in a literary work.

Colloquialism

Informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing.

Complex Sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Compound Sentence

A sentence with two or more coordinate independent clauses, often joined by conjunctions.

Conceit

A clever extended metaphor.

Irony

the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; or, incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs

Jargon

the specialized language or vocabulary of a particular group or profession

Juxtaposition

placing two elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast

Legend

a narrative handed down from the past, containing historical elements and usually supernatural elements

Limerick

light verse consisting of five lines of regular rhythm in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, and the second and third lines rhyme

Limited Narrator

a narrator who presents the story as seen and understood by a single character and restricts information to what is seen, heard, thought, or felt by that one character

Literary License

deviating from normal rules or methods in order to achieve a certain effect (intentional sentence fragments, for example)

Litotes

a type of understatement in which an idea is expressed by negating its opposite

Malapropism

the mistaken substitution of one word for another word that sounds similar

Maxim

a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage

Metaphor

a direct comparison of two different things

Metonymy

substituting the name of one object for another object closely associated with it

Mood

the emotional atmosphere of a work

Motif

a standard theme, element, or dramatic situation that recurs in various works

Motivation

a character's incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act

Myth

a traditional story presenting supernatural characters and episodes that help explain natural events

Narrative

a story or narrated account

Narrator

the one who tells the story; may be first- or third-person, limited or omniscient

Non Sequitur

an inference that does not follow logically from the premises

Omniscient Narrator

a narrator who is able to know, see, and tell all, including the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters

Onomatopoeia

a word formed from the imitation of natural sounds

Oxymoron

an expression in which two words that contradict each other are joined

Parable

a simple story that illustrates a moral or religious lesson

Paradox

an apparently contradictory statement that actually contains some truth