DEVICES AND ALLUSIONS TEST E. Author-Derived Descriptors and Movement/Style Descriptors

Orwellian

George Orwell. State surveillance, propaganda, euphemistic language, reality control

Dickensian

Charles Dickens. Bleak urban poverty, social inequality, melodramatic coincidence, vivid caricature.

Shakespearean

William Shakespeare. High-stakes ambition/jealousy, tragic flaw, heightened language, fate vs. agency.

Kafkaezque

Franz Kafka. Marked by overly byzantine and bureaucratic processes that often lead nowhere

Homeric

From Homer. Epic scale, heroic code, extended similes, elevated diction.

Byronic

Grom George Gordon Lord Byron. Brooding, charismatic rebel; self-exile; romantic defiance.

Lovecraftian

H.P. Lovecraf.; Cosmic horror; insignificance of humanity; unknowable forces.

Horatio Alger

Aspirational stories espousing a "bootstrap ethic,” or those who can make it on their own merits

Jamesian

Henry James. Psychological nuance, social manners, moral ambiguity, interior consciousness.

Austenian

Jane Austen. Social satire via manners, courtship economics, precise irony

Brontean

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Stormy passion, gothic intensity, moral fervor, wild landscapes.

Borgesian

Jorge Luis Borges. Labyrinths, infinite libraries, doubles, philosophical puzzles, metafiction.

Nabokovian

Vladomir Nabokov. Linguistic virtuosity, unreliable elegance, moral unease under playful style.

Joycean

James Joyce. Stream of consciousness, linguistic experimentation, mythic parallels.

Miltonic

John Milton. Grand moral/theological stakes; elevated rhetoric; epic gravitas.

Allegorically “Bunyanesque”

Moral journey; symbolic landscapes; personified virtues/vices.

Gothic

Haunting, decay, secrets, dread; architecture and atmosphere matter.

Absurdist

Meaning collapses; logic fails; comedy and despair coexist.

Surreal

Dream logic; uncanny juxtapositions; reality destabilized.

Grotesque

Distortion of body/behavior; unsettling blend of comic and horrific.

Baroque

Ornate, elaborate, high-detail complexity; sometimes dizzying excess.

Picaresque

Roguish protagonist; episodic adventures; satire through misadventure.

Pastoral

Idealized rural life; often used ironically against real hardship.

Noir

Fatalism, moral ambiguity, corruption; hard-edged voice.

Naturalistic

Humans shaped by environment, heredity, systems; limited agency.

Expressionistic

External world warped to reflect inner emotion or dread.

Allegorical

Characters/events operate as symbolic arguments or moral ideas.