CW Flashcards
Allegory
Literary device
The word “allegory” comes from the Latin “allegoria,” meaning speaking to imply something else. An allegory is a simple story that represents a larger point about society or human nature, whose different characters may represent real-life figures. Sometimes, situations in the story may echo stories from history or modern-daylife, without ever explicitly stating this connection.
Allegories are similar to metaphors in that both illustrate an idea by making a comparison to something else. However, allegories are complete stories with characters, while metaphors are brief figures of speech.
Allegory is used in writing to express large, sometimes abstract ideas, or to comment on society
Examples:
Biblical allegory: C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. The lion, Aslan, represents a Christ character, who is the rightful ruler of the kingdom of Narnia. Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund, the Judas figure
Classical Allegory: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In this story, Plato imagines people living in a cave, only ever seeing objects as shadows reflected on the wall from the light of a fire—rather than seeing the objects directly. Plato used the cave as a symbolic representation of how humans live in the world, contrasting reality versus our interpretation of it
Modern allegory. Modern allegory includes many instances of a phenomenon called “allegoresis,” which refers to the interpretation of works as allegorial without them necessarily being intended that way. For example, there is an ongoing debate among readers about J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series, and whether or not the books were written as an allegory for World War I
Allusion
Literary device
Allusions are generally regarded as brief but purposeful references, within a literary text, to a person, place, event, or to another work of literature.
Examples:
1. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, published in 1851, opens with perhaps the most recognizable sentence in all of American literature: “Call me Ishmael.”
Ishmael is a Biblical name from the book of Genesis—he’s the oldest son of Abraham and brother of the more well-known Isaac. For our purposes, Ishmael is known for being an outcast from a great family; according to an angel who protects Ishmael’s mother Hagar, he is to be “a wild man” whose “hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.”
This allusion to the Biblical Ishmael achieves two goals, then. Without having to do much work at all—we’re only three words into the novel itself, we already learn a lot about Ishmael: that he is at odds with the world and with those around him; to keep from “methodically knocking people’s hats off,” he seeks the solitude that only an ocean voyage can provide. But the allusion also accomplishes a broader goal: it establishes the solemn but also ambitious tone that this novel conjures: while Ishmael shoves off with Captain Ahab on the Pequod from the shores of Nantucket, this is also the world of Noah and his ark, of Jonah and the whale, and Biblical reference serves to expand the novel’s presence beyond the 19th century, onto a plane with the most consequential and ancient human stories.
- Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, published in 1950, also partakes of allusion when its narrator and main character introduces himself: “I am an invisible man. No, I am not […] like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms.”
allusion is used again, this time more directly but just as quickly, as an act of self-definition by the novel’s narrator. Though invisible, he is not a specter from Edgar Allen Poe. Though he’s defining himself in the negative—by describing who he is by what he is not—his associations are telling: they predict the assumptions and associations of his readers, who likely know Poe’s work, thus creating an immediate relationship based on shared knowledge and reference. This narrator might not want to be associated with such dark figures as Poe’s Roderick Usher or William Wilson, but his protests only go so far. It’s difficult not to associate him with these characters from the American gothic tradition when we find him hunkered down in a basement, eerily lit but hundreds of lightbulbs, where he lives “not only visible, but formless.” So, while this reference to Poe in the opening lines of Invisible Man is lightning quick, the allusion performs a lot of heavy lifting.
- Take the popular expression “Bah humbug”—an allusion that references Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. The phrase, which is often used to express dissatisfaction, is associated with the tale’s curmudgeonly character, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Anachronism
a literary device that places someone or something associated with a particular historical time in the wrong time period
Sometimes anachronisms are actual blunders; other times, they intentionally add humor or comment on a specific historical period.
3 Types of Anachronism:
- Behavioral or cultural anachronism: Bringing archaic objects or ideas into the modern-day as an aesthetic choice. For example, a person carrying a conversation in Latin in the twenty-first century.
- Parachronism: A parachronism is anything that appears in the wrong period. This could be an object, a colloquial expression, or a social custom associated with a specific period appearing in the wrong era or outside of its general use—for example, a modern-day person using a washboard to clean clothes instead of a washing machine.
- Prochronism: Considered an impossible anachronism, this relates to something—an object or concept—used in a literary work or movie long before its invention (like a microwave in the Stone Age).
Intentional anachronism: Books and films featuring time travel often include intentional anachronisms. Another great example of deliberate anachronism is the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. The historical drama is set in the 1700s and chronicles the life of Marie Antoinette. However, Coppola wanted to draw attention to her protagonist’s youth and naivete, so she placed a pair of Converse High Tops in the background of one scene set in Antoinette’s bedroom.
Unintentional anachronism: By contrast, take the 1989 film Glory, which was set during the American Civil War and features an unintentional anachronism: a soldier wearing a digital wristwatch. Another famous example of unintentional anachronism is in the 1995 film Braveheart, which takes place during the thirteenth century. In the film, actor Mel Gibson wears a Scottish kilt; however, the iconic piece of clothing was not invented until the sixteenth century. Unintentional inaccuracies can ruin the suspension of disbelief for a reader or viewer
Why use anachronisms?
1. Add humor: The 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite took place in 2004, but the characters were dressed in clothing from the eighties. They had VCRs, cordless phones, and danced to eighties music—which all added to the protagonist’s social anxiety and sense of displacement.
2. Break the fourth wall: In the Western satire film Blazing Saddles, set in the year 1874, director Mel Brooks has the characters break through a wall—both real and metaphysical—to reveal a Hollywood production set.
3. Make a statement: For example, a Russian commemorative coin depicting the 1945 meeting of Soviet and American troops at Torgau in Germany depicts a 50-star US flag. However, the US flag only had 48 stars at the time.
What Is the Difference Between Intentional and Unintentional Anachronisms?
Writers or filmmakers can place intentional anachronisms in a story to add humor or juxtapose a work with another period. Unintentional anachronisms, however, are the result of an error. Consider the following:
Intentional anachronism: A great example of deliberate anachronism is the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. The historical drama is set in the 1700s and chronicles the life of Marie Antoinette. However, Coppola wanted to draw attention to her protagonist’s youth and naivete, so she placed a pair of Converse High Tops in the background of one scene set in Antoinette’s bedroom.
Unintentional anachronism:
By contrast, take the 1989 film Glory, which was set during the American Civil War and features an unintentional anachronism: a soldier wearing a digital wristwatch.
Another famous example of unintentional anachronism is in the 1995 film Braveheart, which takes place during the thirteenth century. In the film, actor Mel Gibson wears a Scottish kilt; however, the iconic piece of clothing was not invented until the sixteenth century. Unintentional inaccuracies can ruin the suspension of disbelief for a reader or viewer.
Some classic texts feature anachronisms with unknown intent. Many of Shakespeare’s plays include anachronisms, which may have been clever commentary or mistakes. For example, in the play Julius Caesar, the titular Roman general mentions a clock striking; mechanical, weighted clocks were not yet invented.
Behavioral or cultural anachronism
1/3 types of anachronism (literary device)
Bringing archaic objects or ideas into the modern-day as an aesthetic choice. For example, a person carrying a conversation in Latin in the twenty-first century.
Parachronism
1/3 types of anachronism (literary device)
A parachronism is anything that appears in the wrong period. This could be an object, a colloquial expression, or a social custom associated with a specific period appearing in the wrong era or outside of its general use—for example, a modern-day person using a washboard to clean clothes instead of a washing machine.
Prochronism
1/3 types of anachronism (literary device)
Considered an impossible anachronism, this relates to something—an object or concept—used in a literary work or movie long before its invention (like a microwave in the Stone Age).
The Greek word for prochronism is prochronos, which is a combination of the words pro- meaning “before” and khronos meaning “time”.
Cliffhanger
Plot device
a component of a story ends unresolved, usually in a suspenseful or shocking way, in order to compel audiences to turn the page or return to the story in the next installment
2 Categories:
1. The main character comes face-to-face with a dangerous or possibly life-threatening situation.
2. A shocking revelation comes to light, threatening to alter the course of the narrative
Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Ethos: Character
Logos: Reason
Pathos: Emotion
Ethos: use the speaker’s authority or credibility to persuade
Logos: Use logic or reason to persuade, e.g., evidence, stats, or historical events
Pathos: use emotion to persuade/make audience feel same emotions as the speaker, e.g., use sad music or images.
