Unseen Prose Techniques

Allegory

A story with a double meaning: primary and secondary

Allusion

(Language Technique) - subtle or indirect reference to another thing, a text, historical period or religious belief

Bildungsroman

a novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds within a phrase

didactic

intended to teach; morally instructive

disjunction

A conjunction that dramatically interrupts rhythm of sentence

Ellipsis

three full stops (...) indicating the omission of words in a thought or quotation

Fractured syntax

Incomplete sentences - used to convey tension and urgency

heterodiegetic narrator

the narrator is not a character in the story - 3rd person

homodiegetic narrator

A narrator who is an active participant in the story. - 1st person

interior monologue

writing expressing a character's inner thoughts

Motif

(n.) a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design

non-linear

Non-sequential narrative, events do not occur in chronological order

Parody

conscious imitation for a satiric purpose

oxymoron

a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g. deafening silence)

Dichotomy

a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different - essentially opposities (e.g. good and evil, real and imaginary, optimistic and pessimistic)