Questions tagged [terminology]
Questions pertaining to terms used in the study of literature, including the names of the genres, tropes, terms used for analysis, and so forth.
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When did literary critics go from saying "machine" to saying "plot device" to refer to said devices?
This answer about Tolkien's use of "machine" to mean "plot device" / "deus ex machina" says that such use of "machine" is archaic. It might actually be obsolete?...
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Characters are unable to escape their script because it is inevitable
What is the term for the literary device in which the characters are unable to escape the script, no matter what they do?
The characters themselves may or may not be aware of the script (i.e., ...
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Setting in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" - background or integral?
I've been having a debate with a colleague whether the setting in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is backdrop or integral.
These terms, as far as I know and as far as the debate ...
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TV Tropes lists many story elements and devices referenced to Anton Chekhov - why, and are these widely used in literary theory?
This answer in another SE site mentions and links to Chekhov's Skill and that site for "TV tropes" includes references to Chekhov's "Gun", "Party", "News", &...
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Term for literary device where an animal, natural phenomenon, or object "mirrors" the mood of the story?
I'm not sure if what I'm looking for is just pathetic fallacy, but I think I've heard of a more specific term.
What's the word for the literary technique where an animal, natural phenomenon, or other ...
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How did the word "trope" come to change its meaning?
Originally, the word "trope" in literature referred to the use of figurative or metaphorical language, but somehow, over time, the meaning of the word has shifted to refer to any frequently ...
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Difference between personification and anthropomorphism
I have watched some YouTube videos and read some books too, but am still not able to figure out the difference between personification and anthropomorphism. I have to teach grade 7 students about this....
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Is there a specific word for the poetic technique of using a single word to load emotions onto an object?
R. S. Thomas is fond of - and good at - a particular poetic flourish where he uses a single adjective to impart an emotional resonance to an object or concept, often in a such a way that more than one ...
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Is there a name for the rhetorical device used in Acts 5:4?
In Acts 5:4 Peter says "...thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."
Is there a name for when one says a true fact is false in order to emphasize a more important truth?
It is true Ananias ...
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Types of Repetition
In this stanza from The Tide River by Charles Kingsley, the poet employs repetition with phrases like 'dank and foul' and 'foul and dank,' altering the order of the same words in lines 1 and 3. Are ...
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What makes the children's book "Wild about Books" especially easy to read aloud?
I read a lot of children's books aloud to my child, many of which rhyme. Among all such books, there is one in particular that is strikingly easy to read aloud - the words just roll right off my ...
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What is the English word for "tableau" in the context of the theatre?
This question was initially posted on ell.stackexchange.com but was poorly received, perhaps I'll have better luck here.
In French theater (at least in the 19th century, I'm not talking about ...
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Is there a name for books in which the narrator isn't the protagonist but someone who know them well?
Is there a name for books in which the protagonist is only observed through a secondary character's narrative? Often they are in first-person (and the "I" is not the protagonist but another ...
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Literary technique in 'for peace comes dropping slow'
In the poem 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' by W. B. Yeats, what is the literary technique being used in the phrase, 'for peace comes dropping slow'? I'm not sure if it's anthropomorphism, pathetic ...
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Is a space within a work of fiction rendered 'off the page' (referred to but unseen/non-existent) part of the work's paratext?
For example, in A Streetcar named Desire Blanche and Stella's family's plantation 'Belle Reve' figures as an important space within the text, but isn't rendered directly in it - it is 'off the page', ...
