Literary Techniques + Devices Flashcards
The mood, emotional tone or feeling of a literary work. Specific settings often have a certain mood/(…….) associated with them.
Atmosphere
The reader feels what the character feels. It is much more than simply sympathy which is an understanding or acknowledgement of the feelings of a character.
Empathy
The interruption of a story’s narrative in order to present an earlier scene or episode. It may come in the way of a memory recollection or a scene inserted into the piece fiction. It is NOT simply a character remembering something form the past.
Flashback
It is a device by means of which the author hints at something to follow. This helps make unexpected endings believable. It increases the reader’s feeling of suspense. It also serves to give readers just enough information to keep them interested and reading until the end of a piece.
Foreshadowing
It is a term which refers to some contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. It takes on a number of special forms…
Irony
Words that are intended to mean the exact opposite of what is stated (not to be confused with sarcasm, which is a tone of voice often accompanying it). There is a contrast between what is literally said and what is actually meant.
(EX.: A forest is destroyed to create paper and that paper is used to criticize deforestation)
Verbal Irony
An unexpected turn of events, the opposite of what would be a conventional or appropriate outcome. A set of circumstances turns out to be the reverse of what is expected or is appropriate.
Situational Irony
An awareness of information by the audience and one character or more on a stage not shared by another character. The state of affairs known to the audience (or reader) is the reverse of what its participants suppose it to be.
Dramatic Irony
The quality in a literary work that evokes a feeling of pity, tenderness and sympathy from the reader or audience. It is an element within a story which appeals to our emotions rather than our minds. It make us care about a character or situation (tugs at our heartstrings).
Pathos
The psychological tension or anxiety resulting from the reader’s uncertainty of just how a situation or conflict is likely to end. It makes the reader want to find out what happens.
Suspence
The attitude the writer takes toward the subject he or she is writing about. Just as we reveal our attitude by our tone of voice when we are speaking, so writers show their attitude by the style in which they write.
(EX.: humorous, critical, bitter, ect.)
Tone
The point in a literary work at which the action turns for or against the main character.
Turning Point
The repetition of similar or identical sounds found in the beginning of two or more words.
EX.: Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers…
Alliteration
A brief reference to a person, event or thing that the writer assumes the reader will recognize. Such events may come from history, the bible, mythology or literature.
Allusion
Repetition of vowel sounds.
EX.: Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Assonance
The attribution of human form or behavior to anything other than a human being
Anthropomorphism
Repetition of consonant sounds
EX.: Live-love
Consonance
The quoted conversation of two or more people providing details about the character and their situation.
Dialogue
In poetry, the continuation of a sentence from one line to the next.
Enjambmentn
To say harsh things gently.
Ex.: He passed away instead of he died.
Euphemism
The deliberate exaggeration in order to emphasize a fact or feeling.
Ex.: The movie bored me to death.
Hyperbole
The references the author make that relates to our five senses.
Ex.: The crisp wind sent a chill through her body.
Imagery
A figure of speech in which two things are compared without the use of like or as.
Ex.: A heart of gold.
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which a word used closely resembles the sound to which it refers
Ex.: boom, pow buzz.
Onomatopoeia
