Literary Devices Flashcards
Exposition
The introduction to a story, including the primary characters’ names, setting, mood and time.
Paradox
A statement that appears to contradict itself but upon further inspection reveals a deeper truth, meaning, or joke.
Juxtaposition
When you place two concepts or objects next to or near each other, thereby highlighting their innate differences and similarities.
Cliffhanger
A literary device that ends a section of a story in a stunning event or a big dramatic question.
Metaphor
A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated.
Extended Metaphor
When a writer compares unrelated objects or ideas with figurative language for more than a sentence.
Similie
A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the words “like” or “as.”
Analogy
A literary device used to compare similarities between two unrelated things as a way to make a point through the comparison.
Allusion
An implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text.
Motif
A repeated pattern—an image, sound, word, or symbol that comes back again and again within a particular story.
Symbol
A literary symbol is an object, a person, a situation, or an action that has a literal meaning in a story but suggests or represents other meanings.
Imagery
A vivid, detailed description of an object or scene.
Archetypes
A recognizable character type that appears again and again in narratives across cultures.
Onomatopoeia
A literary device that uses the letter sounds of a word to imitate the natural sound emitted from an object or action.
Hyperbole
A literary device used to emphasize or draw attention to a certain element in a story.
Foreshadowing
A narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted.
Suspence
The audience’s excited anticipation about the plot or conflict.
Flash Forward & Flashback
Ways in which a narrative’s discourse re-order’s a given story. Flashbacks reveal things that have occurred in the past, flashforwards reveal things that will occur in the future.
Euphemism
A word or phrase used to obliquely describe something unpleasant, impolite, or taboo.
Mood
The emotions that a text evokes from the reader.
Dramatic Irony
When the audience understands more about a situation than some of the characters do.
Situational Irony
When the opposite of what is expected actually happens.
Verbal Irony
When you say something different than what you mean.
Diction
Specific word choices that a writer uses to affect many things, such as a reader’s connotations, tone, and point-of-view.
