Literary Devices and Terms: Allusion, Anaphora, Characterization, and More

ALLUSION

reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.).

ANTECEDENT

an earlier clause, phrase, or word to which a pronoun, noun, or another word refers. Broadly speaking, antecedent is a literary device in which a word or pronoun in a line or sentence refers to an earlier word. For instance, "While giving treats to children or friends offer them whatever they like." In this line, children and friends are antecedents, while they is a pronoun that refers to friends and children. It is a typical linguistic term and originates from grammar.

ANASTROPHE

(AKA inversion or inverted syntax; see also: syntax below for more information) Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony.

APOSTROPHE

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation. Josiah Holland ---"Loacöon! Thou great embodiment/ Of human life and human history!"

CHARACTERIZATION

the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character.

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character's private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form.

STATIC CHARACTER

is one who does not change much in the course of a story.

DYNAMIC CHARACTER

is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action.

FLAT CHARACTER

has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase.

ROUND CHARACTER

has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just a real people are.

DICTION

a speaker or writer's choice of words.

DIGRESSION

use of material unrelated to the subject.

ELEGY

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. A Eulogy is great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.

FRAME NARRATIVE

a story in which another story is enclosed or embedded as a "tale within the tale," or which contains several such tales.

HYPERBOLE

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. "If I told you once, I've told you a million times...."

IAMB

two-syllable metrical foot - unaccented, then accented.

IMAGERY

the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person , a thing, a place, or an experience.

INVERSION

(AKA anastrophe or inverted syntax; see also: syntax below for more information) the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.

LYRIC POEM

a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. A ballad tells a story.

METER

the meter is the pattern of beats in a line of poetry. It is a combination of the number of beats and arrangement of stresses.

MOOD

an atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected.

NARRATIVE

a longer form of poetry that tells an entire story, with a beginning, middle, and end; usually contain all of the elements of a fully developed story, including characters, plot, conflict, and resolution.

ODE

a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter.

ONOMATOPOEIA

the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. "Pop." "Zap."

OXYMORON

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. "Jumbo shrimp." "Pretty ugly." "Bitter-sweet"

PASTORAL

poetry known for exploring the relationship between humans and nature, and for romanticizing the ideals of a simple country life.

PERSONIFICATION

a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.

QUATRAIN

a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered as a unit.

RHYTHM

a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.

SONNET

a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization.

SYNECDOCHE

a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. "If you don't drive properly, you will lose your wheels." The wheels represent the entire car.

SYNTAX

the way in which words and sentences are placed together. Usually in the English language the syntax should follow a pattern of subject-verb-object agreement but sometimes authors play around with this to achieve a lyrical, rhythmic, rhetoric or questioning effect.

TONE

the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.

TROCHEE

A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable. Examples of trochaic words include "garden" and "highway."