List of literary features

[t3tsubo]

I made a list and some notes on literary features to look out for (especially during the unseen commentary). Feel free to use this list to help prepare for your own May exams.

List of Literary Features

- Allegory

o a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal, usually through symbolism

- Allusion

o a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage

- Analogies

o Something unfamiliar explained using an equivalent familiar example

- Anecdotes

o Short, entertaining side stories that related to the plot

- Antithesis

o used to describe a character who presents the exact opposite as to personality type or moral outlook to another character

- Aphorism

o a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written

- Characterization

o Direct – author/narrator talks about the characteristics

o Indirect – revealed through interaction with themselves and with others

o Anything can be characterization because Characters Carry the Plot

- Conceit

o An extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison

- Denotative/Connotative Meaning

o When something has both a literal meaning that is significant, as well as a figurative meaning that is equally if not more important

- Diction/Word Choice

o Can be used to create an effect – tone, mood, or reinforce the theme or a style

- Enjambment

o The continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break.

- Epiphany

- Flashback

- Foreshadowing

- Framing device

o When the narrative is starts and ends with something, which frames the said narrative to create and effect

- Grammer

o Dashes and commas, parentheses and sentence fragments – usually a lesser form of stream of consciousness but also used to reveal the thought process of a character at a given time

- Imagery/Sensory Detail

o Brings the audience into the scene by immersing them in the experience, in the setting

- Irony

o Verbal irony is a disparity of expression and intention: when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect. An acute example of this would be sarcasm.

o Dramatic irony is a disparity of expression and awareness: when words and actions possess a significance that the listener or audience understands, but the speaker or character does not.

o Situational irony is the disparity of intention and result: when the result of an action is contrary to the desired or expected effect. Likewise, cosmic irony is disparity between human desires and the harsh realities of the outside world (or the whims of the gods).

o Verbal and situational irony is often intentionally used as emphasis in an assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, or the irony of sarcasm or litotes may involve the emphasis of one's meaning by deliberate use of language that states the direct opposite of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection

- Juxtaposition

o When the author places two themes, characters, phrases, words, or situations together for the purpose of comparison, contrast, or rhetoric.

- Magic Realism

o When magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner which allows the "real" and the "fantastic" to be accepted in the same stream of thought

- Metaphor

- Metonymy

o is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. For instance, "Washington," as the capital of the United States, could be used as a metonym for its government

- Mockery

o A form of mocking – deriding a character or a group of people, can be employed by another character, or by the narrator

- Mood

o When a scene is emotionally charged, although the emotional may be one such as melancholy or apathy. Used to supplement setting and sometimes to create its own effect

- Motif

o A symbol that is repeated throughout the narrative that relates to a specific theme of the narrative. Rarely obvious

- Narration

o First person, Third person limited, Omniscient

- Narrative hook

o Conscious, sometimes obvious attempt to grab and hold onto the audience’s attention

- Overstatement/Hyperbole

- Onomatopoeia

- Oxymoron

- Paradox

o a method of literary composition - and analysis - which involves examining apparently contradictory statements and drawing conclusions either to reconcile them or to explain their presence

- Parody

o Imitation of something meant to ridicule it

- Pastiche

o Imitation of the style of another person

- Pathetic Fallacy

o A form of personification – the reflection of the mood of a character (usually the protagonist) in the atmosphere or inanimate objects

- Pathos/Emotional Appeal

o one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric used by the author to inspire pity or sorrow in the reader towards a character

- Personification

- Plot Device

o an object or character whose sole purpose is to advance the plot

- Poetic Justice

o when virtue is ultimately rewarded or vice punished, often in modern literature by an ironic twist of fate intimately related to the character's own conduct

- Polyphony

o is a feature of narrative, which includes a diversity of points of view and voices

- POV

o can be shifted with or without warning to create an effect

- Sentence Structure/Argument Structure

o Watch for: subject first vs. verb first, double negatives, interesting construction, intricacy and discrepancy in the argument.

- Setting

- Stream of consciousness

o Usually devoid of grammer, reflects the innermost thoughts and workings of a characters mind during the stream’s text

- Symbolism

- Theme

- Tone

o Character specific, or narrator specific

o Ambiguity, philosophical, sarcastic, ironic, surprise, condescending, detached, etc.

- Understatement

o Giving an expression with less strength than would be expected, can be used to the effect of highlighting the importance of the thing being understated

o Litotes is a form of understatement in which a certain statement is expressed by denying its opposite

- Unreliable/biased narrator

- Verfremdungseffekt

o An effect that prevents the audience from losing itself passively and completely in the character created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer

- Voice

o Voice of the author is a combination of a writer's use of syntax, diction, punctuation, character development, dialogue, etc., within a given body of text

Please post any other literary features/devices that I have not included! My teacher for English A1 was pretty thorough though =D

[Sandwich]

Some important ones which crop up all the time like alliteration, assonance, sibilance, end-stopping and simile (and some less )...

Alliteration - repetition of initial letter (people prod penguins repeats 'p' sound)

Assonance - repetition of a vowel sound (like flub dub dub repeats the 'uh' sound)

Chiasma - pattern of sentence, ideas or words which follows the pattern ABBA. e.g. 'flying freely freedom flew'; most often in english it happens with ideas in a sentence rather than words.

End-stopping - line of poetry which ends the line with a full stop. Simple xP

Portmanteau - mostly in nonsense poetry, the fusing of two words to make a new one e.g. 'fuming' and 'furious' to make 'frumious' in Lewis Caroll's Jabberwocky, or 'smoke' and 'fog' to make 'smog'.

Sibilance - reptition of an s sound (seven silky sausages slinked slowly repeats the 's' sound)

Simile - similar to a metaphor, but rather than saying that x IS y, you say that x is LIKE y (she danced graceful as a swan)

The repetition of 'sound' bit is important, because it's about how it would sound if you said it out loud. Silent letters don't count, in other words!

[hannah.mb]

WOW! Long list there, of things that I didn't know about!! The things I focus on are Alliteration, assonance, sibilance, consonance, onamotapoiea (however you spell that!), irony, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, imagery, personification, euphemism, puns.... yep. Well as I am writing tomorrow I don't think I have time to learn all of the devices in your long list above...

[t3tsubo]

most of the things in my list are for writing a commentary on a prose passage, not a poem thats why. I'm writing mine tomorrow too!

[hanz]

Thank you!! all though we havent taken some of them, but there are ones that are a must to include like setting, mood, toon, narration right? the rest arent really important! Ah i hope we all ace English A1 tomorrow!! Good luck all!

[may]

wow, this is a very good list. i tried to find something to add, but i think it's compelete! well done (: and thank you.

[Tilia]

erlebte rede - a mixture of direct and indirect speech

[Center Field]

Anaphora -When the first word or grouping of words in a line is repeated on neighboring lines.

Shakespeare and Whitman do this a lot

Edited July 18, 2010 by Center Field

[Tilia]

Anaphora -When the first word or grouping of words in a line is repeated on neighboring lines.

Shakespeare and Whitman do this a lot

Does not have to be in a poem/play, can also be that neighbouring sentences begin with the same word.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Tilia

[Center Field]

Anaphora -When the first word or grouping of words in a line is repeated on neighboring lines.

Shakespeare and Whitman do this a lot

Does not have to be in a poem/play, can also be the neighbouring sentences begin with the same word.

I see. I never see it in books though (or at least not in sections where there is no dialogue!)

Anyways in the topic I should add

Epistrophe-which is the same thing as an anaphora but the repetition occurs at the end of the sentence

Anadiplosis-which is the repetition at the end of a sentence and at the beginning of another

Kataphora-repetition of a device at the end of a sentence

Paralipsis-when an author draws attention to something while feigning to pass over it

Edited July 19, 2010 by Center Field

[IB Smacher Glau]

I Use PAFL ( Point of view, Audience,Format,Language ) and structure the commentary based of this shortcut in addition to the amazing above list

[ro_1293x]

One random one that can come up often in poems/prose:

Apostrophe - speaker is addressing someone dead, imaginary, not present

e.g. In John Keats peom Ode to Psyche, addresses Psyche all throughout though not actually present.

Listing

Climax/Anti-climax - similar to listing but that the words are building up or slowing down

e.g. She was sitting, she was crying, she was yelling. (climax)

Less common ones,

Euphemism - using positive words to portray something that is negative

e.g. Saying he 'passed away' is a pleasant way of saying he died.

Litotes (opp.) - using negative words to describe something positive.

Edited April 29, 2012 by ro_1293x