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    Literary Devices - IB

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    Neha Reddy
    List of Literary Devices Useful for English A Lang and Lit Analysis

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    Literary Devices - IB

    Uploaded by

    Neha Reddy
    42 views6 pages
    List of Literary Devices Useful for English A Lang and Lit Analysis

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

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    List of Literary Devices Useful for English A Lang and Lit Analysis

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    42 views6 pages

    Literary Devices - IB

    Uploaded by

    Neha Reddy
    List of Literary Devices Useful for English A Lang and Lit Analysis

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    Alliteration

    The repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely
    connected words.

    Ex: Dead as a doornail, Hungry as a horse

    Allusion
    An indirect symbolic reference to something, usually a literary or historical person, place
    or event.

    Ex: Don’t act like a Scrooge!, Chocolate is my Achilles’ heel

    Allegory
    Texts with a hidden meaning/moral (form of an extended metaphor). Texts with a hidden
    moral, usually political

    Ex: Animal Farm by George Orwell, Lord of the Flies by William Golding

    Amplification
    Repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it.

    Ex: The cries haunted him for days. Every time he closed his eyes her cries rang
    through his head.

    His lips ran through her mind constantly. Sumptuous lips, all-encompassing in her
    thoughts.

    Anaphora
    The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of sentences.

    Ex: Stay brave. Stay big. Stay bold.


    I came. I saw. I conquered. - Julius Caesar

    Anastrophe
    The syntactically correct order of subject, verb and object is changed in the sentence.

    Ex: The greatest teacher failure is - Yoda, The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin,
    Into the darkness I fell

    Anecdote
    A short and interesting story or an amusing event often proposed to support or
    demonstrate some point and make readers and listeners laugh.

    Archaism
    Use of words and expressions that have become obsolete in the common speech of an
    era.

    Lo and behold, the beer he’d poured on his hair had made it a shade lighter.
    Alas! My mother wouldn’t let me go to the birthday party.

    Assonance
    The repetition of identical or similar vowels in a sequence of nearby words.

    Ex: Patience always pays.


    It was cool in the blue water of the pool.
    He eats the sweet treats.

    Antithesis
    When two opposites are introduced in the same sentence. It is the juxtaposition of
    contrasting ideas, usually in a balanced way.

    Ex: It was the best of times, and the worst of times

    Asyndeton
    One or several conjunctions are omitted from a series of related clauses.

    Ex: He crossed the road without looking, without listening, without caution.
    She has red hair, blue eyes, a slim nose.

    Bathos
    A sense of anticlimax so that the subject appears comical or ridiculous.
    They came… they saw… They did a bit of shopping…

    Cacophony
    Language that strikes the ear as harsh, rough and unmusical.

    The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel,


    Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,
    In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling
    - The Dalliance of the Eagles, Walt Whitman

    Catharsis
    Emotional discharge through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal
    or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress. Emotional buildup in a story
    leading to a major, emotional plot event (emotional release).

    ● In Oedipus, Oedipus’ dramatic eye gouging was an example of catharsis in


    literary work. The author’s purpose was to show how much this knowledge ruined
    his life.
    ● When Catherine dies after hours of sobbing and dramatic declarations, it shows
    an example of catharsis. Bronte’s purpose is to show how strong Catherine and
    Heathcliff’s connection was.
    ● When Lucie goes to visit her father and he is traumatized, his extreme condition
    is one of catharsis. The purpose is to show how long and cruel his treatment was
    and how close Lucie and Mr. Manette are

    Chiasmus
    A rhetorical or literary figure in which words or grammatical constructions are repeated
    in inverted order, in the same or a modified form.

    Fair is foul and foul is fair.


    I flee who chases me and chase who flees me.

    Cliche
    An expression or action so frequently used that it has become hackneyed or cloying.

    Colloquialism
    The use of informal words, phrases or even slang in a piece of writing.

    Emotive Language
    The use of language that derives or evokes emotions in the audience/reader.
    The stew was a filthy, evil-smelling mess of grayish-green sludge that oozed over the
    edge of the plate. The sour stench of boiled cabbage filled the air, mixing with the
    metallic tang of the greasy broth. Winston winced as he brought the spoon to his lips,
    gagging slightly at the oily texture, which clung to his tongue like cold vomit.
    disgust
    Euphemism
    An inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt one that is felt to be disagreeable or
    embarrassing.

    Euphony
    Language which strikes the ear as smooth, pleasant and musical.

    Success is counted sweetest


    By those who never succeed
    To comprehend nectar
    Requires sorest need
    - Success, Emily Dickenson

    Idiom
    A phrase that has a figurative meaning to it which can be frequently spoken in day to
    day conversations.

    Laconic
    Using very few words.

    List of Three
    The use of 3 nouns listed out.
    It is often used to carry out an important message, and can be summarised.

    Metaphor
    A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something in order to
    suggest a similarity.

    Modals
    Verbs used to express obligation, ability, possibility.

    Paradox
    A statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory or absurd, yet turns
    out to be interpretative in a way that makes good sense.
    Parallelism
    The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically same or similar in their
    construction, sound, meaning or meter.

    Prosody
    The patterns of rhythm and sound in literature such as alliteration, assonance and
    onomatopoeia.

    Personal Pronoun
    The grammatical use of words to address other people.

    Portmanteau
    When two or more words are joined together to coin a new word, but always refers to a
    single concept.

    Pun
    A play on words exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that
    there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

    Satire
    A literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking
    towards it attitudes of amusement.

    Synthetic Personalisation
    Addressing mass audiences as though they were individuals through inclusive
    language.

    Statistics
    Numerical or graphical information or data.

    Tone
    The attitudes being expressed toward the subject and implied toward the audience in a
    literary work.

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