Narrative Techniques
Terms
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- SYNTAX
- Grammatical sentence structure including: sentence length, sentence focus, word order.
- TONE
- The writer's attitude toward the subject
- IMAGERY
- Descriptive language used to re-create sensory experiences; vivid description
- DICTION
- Word choice (consider connotation and denotation), can be formal/informal, abstract/concrete, plain/ornate, ordinary/technical
- DETAIL
- Facts, observations, incidents used to develop a subject; refer to fewer things than general description, thereby creating a precise mental picture; brings life and color to description
- ALLUSION
- A reference in literature to previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture/ current events
- AMBIGUITY
- Quality of being intentionally unclear. Events or situations that are ambiguous can be interpreted in more than one way. This device is especially beneficial in poetry, as it tends to grace the work with the richness and depth of multiple meanings.
- ANACHRONISM
- An element in a story that is out of its time frame; sometimes used to create a humorous or jarring effect.
- ANALOGY
- Clarifies or explains an unfamiliar concept or object. Or one that cannot be put into the words.
- CONVENTION
- A device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression.
- CONNOTATION
- Associations a word calls to mind.
- ANTECEDENT
- The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers.
- ANTICLIMAX
- An often disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation
- ANTIHERO
- A protagonist who carries the action of the literary piece but does not embody the classic characterisics of courage, strength, and nobility.
- APHORISM
- A terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle.
- APOSTROPHE
- A rhetorical figure of direct address to a person, object, or abstract entity.
- ARCHETYPE
- A character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore.
- ASIDE
- A short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience rather than to the other characters, who do not hear him or her.
- CATHARSIS
- A purging of emotions or relieving of emotional tension.
- COMIC RELIEF
- Humor that provides a release of tension and breaks up a more serious episode.
- CONVENTIONAL CHARACTER
- A character with expected or traditional traits.
- DENOTATION
- The dictionary or literal meaning of a word.
- DIDACTIC
- A story, speech, essay, or play in which the authors main purpose is to instruct, teach, or moralize.
- DISTORTION
- An exaggerated or stretching of the truth.
- DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
- When a character speaks to a silent listener.
- ELLIPSIS
- The omission of a word or several words.
- END-STOPPED LINE
- The end of a poetic line coincides with a grammatical end to the line.
- ENJAMBMENT
- The running over a sentence from the verse or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first.
- EPITHET
- A descriptive title.
- EPIGRAPH
- A brief quotation found at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of theme.
- EPIPHANY
- A sudden flash of insight, a startling discovery and/or appearance; dramatic realization.
- EUPHEMISM
- Substitution of an inoffensive word or phrase for another that would be harsh, offensive, or embarrassing.
- FOIL
- A character whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive temperament of that character.
- HUBRIS
- Insolence, arrogance or pride.
- HYPERBOLE
- An extreme exaggeration.
- IN MEDIAS RES
- A work that begins in the middle of a story.
- LITOTES
- Affirmation of an idea by using a negative understatement. (opp. of hyperbole)
- METONYMY
- A figure of speech that replaces the name of something with a word or phrase closely associated with it.
- NON-SEQUITUR
- An inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises.
- OXYMORON
- A figure of speech that combines two contradictory words placed side by side.
- PARADOX
- A statement or situation that at first seems impossible or oxymoronic, but which solves itself and reveals meaning.
- PARALLELISM
- The repeated use of the same grammatical structure in a sentence or a series of sentences.
- PATHOS
- The quality of a literary work or passage that appeals to the reader's emotions especially pity, compassion, and sympathy.
- PUN
- Humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings.
- Rhetorical Question
- A question with an obvious answer that requires no response.
- SHIFT
- A movement from one thought to another, a change.
- SOLILOQUY
- A character's speech to the audience, in which emotions and ideas are revealed.
- STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
- A form of writing which replicates the way human minds work. Ideas are presented in random order.
- STRUCTURE
- The particular way in which parts of a written work are combined.
- STYLE
- The way a writer uses language.
- SYNECDOCHE
- A figure of speech wehre one part represents the entire object, or vice versa.
- ALLEGORY
- A tale in which characters, actions, or setting represent abstract or moral qualities.
- ANECDOTE
- A brief story about an interesting, amusing, or strange event.
- BALLAD
- A folk song or poem passed down orally that tells a story that may be derived from an actual incident or from legend or folklore.
- CONCEIT
- A far-fetched comparision between two seemingly unlike things.
- ELEGY
- A mournful poem lamenting the dead.
- EPIGRAM
- A short, clever poem with a witty turn of thought.
- FARCE
- A form of humor based on exaggerated, imporbable incongruities.
- FREE VERSE
- Poetry that does not have regular rhythm or rhyme.
- LYRIC
- A type of brief poem that expresses the personal emotions and thoughts of a single speaker.
- MOCK EPIC
- A poem about a trivial matter written in the style of a serious epic.
- NARRATIVE
- A work that tells a story.
- ODE
- A long, formal lyric poem often to honor someone or something.
- PARABLE
- A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
- PARODY
- A humorous imitation of another, usually serious work.
- PASTORAL
- A poem, play or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses.