Terminology – Literary and Rhetorical Devices
Terminology – Literary and Rhetorical Devices
List one
1. allusion – a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, work of art
a. “I am not what I am.” (Shakespeare, Othello)
2. analogy – a comparison between two unlike things; used to describe something unfamiliar by pointing out its similarities to something familiar [this implies that all analogies are similes or metaphors, which is not the case; analogies are also used to compare relationships]
a. “Withdrawal of U.S. troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public; the more U.S. troops come home, the more will be demanded.” (Henry Kissinger in a Memo to President Richard Nixon)
b. apple is to fruit as carrot is to vegetable (apple is related to fruit in the same way the carrot is related to vegetable)
3. apostrophe – a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses an abstract person or a personified quality, object, or idea
a. “Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us?” (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
4. hyperbole – a deliberate exaggeration or overstatement
a. “Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Concord Hymn”)
5. irony – contrast between what is said and what is meant; what is expected to happen and what happens
a. verbal – word or phrase used to suggest the opposite of its usual meaning
b. situational – event occurs that directly contradicts expectations
c. dramatic – contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader knows to be true
6. metaphor – figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else
a. “If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. (Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
7. metonymy – substitute one word for another
a. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
8. oxymoron – a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas
a. “Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, / O anything, of nothing first created! / O heavy lightness, serious vanity, / Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms…” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
9. paradox – a statement that seems to be contradictory but that actually presents a truth
a. “Thou canst not every day give me thy heart; / If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it…” (John Donne, “Lovers’ Infiniteness)
10. personification – a figure of speech in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics
a. “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.” (Elie Wiesel, Night)
11. simile – comparison using “like” or “as”
a. “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun? / Or fester like a sore – / and then run?” (Langston Hughes, “Harlem”)
12. symbol – anything that stands for or represents something else
a. The play MacBeth uses blood, both real and imagined, as a symbol of guilt, both of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth.
13. synecdoche – a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole thing
a. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. (Elie Wiesel, Night)
14. understatement (meiosis) – saying less than is actually meant, generally in an ironic way
a. “I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” (J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye)
List two
1. anadiplosis – a kind of repetition in which the last word or phrase of one sentence or line is repeated at the beginning of the next
a. “Labor and care are rewarded with success, success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which diligence had raised.” (Dr. Johnson)
2. anaphora – a device of repetition in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines
a. “The Lord sitteth above the water floods. The Lord remaineth a King forever. The Lord shall give strength unto his people. The Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.” (Psalm 29)
3. antithesis – contrasting opposing words/ideas in successive clauses/sentences
a. “Though studious, he was popular; though argumentative, he was modest; though inflexible, he was candid; and though metaphysical, yet orthodox.” (Samuel Johnson)
4. asyndeton – a condensed form of expression in which elements customarily joined by conjunctions are presented without conjunctions
a. “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
5. chiasmus – inverting the second of two parallel phrases
a. “By day the frolic, and the dance by night.” (Samuel Johnson)
6. climax – arrangement of words, phrases, clauses in an order of increasing importance
a. “Let a man acknowledge obligations to his family, his country, and his God.”
7. epanalepsis – using the same word(s) at the beginning and ending of a clause/sentence
a. “Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer’d blows: / Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power.” (Shakespeare, King John)
8. epistrophe – using the same word(s) at the end of successive clauses/sentences
a. “I’ll have my bond! Speak not against my bond! / I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond!” (Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice)
9. loose sentence – sentence in which main idea comes first followed by dependent units, such as clauses and phrases (the main point comes early at the beginning – like loose women)
a. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. (J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye)
10. parallelism – the repetition of a grammatical structure
a. “…for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Protection, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” (Declaration of Independence)
11. periodic sentence – main clause is at the end of sentence with dependent units at beginning (the Punch line is saved for the end)
a. If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. (John Stuart Mills, On Liberty)
12. polysyndeton – use of conjunctions in close succession
a. “And God said: ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1)
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