LITERARY AND FIGURATIVE

DEVICES

ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

It is a term used to describe an author's use of language to extend meaning. This is achieved by deviating from the literal meaning of words or by deviating from the usual arrangement of words. Technically, figurative language falls into two groups: figures of speech and rhetorical devices; however, usually the term figures of speech and figurative language are used interchangeably.

OPPOSITES

IRONYA device that depends on the existence of at least two separate and contrasting levels of meaning embedded in one message.

It has three types:

1. VERBAL IRONY

Saying one thing and meaning something else. It can be used to ridicule but usually it is more sophisticated than simple sarcasm.

Example: The opening line of Jane Austen's Pride and

Prejudice is famous for its clever irony: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." What Austen really means is women would be in want of a husband who has a good fortune.

2. SITUATIONAL OR STRUCTURAL IRONY

A contrast between what we expect and what actually happens. Often for the worse, an awareness of the difference between appearance and reality, the ideal and the actual, false or naïve hopes versus real outcomes. In other words, when the opposite of what is expected happens. This type often emphasizes that people are caught in forces beyond their comprehension and control.

3. DRAMATIC IRONY

Dramatic irony allows the reader to see a character's mistakes and realize that what the character believes is not true. The narrator of the text knows something that a character doesn’t know, other characters in the text know something that a character doesn’t know, a character says something that shows how little he or she knows the truth about themselves. Stories in first person narration are often ironic because the narrator or character has limited knowledge of self, or others or life, and doesn’t know it.

HYPERBOLE

Hyperbole is a form of irony in which something is described as much more than it actually is. It is literary exaggeration designed to make a point. It will cost a million dollars to fix that dented fender.

PARADOX

Paradox is a statement which seems absurd because it combines two ideas which appear illogical. It was possible to find life in death. It may include the use of an oxymoron which is the joining of two ideas which are naturally opposite. loving hate

SARCASM

Sarcasm is the heavy handed use of verbal irony with a sneer intended. You are so wonderful to let me borrow a pencil. It is a Greek word which means ‘rend the flesh, speak bitterly’. It is an extreme form of Irony, intended to hurt. A bitter, or wounding remark.

UNDERSTATEMENT

Understatement is a form of irony in which something is described as much less than it actually is. It is a species of Irony where the true magnitude of an idea, event or fact is minimised or not stated: ‘It is sometimes a bit cold at the North Pole.’

LITOTES

Litotes is a form of understatement which uses a negative to convey the opposite meaning.

For example,Not bad at all…‘Go, I hate you not’.Pierre Corneille

COMPARISONS

ALLEGORY

Allegory is an effort to add interest to an idea by turning its explanation into a narrative using abstract personifications as characters. It is metaphorical in nature. A fable is a form of an allegory using animals, and a parable is an allegory using realistic characters to make a point. A story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. In written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two (or more) levels of meaning in a story so that its persons and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale.

ALLUSION

Allusion is a brief reference to a person, place, or event which will be known by the reader. It allows the writer a compression of ideas. Allusions may be historical, literary, or geographical in nature. Rather than acting as a symbol, they provide information rather than feelings. It is a Latin word which means ‘to play with, to touch lightly upon’. A passing reference in a work of literature to something outside itself. A writer may allude to legends, historical facts or personages, to other works of literature, or even to autobiographical details.

ANALOGY

An analogy is an extended simile in which two unlike things are compared. Usually one side of the comparison is familiar and the comparison is made to explain the unfamiliar side. It is a resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects when the things are otherwise entirely different.

APOSTROPHE

Apostrophe is a literary technique in which an abstract or inanimate object is addressed or spoken to as if it were absent. It is a figure of speech wherein the speaker speaks directly to something nonhuman.

CONCEIT

Conceit is a term used to describe an extended comparison between two ideas. An essay in which mankind is described as an elephant with a long life, long memories, but not destined to last forever. A far-fetched simile or metaphor a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things.

IMAGERY

Imagery is an author's use of the written word to create a visual image in the mind of the reader. It may be particularly effective using similes and metaphors. The collection of images within a literary work. Used to evoke atmosphere mood tension. For example, images of crowded steaming sidewalks flanking streets choked with lines of shimmering smoking cars suggests oppressive heat and all the psychological tensions that go with it.

METAPHOR

Metaphor is a comparison of two things by stating that one is another. He is an elephant. It a type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says that one thing is something else but literally it is not. In connecting one object event or place to another, a metaphor can uncover new and intriguing qualities of the original thing that we may not normally notice or even consider important. Metaphorical language is used in order to realize a new and different meaning.

PERSONIFICATION

Personification is the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects. The tree wept as its limbs were cut. A figure of speech where animals ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics. One example of this is James Stephens's poem ‘The Wind’ in which wind preforms several actions. In the poem Stephens writes, "The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers."

PATHETIC FALLACY

Pathetic fallacy is a derogatory term used in the 19th century to describe a form of literature that treats animals as if they have human feelings and emotions. The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry clouds; a cruel wind.

SIMILE

Simile is a comparison of two things using the words "like" or "as." He looks like an elephant. It is a Latin word which means ‘like’. It is a figure of speech equally common in prose and verse: a species of metaphorical writing in which one thing is said to be like another.

SYMBOLISM

Symbolism is a literary method of extending meaning through the use of commonly accepted symbols or something that stands for another thing. These symbols have certain built in beliefs or ideas which a reader brings to a story. This relieves the author of the necessity of explaining them. This is easily confused with the concept of metaphor; however, in a metaphor the author actually draws the comparison. In the use of a symbol the author relies on the reader to draw the comparison.

SATIRE

A literary work which exposes and ridicules human vices or folly. Historically perceived as tending toward didacticism it is usually intended as a moral criticism directed against the injustice of social wrongs.

References

Martin Gray (2007) Dictionary of literary terms