Literary Devices Flashcards
Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language. It’s language that uses words in ways that deviate from their literal interpretation to achieve a more complex or powerful effect. This view of figurative language focuses on the use of figures of speech that play with the meaning of words.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative language refers to language that contains figures of speech, while figures of speech are the particular techniques. If figurative language is like a dance routine, figures of speech are like the various moves that make up the routine.
Figurative Language: FIGURES OF SPEECH
(The author’s choice of words) are figures of speech/figurative language with an unexpected twist in the meaning of words. When using this device, you intend for the word or words to have a meaning that is different than the literal meaning.
DICTION
are figures of speech that deal with word order, syntax, letters, and sounds, rather than the meaning of words? They become rhetorical devices, too, when they are used to persuade, inform, inspire, or entertain target audiences.
SYNTAX
What appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case
IRONY
Involves a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.
Irony: SITUATIONAL IRONY
Is when words express something contrary to truth or someone says the opposite of what they really feel or mean. It is often sarcastic
Irony: VERBAL IRONY
Is when the audience knows something—usually a lot of things—that the characters don’t.
Irony: DRAMATIC IRONY
Words used in quick succession that begin with the same sound group. Whether it is the consonant sound (consonance) or a specific vowel group (assonance), the alliteration involves creating a repetition of similar sounds in the sentence.
Alliteration (Diction) (Figurative Language)
The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Repetitions at the end of successive clauses is called Epiphora.
Anaphora (diction or syntax) (Figurative Language)
A feeling or idea that a word has, in addition to its literal meaning (called denotation). Often, a series of words can have the same basic definitions, but completely different connotations—these are the emotions or meanings implied by a word, phrase, or thing.
Connotation
A completely over-the-top exaggeration or overstatement. Can be humorous or serious.
Hyperbole (Diction or Syntax) (Figurative Language)
A nice way of saying something not so nice. We see euphemisms all the time, especially when talking about things that are, um, kind of hard to talk about, like sex, death, and race.
Euphemism (Diction or Syntax) (Figurative Language)
Imagery is all of the pictures and sensations a piece of writing conjures up in your noggin. Imagery is the key to literature—especially poetry. If you’re reading a description that engages any one of your five senses, you’re reading imagery, folks. Writers can use figurative language as one tool to help create imagery, but imagery does not have to use figurative language
Imagery (Diction or Syntax)
You’ll find allusions (think of them as shout-outs) when the book you’re reading makes a reference to something outside of itself, whether another work of literature, something from pop culture, a song, myth, history, or even the visual arts.
Imagery: Allusion
A word, an image, or anything that somehow represents a larger idea. In other words, what you see is not just what you get. In America, eagles are a symbol of freedom. In punk rock, the safety pin is a symbol of rebellion. In Western literature, the apple is often a symbol for sin. But when talking about symbols, it’s also important to remember that the symbol is still itself, in addition to what it symbolizes
Symbol
Bam! Pow! Biff! Vronk! Sploosh!
Onomatopoeia
A metaphor is a kind of word magic that changes black hats into rabbits and scarves into doves. Metaphors compare two different things; metaphors describe one object as another. It’s almost as if the object becomes what it is being compared to. “You’re a toad!” is a metaphor. So is “you’re a star!”
Metaphor
Uses the adverbs “like” or “as” to make a comparison or analogy.
Metaphor: Simile
sin-EK-duh-KEY. A part of something represents the whole. So the next time someone says to you, “All hands on deck,” tell them thanks for the synecdoche, but you think it’s best that your whole body goes on deck, too.
Metaphor: Synecdoche
An object is used to describe something that’s closely related to it. So, for example, when you’re talking about the power of a king, you might say “the crown,” instead. The crown is the physical object that is usually associated with royalty and power.
Metaphor: Metonymy
Gives human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to animals, non-living objects, or ideas (like things, colors, qualities, even abstract ideals).
Metaphor: Personification
It’s a story with two levels of meaning. First, there’s the surface of the story. You know, the characters and plot and all that obvious stuff. Then there’s the symbolic level, that can be political or religious, historical or philosophical, the deeper meaning that all the jazz on the surface represents. Allegories are kind of like massive metaphors, but they usually come in narrative form—that is, they’re told through stories.
Metaphor: Allegory
A story, play, poem, picture, or other work in which the
characters and events represent particular moral, religious, or political qualities or ideas used to make connections between familiar and unfamiliar things, suggest a deeper significance, or create imagery in the reader’s mind. Analogies allow writers to say something in an abstract way, encouraging deeper thought.
Metaphor: Analogy
A statement or situation that may be true but seems impossible or difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics: “This statement is false.” “The more you hate a trait in someone else, the more likely you are avoiding it in yourself.” “The less you care about others, the less you care about yourself.” “I must be cruel to be kind.”
Paradox
When the author refers to famous or infamous subject matter such as a place, event, or literary work in order to make a connection to the subject being mentioned/discussed. “Well, I’m no Hercules, but I could open that jelly jar for you.” “You’re acting like such a Scrooge!”
Allusion
A short saying that espouses some truth or advice.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
When someone has done something bad to you, trying to get revenge will only make things worse.
Proverb
A more expansive cousin to the proverb. A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Why use it as a literary device?
Parable
A short story in which animals or objects speaks a story, to teach a moral or religious lesson.
Fable
A pithy observation that contains a general truth.
Aphorism
