Literary Devices

Archaic -- very old or old-fashioned use of language. Thou/Thee; Cut a rug.

Allegory -- a story where the characters, events and even items can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. Pilgrim's Progress - spiritual allegory; LOTF - human nature; AF - historic allegory.

Allusion -- a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. Art class was my term 1 Waterloo.

Apostrophe -- an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person or thing. O love, comfort my heart!; Neil, clean the dishes!

Antithesis -- a strong contrast or even opposition between two ideas or things in an artwork; such as hatred stirs up strife, but love brings peace.

Climax -- a decisive moment or a turning point in a storyline at which the main conflict is resolved. 

Crisis -- when a difficult or important decision/action must be made that will result in the main conflict being resolved. The crisis will precede or be simultaneous with the climax, as the climax is the result of the decision made during the crisis.

Characterization -- representation of human nature in terms of motives, actions and traits. There are three components to characterization: plausibility, consistency and motive. There are a few types: flat/stock; round/dynamic; and foils.

Motif -- recurring element in a work of art; it could be a recurring object, subject, theme, idea.

Dilemma -- a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more undesirable alternatives. Would you rather eat a banana snail or a furry caterpillar?

Foreshadow -- a hint or warning or indication of a future event in a story. Narrator in 'David' seeing the fallen Mnt. Goat.

Flashback -- a device in the narrative of a story by which an event taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work.

Narration -- act of telling a story. The four ways to narrate a story: 1st person; 3rd person omniscient; 3rd person limited omniscient; 3rd person objective. These are the P.o.V. from which the story is told.

Litotes -- a form of understatement through negative affirmation. E.g., you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad. 

Paradox -- a seemingly self-contradictory statement or proposition that, when analyzed correctly, can be demonstrated to be true. Less is more.

Oxymoron -- a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction; e.g. hard feathers; hateful love; clear smoke; dead life; jumbo shrimp; tough wimp, etc.

Epic -- a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation. E.g., Beowulf, Illiad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Paradise Lost, etc..

Sonnet -- a poem of fourteen lines using an iambic rhyme scheme, having ten syllables per line in English. There are no restrictions on content.

Prose -- writing whose basic unit is the sentence.

Poetry -- writing whose basic unit is the verse.

Plot -- the sequence of events in a story.

Setting -- Where and when a story occurs.

Theme -- Any set of ideas that an artwork is designed to convey.

Narrative poem -- any poem which tells a story.

Lyric -- any poem which can be sung.

Hyperbole -- exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. If you don't flush the toilet, I'll beat you within an inch of your life!‚

Personification -- the attribution of human characteristics to something not human. The sea was angry last night.

Soliloquy -- an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play or film. The intent is to reveal the inner thoughts and motives of the character to the audience.

Parody -- an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. E.g., Bond films‚ Austin Powers; Weird Al's take on songs. 

Satire -- the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule in an artwork to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices. E.g. Django Unchained ‚Üí critique racism / exploitation.

Symbol -- a thing that represents something else, often a material object representing something abstract. E.g., the limousine was a symbol of his wealth and authority.

Atmosphere -- the emotional texture of a work of art. In writing, it is revealed through the diction of the dialogue, tone of the narrator, the characterization, and the descriptions of the setting.

Onomatopoeia -- the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle, knock-knock, Eeyore). 

Metaphor -- the comparison or identification of two unlike things. E.g. 'that guy is a rat!'

Simile -- the comparison or identification of two unlike things using like, as or than. E.g. 'that guy is like a rat; that guy is as trustworthy as a rat; that guy is less trustworthy than a rat!' Note these are stated in increasing degrees of identification.

Ballad -- Any poem that is both lyric and narrative; that is, a poem which tells a story and can be sung.

Tone -- the attitude of an artist toward his subject matter.

Rhythm -- the pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line of verse.

Rhyme Scheme -- the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of neighbouring lines in a poem.

Imagery -- Use of language to evoke any of the five senses.

Free Verse -- a poem that does not have proscribed rhyme scheme, rhythm or content.

Blank Verse -- verses without end rhyme, but which uses iambic pentameter (5 feet of unstressed/stressed syllables).

Pastoral -- a work of literature portraying a positive or idealized version of nature & people.

Didactic -- art that is intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive. E.g. In The Heat of the Night is a didactic novel set out to expose social injustice.

Romantic -- 1. A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 1700s, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual over traditional, external authority. 2. Stories characterized by the expression of love between couples.

Irony -- a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects.

Ending -- the conclusion of a story; it will be one of three types: happy / sad / indeterminate.

Denouement -- the final part of a story in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Conflict -- any force against which characters struggle. There are external and internal forces which can be sources of conflict.

Direct/Indirect Presentation -- In direct presentation, a character is described by the author, the narrator or the other characters. In indirect presentation, a character's traits are revealed by its action and speech.

Deus-ex-machina -- an unexpected event that saves a seemingly hopeless situation. 

Euphony -- a harmonious, pleasing combination of words or sounds. E.g., wedding bells.

Cacophony -- a rough or harsh combination of words or sounds. E.g., alarm bells.

Ellipsis -- the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues. Three dots indicating an ellipsis.

Parallel Structure -- Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more words or ideas are of equal importance; Ashley likes to ski, to swim and to jump. This uses parallel structure. An incorrect version of this sentence would read: Ashley likes to ski, to swim and jumping.

Inciting Incident -- the event or decision that begins or introduces a story's main conflict. Everything up to that moment is backstory; everything after is "the story."

Alliteration -- the occurrence of the same consonant sound at the beginning of neighbouring words.

Consonance -- the occurrence of the same consonant sound at the end or middle of neighbouring words.

Assonance -- the occurrence of the same vowel sound in neighbouring words without respect for where.

Pun -- a play on words; a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings. 

E.g., the pigs were a squeal (if you'll forgive the pun); '"you can make your own antifreeze by stealing her blanket" is a pun guaranteed to get some groans'; 'his first puzzle punned on composers, with answers like Handel with care and Haydn go seek'.

Metonymy -- the substitution of the name of an attribute or phrase closely associated with the thing meant: E.g., suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.

Synecdoche -- a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Boston won by six runs (meaning Boston's baseball team).

Cliche -- a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. E.g., It's not you, it's me is an overused, terribly lame break-up cliche. As well, to comfort with there are many fish in the sea is another completely lame cliche.

Portmanteau -- a word whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms (as smog from smoke and fog; or as snirt from dirt and snow).

Bias -- any artwork that shows an inclination or prejudice, a loss of objectivity.

Rhetorical Question -- any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information.

Comic Relief -- comic parts in a literary work that offset more serious sections. E.g., The Porter scene in Macbeth,the grave-digger scene in Hamlet and the gulling of Roderigo in Othello provide immense comic relief.

Euphemism -- an expression substituted for another considered too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. E.g., "downsizing for 'job cuts'.

Tragedy -- A drama or literary work in which the main character rises to some significant level and then is brought to ruin as a consequence of a tragic flaw or moral weakness. A tragedy is therefore always a rise & fall story.

Hubris -- an excessive arrogance or sense of superiority and self-importance; one who is full of conceit and superciliousness.

Nemesis -- a downfall caused by an inescapable force. E.g. Superman ‚Üí kryptonite.

Katharsis -- the purging of the emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of a tragedy.

Comedy -- a dramatic work that is amusing with a fall and restoration, usually having a cheerful ending. A recurring pattern in comic drama is the triumph over unpleasant circumstances which yields the happy conclusion.

Historical Fiction -- historical drama is a genre in which the story is based upon historical events and actual people from the past.