Questions tagged [literary-device]
For questions regarding an author's use of various literary techniques and other stylistic elements to allow the reader to better interpret and appreciate the work of literature.
73
questions
28
votes
4
answers
8k
views
What is the opposite of deus ex machina?
Deus ex machina is a plot device in which a seemingly unsolvable problem is resolved by a sudden and unexpected external event. For example: "The villain has our hero backed in a corner with no ...
- 413
26
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Did Borges invent the idea of writing reviews/summaries of imaginary literary works?
In reading short stories by the great Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, I've noticed a repeated theme: many of these stories are written in the style of a review or summary of a much larger and ...
- 70.7k
23
votes
1
answer
438
views
Was pretending to be an abridgement of a made-up work invented by William Goldman?
William Goldman's The Princess Bride is famous (among other reasons) for a literary device it employs - it pretends to be an abridgment (or "the good parts version") of a longer work by S. ...
- 4,477
18
votes
1
answer
684
views
To what effect does Goldman claim The Princess Bride is an abridgement?
This question was inspired by this question, which asks about the history of one work claiming itself as an adaptation or abridgment of another. In The Princess Bride by William Goldman, the author ...
- 6,015
14
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Does "The Soul selects her own Society" by Emily Dickinson have a simile?
Here is the poem "The Soul selects her own Society" by Emily Dickinson.
The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more —
Unmoved — ...
- 533
10
votes
2
answers
623
views
Was Mark Twain actually almost a millionaire twice over, before he became famous?
The prequel to Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad was Roughing It:
Roughing It illustrates many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to Salt Lake City, gold and silver prospecting, real-estate ...
user59
10
votes
1
answer
600
views
Is alliteration adjacent words and/or close together words starting with the same letter? If words between are permitted then how many?
OK, I know this question isn't about literary analysis or anything but I posted this on ELU and it was put on hold (as off-topic) and I was advised to post it here.
Is alliteration exclusively ...
- 2,156
9
votes
2
answers
558
views
Are there earlier incidences than Merchant of Venice of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other?
In act 2, scene 2 of The Merchant of Venice, Launcelot Gobbo is conflicted regarding whether to run from Shylock, or continue working for him. Shakespeare expresses this internal conflict by ...
- 353
9
votes
1
answer
436
views
What is the narrative device that involves using inconsequential elements in the story?
I’m looking for the narrative device that, as opposed to Chekhov’s gun, involves purposely including accounts of events or things in the narrative that are inconsequential to the main story. This ...
9
votes
1
answer
5k
views
What effect does an epistolary format have on our understanding of the book as a reader?
There are many great works of literature written in the form of an epistolary novel. However, many of those stories could have also been told in a more traditional novel form. What effect does the ...
- 6,015
8
votes
2
answers
134
views
The name of a device by which an author reports the use of coarse language without quoting it?
Don, a soldier sleeping in a hammock, is abruptly awakened some hours earlier than expected and is quite alarmed, thinking the camp may be under attack by the enemy. The company headquarters runner ...
- 181
8
votes
1
answer
114
views
Term for intentionally impressing different meanings on different audiences
Is there a term for when an author intentionally generates two completely different responses from two distinct parts of their audience or readership?
An example I found could be in The Picture of ...
- 181
8
votes
2
answers
180
views
What do you call a break in rhyming in the middle of a book / poem for dramatic effect?
I'm creating a children's book for a school project. I've been tasked to identify some literary devices used throughout the book.
There is a section of the book which I want to highlight because it ...
- 81
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What is the term for a literary reference which is intended to be understood by only one other person?
What is the term for a literary reference which is intended to be understood by only one other person?
I came across this term some years ago but did not record it - wrongly assuming I could easily ...
6
votes
2
answers
146
views
What figure of speech is "trèfles de braise" in "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame"?
This is an extract of Book X, chapter IV of Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, emphasis mine):
Tous les yeux s'étaient levés vers le haut de l'église. Ce qu'ils ...
- 1,994
6
votes
1
answer
187
views
Are photographs in Harry Potter a device for characterizing subjects?
In an answer that I recently wrote elsewhere on this site, I posited that photographs are used by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter books as a device to portray the subjects of the photograph in a ...
- 5,920
6
votes
2
answers
6k
views
What figure of speech is "transient feet" in "A Photograph" by Shirley Toulson?
In the poem "A Photograph" by Shirley Toulson, the phrase "transient feet" appears in the last line of the first stanza:
All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the ...
6
votes
2
answers
144
views
Is there a word for the device where an adjective or descriptive verb is applied to a nearby word rather than the word it actually describes?
Eg. "the green and climbing eyesight of a cat" ("Sir, Say No More"); "[the quarry] whose trail soon vanished in the antlered wood" ("Arrowhead Hunting"). The ...
- 61
5
votes
4
answers
10k
views
What kind of language features appear in Lady Macbeth's line "too full o' the milk of human kindness"?
In Macbeth Act I Scene 5, Lady Macbeth says the following:
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human ...
- 143
5
votes
1
answer
628
views
What is the "uncanny" element of Gothic Literature?
In Wikipedia, the "uncanny" is defined as
the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious. It may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event ...
- 2,216
5
votes
1
answer
610
views
Why the capitalization of "Heavens" in Rudyard Kipling's "The Secret of the Machines"?
In Rudyard Kipling's poem The Secret of the Machines the last stanza goes as follows:
Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,
It will vanish and the stars will shine again,
...
5
votes
1
answer
146
views
What is the irony of a ten-dollar bill in Philip Dick's "Voices from the Street"?
There is a scene in the novel where the protagonist has sex with a woman, beats her up, and then departs leaving some money.
He had left a ten-dollar bill on the dresser for Marsha... He wondered if ...
- 1,225
5
votes
0
answers
62
views
Why does isolating "there" on its own line sound less emphatic in Korean than English?
I was reading Translator’s Note: Three Poems by Ko Un from the Poetry Foundation and came across this excerpt:
We translated “명사도 동사도 다” (“all nouns and verbs”) as “all words,” which sounds less ...
- 9,506
4
votes
2
answers
900
views
Analysis of "While I speak God's law, I will not crack its voice with whimpering."
In The Crucible, during act 4 (Danforth's monologue), he says
While I speak God's law, I will not crack its voice with whimpering.
When looking at this quote the only technique I can see is ...
- 151
4
votes
1
answer
358
views
Name of this lyrical device comparing oneself to something that's described by the same word, but in another sense of the word?
Warning: The examples contain some offensive words, but I believe that is not against the rules here?
Lately I've been listening a lot to a certain hip-hop album, in which almost every track uses a ...
- 187
4
votes
1
answer
144
views
What's the name of the literary device used by Sheymov to refer to himself in 3rd person?
In the introduction, the author explains that he'll use third person to refer to himself:
After much thought, I decided to write this book as a third-person account. For me it is a natural form of ...
- 4,477
4
votes
1
answer
48
views
Where can I find sources that could help me write about parody of human feelings in Beckett's novel "Molloy"?
My college assignment is to write about parody in Beckett's Molloy and I need to write about the parody of human feelings in this novel too. I would appreciate if someone could tell me which sources ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
154
views
What is the figure of speech used in this part of "Cataract Operation"?
What is the figure of speech used in these lines taken from the Simon Armitage poem "Cataract Operation"?
the olé of a crimson towel.
the cancan of a ra ra skirt,
the monkey business of a ...
user12179
4
votes
1
answer
225
views
Is the stormy weather an element of Naturalism in The Shining by Stephen King?
In Stephen King's novel The Shining, there seems to me to be a correlation between the weather and the sanity of Jack Torrance.
Namely, as the Torrance family becomes more isolated (i.e. people from ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
235
views
Is there a formal term for "mispronunciation as a comedic device"?
Mispronunciation can be a comedic device. (Zach Galifianakis has regularly used the device in situational comedy.)
I was trying to discuss the device formally, but couldn't recall a formal term for ...
- 4,178
4
votes
1
answer
251
views
Are the terms "metatextuality / metareference / metareferentiality" synonyms? Is the following definition correct?
Questions
I would like to know if I understood correctly that "metatextuality / metareference / metareferentiality" are synonyms and can be used interchangeably. Finally I summarize what I ...
- 191
4
votes
1
answer
411
views
Effect of enjambment in "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams
In "The Red Wheelbarrow" the poet William Carlos Williams uses enjambment to great effect (or so I have read):
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the ...
user12179
4
votes
0
answers
36
views
Has anastrophe decreased in frequency during the period of Modern English?
Anastrophe, the changing of usual subject-verb-object order for poetic reasons, is something that, anecdotally, strikes me as less frequent nowadays than in older writing from, say, the 19th century. ...
- 70.7k
4
votes
0
answers
254
views
In Philip Roth's The Human Stain, why might Delphine Roux be considered a caricature?
Roth is commonly considered to be, at best, a masculine writer and, at worst, a misogynistic one. In The Human Stain, for example, the central relationship is between two men, one of whom is sleeping ...
- 20.9k
4
votes
0
answers
96
views
Is there a word for a literary technique that allows a short passage to be read aloud in more than one way?
I recently started reading Sam Logan's Sam and Fuzzy online, and am greatly enjoying it.
In the fifth volume of the NMS Series (Sam and Fuzzy Missing Inaction, "Boundaries, Pt. 9") there's a cute ...
- 5,920
3
votes
3
answers
6k
views
What is the "YOU LED THEM TO US??!!!" plot device called?
I want to know what the plot device is called where the stumbling protagonist has a brush encounter with the antagonist who lets them free, so that they lead them to the "motherland" / "...
- 165
3
votes
1
answer
276
views
Literary devices in "Thou wouldst be great" et cetera in Macbeth
From Macbeth, Act I Scene V:
Lady Macbeth: Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it.
I understand what the quote means, but which literary devices ...
- 39
3
votes
1
answer
174
views
Does Vivien sleep with Merlin in Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"?
I am re-reading Tennyson's Idylls of the King after many years. His idyll "Merlin and Vivien" is a rather in-depth look at how Vivien learns Merlin's magic through some impressive feats of ...
- 769
3
votes
1
answer
83
views
Identify rhetorical/stylistic device in Tanpınar's The Time Regulation Institute
Is this an example of any rhetorical/stylistic device or literary technique?
But can one really call it a life? If to live is to endure endless pain and destitution and to suffer humiliation so deep ...
- 165
3
votes
1
answer
299
views
Sonnet 39 of Astrophil and Stella: Are these epithets or metaphors?
This is Sonnet 39 of Astrophil and Stella, also known as Come Sleep! O Sleep:
Come Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man’s wealth, the ...
- 175
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What would be the name for foreshadowing if it is referencing the past?
In literature, if foreshadowing is reference to future events, what would it be called if it is referencing a past event which the reader does not know?
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Are these quotes from Orwell's 1984 similes, metaphors, or something else?
Winston's entrails seemed to have turned into ice.
I thought metaphor, but it's the "seemed" that's throwing me off.
It's not quite 'something IS something else' (i.e. his 'entrails turned into ice')...
- 31
3
votes
2
answers
599
views
What literary term/device is used when a character in a novel represents the author?
I'm reading a novel called Persepolis for my English course, and it's about a girl named Marji that grows up during the 1979 Revolution. The author's intention with the novel is to break Western ...
- 33
3
votes
0
answers
52
views
How does the figure of “dropping oil to catch the air-borne motes” work in George Eliot’s “The Spanish Gypsy”?
The Spanish Gypsy (1868) by George Eliot is a closet drama in blank verse, set in Spain in the late 15th century, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Duke Silva of Bedmár is engaged to Fedalma,...
- 52k
3
votes
0
answers
90
views
What is the point of "the story so far"/recaps in book series?
I just finished the book "The Fellowship of the Ring". Now I've started with "The Two Towers". It begins by recapping the story of the first book.
For who exactly is this "...
- 31
3
votes
0
answers
90
views
Forms of foregrounding: are recurrence / equivalence the same?
I'm struggling to grasp the difference between the literary devices of recurrence and equivalence. I'm preparing for an exam where we are asked to define these terms. In German, they are referred to ...
- 191
2
votes
1
answer
77
views
What form of figurative language is this in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"?
I was reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe which is set in pre-colonial Nigeria. During a ceremony where members of the clan of Umofia are hearing out cases the leaders who are dressed up as ...
2
votes
2
answers
326
views
Why are some metaphors not similes?
This Master Class website says that
A simile is a type of metaphor. All similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes.
Is this true? Can anyone cite an official textbook?
Please explain ...
user11753
2
votes
3
answers
488
views
Where is dramatic irony present in Macbeth?
In a school book it is written
Dramatic Irony or Irony of situation: It involves a situation in a play or story in which the audience knows the reality which the speaker or character is ignorant of.
...
- 1,525
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Analyzing the alliteration of the first line of Lolita
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
Please help me analyze the alliteration from the line above. Which 'L' words attribute to the alliteration? Lo, Li from Lolita and light, ...
- 29