ELEMENTS OF THE STUDY OF LITERATURE
ELEMENTS OF POETRY
Poetry is a literary form characterized by a strong sense of rhythm and meter and an emphasis on the interaction
between sound and sense. The study of the elements of poetry is called prosody. For an in-depth explanation of
poetry and poetic forms, see the Poetry Spark Chart.
Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm and meter are the building blocks of poetry. Rhythm is the pattern of sound created by the varying
length and emphasis given to different syllables. The rise and fall of spoken language is called its cadence.
Meter
Meter is the rhythmic pattern created in a line of verse; the arrangement of language in which the accents occur
at apparently equal intervals in time.
Poetry includes four basic kinds of meter:
Accentual (strong-stress) meter: The number of stressed syllables in a line is fixed, but the number of total
syllables is not. This kind of meter is common in Anglo-Saxon poetry, such as Beowulf. Gerard Manley Hopkins
developed a form of accentual meter called sprung rhythm, which had considerable influence on 20th-century
poetry.
Syllabic meter: The number of total syllables in a line is fixed, but the number of stressed syllables is not.
This kind of meter is relatively rare in English poetry.
Accentual-syllabic meter: Both the number of stressed syllables and the number of total syllables is fixed.
Accentual-syllabic meter has been the most common kind of meter in English poetry since Chaucer in the late
Middle Ages.
Quantitative meter: The duration of sound of each syllable, rather than its stress, determines the meter.
Quantitative meter is common in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Arabic but not in English.
The Foot
The foot is the basic rhythmic unit into which a line of verse can be divided. When reciting verse, there usually is
a slight pause between feet. When this pause is especially pronounced, it is called a caesura. The process of
analyzing the number and type of feet in a line is called scansion.
The most common types of feet in English poetry include the following:
-Iamb: An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: “to day ”
-Trochee: A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: “ car ry”
-Dactyl: A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables: “ diff icult”
-Anapest: Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable: “it is time”
-Spondee: Two successive syllables with strong stresses: “stop, thief”
-Pyrrhic: Two successive syllables with light stresses: “up to”
Most English poetry has four or five feet in a line, but it is not uncommon to see as few as one or as many as
eight.
-Monometer: One foot
-Dimeter: Two feet
-Trimeter: Three feet
-Tetrameter: Four feet
-Pentameter: Five feet
-Hexameter: Six feet
-Heptameter: Seven feet
-Octameter: Eight feet
Types of Accentual-Syllabic Meter
Accentual-syllabic meter is determined by the number and type of feet in a line of verse.
Iambic pentameter: Each line of verse has five feet (pentameter), each of which consists of an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable (iamb). Iambic pentameter is one of the most popular metrical schemes in
English poetry.
Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse bears a close resemblance to the rhythms of ordinary
speech, giving poetry a natural feel. Shakespeare’s plays are written primarily in blank verse.
Ballad: Alternating tetrameter and trimeter, usually iambic and rhyming. Ballad form, which is common in
traditional folk poetry and song, enjoyed a revival in the Romantic period with such poems as Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Free verse: Verse that does not conform to any fixed meter or rhyme scheme. Free verse is not, however,
loose or unrestricted: its rules of composition are as strict and difficult as traditional verse, for they rely on less
evident rhythmic patterns to give the poem shape. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is a seminal work of free
verse.
Amphibrach: unaccented, accented, unaccented syllable.
Line and Stanza
Poetry generally is divided into lines of verse. A grouping of lines, equivalent to a paragraph in prose, is called a
"stanza." On the printed page, line breaks normally are used to separate stanzas from one another.
Rime
Rime is the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly
positioned words – for example, old-cold, vane-reign, court-report, order-recorder. Perfect rime occurs when the
accented vowel sounds involved are preceded by differing consonant sounds. Identical rime occurs when the
preceding consonant sound is the same or when no consonant sound appears in either word or when the words
are the same. Both perfect rime and identical rime are to be distinguished from approximate rime.
Types of Rhyme
One common way of creating a sense of musicality between lines of verse is to make them rhyme.
-End rhyme: A rhyme that comes at the end of a line of verse. Most rhyming poetry uses end rhymes.
-Internal rhyme: A rhyme between two or more words within a single line of verse, as in “God’s Grandeur” by
Gerard Manley Hopkins: “And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil.”
-Masculine rhyme: A rhyme consisting of a single stressed syllable, as in the rhyme between “car” and “far.”
-Feminine rhyme: A rhyme consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, as in the
rhyme between “mother” and “brother.”
-Perfect rhyme: An exact match of sounds in a rhyme.
-Slant rhyme: An imperfect rhyme, also called oblique rhyme or off rhyme, in which the sounds are similar
but not exactly the same, as between “port” and “heart.” Modern poets often use slant rhyme as a subtler
alternative to perfect rhyme.
Rhyme Schemes
Rhymes do not always occur between two successive lines of verse. Here are some of the most common rhyme
schemes.
-Couplet: Two successive rhymed lines that are equal in length. A heroic couplet is a pair of rhyming lines in
iambic pentameter. In Shakespeare’s plays, characters often speak a heroic couplet before exiting, as in these
lines from Hamlet: “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!”
-Heroic Couplet. Two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter. Most of Alexander Pope's verse is written in
heroic couplets. In fact, it is the most favored verse form of the eighteenth century. Example:
u / u / u / u
/ u /
'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill
u / u / u / u / u /
Appear in writing or in judging ill. . . . --Alexander Pope
[Note in the second line that "or" should be a stressed syllable if the meter were perfectly iambic. Iambic= a two
syllable foot of one unstressed and one stressed syllable, as in the word "begin." Pentameter= five feet. Thus,
iambic pentameter has ten syllables, five feet of two syllable iambs.]
-Quatrain: A four-line stanza. The most common form of English verse, the quatrain has many variants. One
of the most important is the heroic quatrain, written in iambic pentameter with an ABAB rhyme scheme.
-Tercet: A grouping of three lines, often bearing a single rhyme.
-Terza rima: A system of interlaced tercets linked by common rhymes: ABA BCB CDC etc. Dante pioneered
terza rima in The Divine Comedy. The form is hard to maintain in English, although there are some notable
exceptions, such as Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind.”
Other Techniques
Punctuation
Like syllable stresses and rhyme, punctuation marks influence the musicality of a line of poetry.
-Canto. Division of a long poem into sections.
-Caesura. A pause, metrical or rhetorical, occurring somewhere in a line of poetry. The pause may or may not
be typographically indicated (usually with a comma). An example from George Herbert's "Redemption":
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.
-End-stopped: when a break occurs at the end of a line denoted by a comma, period, semicolon, or other
punctuation mark.
-Enjambment: when a sentence or clause runs onto the next line without a break. Enjambment creates a
sense of suspense or excitement and gives added emphasis to the word at the end of the line, as in John Keats’s
“Ode to a Nightingale”: “Thy plaintive anthem fades / Past the near meadows, over the still stream.”
-Repetition: Words, sounds, phrases, lines, or elements of syntax may repeat within a poem. Sometimes,
repetition can enhance an element of meaning, but at other times it can dilute or dissipate meaning.
-Alliteration: The repetition of sounds in initial stressed syllables (see Figures of Speech, above).
-Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds (see Figures of Speech, above).
-Refrain: A phrase or group of lines that is repeated at significant moments within a poem, usually at the
end of a stanza
-Scansion (scanning): the process of looking closely at a poem to determine meter, rhyme, rhyme scheme, or
other patterns.
-Structure: the structure of the poem is how the poet builds it from the various poetic elements. Think of the
elements of a house: wood, windows, doors, bricks, shingles, etc. These elements do not always combine to
make identical structures. Most houses look different from one another. A poet uses the building blocks of poems
and creates a poem that is not exactly like any other.
Poetic Forms
Certain traditional forms of poetry have a distinctive stanza length combined with a distinctive meter or rhyme
pattern. Here are some popular forms.
-Haiku: A compact form of Japanese poetry written in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables,
respectively.
-Limerick: A fanciful five-line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme in which the first, second, and fifth lines
have three feet and the third and fourth have two feet.
-Ottava rima: In English, an eight-line stanza with iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme ABABABCC. This
form is difficult to use in English, where it is hard to find two rhyming triplets that do not sound childish. Its
effect is majestic yet simple. William Butler Yeats’ poem “Among School Children” uses ottava rima.
-Sestina: Six six-line stanzas followed by a three-line stanza. The same six words are repeated at the end of
lines throughout the poem in a predetermined pattern. The last word in the last line of one stanza becomes the
last word of the first line in the next. All six endwords appear in the final three-line stanza. Sir Philip Sidney’s
Arcadia contains examples of the sestina.
-Sonnet: A single-stanza lyric poem containing fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. In some
formulations, the first eight lines (octave) pose a question or dilemma that is resolved in the final six lines
(sestet).
Three predominant sonnet forms exist:
-Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: Developed by the Italian poet Petrarch, this sonnet is divided into an
octave with the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA or ABBACDDC and a sestet with the rhyme scheme CDECDE or CDCCDC.
-Shakespearean sonnet: Also called the English sonnet or Elizabethan sonnet, this poetic form, which
Shakespeare made famous, contains three quatrains and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF
GG.
-Spenserian sonnet: A variant that the poet Edmund Spenser developed from the Shakespearean sonnet.
The Spenserian sonnet has the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.
-Spenserian Stanza. A nine-line stanza, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in
iambic hexameter (called an Alexandrine). The rhyme scheme is A-B-A-B B-C-B-C C. Edmund Spenser's Faerie
Queene is written in Spenserian stanzas.
-Villanelle: A nineteen-line poem made up of five tercets and a final quatrain in which all nineteen lines carry
one of only two rhymes. There are two refrains, alternating between the ends of each tercet and then forming
the last two lines of the quatrain. Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a famous example.
NARRATIVE
A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind,
whether the authorial voice in a novel or a friend telling you about last night’s party.
Point of View
The point of view is the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes, normally ascribed to
some form of first, second, or third person narration.
First-person narration: A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and
refers to him/herself as “I.” The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer. When the
point of view represented is specifically the author’s, and not a fictional narrator’s, the story is autobiographical
and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below).
Second-person point of view: a story told using "you," which places the reader immediately and personally
into the story
Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story
using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.”
Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the
characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the
characters and events in the story.
Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a
handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full
knowledge of only Alice.
Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts while staying in the third person.
Gustave Flaubert pioneered this style in Madame Bovary, as in this passage: “Sometimes she thought that these
were after all the best days of her life, the honeymoon, so-called.”
Objective narration: A style in which the narrator reports neutrally on the outward behavior of the
characters but offers no interpretation of their actions or their inner states. Ernest Hemingway pioneered this
style.
Unreliable narration: The narrator is revealed over time to be an untrustworthy source of information.
Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day are good examples
of unreliable narrators.
Stream-of-consciousness narration: The narrator conveys a subject’s thoughts, impressions, and perceptions
exactly as they occur, often in disjointed fashion and without the logic and grammar of typical speech and
writing. Molly Bloom’s monologue in the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses is an example of stream of
consciousness. While stream-of-consciousness narration usually is written in the first person, it can, by means of
free indirect discourse (see above), be written in the third person, as in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
Dramatic perspective: the teller represents just the facts.
CHARACTER
A character is a person, animal, or any other thing with a personality that appears in a story.
Archetype. Denotes recurrent designs, patterns of action, character-types, themes, and images which are
identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams, and even social rituals. Jung
applied the term “archetype” to what he called “primordial images,” the “psychic residue” of repeated patterns
of experience in our ancient ancestors.
Persona. The person created by the author to tell a story. Whether the story is told by an omniscient narrator
or by a character in it, the actual author of the work often distances himself from what is said or told by
adopting a persona--a personality different from his real one. Thus, the attitudes, beliefs, and degree of
understanding expressed by the narrator may not be the same as those of the actual author. Some authors, for
example, use narrators who are not very bright in order to create irony.
Protagonist: The main character around whom the story revolves. If the protagonist is admirable, he or she is
called the hero or heroine of the story. A protagonist who is not admirable, or who challenges our notions of
what should be considered admirable, is called an antihero or anti-heroine. For example, Willy Loman in Arthur
Miller’s Death of a Salesman is an antihero because he is ordinary and pathetic, whereas Meursault in Albert
Camus’s The Stranger is an antihero because he challenges the traditional conception of what a hero should be.
Antagonist: The primary character or entity that acts to frustrate the goals of the protagonist. The antagonist
typically is a character but may also be a nonhuman force. For example, Claudius is the antagonist in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, whereas the military bureaucracy is the antagonist in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
Stock character: A common character type that recurs throughout literature. Notable examples include the
witty servant, the scheming villain, the femme fatale, the trusty sidekick, the old miser, and so on. A stock
character that holds a central place in a culture’s folklore or consciousness may be called an archetype (see
Thematic Meaning, below).
Foil: A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast. In John Keats’s
“Ode to a Nightingale,” the swiftly traveling nightingale serves as a foil to Keats’s sleepy, opium-laden narrator.
Dynamic character: a dynamic character is one who changes by the end of the story, learning something
that changes him or her in a permanent way.
Static character: A static character does not change; he or she is the same person at the end of the story as
he was at the beginning.
Round character: a round character is fully developed; readers may even be able to anticipate the actions of
a round character if the characterization is well done and consistent.
Flat character: we know very little about a flat character; flat characters are not meant to serve as main
characters. They serve as necessary elements in plot or as elements of the setting.
Confidant: the protagonist’s intimate to whom innermost thoughts are shared.
Doppelganger: a mysterious double of the protagonist.
Antihero: an ordinary, modern man/woman groping his/her way through life.
PLOT
A plot is the arrangement of the events in a story, including the sequence in which they are told, the relative
emphasis they are given, and the causal connections between events.
Elements of a plot: A plot can have a complicated structure, but most plots have the same basic elements.
Exposition: the background information of a story, the story before the story.
1. Conflict: The central struggle that moves the plot forward. The conflict can be the protagonist’s struggle
against fate, nature, society, or another person. In certain circumstances, the conflict can be between opposing
elements within the protagonist.
2. Rising action: The early part of the narrative, which builds momentum and develops the narrative’s major
conflict.
3. Climax: The moment of highest tension, at which the conflict comes to a head. The word “climax” can
refer either to the single moment of highest tension in the plot or, more generally, to any episode of high
tension. An anticlimax occurs when the plot builds up to an expected climax only to tease the reader with a
frustrating non-event. Jane Austen’s novels, such as Sense and Sensibility, are full of romantic anticlimaxes.
4. Falling action: Also called the denouement, this is the latter part of the narrative, during which the
protagonist responds to the events of the climax and the various plot elements introduced in the rising action are
resolved.
5. Reversal: Sometimes called by its Greek name, peripeteia, a reversal is a sudden shift that sends the
protagonist’s fortunes from good to bad or vice versa.
6. Resolution: An ending that satisfactorily answers all the questions raised over the course of the plot.
Types of Plot
Plots can take a wide variety of forms, ranging from orderly sequences of clearly related events to chaotic
jumbles of loosely connected events.
Chronological plot: Events are arranged in the sequence in which they occur. Ernest Hemingway’s The Old
Man and the Sea, for example, tells a roughly straightforward story from beginning to end.
Achronological plot: Events are not arranged in the sequence in which they occur. For example, Homer’s
Iliad is full of flashbacks and digressions that relate what happened before and after the central conflict of the
poem.
Climactic plot: All the action focuses toward a single climax. Aeschylus’s Agamemnon is a classic example of
a climactic plot.
Episodic plot: A series of loosely connected events. Cervantes’s Don Quixote is episodic.
Non sequitur plot: More of an “anti-plot,” the non sequitur plot defies traditional logic by presenting events
without any clear sequence and characters without any clear motivation. The theater of the absurd (see Literary
Movements, below) is particularly famous for its non sequiturs.
Subplot: A secondary plot that is of less importance to the overall story but may serve as a point of contrast
or comparison to the main plot. For example, the subplot involving Gloucester and his sons in Shakespeare’s King
Lear serves this function.
SETTING
Setting is the location of a narrative in time and space. It may be specifically historical or geographical, as in the
ancient Rome of Robert Graves’s I, Claudius, or it may be imaginary, as in the Neverland of J. M. Barrie’s Peter
Pan. The suggestive mood that the setting may create is called the atmosphere. For example, the open windows
of the nursery in Peter Pan create an atmosphere of innocence and magic.
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech are expressions that stretch words beyond their literal meanings. By connecting or juxtaposing
different sounds and thoughts, figures of speech increase the breadth and subtlety of expression.
Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words. For example,
Robert Frost’s poem “Out, out—” contains the alliterative phrase “sweet scented stuff.”
Analogy: a likeness in some ways between things that are otherwise unlike; similarity: there is an analogy
between the human heart and a pump. SYN: resemblance, correspondence, equivalence.
Aphorism: calling into question the proper use of a word.
Aposiopesis: A breaking-off of speech, usually because of rising emotion or excitement. For example, “Touch
me one more time, and I swear—”
Apostrophe: A direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea. Walt Whitman’s
poem “O Captain, My Captain,” written upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, is an example of apostrophe.
Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words. For example, Alfred, Lord
Tennyson creates assonance with the “o” sound in this line from “The Lotus-Eaters”: “All day the wind breathes
low with mellower tone.”
Cacophony: The clash of discordant or harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase. Cacophony is a familiar
feature of tongue twisters but can also be used to poetic effect, as in the words “anfractuous rocks” in T. S.
Eliot’s “Sweeney Erect.” Although dissonance has a different musical meaning, it is sometimes used
interchangeably with “cacophony.”
Chiasmus: Two phrases in which the syntax is the same but the placement of words is reversed, as in these
lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Pains of Sleep”: “To be beloved is all I need, / And whom I love, I love
indeed.”
Cliché: An expression such as “turn over a new leaf” that has been used so frequently it has lost its
expressive power.
Colloquialism: An informal expression or slang, especially in the context of formal writing, as in Philip
Larkin’s “Send No Money”: “All the other lads there / Were itching to have a bash.”
Conceit: An elaborate parallel between two seemingly dissimilar objects or ideas. The metaphysical poets
(see Literary Movements, below) are especially known for their conceits, as in John Donne’s “The Flea.”
Connotation: the connotative meaning of the word is the associated meanings that come from its use in
various social contexts. Connotative meanings will vary from location to location. They will change or die over
time. For example: if someone said, "I'm down with that" in 1955, no one would understand what he/she meant.
Connotative meaning also means the emotional connections to words. For example, the word test often carries a
negative meaning for students.
Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words. Ex: night, cat, plot
Denotation: the denotative meaning is the dictionary meaning of the word without its social connotations.
Diction: diction is the author's choice of words. If she chooses one word over another, it is probably because
that word implies some social or connotative meaning.
Epithet: An adjective or phrase that describes a prominent feature of a person or thing. “Richard ‘the
Lionheart’ ” and “‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson” are both examples of epithets.
Euphemism: The use of decorous language to express vulgar or unpleasant ideas, events, or actions. For
example, “passed away” instead of “died”; “ethnic cleansing” instead of “genocide.”
Euphony: A pleasing arrangement of sounds. Many consider “cellar door” one of the most euphonious phrases
in English.
Figurative Language: The general category of language meant to be taken symbolically or metaphorically,
including metaphor, simile, personification, etc.
Hyperbole: An excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact: “I’ve told you about it a million
times already.”
Idiom: A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs from its literal meaning, such as “it’s
raining cats and dogs” or “a bolt from the blue.”
Litotes: A form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its opposite: “He is not
unfriendly.”
Meiosis: Intentional understatement, as, for example, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is
mortally wounded and says it is only “a scratch.” Meiosis is the opposite of hyperbole and often employs litotes
to ironic effect.
Metaphor: The comparison of one thing to another that does not use the terms “like” or “as.” Shakespeare is
famous for his metaphors, as in Macbeth: “Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his
hour upon the stage.”
-Mixed metaphor: A combination of metaphors that produces a confused or contradictory image, such as
“The Company’s collapse left mountains of debt in its wake.”
Metonymy: The substitution of one term for another that generally is associated with it. For example, “suits”
instead of “businessmen.”
Onomatopoeia: The use of words, such as “pop,” “hiss,” and “boing,” that sound like the thing they refer to.
Oxymoron: The association of two contrary terms, as in the expressions “same difference” or “wise fool.”
Paradox: A statement that seems absurd or even contradictory on its face but often expresses a deeper truth.
For example, a line in Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”: “And all men kill the thing they love.”
Paralipsis: Also known as praeteritio, the technique of drawing attention to something by claiming not to
mention it. For example, from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: “We will not speak of all Queequeg’s peculiarities
here; how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare.”
Parallelism: The use of similar grammatical structures or word order in two sentences or phrases to suggest a
comparison or contrast between them. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 129”: “Before, a joy proposed; behind, a
dream.” Parallelism also can refer to parallels between larger elements in a narrative (see Literary Techniques,
below).
Pathetic fallacy: The attribution of human feeling or motivation to a nonhuman object, especially an object
found in nature. For example, John Keats’s “Ode to Melancholy” describes a “weeping” cloud.
Periphrasis: An elaborate and roundabout manner of speech that uses more words than necessary. Saying “I
appear to be entirely without financial resources” instead of “I’m broke” is an example. Euphemisms often
employ periphrasis.
Personification: The use of human characteristics to describe animals, things, or ideas. Carl Sandburg’s poem
“Chicago” describes the city as “Stormy, husky, brawling, / City of the Big Shoulders.”
Pun: A play on words that exploits the similarity in sound between two words with distinctly different
meanings. For example, the title of Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest is a pun on the word
“earnest,” which means “serious or sober,” and the name “Ernest,” which figures into a scheme that some of the
play’s main characters perpetrate.
Rhetoric: the study of effective speaking and writing. The art of persuasion. Examines the how of language,
the methods and means of communication.
Rhetorical question: A question that is asked not to elicit a response but to make an impact or call attention
to something. For example, the question “Isn’t she great?” expresses regard for another person and does not call
for discussion.
Sarcasm: A simple form of verbal irony (see Literary Techniques, below) in which it is obvious from context
and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says. Sarcasm usually, but not always, expresses
scorn. Commenting “That was graceful” when someone trips and falls is an example.
Simile: A comparison of two things through the use of “like” or “as.” The title of Robert Burns’ poem “My
Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose” is a simile.
Synaesthesia: The use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another, such as in the line “Heard
melodies are sweet” in John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
Syllogism: the use of a remark or an image which calls upon the audience to draw an obvious conclusion. Like
a rhetorical enthymeme, but more compact, and frequently relying on an image. Example: Look at that man’s
yellowed fingertips and you just tell me if he’s a smoker or not.
Synecdoche: A form of metonymy in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole, for example, “my
wheels” for “my car.”
Syntax: the study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form
grammatical sentences.
Trope: A category of figures of speech that extend the literal meanings of words by inviting a comparison to
other words, things, or ideas. Metaphor, metonymy, and simile are three common tropes.
Zeugma: The use of one word in a sentence to modify two other words in the sentence, typically in two
different ways. For example, in Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, the sentence “Mr. Pickwick took his hat
and his leave” uses the word “took” to mean two different things.
LITERARY TECHNIQUES
Whereas figures of speech work on the level of individual words or sentences, writers also use a variety of
techniques to add clarity or intensity to a larger passage, advance the plot in a particular way, or suggest
connections between elements in the plot.
Allusion: An implicit reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person, place, or event. For
example, the title of William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury alludes to a line from Shakespeare’s
Macbeth. Authors use allusion to add symbolic weight because it makes subtle or implicit connections with other
works. For example, in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab’s name alludes to the wicked and idolatrous
biblical king Ahab—a connection that adds depth to our understanding of Ahab’s character.
Ambiguity: purposeful multiple meanings as in pun and double entendre.
Anagnorisis: A moment of recognition or discovery, primarily used in reference to Greek tragedy. For
example, in Euripides’ The Bacchae, Agave experiences anagnorisis when she discovers that she has murdered
her own son, Pentheus.
Atmosphere: the emotional tone pervading a section or the whole of a literary work, which fosters in the
reader expectations relating to the course of events, whether happy or terrifying or disastrous.
Bathos: A sudden and unexpected drop from the lofty to the trivial or excessively sentimental. Bathos
sometimes is used intentionally, to create humor, but just as often is derided as miscalculation or poor judgment
on a writer’s part. An example from Alexander Pope: “Ye Gods! Annihilate but Space and Time / And make two
lovers happy.”
Caricature: A description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts a character’s prominent features,
usually to elicit mockery. For example, in Candide, Voltaire portrays the character of Pangloss as a mocking
caricature of the optimistic rationalism of philosophers like Leibniz.
Comic relief: lightening the narrative.
Complication: plot reversals.
Conflict: interplay of opposing forces.
Deus ex machina: Greek for “God from a machine.” The phrase originally referred to a technique in ancient
tragedy in which a mechanical god was lowered onto the stage to intervene and solve the play’s problems or
bring the play to a satisfactory conclusion. Now, the term describes more generally a sudden or improbable plot
twist that brings about the plot’s resolution.
Epiphany: A sudden, powerful, and often spiritual or life changing realization that a character reaches in an
otherwise ordinary or everyday moment. Many of the short stories in James Joyce’s Dubliners involve moments of
epiphany.
Euphemism. The substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one, as in the use
of "pass away" instead of "die." The basic psychology of euphemistic language is the desire to put something bad
or embarrassing in a positive (or at least neutral light). Thus many terms referring to death, sex, crime, and
excremental functions are euphemisms. Since the euphemism is often chosen to disguise something horrifying, it
can be exploited by the satirist through the use of irony and exaggeration.
Flashback. A device that allows the writer to present events that happened before the time of the current
narration or the current events in the fiction. Flashback techniques include memories, dreams, stories of the
past told by characters, or even authorial sovereignty. (That is, the author might simply say, "But back in Tom's
youth. . . .") Flashback is useful for exposition, to fill in the reader about a character or place, or about the
background to a conflict.
Foreshadowing. An author’s deliberate use of hints or suggestions to give a preview of events or themes that
do not develop until later in the narrative. For example, in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the nightmares
Lockwood has the night he spends in Catherine’s bed prefigure later events in the novel.
In medias rest. Latin for “in the middle of things.” The term refers to the technique of starting a narrative in
the middle of the action. For example, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which concerns the war among the angels in
Heaven, opens after the fallen angels already are in Hell and only later examines the events that led to their
expulsion from Heaven.
Interior monologue. A record of a character’s thoughts, unmediated by a narrator. Interior monologue
sometimes takes the form of stream-of-consciousness narration (see Point of View, above) but often is more
structured and logical than stream of consciousness.
Invocation. A prayer for inspiration to a god or muse usually placed at the beginning of an epic. Homer’s
Iliad and Odyssey both open with invocations.
Irony. A wide-ranging technique of detachment that draws awareness to the discrepancy between words and
their meanings, between expectation and fulfillment, or, most generally, between what is and what seems to be.
A mode of expression, through words (verbal irony) or events (irony of situation), conveying a reality different
from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation. A writer may say the opposite of what he means, create
a reversal between expectation and its fulfillment, or give the audience knowledge that a character lacks,
making the character's words have meaning to the audience not perceived by the character. In verbal irony, the
writer's meaning or even his attitude may be different from what he says: "Why, no one would dare argue that
there could be anything more important in choosing a college than its proximity to the beach." An example of
situational irony would occur if a professional pickpocket had his own pocket picked just as he was in the act of
picking someone else's pocket. The irony is generated by the surprise recognition by the audience of a reality in
contrast with expectation or appearance, while another audience, victim, or character puts confidence in the
appearance as reality (in this case, the pickpocket doesn't expect his own pocket to be picked). The surprise
recognition by the audience often produces a comic effect, making irony often funny.
-Verbal irony: The use of a statement that, by its context, implies its opposite. For example, in
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Antony repeats, “Brutus is an honorable man,” while clearly implying that Brutus is
dishonorable. Sarcasm (see Figures of Speech, above) is a particularly blunt form of verbal irony.
-Situational irony: A technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast to
another, usually more prevalent, understanding of the same situation. For example, Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et
Decorum Est” comments on the grotesque difference between politicians’ high-minded praise of the noble
warrior and the unspeakably awful conditions of soldiers at the front.
-Romantic irony: An author’s persistent reminding of his or her presence in the work. By drawing
attention to the artifice of the work, the author ensures that the reader or audience will maintain critical
detachment and not simply accept the writing at face value. Laurence Sterne employs romantic irony in Tristram
Shandy by discussing the writing of the novel in the novel itself.
-Dramatic irony: A technique in which the author lets the audience or reader in on a character’s situation
while the character himself remains in the dark. With dramatic irony, the character’s words or actions carry a
significance that the character is not aware of. When used in tragedy, dramatic irony is called tragic irony. One
example is in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, when Oedipus vows to discover his father’s murderer, not knowing, as the
audience does, that he himself is the murderer.
-Cosmic irony: The perception of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering,
which creates a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its ultimate meaninglessness. Thomas
Hardy’s novels abound in cosmic irony.
Melodrama. The use of sentimentality, gushing emotion, or sensational action or plot twists to provoke
audience or reader response. Melodrama was popular in Victorian England, but critics now deride it as
manipulative and hokey. Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop, for example, is a particularly melodramatic
work.
Parallelism. Similarities between elements in a narrative (such as two characters or two plot lines). For
instance, in Shakespeare’s King Lear, both Lear and Gloucester suffer at the hands of their own children because
they are blind to which of their children are goodhearted and which are evil. Parallelism can also occur on the
level of sentences or phrases (see Figures of Speech, above).
Pathos. From the Greek word for “feeling,” the quality in a work of literature that evokes high emotion, most
commonly sorrow, pity, or compassion. Charles Dickens exploits pathos very effectively, especially when
describing the deaths of his characters.
Poetic diction. The use of specific types of words, phrases, or literary structures that are not common in
contemporary speech or prose. For example, Wilfred Owen’s “Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of Our Artillery Brought
Into Action,” though written in the 20th century, uses antiquated diction and the time-tested sonnet form. The
intentional discrepancy creates an ironic contrast between the horrors of modern war and the way poets wrote
about war in the past: “Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm, / Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to
curse.”
Poetic license. The liberty that authors sometimes take with ordinary rules of syntax and grammar,
employing unusual vocabulary, metrical devices, or figures of speech or committing factual errors in order to
strengthen a passage of writing. For example, the poet e. e. cummings takes poetic license in violating rules of
capitalization in his works.
Suspense: the author intentionally leaves information out, or doesn't answer questions to prompt the reader
to wonder, often anxiously, about what will happen next. Suspense is the quality of "being on the edge of our
seat" as we read to see what will happen.
Transition: a sentence, passage, etc., that connects a topic to one that follows or that links sections of a
written work.
Wit. A form of wordplay that displays cleverness or ingenuity with language. Often, but not always, wit
displays humor. Oscar Wilde’s plays are famous for their witty phrases, which expose the hypocrisies of the
intellectual beliefs of Wilde’s time.
THEMATIC MEANING
Literature becomes universal when it draws connections between the particular and the general. Often, certain
levels of a literary work’s meaning are not immediately evident. The following terms relate to the relationship
between the words on the page and the deeper significance those words may hold.
Antithesis: balancing of contrasting ideas.
Archetype: A theme, motif, symbol, or stock character that holds a familiar and fixed place in a culture’s
consciousness. For example, many cultures across the world feature an archetype of the resurrected god to
herald the coming of spring. The Fisher King, Jesus Christ, and the goddess Persephone are three familiar
instances of this archetype in Western culture.
Emblem: A concrete object that represents something abstract. For example, the Star of David is an emblem
of Judaism. An emblem differs from a symbol in that an emblem’s meaning is fixed: the Star of David always
represents Judaism, regardless of context.
Imagery: Language that brings to mind sense-impressions, especially via figures of speech. Sometimes,
certain imagery is characteristic of a particular writer or work. For example, many of Shakespeare’s plays
contain nautical imagery; may be classified as either abstract or concrete.
Motif: A recurring structure, contrast, or other device that develops or informs a work’s major themes. A
motif may relate to concrete objects, like Eastern vs. Western architecture in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India,
or may be a recurrent idea, phrase, or emotion, like Lily Bart’s constant desire to move up in the world in Edith
Wharton’s The House of Mirth.
Style: The manner of expression of a particular writer, produced by choice of words, grammatical structures,
use of literary devices, and all the possible parts of language use. Some general styles might include scientific,
ornate, plain, emotive. Most writers have their own particular styles.
Symbol: An object, character, figure, or color that is used to represent an abstract idea or concept. For
example, the two roads in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” symbolize the choice between two paths
in life. Unlike an emblem, a symbol may have different meanings in different contexts.
-universal symbols: embody universally recognizable meanings wherever used, such as light to symbolize
knowledge, a skull to symbolize death, etc.
-constructed symbols: are given symbolic meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work, as
the white whale becomes a symbol of evil in Moby Dick.
Theme: A fundamental and universal idea explored in a literary work. For example, a major theme of John
Steinbeck’s East of Eden is the perpetual contest between good and evil.
Thesis: The central argument that an author makes in a work. Although the term is primarily associated with
nonfiction, it can apply to fiction. For example, the thesis of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is that Chicago
meatpacking plants subject poor immigrants to horrible and unjust working conditions, and that the government
must do something to address the problem.
Tone: The general atmosphere created in a story, or the narrator’s attitude toward the story or reader. For
example, the tone of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground is outraged, defiant, and claustrophobic.
COMMON LITERARY FORMS AND GENRES
-Allegory: A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds clearly and directly to symbolic meaning. For
example, the literal story in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress—Christian’s journey from the City of
Destruction to the Celestial City—is an allegory for the spiritual journey from sin to holiness.
-Anecdote: The brief narration of a single event or incident.
-Aphorism: A concise expression of insight or wisdom: “The vanity of others offends our taste only when it
offends our vanity” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil).
-Apologue. A moral fable, usually featuring personified animals or inanimate objects which act like people to
allow the author to comment on the human condition. Often, the apologue highlights the irrationality of
mankind. The beast fable and the fables of Aesop are examples. Some critics have called Samuel Johnson's
Rasselas an apologue rather than a novel because it is more concerned with moral philosophy than with character
or plot. Examples: George Orwell, Animal Farm; Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book
-Aubade. A poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn. Poem
about love. “dawn song” –awakening- early European form (12th century)
-Autobiography: The nonfictional story of a person’s life, told by that person. St. Augustine’s Confessions is
an early, canonical work in this genre (see also memoir, below).
-Ballad: Traditionally, a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language, often with a refrain. A number
of poets outside the folk tradition have adopted the ballad form, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge did in “The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner.”
-Biography: The nonfictional story of a person’s life. James Boswell’s Life of Johnson is one of the most
celebrated works of biography. When the author of a biography is also its subject, the work is an autobiography
(see above).
-Black comedy: Disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner, usually with the intention to
confront uncomfortable truths. Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is a notable example.
-Bucolic: Pastoral form of the middle ages.
-Burlesque: A humorous imitation of a serious work of literature. The humor often arises from the incongruity
between the imitation and the work being imitated. For example, Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock uses
the high diction of epic poetry to talk about a domestic matter.
-Comedy: a fictional work in which the materials are selected and managed primarily in order to interest and
amuse us; the characters and their discomfitures engage our pleasurable attention rather than our profound
concern.
-Comedy of manners: deals with the relations and intrigues of men and women living in a sophisticated
upper-class society, and relies for comic effect in large part on the wit and sparkly of the dialogue as well as on
the violations of social standards and decorum by would-be “wits.”
-Confessional poetry: An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject
matter with unusual frankness. The genre was popular from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, due in part to
Robert Lowell’s Life Studies (1959).
-Didactic literature: Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example, Virgil’s Georgics contains
farming advice in verse form.
-Dirge: A short poetic expression of grief. A dirge differs from an elegy (see below) in that it often is
embedded within a larger work, is less highly structured, and is meant to be sung. Ariel’s song “Full fathom five
thy father lies” in Shakespeare’s The Tempest is an example of a dirge.
-Doggerel: Light verse; humorous, comic, and scatological by nature, base, vulgar, crude (dirty)
-Drama: A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play (see
below), but drama is a broader term that includes some forms that may not strictly be defined as plays, such as
radio broadcasts, comedy sketches, and opera.
-Dramatic monologue: A poem that contains words that a fictional or historical character speaks to a
particular audience. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a famous example.
-Dramatic poetry: A composition in verse portraying a story of life or character, usually involving conflict and
emotions, in a plot evolving through action and dialogue.
-Dystopic literature: A genre of fiction that presents an imagined future society that purports to be perfect
and utopian but that the author presents to the reader as horrifyingly inhuman. Usually the author intends to
warn contemporary readers that their own society resembles, or is in danger of resembling, this flawed future
world. George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World are well-known works of dystopic literature.
-Eclogue: A short pastoral poem (see below) in the form of a soliloquy (see below) or dialogue between two
shepherds. Virgil’s Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
-Elegy: A formal poem that laments the death of a friend or public figure, or, occasionally, a meditation on
death itself. In Greek and Latin poetry, the term applies to a specific type of meter (alternating hexameters and
pentameters) regardless of content, but only some elegies in English obey that meter. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s
poem “Adonais,” which mourns the death of John Keats, is an example of an elegy.
-Epic: A lengthy narrative that describes the deeds of a heroic figure, often of national or cultural
importance, in elevated language. Strictly, the term applies only to verse narratives like Beowulf or Virgil’s
Aeneid, but it is used to describe prose, drama, or film works of similar scope, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and
Peace or Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. It may be written in hexameter verse, especially dactylic hexameter, and
it may have twelve books or twenty four books. Characteristics of the classical epic include these:
-The main character or protagonist is heroically larger than life, often the source and subject of legend or
a national hero
-The deeds of the hero are presented without favoritism, revealing his failings as well as his virtues
-The action, often in battle, reveals the more-than-human strength of the heroes as they engage in acts of
heroism and courage
-The setting covers several nations, the whole world, or even the universe
-The episodes, even though they may be fictional, provide an explanation for some of the circumstances or
events in the history of a nation or people
-The gods and lesser divinities play an active role in the outcome of actions
-All of the various adventures form an organic whole, where each event relates in some way to the central
theme
Typical in epics is a set of conventions (or epic machinery). Among them are these:
-Poem begins with a statement of the theme ("Arms and the man I sing")
-Invocation to the muse or other deity ("Sing, goddess, of the wrath of Achilles")
-Story begins in medias res (in the middle of things)
-Catalogs (of participants on each side, ships, sacrifices)
-Histories and descriptions of significant items (who made a sword or shield, how it was decorated, who
owned it from generation to generation)
-Epic simile (a long simile where the image becomes an object of art in its own right as well as serving to
clarify the subject).
-Frequent use of epithets ("Aeneas the true"; "rosy-fingered Dawn"; "tall-masted ship")
-Use of patronymics (calling son by father's name): "Anchises' son"
-Long, formal speeches by important characters
-Journey to the underworld
-Use of the number three (attempts are made three times, etc.)
-Previous episodes in the story are later recounted
Examples: Homer, Iliad; Homer, Odyssey; Virgil, Aeneid; Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered; Milton, Paradise Lost;
Anonymous, Beowulf
-Mock Epic. Treating a frivolous or minor subject seriously, especially by using the machinery and devices
of the epic (invocations, descriptions of armor, battles, extended similes, etc.). The opposite of travesty.
Examples: Alexander Pope, The Dunciad; Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock
-Epigram: A succinct, witty statement, often in verse. For example, William Wordsworth’s observation“The
child is the father of the man.”
-Epitaph: a memorial poem.
-Essay: A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s. Essays
are flexible in form: although they usually are short prose works, there are also examples of book-length essays
(by John Locke) and verse essays (by Alexander Pope).
Essay types/terms:
Hook: initial attention getter
Central idea: the thrust of the writer’s assertions
Thesis: an outline of the writer’s proofs
Topic sentence: the focus of a paragraph and a part of the thesis
Structure: division of the essay into Introduction, Body Paragraphs, and Conclusion
Expository essay: presentation of information, facts, ideas
Persuasive essay: presentation to convince the reader
Descriptive essay: single, clear picture of person, place, thing, or idea
Narrative essay: tells a story
-Euphuism: A highly ornate style of writing popularized by John Lyly's Euphues, characterized by balanced
sentence construction, rhetorical tropes, and multiplied similes and allusions.
-Fable: A short prose or verse narrative, such as those by Aesop, which illustrates a moral, which often is
stated explicitly at the end. Frequently, the characters in a fable are animals that embody different human
character traits.
-Farce: a type of comedy designed to provoke the audience to simple, hearty laughter by employing highly
exaggerated or caricatured types of characters put into improbably and ludicrous situations; often makes free us
of sexual mix-ups, broad verbal humor, and physical bustle and horseplay.
-Fiction: An invented narrative, as opposed to one that reports true events.
-Folk Ballad: a narrative poem designed to be sung, composed by an anonymous author, and transmitted
orally for years or generations before being written down. Has usually undergone modification through the
process of oral transmission.
-Genre: a term that denotes types or classes or literature; the criss-crossing diversity of the classes and
subclasses to which individual works of literature have been assigned; originally divided into lyric, epic, and
drama based upon the narration of the piece; presently, genres are conceived to be more or less arbitrary modes
of classification, whose justification is their convenience in discussing literature
-Homily: a sermon, especially on intended to edify a congregation on a practical matter and not intended to
be a theological discourse; a tedious moralizing lecture or admonition; an inspirational saying or platitude.
-Invective: Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks. It can be directed against a person, cause,
idea, or system. It employs a heavy use of negative emotive language. Example: I cannot but conclude the bulk
of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the
surface of the earth. --Swift
-Legend: A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on
fiction. The terms legend and myth (see below) are often used interchangeably, but legends are typically rooted
in real historical events, whereas myths are primarily supernatural. The stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood are
examples of legends.
-Lyric/Lyric Poetry: A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker; it is that
which expresses the emotional response of the poet to events, people and situations. Most modern poetry is
lyrical (as opposed to dramatic or narrative), employing such common forms as the ode and sonnet.
-Memoir: An autobiographical work. Rather than focus exclusively on the author’s life, it pays significant
attention to the author’s involvement in historical events and the characterization of individuals other than the
author. A famous example is Winston Churchill’s Memoirs of the Second World War.
-Melodrama: a term applied in an extended sense to any literary work or episode, whether in drama, prose,
or fiction, that relies on implausible events and sensational action.
-Metafiction: Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself, either by reinterpreting a previous fictional
work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status. Examples of the former include John Gardner’s Grendel,
which retells the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf from a new perspective, and Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, which
portrays three women connected to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, including Woolf herself. An example of the
latter is Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, in which the narrator tells the story and
simultaneously comments on his own telling of the story.
-Myth: A story about the origins of a culture’s beliefs and practices, or of supernatural phenomena, usually
derived from oral tradition and set in an imagined supernatural past. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a famous early
example. Some writers, such as William Blake and William Butler Yeats, have invented their own myths. Myths
are similar, but not equivalent, to legends (see above).
-Narrative poetry: The narration of an event or story, stressing details of plot, incident and action.
-Noir: A fiction genre, popularized in the 1940s, with a cynical, disillusioned, loner protagonist. Noir often
involves crime or the criminal underworld. The term stems from “film noir,” which describes films of similar
style and content. Classic examples of noir fiction include Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and Dashiell
Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.
-Nonfiction: A narrative work that reports true events.
-Novel: A fictional prose narrative of significant length. Since the novel form became popular in the 1700s,
however, the term has come to describe other works—nonfiction novels, novels in verse, short novels, and
others—that do not necessarily fit this strict definition.
-Adventure novel. A novel where exciting events are more important than character development and
sometimes theme. Examples: H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines; Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel;
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers; Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
-Autobiographical novel: A novel that tells a nonfictional, autobiographical story but uses novelistic
techniques, such as fictionalized dialogue or anecdotes, to add color, immediacy, or thematic unity. Maya
Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiographical novel.
-Bildungsroman: A German term, meaning “formation novel,” for a novel about a child or adolescent’s
development into maturity, with special focus on the protagonist’s quest for identity. James Joyce’s A Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man is a notable example.
-Children's novel: A novel written for children and discerned by one or more of these: (1) a child
character or a character a child can identify with, (2) a theme or themes (often didactic) aimed at children, (3)
vocabulary and sentence structure available to a young reader. Many "adult" novels, such as Gulliver's Travels,
are read by children. The test is that the book be interesting to and--at some level--accessible by children.
Examples: Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer; L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
-Coming-of-age story: A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into adulthood through
knowledge, experience, or both, often by a process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the dropping
of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of security, or in some way the loss of innocence. Some of the
shifts that take place are these:
-ignorance to knowledge
-innocence to experience
-false view of world to correct view
-idealism to realism
-immature responses to mature responses
Example: David Mitchell, Black Swan Green
-Detective novel: A novel focusing on the solving of a crime, often by a brilliant detective, and usually
employing the elements of mystery and suspense. Examples: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the
Baskervilles; Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express; Dorothy Sayers, Strong Poison
-Epistolary novel: A novel written in the form of letters exchanged by characters in the story, such as
Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa or Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. This form was especially popular in the 1700s.
-Existentialist novel: A novel written from an existentialist viewpoint, often pointing out the absurdity
and meaninglessness of existence. Example: Albert Camus, The Stranger
-Fantasy novel: Any novel that is disengaged from reality. Often such novels are set in nonexistent
worlds, such as under the earth, in a fairyland, on the moon, etc. The characters are often something other than
human or include nonhuman characters. Example: J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
-Gothic novel: A novel in which supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terror pervades the
action. The setting is often a dark, mysterious castle, where ghosts and sinister humans roam menacingly. Horace
Walpole invented the genre with his Castle of Otranto. Gothic elements include these:
-Ancient prophecy, especially mysterious, obscure, or hard to understand.
-Mystery and suspense
-High emotion, sentimentalism, but also pronounced anger, surprise, and especially terror
-Supernatural events (e.g. a giant, a sighing portrait, ghosts or their apparent presence, a skeleton)
-Omens, portents, dream visions
-Fainting, frightened, screaming women
-Women threatened by powerful, impetuous male
-Setting in a castle, especially with secret passages
-The metonymy of gloom and horror (wind, rain, doors grating on rusty hinges, howls in the
distance, distant sighs, footsteps approaching, lights in abandoned rooms, gusts of wind blowing out lights or
blowing suddenly, characters trapped in rooms or imprisoned)
-The vocabulary of the gothic (use of words indicating fear, mystery, etc.: apparition, devil, ghost,
haunted, terror, fright)
Examples: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto; William Beckford, Vathek; Anne Radcliffe, The Mysteries of
Udolpho; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
-Graphic Novel: A novel illustrated panel by panel, either in color or black and white. Graphic novels are
sometimes referred to as extended comics, because the presentation format (panel by panel illustration, mostly
dialog with usually little exposition) suggests a comic. So too does the emphasis on action in many graphic
novels. Characters who are not human, talking monsters, and imaginary beings sometimes populate graphic
novels, bringing them closer to science fiction or fantasy than realism. Examples: Jeff Smith, Bone; Matt Wagner,
Mage: The Hero Discovered
-Historical novel: A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical
circumstances of that period. Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, written in the early 1990s, portrays a
tragic romance set against the backdrop of World War II.
-Hypertext novel: A novel that can be read in a nonsequential way. That is, whereas most novels flow
from beginning to end in a continuous, linear fashion, a hypertext novel can branch--the reader can move from
one place in the text to another nonsequential place whenever he wishes to trace an idea or follow a character.
Also called hyperfiction. Most are published on CD-ROM. See also interactive novel. Examples: Michael Joyce,
Afternoon; Stuart Moulthrop, Victory Garden
-Interactive novel: A novel with more than one possible series of events or outcomes. The reader is given
the opportunity at various places to choose what will happen next. It is therefore possible for several readers to
experience different novels by reading the same book or for one reader to experience different novels by reading
the same one twice and making different choices.
-Multicultural novel: A novel written by a member of or about a cultural minority group, giving insight
into non-Western or non-dominant cultural experiences and values, either in the United States or abroad.
Examples: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife; Forrest Carter, The Education of
Little Tree; Margaret Craven, I Heard the Owl Call My Name; James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain; Chaim
Potok, The Chosen; Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Penitent; Alice Walker, The Color Purple
-Mystery novel: A novel whose driving characteristic is the element of suspense or mystery. Strange,
unexplained events, vague threats or terrors, unknown forces or antagonists, all may appear in a mystery novel.
Gothic novels and detective novels are often also mystery novels.
-Novel of ideas: A novel, such as Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, that the author uses as a platform for
discussing ideas. Character and plot are of secondary importance.
-Novel of manners: A novel that focuses on the social customs of a certain class of people, often with a
sharp eye for irony. Jane Austen’s novels are prime examples of this genre.
-Picaresque novel: Originally, a realistic novel detailing a scoundrel’s exploits. The term grew to refer
more generally to any novel with a loosely structured, episodic plot that revolves around the adventures of a
central character. Cervantes’s Don Quixote is a classic picaresque novel.
-Pulp fiction: Novels written for the mass market, intended to be "a good read,"--often exciting,
titillating, thrilling. Historically they have been very popular but critically sneered at as being of sub-literary
quality. The earliest ones were the dime novels of the nineteenth century, printed on newsprint (hence "pulp"
fiction) and sold for ten cents. Westerns, stories of adventure, even the Horatio Alger novels, all were forms of
pulp fiction.
-Regional novel: A novel faithful to a particular geographic region and its people, including behavior,
customs, speech, and history. Examples: Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Thomas Hardy, Return of the Native
-Roman a clef: [French for "novel with a key," pronounced roh MAHN ah CLAY] A novel in which historical
events and actual people are written about under the pretense of being fiction. Examples: Aphra Behn, Love
Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister; Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
-Social protest novel: A novel in which the author’s aim is to tell a story that illuminates and draws
attention to contemporary social problems with the goal of inciting change for the better. Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which exposed the horrors of African- American slavery, and John
Steinbeck’s The
Grapes of Wrath, which popularized the plight of penniless migrant workers during the Great Depression, are
examples.
-Science fiction novel: A novel in which futuristic technology or otherwise altered scientific principles
contribute in a significant way to the adventures. Often the novel assumes a set of rules or principles or facts and
then traces their logical consequences in some form. For example, given that a man discovers how to make
himself invisible, what might happen? Examples: H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man; Aldous Huxley, Brave New World;
Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey; Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
-Sentimental novel: A type of novel, popular in the eighteenth century, that overemphasizes emotion and
seeks to create emotional responses in the reader. The type also usually features an overly optimistic view of the
goodness of human nature. Examples: Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield; Henry Mackenzie, The Man of
Feeling; Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey; Thomas Day, The History of Sandford and Merton
-Sequel: A novel incorporating the same characters and often the same setting as a previous novel.
Sometimes the events and situations involve a continuation of the previous novel and sometimes only the
characters are the same and the events are entirely unrelated to the previous novel. When sequels result from
the popularity of an original, they are often hastily written and not of the same quality as the original.
Occasionally a sequel is written by an author different from that of the original novel. See series. Examples: Mark
Twain, Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad; Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Detective;
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind; Alexandra Ripley, Scarlett
-Series: Several novels related to each other, by plot, setting, character, or all three. Book marketers
like to refer to multi-volume novels as sagas. Examples: Anthony Trollope, Barsetshire novels; C. S. Lewis,
Chronicles of Narnia novels; L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea novels; James Fenimore Cooper, The
Leatherstocking Tales
-Utopian novel: A novel that presents an ideal society where the problems of poverty, greed, crime, and
so forth have been eliminated. Examples: Thomas More, Utopia; Samuel Butler, Erewhon; Edward Bellamy,
Looking Backward
-Verse novel: A full-length fictional work that is novelistic in nature but written in verse rather than
prose. Examples include Aleksandr Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate.
-Western: A novel set in the western United States featuring the experiences of cowboys and
frontiersmen. Many are little more than adventure novels or even pulp fiction, but some have literary value.
Examples: Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident; Owen Wister, The Virginian
-Novella: A work of fiction of middle length, often divided into a few short chapters, such as Henry James’s
Daisy Miller.
-Ode: A serious lyric poem, often of significant length, that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical
structure. An example is William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.”
-Parable: A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory (see above).
-Parody: A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author. Henry
Fielding’s Shamela is a parody of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela.
-Pastiche: A work that imitates the style of a previous author, work, or literary genre. Alternatively, the term
may refer to a work that contains a hodgepodge of elements or fragments from different sources or influences.
Pastiche differs from parody in that its imitation is not meant as a form of mockery. For example, John Fowles’s
The French Lieutenant’s Woman was written in the 1960s but imitates the style of the Victorian novel.
-Pastoral: A celebration of the simple, rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses, usually written by a
sophisticated, urban writer. Christopher Marlowe’s poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” epitomizes
pastoral themes.
-Play: A story meant to be performed in a theater before an audience. Most plays are written in dialogue form
and are divided into several acts. Many include stage directions and instructions for sets and costumes.
-Comedy: A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
-Epic theater: Bertolt Brecht’s Marxist approach to theater, which rejects emotional and psychological
engagement in favor of critical detachment. His plays The Threepenny Opera and Mother Courage are two famous
works in this genre.
-Farce: A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and
features a convoluted and fast-paced plot. Farce often incorporates buffoonery, slapstick, and stock characters
to provoke uproarious laughter. Molière was a master of farce with such plays as The Imaginary Invalid.
-Miracle play: A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
-Morality play: A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory (see above)
of the Christian struggle for salvation.
-Mystery play: A short play based on a biblical story. Mystery plays, popular in the Middle Ages, often
were presented in cycles, in which dozens of plays were performed at different locations throughout a city and
collectively presented the most significant moments in the Bible.
-Noh drama: A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow,
stylized movement.
-Problem play: A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public
opinion on the matter. Henrik Ibsen popularized this form in plays such as Hedda Gabler.
-Tragedy: A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist. Sophocles’ Antigone is one of the bestknown Greek tragedies.
-Tragicomedy: A play such as Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
-One-act play: A play consisting of a single act, without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Edward Albee’s Zoo Story is a well-known example.
-Primitivist literature: Works that express a preference for the natural over the artificial in human culture,
and a belief that the life of primitive cultures is preferable to modern lifestyles. Primitivism is often associated
with a nostalgia for the lost innocence of a natural, childlike past. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the
foremost advocates of primitivism in works such as Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse.
-Propaganda: A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political
issue. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is an example of propaganda instrumental in the American Revolution.
-Prose: Any composition not written in verse. The basic unit of prose is the sentence, which distinguishes it
from free verse (see poetry, above), in which the basic unit is a line of verse. Prose writing can be rhythmic, but
on the whole, rhythm in prose is less pronounced than in verse. Prose works encompass everything from Henry
James’s The Ambassadors, with its elaborate sentences, to Amy Tan’s interconnected stories in The Joy Luck
Club.
-Prose poem: A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free verse (see Rhythm and Meter, above)
but is presented on the page in the form of prose, without line breaks. Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations is an
example of a prose poem.
-Romance: A nonrealistic story, in verse or prose, that features idealized characters, improbable adventures,
and exotic settings. Although love often plays a significant role, the association of “romance” with “love” is a
modern phenomenon. Romances, such as Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, were particularly popular in the
Middle Ages and Renaissance. Examples: Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote; Sir Philip Sidney, The Arcadia; In
popular use, the modern romance novel is a formulaic love story (boy meets girl, obstacles interfere, they
overcome obstacles, they live happily ever after). Computer software is available for constructing these stock
plots and providing stereotyped characters. Consequently, the books usually lack literary merit. Examples:
Harlequin Romance series
-Chivalric romance: A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their
strict code of honor, loyalty, and respectful devotion to women. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an example
of a chivalric romance.
-Sarcasm. A form of sneering criticism in which disapproval is often expressed as ironic praise.
-Satire: A work that exposes to ridicule the shortcomings of individuals, institutions, or society, often to make
a political point. The satirist aims to reduce the practices attacked by laughing scornfully at them--and being
witty enough to allow the reader to laugh, also. Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are
almost always present. The satirist may insert serious statements of value or desired behavior, but most often he
relies on an implicit moral code, understood by his audience and paid lip service by them. The satirist's goal is to
point out the hypocrisy of his target in the hope that either the target or the audience will return to a real
following of the code. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is one of the most well known satires in English.
-Horatian Satire. In general, a gentler, more good-humored and sympathetic kind of satire, somewhat
tolerant of human folly even while laughing at it. Named after the poet Horace, whose satire epitomized it.
Horatian satire tends to ridicule human folly in general or by type rather than attack specific persons.
-Juvenalian Satire. Harsher, more pointed, perhaps intolerant satire typified by the writings of Juvenal.
Juvenalian satire often attacks particular people, sometimes thinly disguised as fictional characters. While
laughter and ridicule are still weapons as with Horatian satire, the Juvenalian satirist also uses withering
invective and a slashing attack. Swift is a Juvenalian satirist.
-Lampoon. A crude, coarse, often bitter satire ridiculing the personal appearance or character of a
person.
-Parody. A satiric imitation of a work or of an author with the idea of ridiculing the author, his ideas, or
work. The parodist exploits the peculiarities of an author's expression--his propensity to use too many
parentheses, certain favorite words, or whatever. The parody may also be focused on, say, an improbable plot
with too many convenient events. Fielding's Shamela is, in large part, a parody of Richardson's Pamela.
-Ridicule. Words intended to belittle a person or idea and arouse contemptuous laughter. The goal is to
condemn or criticize by making the thing, idea, or person seem laughable and ridiculous. It is one of the most
powerful methods of criticism, partly because it cannot be satisfactorily answered ("Who can refute a sneer?")
and partly because many people who fear nothing else--not the law, not society, not even God--fear being
laughed at. Ridicule is a common weapon of the satirist.
-Science fiction: Fiction that is set in an alternative reality—often a technologically advanced future—and
that contains fantastical elements. The genre traces its roots to the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells in the
late 1800s. Notable 20th-century science fiction writers include Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.
-Short story: A work of prose fiction that is much shorter than a novel (rarely more than forty pages) and
focused more tightly on a single event. Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” is a masterful short story.
-Short-short story: A particularly compressed and truncated short story. Short-short stories are rarely longer
than 1,000 words.
-Soliloquy: A speech, often in verse, by a lone character. Soliloquies are most common in drama, perhaps the
most famous example being the “To be or not to be” speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
-Tragedy: a term broadly applied to literary, and especially to dramatic, representations of serious actions
which eventuate in a disastrous conclusion for the protagonist; from Aristotle: “the imitation of an action that is
serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself [involving] incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith
to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions.”
-Travesty: A work that treats a serious subject frivolously-- ridiculing the dignified. Often the tone is mock
serious and heavy handed.
LITERARY MOVEMENTS AND PERIODS
Literature constantly evolves as new movements emerge to speak to the concerns of different groups of people
and historical periods.
Absurd, literature of the (c. 1930–1970): A movement, primarily in the theater, that responded to the
seeming illogicality and purposelessness of human life in works marked by a lack of clear narrative,
understandable psychological motives, or emotional catharsis. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is one of the
most celebrated works in the theater of the absurd.
Aestheticism (c. 1835–1910): A late-19th-century movement that believed in art as an end in itself.
Aesthetes such as Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater rejected the view that art had to possess a higher moral or
political value and believed instead in “art for art’s sake.”
Angry Young Men (1950s–1980s): A group of male British writers who created visceral plays and fiction at
odds with the political establishment and a self-satisfied middle class. John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger
(1957) is one of the seminal works of this movement.
Beat Generation (1950s–1960s): A group of American writers in the 1950s and 1960s who sought release and
illumination though a bohemian counterculture of sex, drugs, and Zen Buddhism. Beat writers such as Jack
Kerouac (On The Road) and Allen Ginsberg (Howl) gained fame by giving readings in coffeehouses, often
accompanied by jazz music.
Bloomsbury Group (c. 1906–1930s): An informal group of friends and lovers, including Clive Bell, E. M.
Forster, Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, and John Maynard Keynes, who lived in the Bloomsbury
section of London in the early 20th century and who had a considerable liberalizing influence on British culture.
Commedia dell’arte (1500s–1700s): Improvisational comedy first developed in Renaissance Italy that
involved stock characters and centered around a set scenario. The elements of farce and buffoonery in commedia
dell’arte, as well as its standard characters and plot intrigues, have had a tremendous influence on Western
comedy, and can still be seen in contemporary drama and television sitcoms.
Dadaism (1916–1922): An avant-garde movement that began in response to the devastation of World War I.
Based in Paris and led by the poet Tristan Tzara, the Dadaists produced nihilistic and antilogical prose, poetry,
and art, and rejected the traditions, rules, and ideals of prewar Europe.
Enlightenment (c. 1660–1790): An intellectual movement in France and other parts of Europe that
emphasized the importance of reason, progress, and liberty. The Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age of
Reason, is primarily associated with nonfiction writing, such as essays and philosophical treatises. Major
Enlightenment writers include Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, René Descartes.
Elizabethan era (c. 1558–1603): A flourishing period in English literature, particularly drama, that coincided
with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and included writers such as Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe,
William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser.
Gothic fiction (c. 1764–1820): A genre of late-18th-century literature that featured brooding, mysterious
settings and plots and set the stage for what we now call “horror stories.” Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto,
set inside a medieval castle, was the first major Gothic novel. Later, the term “Gothic” grew to include any work
that attempted to create an atmosphere of terror or the unknown, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.
Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–1930): A flowering of African-American literature, art, and music during the
1920s in New York City. W. E. B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk anticipated the movement, which included Alain
Locke’s anthology The New Negro, Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the poetry of
Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.
Lost Generation (c. 1918–1930s): A term used to describe the generation of writers, many of them soldiers
that came to maturity during World War I. Notable members of this group include F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos
Passos, and Ernest Hemingway, whose novel The Sun Also Rises embodies the Lost Generation’s sense of
disillusionment.
Magic realism (c. 1935–present): A style of writing, popularized by Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García
Márquez, Günter Grass, and others, that combines realism with moments of dream-like fantasy within a single
prose narrative.
Metaphysical poets (c. 1633–1680): A group of 17th-century poets who combined direct language with
ingenious images, paradoxes, and conceits. John Donne and Andrew Marvell are the best known poets of this
school.
-Metaphysical Poetry. The term metaphysical was applied to a style of 17th Century poetry first by John
Dryden and later by Dr. Samuel Johnson because of the highly intellectual and often abstruse imagery involved.
Chief among the metaphysical poets are John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, and
Henry Vaughan. Metaphysical poetry represents a revolt against the conventions of Elizabethan love poetry and
especially the typical Petrarchan conceits (like rosy cheeks, eyes like stars, etc.). While their poetry is widely
varied (the metaphysicals are not a thematic or even a structural school), there are some common
characteristics:
1. Argumentative structure. The poem often engages in a debate or persuasive presentation; the
poem is an intellectual exercise as well as or instead of an emotional effusion.
2. Dramatic and colloquial mode of utterance. The poem often describes a dramatic event rather
than being a reverie, a thought, or contemplation. Diction is simple and usually direct; inversion is limited. The
verse is occasionally rough, like speech, rather than written in perfect meter, resulting in a dominance of
thought over form.
3. Acute realism. The poem often reveals a psychological analysis; images advance the argument
rather than being ornamental. There is a learned style of thinking and writing; the poetry is often highly
intellectual.
4. Metaphysical wit. The poem contains unexpected, even striking or shocking analogies, offering
elaborate parallels between apparently dissimilar things. The analogies are drawn from widely varied fields of
knowledge, not limited to traditional sources in nature or art. Analogies from science, mechanics, housekeeping,
business, philosophy, astronomy, etc. are common. These "conceits" reveal a play of intellect, often resulting in
puns, paradoxes, and humorous comparisons. Unlike other poetry where the metaphors usually remain in the
background, here the metaphors sometimes take over the poem and control it.
Middle English (c. 1066–1500): The transitional period between Anglo-Saxon and modern English. The
cultural upheaval that followed the Norman Conquest of England, in 1066, saw a flowering of secular literature,
including ballads, chivalric romances, allegorical poems, and a variety of religious plays. Chaucer’s The
Canterbury Tales is the most celebrated work of this period.
Modernism (1890s–1940s): A literary and artistic movement that provided a radical breaks with traditional
modes of Western art, thought, religion, social conventions, and morality. Major themes of this period include
the attack on notions of hierarchy; experimentation in new forms of narrative, such as stream of consciousness;
doubt about the existence of knowable, objective reality; attention to alternative viewpoints and modes of
thinking; and self-referentiality as a means of drawing attention to the relationships between artist and
audience, and form and content.
-High modernism (1920s): Generally considered the golden age of modernist literature, this period saw
the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and
Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.
Naturalism (c. 1865–1900): A literary movement that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions,
heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. Leading writers in the movement
include Émile Zola, Theodore Dreiser, and Stephen Crane.
Neoclassicism (c. 1660–1798): A literary movement, inspired by the rediscovery of classical works of ancient
Greece and Rome that emphasized balance, restraint, and order. Neoclassicism roughly coincided with the
Enlightenment, which espoused reason over passion. Notable neoclassical writers include Edmund Burke, John
Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift.
Nouveau Roman (“New Novel”) (c. 1955–1970): A French movement, led by Alain Robbe-Grillet, that
dispensed with traditional elements of the novel, such as plot and character, in favor of neutrally recording the
experience of sensations and things.
Postcolonial literature (c. 1950s–present): Literature by and about people from former European colonies,
primarily in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. This literature aims both to expand the traditional
canon of Western literature and to challenge Eurocentric assumptions about literature, especially through
examination of questions of otherness, identity, and race. Prominent postcolonial works include Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart, V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas, and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Edward
Said’s Orientalism (1978) provided an important theoretical basis for understanding postcolonial literature.
Postmodernism (c. 1945–present): A notoriously ambiguous term, especially as it refers to literature,
postmodernism can be seen as a response to the elitism of high modernism as well as to the horrors of World War
II. Postmodern literature is characterized by a disjointed, fragmented pastiche of high and low culture that
reflects the absence of tradition and structure in a world driven by technology and consumerism. Julian Barnes,
Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Salman Rushdie, and Kurt Vonnegut are among
many who are considered postmodern authors.
Pre-Raphaelites (c. 1848–1870): The literary arm of an artistic movement that drew inspiration from Italian
artists working before Raphael (1483–1520). The Pre-Raphaelites combined sensuousness and religiosity through
archaic poetic forms and medieval settings. William Morris, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and
Charles Swinburne were leading poets in the movement.
Realism (c. 1830–1900): A loose term that can refer to any work that aims at honest portrayal over
sensationalism, exaggeration, or melodrama. Technically, realism refers to a late-19th-century literary
movement—primarily French, English, and American—that aimed at accurate detailed portrayal of ordinary,
contemporary life. Many of the 19th century’s greatest novelists, such as Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens,
George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, and Leo Tolstoy, are classified as realists. Naturalism (see above) can be seen as
an intensification of realism.
Romanticism (c. 1798–1832): A literary and artistic movement that reacted against the restraint and
universalism of the Enlightenment. The Romantics celebrated spontaneity, imagination, subjectivity, and the
purity of nature. Notable English Romantic writers include Jane Austen, William Blake, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth. Prominent figures in the American
Romantic movement include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, William Cullen Bryant, and
John Greenleaf Whittier.
Sturm und Drang (1770s): German for “storm and stress,” this brief German literary movement advocated
passionate individuality in the face of Neoclassical rationalism and restraint. Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young
Werther is the most enduring work of this movement, which greatly influenced the Romantic Movement (see
above).
Surrealism (1920s–1930s): An avant-garde movement, based primarily in France, that sought to break down
the boundaries between rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious, through a variety of literary and
artistic experiments. The surrealist poets, such as André Breton and Paul Eluard, were not as successful as their
artist counterparts, who included Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and René Magritte.
Symbolists (1870s–1890s): A group of French poets who reacted against realism with a poetry of suggestion
based on private symbols, and experimented with new poetic forms such as free verse and the prose poem. The
symbolists—Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine are the most well known—were influenced by
Charles Baudelaire. In turn, they had a seminal influence on the modernist poetry of the early 20th century.
Transcendentalism (c. 1835–1860): An American philosophical and spiritual movement, based in New
England, that focused on the primacy of the individual conscience and rejected materialism in favor of closer
communion with nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden are famous
transcendentalist works.
Victorian era (c. 1832–1901): The period of English history between the passage of the first Reform Bill
(1832) and the death of Queen Victoria (reigned 1837–1901). Though remembered for strict social, political, and
sexual conservatism and frequent clashes between religion and science, the period also saw prolific literary
activity and significant social reform and criticism. Notable Victorian novelists include the Brontë sisters, Charles
Dickens, George Eliot, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and Thomas Hardy, while prominent
poets include Matthew Arnold; Robert Browning; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Gerard Manley Hopkins; Alfred, Lord
Tennyson; and Christina Rossetti. Notable Victorian nonfiction writers include Walter Pater, John Ruskin, and
Charles Darwin, who penned the famous On the Origin of Species (1859).
LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM
Literary theory and literary criticism are interpretive tools that help us think more deeply and insightfully about
the literature that we read. Over time, different schools of literary criticism have developed, each with its own
approaches to the act of reading.
Schools of Interpretation
Cambridge School (1920s–1930s): A group of scholars at Cambridge University who rejected historical and
biographical analysis of texts in favor of close readings of the texts themselves.
Chicago School (1950s): A group, formed at the University of Chicago in the 1950s, that drew on Aristotle’s
distinctions between the various elements within a narrative to analyze the relation between form and structure.
Critics and Criticisms: Ancient and Modern (1952) is the major work of the Chicago School.
Deconstruction (1967–present): A philosophical approach to reading, first advanced by Jacques Derrida that
attacks the assumption that a text has a single, stable meaning. Derrida suggests that all interpretation of a text
simply constitutes further texts, which means there is no “outside the text” at all. Therefore, it is impossible for
a text to have stable meaning. The practice of deconstruction involves identifying the contradictions within a
text’s claim to have a single, stable meaning, and showing that a text can be taken to mean a variety of things
that differ significantly from what it purports to mean.
Feminist criticism (1960s–present): An umbrella term for a number of different critical approaches that seek
to distinguish the human experience from the male experience. Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in
which patriarchal social structures have marginalized women and male authors have exploited women in their
portrayal of them. Although feminist criticism dates as far back as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman (1792) and had some significant advocates in the early 20th century, such as Virginia Woolf and
Simone de Beauvoir, it did not gain widespread recognition as a theoretical and political movement until the
1960s and 1970s.
Psychoanalytic criticism: Any form of criticism that draws on psychoanalysis, the practice of analyzing the
role of unconscious psychological drives and impulses in shaping human behavior or artistic production. The three
main schools of psychoanalysis are named for the three leading figures in developing psychoanalytic theory:
Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Jacques Lacan.
-Freudian criticism (c. 1900–present): The view of art as the imagined fulfillment of wishes that reality
denies. According to Freud, artists sublimate their desires and translate their imagined wishes into art. We, as an
audience, respond to the sublimated wishes that we share with the artist. Working from this view, an artist’s
biography becomes a useful tool in interpreting his or her work. “Freudian criticism” is also used as a term to
describe the analysis of Freudian images within a work of art.
-Jungian criticism (1920s–present): A school of criticism that draws on Carl Jung’s theory of the
collective unconscious, a reservoir of common thoughts and experiences that all cultures share. Jung holds that
literature is an expression of the main themes of the collective unconscious, and critics often invoke his work in
discussions of literary archetypes.
-Lacanian criticism (c. 1977–present): Criticism based on Jacques Lacan’s view that the unconscious, and
our perception of ourselves, is shaped in the “symbolic” order of language rather than in the “imaginary” order
of prelinguistic thought. Lacan is famous in literary circles for his influential reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The
Purloined Letter.”
Marxist criticism: An umbrella term for a number of critical approaches to literature that draw inspiration
from the social and economic theories of Karl Marx. Marx maintained that material production, or economics,
ultimately determines the course of history, and in turn influences social structures. These social structures,
Marx argued, are held in place by the dominant ideology, which serves to reinforce the interests of the ruling
class. Marxist criticism approaches literature as a struggle with social realities and ideologies.
-Frankfurt School (c. 1923–1970): A group of German Marxist thinkers associated with the Institute for
Social Research in Frankfurt. These thinkers applied the principles of Marxism to a wide range of social
phenomena, including literature. Major members of the Frankfurt School include Theodor Adorno, Max
Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, and Jürgen Habermas.
New Criticism (1930s–1960s): Coined in John Crowe Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941), this approach
discourages the use of history and biography in interpreting a literary work. Instead, it encourages readers to
discover the meaning of a work through a detailed analysis of the text itself. This approach was popular in the
middle of the 20th century, especially in the United States, but has since fallen out of favor.
New Historicism (1980s–present): An approach that breaks down distinctions between “literature” and
“historical context” by examining the contemporary production and reception of literary texts, including the
dominant social, political, and moral movements of the time. Stephen Greenblatt is a leader in this field, which
joins the careful textual analysis of New Criticism with a dynamic model of historical research.
New Humanism (c. 1910–1933): An American movement, led by Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More, that
embraced conservative literary and moral values and advocated a return to humanistic education.
Post-structuralism (1960s–1970s): A movement that comprised, among other things, Deconstruction,
Lacanian criticism, and the later works of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. It criticized structuralism for its
claims to scientific objectivity, including its assumption that the system of signs in which language operates was
stable.
Queer theory (1980s–present): A “constructivist” (as opposed to “essentialist”) approach to gender and
sexuality that asserts that gender roles and sexual identity are social constructions rather than an essential,
inescapable part of our nature. Queer theory consequently studies literary texts with an eye to the ways in which
different authors in different eras construct sexual and gender identity. Queer theory draws on certain branches
of feminist criticism and traces its roots to the first volume of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality (1976).
Russian Formalism (1915–1929): A school that attempted a scientific analysis of the formal literary devices
used in a text. The Stalinist authorities criticized and silenced the Formalists, but Western critics rediscovered
their work in the 1960s. Ultimately, the Russian Formalists had significant influence on structuralism and Marxist
criticism.
Structuralism (1950s–1960s): An intellectual movement that made significant contributions not only to
literary criticism but also to philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and history. Structuralist literary critics, such
as Roland Barthes, read texts as an interrelated system of signs that refer to one another rather than to an
external “meaning” that is fixed either by author or reader. Structuralist literary theory draws on the work of the
Russian Formalists, as well as the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and C. S. Peirce.
LITERARY TERMS AND THEORIES
Literary theory is notorious for its complex and somewhat inaccessible jargon. The following list defines some of
the more commonly encountered terms in the field.
Anxiety of influence: A theory that the critic Harold Bloom put forth in The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of
Poetry (1973). Bloom uses Freud’s idea of the Oedipus complex (see below) to suggest that poets, plagued by
anxiety that they have nothing new to say, struggle against the influence of earlier generations of poets. Bloom
suggests that poets find their distinctive voices in an act of misprision, or misreading, of earlier influences, thus
refiguring the poetic tradition. Although Bloom presents his thesis as a theory of poetry, it can be applied to
other arts as well.
Canon: A group of literary works commonly regarded as central or authoritative to the literary tradition. For
example, many critics concur that the Western canon—the central literary works of Western civilization—includes
the writings of Homer, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and the like. A canon is an evolving entity, as works are added or
subtracted as their perceived value shifts over time. For example, the fiction of W. Somerset Maugham was
central to the canon during the middle of the 20th century but is read less frequently today. In recent decades,
the idea of an authoritative canon has come under attack, especially from feminist and postcolonial critics, who
see the canon as a tyranny of dead white males that marginalizes less mainstream voices.
Death of the author: A post-structuralist theory, first advanced by Roland Barthes, that suggests that the
reader, not the author, creates the meaning of a text. Ultimately, the very idea of an author is a fiction invented
by the reader.
Diachronic/synchronic: Terms that Ferdinand de Saussure used to describe two different approaches to
language. The diachronic approach looks at language as a historical process and examines the ways in which it
has changed over time. The synchronic approach looks at language at a particular moment in time, without
reference to history. Saussure’s structuralist approach is synchronic, for it studies language as a system of
interrelated signs that have no reference to anything (such as history) outside of the system.
Dialogic/monologic: Terms that the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin used to distinguish works that are
controlled by a single, authorial voice (monologic) from works in which no single voice predominates (dialogic or
polyphonic). Bakhtin takes Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky as examples of monologic and dialogic writing,
respectively.
Diegesis/Mimesis: Terms that Aristotle first used to distinguish “telling” (diegesis) from “showing” (mimesis).
In a play, for instance, most of the action is mimetic, but moments in which a character recounts what has
happened offstage are diegetic.
Discourse: A post-structuralist term for the wider social and intellectual context in which communication
takes place. The implication is that the meaning of works is as dependent on their surrounding context as it is on
the content of the works themselves.
Exegesis: An explanation of a text that clarifies difficult passages and analyzes its contemporary relevance or
application.
Explication: A close reading of a text that identifies and explains the figurative language and forms within
the work.
Frame. A narrative structure that provides a setting and exposition for the main narrative in a novel. Often, a
narrator will describe where he found the manuscript of the novel or where he heard someone tell the story he is
about to relate. The frame helps control the reader's perception of the work, and has been used in the past to
help give credibility to the main section of the novel. Examples of novels with frames: Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Hermeneutics: The study of textual interpretation and of the way in which a text communicates meaning.
Humanism: The new emphasis in the Renaissance on human culture, education and reason, sparked by a
revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman literature, culture, and language. Human nature and the dignity
of man were exalted and emphasis was placed on the present life as a worthy event in itself (as opposed to the
medieval emphasis on the present life merely as preparation for a future life).
Humours: In medieval physiology, four liquids in the human body affecting behavior. Each humour was
associated with one of the four elements of nature. In a balanced personality, no humour predominated. When a
humour did predominate, it caused a particular personality. Here is a chart of the humours, the corresponding
elements and personality characteristics:
-blood...air...hot and moist: sanguine, kind, happy, romantic
-phlegm...water...cold and moist: phlegmatic, sedentary, sickly, fearful
-yellow bile...fire...hot and dry: choleric, ill-tempered, impatient, stubborn
-black bile...earth...cold and dry: melancholy, gluttonous, lazy, contemplative
The Renaissance took the doctrine of humours quite seriously--it was their model of psychology--so knowing that
can help us understand the characters in the literature. Falstaff, for example, has a dominance of blood, while
Hamlet seems to have an excess of black bile.
Intertextuality: The various relationships a text may have with other texts, through allusions, borrowing of
formal or thematic elements, or simply by reference to traditional literary forms. The term is important to
structuralist and poststructuralist critics, who argue that texts relate primarily to one another and not to an
external reality.
Linguistics: The scientific study of language, encompassing, among other things, the study of syntax,
semantics, and the evolution of language.
Logocentrism: The desire for an ultimate guarantee of meaning, whether God, Truth, Reason, or something
else. Jacques Derrida criticizes the bulk of Western philosophy as being based on a logocentric “metaphysics of
presence,” which insists on the presence of some such ultimate guarantee. The main goal of deconstruction is to
undermine this belief.
Metalanguage: A technical language that explains and interprets the properties of ordinary language. For
example, the vocabulary of literary criticism is a metalanguage that explains the ordinary language of literature.
Post-structuralist critics argue that there is no such thing as a metalanguage; rather, they assert, all language is
on an even plane and therefore there is no essential difference between literature and criticism.
Metanarrative: A larger framework within which we understand historical processes. For instance, a Marxist
metanarrative sees history primarily as a history of changing material circumstances and class struggle. Poststructuralist critics draw our attention to the ways in which assumed met narratives can be used as tools of
political domination.
Mimesis: See diegesis/mimesis, above.
Monologic: See dialogic/monologic, above.
Narratology: The study of narrative, encompassing the different kinds of narrative voices, forms of narrative,
and possibilities of narrative analysis.
Oedipus complex: Sigmund Freud’s theory that a male child feels unconscious jealousy toward his father and
lust for his mother. The name comes from Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, in which the main character unknowingly
kills his father and marries his mother. Freud applies this theory in an influential reading of Hamlet, in which he
sees Hamlet as struggling with his admiration of Claudius, who fulfilled Hamlet’s own desire of murdering
Hamlet’s father and marrying his mother.
Petrarchan Conceit. The kind of conceit (see above) used by Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch and popular in
Renaissance English sonnets. Eyes like stars or the sun, hair like golden wires, lips like cherries, etc. are common
examples. Oxymorons are also common, such as freezing fire, burning ice, etc.
Semantics: The branch of linguistics that studies the meanings of words.
Semiotics or semiology: Terms for the study of sign systems and the ways in which communication functions
through conventions in sign systems. Semiotics is central to structuralist linguistics.
Sign/signifier/signified: Terms fundamental to Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralism linguistics. A sign is a
basic unit of meaning—a word, picture, or hand gesture, for instance, that conveys some meaning. A signifier is
the perceptible aspect of a sign (e.g., the word “car”) while the signified is the conceptual aspect of a sign (e.g.,
the concept of a car). A referent is a physical object to which a sign system refers (e.g., the physical car itself).
Synchronic: See diachronic/synchronic above.
Verisimilitude. How fully the characters and actions in a work of fiction conform to our sense of reality. To
say that a work has a high degree of verisimilitude means that the work is very realistic and believable--it is "true
to life."
RHETORICAL DEVICES
1. Alliteration is the recurrence of initial consonant sounds. The repetition can be juxtaposed (and then
it is usually limited to two words):
*Ah, what a delicious day!
*Yes, I have read that little bundle of pernicious prose, but I have no comment to make upon it.
*Done well, alliteration is a satisfying sensation.
This two-word alliteration calls attention to the phrase and fixes it in the reader's mind, and so is useful for
emphasis as well as art. Often, though, several words not next to each other are alliterated in a sentence. Here
the use is more artistic. And note in the second example how wonderfully alliteration combines with antithesis:
*I shall delight to hear the ocean roar, or see the stars twinkle, in the company of men to whom Nature
does not spread her volumes or utter her voice in vain. --Samuel Johnson
*Do not let such evils overwhelm you as thousands have suffered, and thousands have surmounted; but
turn your thoughts with vigor to some other plan of life, and keep always in your mind, that, with due submission
to Providence, a man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself. --Samuel Johnson
*I conceive therefore, as to the business of being profound, that it is with writers, as with wells; a
person with good eyes may see to the bottom of the deepest, provided any water be there; and that often, when
there is nothing in the world at the bottom, besides dryness and dirt, though it be but a yard and a half under
ground, it shall pass, however, for wondrous deep, upon no wiser a reason than because it is wondrous dark. -Jonathan Swift
2. Allusion is a short, informal reference to a famous person or event:
*You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first. 'Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size. -Shakespeare
*If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again.
*Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing
*Our examination of the relation of the historian to the facts of history finds us, therefore, in an
apparently precarious situation, navigating delicately between the Scylla of an untenable theory of history as an
objective compilation of facts . . . and the Charybdis of an equally untenable theory of history as the subjective
product of the mind of the historian . . . . --Edward Hallett Carr
Notice in these examples that the allusions are to very well known characters or events, not to obscure ones.
(The best sources for allusions are literature, history, Greek myth, and the Bible.) Note also that the reference
serves to explain or clarify or enhance whatever subject is under discussion, without sidetracking the reader.
Allusion can be wonderfully attractive in your writing because it can introduce variety and energy into an
otherwise limited discussion (an exciting historical adventure rises suddenly in the middle of a discussion of
chemicals or some abstract argument), and it can please the reader by reminding him of a pertinent story or
figure with which he is familiar, thus helping (like analogy) to explain something difficult. The instantaneous
pause and reflection on the analogy refreshes and strengthens the reader's mind.
3. Amplification involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to
emphasize what might otherwise be passed over. In other words, amplification allows you to call attention to,
emphasize, and expand a word or idea to make sure the reader realizes its importance or centrality in the
discussion.
*In my hunger after ten days of rigorous dieting I saw visions of ice cream--mountains of creamy,
luscious ice cream, dripping with gooey syrup and calories.
*This orchard, this lovely, shady orchard, is the main reason I bought this property.
*. . . Even in Leonardo's time, there were certain obscure needs and patterns of the spirit, which could
discover themselves only through less precise analogies--the analogies provided by stains on walls or the embers
of a fire. --Kenneth Clark
*Pride--boundless pride--is the bane of civilization.
*He showed a rather simple taste, a taste for good art, good food, and good friends.
But amplification can overlap with or include a repetitive device like anaphora when the repeated word gains
further definition or detail:
*The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,/ A refuge in times of trouble. --Psalm 9:9 (KJV)
Notice the much greater effectiveness this repetition-plus detail form can have over a "straight" syntax. Compare
each of these pairs:
*The utmost that we can threaten to one another is death, a death which, indeed, we may
precipitate, but cannot retard, and from which, therefore, it cannot become a wise man to buy a reprieve at the
expense of virtue, since he knows not how small a portion of time he can purchase, but knows that, whether
short or long, it will be made less valuable by the remembrance of the price at which it has been obtained. -adapted from S. Johnson
*The utmost that we can threaten to one another is that death which, indeed, we may precipitate . . .
.
*In everything remember the passing of time, a time which cannot be called again.
*In everything remember the passing of a time which cannot be called again.
4. Anacoluthon: finishing a sentence with a different grammatical structure from that with which it
began:
*And then the deep rumble from the explosion began to shake the very bones of--no one had ever felt
anything like it.
*Be careful with these two devices because improperly used they can--well, I have cautioned you
enough.
5. Anadiplosis repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of
the next. It can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression:
*Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,/ Knowledge might pity win, and pity
grace obtain . . . . --Philip Sidney
Most commonly, though, anadiplosis is used for emphasis of the repeated word or idea, since repetition has a
reinforcing effect:
*They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. --Jer. 2:13
*The question next arises, How much confidence can we put in the people, when the people have
elected Joe Doax?
*This treatment plant has a record of uncommon reliability, a reliability envied by every other water
treatment facility on the coast.
*In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. --John 1:1
Notice how the main point of the sentence becomes immediately clear by repeating the same word twice in close
succession. There can be no doubt about the focus of your thought when you use anadiplosis.
6. Analogy compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or
clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar
one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for
effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of
reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.
*You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you
a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. --Samuel Johnson
*He that voluntarily continues ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces, as to him
that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. --Samuel
Johnson
*. . . For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one
cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it. --Aristotle
Notice in these examples that the analogy is used to establish the pattern of reasoning by using a familiar or less
abstract argument which the reader can understand easily and probably agree with. Some analogies simply offer
an explanation for clarification rather than a substitute argument:
*Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent,
but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel Johnson
*The beginning of all evil temptations is inconstancy of mind, and too little trust in God. For as a ship
without a guide is driven hither and thither with every storm, so an unstable man, that anon leaveth his good
purpose in God, is diversely tempted. The fire proveth gold, and temptation proveth the righteous man. -Thomas a Kempis
When the matter is complex and the analogy particularly useful for explaining it, the analogy can be extended
into a rather long, multiple-point comparison:
*The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form
one body. So it is with Christ. (And so forth, to the end of the chapter.] --l Cor. 12:12 (NIV)
The importance of simile and analogy for teaching and writing cannot be overemphasized. To impress this upon
you better, I would like to step aside a moment and offer two persuasive quotations:
*The country parson is full of all knowledge. They say, it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone: and
there is no knowledge, but, in a skilful hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other
knowledge. He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage, and pastorage, and makes great use of them in
teaching, because people by what they understand are best led to what they understand not. --George Herbert
*To illustrate one thing by its resemblance to another has been always the most popular and efficacious
art of instruction. There is indeed no other method of teaching that of which anyone is ignorant but by means of
something already known; and a mind so enlarged by contemplation and enquiry that it has always many objects
within its view will seldom be long without some near and familiar image through which an easy transition may
be made to truths more distant and obscure. --Samuel Johnson
7. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses,
or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism:
*To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To
think that here man hath no perfect bliss. --Peacham
*In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike
affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. --Richard de Bury
*Finally, we must consider what pleasantness of teaching there is in books, how easy, how secret! How
safely we lay bare the poverty of human ignorance to books without feeling any shame! --Ibid.
*The wish of the genuine painter must be more extensive: instead of endeavoring to amuse mankind
with the minute neatness of his imitations, he must endeavor to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas;
instead of seeking praise, by deceiving the superficial sense of the spectator, he must strive for fame by
captivating the imagination. --Sir Joshua Reynolds
*Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they would find at
the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland.
*They are the entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore easily susceptible of
impressions; not fixed by principles, and therefore easily following the current of fancy; not informed by
experience, and consequently open to every false suggestion and partial account. --Samuel Johnson
Anaphora can be used with questions, negations, hypotheses, conclusions, and subordinating conjunctions,
although care must be taken not to become affected or to sound rhetorical and bombastic. Consider these
selections:
*Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has
learned?
*Not time, not money, not laws, but willing diligence will get this done.
*If we can get the lantern lit, if we can find the main cave, and if we can see the stalagmites, I'll show
you the one with the bat skeleton in it.
Adverbs and prepositions can be used for anaphora, too:
*They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or
money. --Richard de Bury
*She stroked her kitty cat very softly, very slowly, very smoothly.
8. Antanagoge: placing a good point or benefit next to a fault, criticism, or problem in order to reduce
the impact or significance of the negative point:
*True, he always forgets my birthday, but he buys me presents all year round.
*The new anti-pollution equipment will increase the price of the product slightly, I am aware; but the
effluent water from the plant will be actually cleaner than the water coming in.
9. Antimetabole: reversing the order of repeated words or phrases (a loosely chiastic structure, AB-BA)
to intensify the final formulation, to present alternatives, or to show contrast:
*All work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work.
*Ask not what you can do for rhetoric, but what rhetoric can do for you.
10. Antiphrasis: one word irony, established by context:
*"Come here, Tiny," he said to the fat man.
*It was a cool 115 degrees in the shade.
11. Antithesis establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together
or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. Human beings are inveterate systematizers and categorizers, so
the mind has a natural love for antithesis, which creates a definite and systematic relationship between ideas:
*To err is human; to forgive, divine. --Pope
*That short and easy trip made a lasting and profound change in Harold's outlook.
*That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong
Antithesis can convey some sense of complexity in a person or idea by admitting opposite or nearly opposite
truths:
*Though surprising, it is true; though frightening at first, it is really harmless.
*If we try, we might succeed; if we do not try, we cannot succeed.
*Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise.
Antithesis, because of its close juxtaposition and intentional contrast of two terms or ideas, is also very useful
for making relatively fine distinctions or for clarifying differences which might be otherwise overlooked by a
careless thinker or casual reader:
*In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to
hear it. --Samuel Johnson
*The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not
what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. --Matt. 23:2-3 (RSV)
*I agree that it is legal; but my question was, Is it moral?
*The advertisement indeed says that these shoes are the best, but it means that they are equal; for in
advertising "best" is a parity claim and only "better" indicates superiority.
Note also that short phrases can be made antithetical:
*Every man who proposes to grow eminent by learning should carry in his mind, at once, the difficulty
of excellence and the force of industry; and remember that fame is not conferred but as the recompense of
labor, and that labor, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward. --Samuel Johnson
12. Apophasis (also called praeteritio or occupatio) asserts or emphasizes something by pointedly
seeming to pass over, ignore, or deny it. This device has both legitimate and illegitimate uses. Legitimately, a
writer uses it to call attention to sensitive or inflammatory facts or statements while he remains apparently
detached from them:
*We will not bring up the matter of the budget deficit here, or how programs like the one under
consideration have nearly pushed us into bankruptcy, because other reasons clearly enough show . . . .
*Therefore, let no man talk to me of other expedients: of taxing our absentees . . . of curing the
expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming of learning to love our country . . . .--Jonathan Swift
*If you were not my father, I would say you were perverse. --Antigone
*I will not even mention Houdini's many writings, both on magic and other subjects, nor the tricks he
invented, nor his numerous impressive escapes, since I want to concentrate on . . . .
*She's bright, well-read, and personable--to say nothing of her modesty and generosity.
Does the first example above make you feel a little uneasy? That can be a clue to the legitimacy (or lack of it) of
usage. If apophasis is employed to bring in irrelevant statements while it supplies a screen to hide behind, then it
is not being used rightly:
*I pass over the fact that Jenkins beats his wife, is an alcoholic, and sells dope to kids, because we will
not allow personal matters to enter into our political discussion.
*I do not mean to suggest that Mr. Gates is mainly responsible for the inefficiency and work blockage in
this office, just because the paperwork goes through him. . . .
The "I do not mean to suggest [or imply]" construction has special problems of its own, because many writers use
it quite straightforwardly to maintain clarity and to preclude jumping to conclusions by the reader. Others,
however, "do not mean to imply" things that the reader would himself never dream are being implied. The
suggestion is given, though, and takes hold in the brain--so that the implication is there, while being safely
denied by the writer.
Apophasis is handy for reminding people of something in a polite way:
*Of course, I do not need to mention that you should bring a No. 2 pencil to the exam.
*Nothing need be said here about the non-energy uses of coal, such as the manufacture of plastics,
drugs, and industrial chemicals . . . .
Some useful phrases for apophasis: nothing need be said about, I pass over, it need not be said (or mentioned), I
will not mention (or dwell on or bring up), we will overlook ' I do not mean to suggest (or imply), you need not be
reminded, it is unnecessary to bring up, we can forget about, no one would suggest.
13. Aporia expresses doubt about an idea or conclusion. Among its several uses are the suggesting of
alternatives without making a commitment to either or any:
*I am not sure whether to side with those who say that higher taxes reduce inflation or with those who
say that higher taxes increase inflation.
*I have never been able to decide whether I really approve of dress codes, because extremism seems to
reign both with them and without them.
Such a statement of uncertainty can tie off a piece of discussion you do not have time to pursue, or it could
begin an examination of the issue, and lead you into a conclusion resolving your doubt. Aporia can also dismiss
assertions irrelevant to your discussion without either conceding or denying them:
*I do not know whether this legislation will work all the miracles promised by its backers, but it does
seem clear that . . . .
*I am not sure about the other reasons offered in favor of the new freeway, but I do believe . . . .
*Yes, I know the assay report shows twenty pounds of gold per ton of ore, and I do not know what to
say about that. What I do know is that the richest South African mines yield only about three ounces of gold per
ton.
You can use aporia to cast doubt in a modest way, as a kind of understatement:
*I am not so sure I can accept Tom's reasons for wanting another new jet.
*I have not yet been fully convinced that dorm living surpasses living at home. For one thing, there is
no refrigerator nearby . . . .
Ironic doubt--doubt about which of several closely judgable things exceeds the others, for example--can be
another possibility:
*. . . Whether he took them from his fellows more impudently, gave them to a harlot more lasciviously,
removed them from the Roman people more wickedly, or altered them more presumptuously, I cannot well
declare. --Cicero
*And who was genuinely most content--whether old Mr. Jennings dozing in the sun, or Bill and Molly
holding hands and toying under the palm tree, or old Mrs. Jennings watching them agape through the binoculars-I
cannot really say.
And you can display ignorance about something while still showing your attitude toward it or toward something
else:
*It is hard to know which ice cream is better, banana or coffee.
*I have often wondered whether they realize that those same clothes are available for half the price
under a different label.
14. Aposiopesis: stopping abruptly and leaving a statement unfinished:
*If they use that section of the desert for bombing practice, the rock hunters will--.
*I've got to make the team or I'll--.
15. Apostrophe interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified
thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion,
which can no longer be held back:
*O value of wisdom that fadeth not away with time, virtue ever flourishing, that cleanseth its possessor
from all venom! O heavenly gift of the divine bounty, descending from the Father of lights, that thou mayest
exalt the rational soul to the very heavens! Thou art the celestial nourishment of the intellect . . . . --Richard de
Bury
*O books who alone are liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who serve
you faithfully! -- Richard de Bury
*O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I
wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not
have it! --Luke 13:34 (NASB)
Apostrophe does not appear very often in argumentative writing because formal argument is by its nature fairly
restrained and intellectual rather than emotional; but under the right circumstances an apostrophe could be
useful:
*But all such reasons notwithstanding, dear reader, does not the cost in lives persuade you by itself
that we must do something immediately about the situation?
16. Appositive: a noun or noun substitute placed next to (in apposition to) another noun to be described
or defined by the appositive. The appositive can be placed before or after the noun:
*Henry Jameson, the boss of the operation, always wore a red baseball cap.
*A notorious annual feast, the picnic was well attended.
*That evening we were all at the concert, a really elaborate and exciting affair.
With very short appositives, the commas setting off the second noun from the first are often omitted:
*That afternoon Kathy Todd the pianist met the poet Thompson.
*Is your friend George going to run for office?
17. Assonance: similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different
consonants:
*A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. --Matthew 5:14b (KJV)
*Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. --Matthew 5:16 (KJV)
18. Asyndeton consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items,
asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account:
*On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame.
*The lack of the "and" conjunction gives the impression that the list is perhaps not complete. Compare:
*She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, pretzels.
*She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, and pretzels.
Sometimes an asyndetic list is useful for the strong and direct climactic effect it has, much more emphatic than
if a final conjunction were used. Compare:
*They spent the day wondering, searching, thinking, understanding.
*They spent the day wondering, searching, thinking, and understanding.
In certain cases, the omission of a conjunction between short phrases gives the impression of synonymity to the
phrases, or makes the latter phrase appear to be an afterthought or even a substitute for the former. Compare:
*He was a winner, a hero.
*He was a winner and a hero.
Notice also the degree of spontaneity granted in some cases by asyndetic usage. "The moist, rich, fertile soil,"
appears more natural and spontaneous than "the moist, rich, and fertile soil -” Generally, asyndeton offers the
feeling of speed and concision to lists and phrases and clauses, but occasionally the effect cannot be so easily
categorized. Consider the "flavor" of these examples:
*If, as is the case, we feel responsibility, are ashamed, are frightened, at transgressing the voice of
conscience, this implies that there is One to whom we are responsible, before whom we are ashamed, whose
claims upon us we fear. --John Henry Newman
In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set
forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. --Richard de Bury
*We certainly have within us the image of some person, to whom our love and veneration look, in
whose smile we find our happiness, for whom we yearn, towards whom we direct our pleadings, in whose anger
we are troubled and waste away. --John Henry Newman
19. Catachresis is an extravagant, implied metaphor using words in an alien or unusual way. While
difficult to invent, it can be wonderfully effective:
*I will speak daggers to her. --Hamlet [In a more futuristic metaphor, we might say, "I will laser-tongue
her." Or as a more romantic student suggested, "I will speak flowers to her."]
One way to write catachresis is to substitute an associated idea for the intended one (as Hamlet did, using
"daggers" instead of "angry words"):
*"It's a dentured lake," he said, pointing at the dam. "Break a tooth out of that grin and she will spit all
the way to Duganville."
Sometimes you can substitute a noun for a verb or a verb for a noun, a noun for an adjective, and so on. The key
is to be effective rather than abysmal. I am not sure which classification these examples fit into:
*The little old lady turtled along at ten miles per hour.
*She typed the paper machine-gunnedly, without pausing at all.
*They had expected that this news would paint an original grief, but the only result was silk-screamed
platitudes.
*Give him a quart or two of self esteem and he will stop knocking himself. [This was intended to
suggest motor oil; if it makes you think of cheap gin, the metaphor did not work.]
20. Chiasmus might be called "reverse parallelism," since the second part of a grammatical construction
is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order. Instead of an A, B structure (e.g., "learned
unwillingly") paralleled by another A, B structure ("forgotten gladly"), the A, B will be followed by B, A ("gladly
forgotten"). So instead of writing, "What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly," you could write, "What is
learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten." Similarly, the parallel sentence, "What is now great was at first little,"
could be written chiastically as, "What is now great was little at first." Here are some examples:
*He labors without complaining and without bragging rests.
*Polished in courts and hardened in the field, Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled. --Joseph
Addison
*For the Lord is a Great God . . . in whose hand are the depths of the earth; the peaks of the
mountains are his also. --Psalm 95:4
Chiasmus is easiest to write and yet can be made very beautiful and effective simply by moving subordinate
clauses around:
*If you come to them, they are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them, they do not withdraw
themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. --Richard de
Bury
Prepositional phrases or other modifiers can also be moved around to form chiastic structures. Sometimes the
effect is rather emphatic:
*Tell me not of your many perfections; of your great modesty tell me not either.
*Just as the term "menial" does not apply to any honest labor, so no dishonest work can be called
"prestigious."
At other times the effect is more subdued but still desirable. Compare the versions of these sentences, written
first in chiastic and then in strictly parallel form. Which do you like better in each case?
*On the way to school, my car ran out of gas; then it had a flat on the way home.
*On the way to school, my car ran out of gas; then on the way home it had a flat.
*Sitting together at lunch, the kids talked incessantly; but they said nothing at all sitting in the
dentist's office.
*Sitting together at lunch, the kids talked incessantly; but sitting in the dentist's office, they said
nothing at all.
*The computer mainframe is now on sale; available also at a discount is the peripheral equipment.
*The computer mainframe is now on sale; the peripheral equipment is also available at a discount.
Chiasmus may be useful for those sentences in which you want balance, but which cannot be paralleled
effectively, either because they are too short, or because the emphasis is placed on the wrong words. And
sometimes a chiastic structure will just seem to "work" when a parallel one will not.
21. Climax (gradatio) consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing
importance, weight, or emphasis. Parallelism usually forms a part of the arrangement, because it offers a sense
of continuity, order, and movement-up the ladder of importance. But if you wish to vary the amount of
discussion on each point, parallelism is not essential.
*The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highly at court, it was
voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered by Mozart the highlight of his career, and it
has become known today as the best concerto in the world.
*At 6:20 a.m. the ground began to heave. Windows rattled; then they broke. Objects started falling
from shelves. Water heaters fell from their pedestals, tearing out plumbing. Outside, the road began to break
up. Water mains and gas lines were wrenched apart, causing flooding and the danger of explosion. Office
buildings began cracking; soon twenty, thirty, forty stories of concrete were diving at the helpless pedestrians
panicking below.
*To have faults is not good, but faults are human. Worse is to have them and not see them. Yet beyond
that is to have faults, to see them, and to do nothing about them. But even that seems mild compared to him
who knows his faults, and who parades them about and encourages them as though they were virtues.
In addition to arranging sentences or groups of short ideas in climactic order, you generally should also arrange
the large sections of ideas in your papers, the points in your arguments, and the examples for your
generalizations climactically; although in these cases, the first item should not be the very least important
(because its weakness might alienate the reader). Always begin with a point or proof substantial enough to
generate interest, and then continue with ideas of increasing importance. That way your argument gets stronger
as it moves along, and every point hits harder than the previous one.
22. Conduplicatio resembles anadiplosis in the repetition of a preceding word, but it repeats a key word
(not just the last word) from a preceding phrase, clause, or sentence, at the beginning of the next.
*If this is the first time duty has moved him to act against his desires, he is a very weak man indeed.
Duty should be cultivated and obeyed in spite of its frequent conflict with selfish wishes.
*The strength of the passions will never be accepted as an excuse for complying with them; the
passions were designed for subjection, and if a man suffers them to get the upper hand, he then betrays the
liberty of his own soul. --Alexander Pope
*She fed the goldfish every day with the new pellets brought from Japan. Gradually the goldfish began
to turn a brighter orange than before.
Like anadiplosis, conduplicatio serves as an effective focusing device because with it you can pull out that
important idea from the sentence before and put it clearly at the front of the new sentence, showing the reader
just what he should be concentrating on. Since keeping the reader focused on your train of thought is critical to
good writing, this device can be especially helpful as a transitional connector when the previous sentence has
two or more possible main points, only one of which is to be continued in the discussion. Suppose, for example,
you have this sentence:
*Submitting a constitutional amendment to a popular vote through a general referendum always runs
the risk of a campaign and a vote based upon the selfishness rather than the sense of justice of the voter.
Now, the next sentence could begin with, "Previous campaigns . . ." or "The strength of the appeal to selfish
interests . . . "or "Therefore constitutional amendments are best left . . ." all depending on which concept you
wish to develop. If you began the next sentence with, "But there certainly can be no doubt that the general
referendum will continue to be exploited by those whose issues are aided by the innate selfishness of human
beings," the reader would have to go a considerable distance into the sentence before he would find out exactly
which idea is being carried forward and developed.
23. Diacope: repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase as a method of
emphasis:
*We will do it, I tell you; we will do it.
*We give thanks to Thee, 0 God, we give thanks . . . . --Psalm 75:1 (NASB)
24. Dirimens Copulatio: mentioning a balancing or opposing fact to prevent the argument from being
one-sided or unqualified:
*This car is extremely sturdy and durable. It's low maintenance; things never go wrong with it. Of
course, if you abuse it, it will break.
*. . . But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to
those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. --l Cor. 1:23-24
(NASB; cf. Rom. 13:4-5)
25. Distinctio is an explicit reference to a particular meaning or to the various meanings of a word, in
order to remove or prevent ambiguity.
*To make methanol for twenty-five cents a gallon is impossible; by "impossible" I mean currently
beyond our technological capabilities.
*The precipitate should be moved from the filter paper to the crucible quickly--that is, within three
minutes.
*Mr. Haskins describes the process as a simple one. If by simple he means easy to explain on paper, he
is correct. But if he means there are no complexities involved in getting it to work, he is quite mistaken.
*The modern automobile (and here I refer to the post-1975, desmogged American car) is more a
product of bolt-on solutions than of revolutionary engineering.
Many of our words, like those of evaluation (better, failure high quality, efficient, unacceptable) and those
referring to abstract concepts which are often debated (democracy, justice, equality, oppression) have different
meanings to different people, and sometimes to the same person at different times. For example, the
governments of both Communist China and the United States are described as "democracies," while it could be
argued rather convincingly that neither really is, depending on the definition of democracy used. Semanticist S.
I. Hayakawa even goes so far as to claim that "no word ever has exactly the same meaning twice," and while that
for practical purposes seems to be a substantial exaggeration, we should keep in mind the great flexibility of
meaning in a lot of our words. Whenever there might be some doubt about your meaning, it would be wise to
clarify your statement or terms. And distinctio is one good way to do that. Some helpful phrases for distinctio
include these: blank here must be taken to mean, in this context [or case] blank means, by blank I mean, that is,
which is to say. You can sometimes use a parenthetical explanation or a colon, too: Is this dangerous (will I be
physically harmed by it)?
26. Enthymeme is an informally-stated syllogism which omits either one of the premises or the
conclusion. The omitted part must be clearly understood by the reader. The usual form of this logical shorthand
omits the major premise:
*Since your application was submitted before April 10th, it will be considered. [Omitted premise: All
applications submitted before April 10 will be considered.]
*He is an American citizen, so he is entitled to due process. [All American citizens are entitled to due
process.]
An enthymeme can also be written by omitting the minor premise:
*Ed is allergic to foods containing monosodium glutamate, so he cannot eat Chinese food seasoned with
it.
*A political system can be just only when those who make its laws keep well informed about the
subject and effect of those laws. This is why our system is in danger of growing unjust.
It is also possible to omit the conclusion to form an enthymeme, when the two premises clearly point to it:
*If, as Anatole France said, "It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly," then I must propose
that the Board of Supervisors in this case is demonstrating human nature perfectly well.
*The Fenton Lumber Company never undertakes a clearcut until at least eighty percent of the trees are
mature, and the 4800-acre stand of pine above Mill Creek will not be that mature for another fifteen years.
Whenever a premise is omitted in an enthymeme (and understood by the reader), it is assumed to be either a
truism or an acceptable and non-controversial generalization. But sometimes the omitted premise is one with
which the reader would not agree, and the enthymeme then becomes a logical fallacy-an unacceptable
enthymeme. What are the omitted premises here, and why are they unacceptable?
*You can tell this tape recorder is a bunch of junk: it's made in Japan.
*He says he believes that Jesus was a great moral teacher, so he must be a Christian.
*Those kids are from Southern California? Then they must be either crazy or perverted.
It goes without saying that you should be careful in your own writing not to use enthymemes dishonestly--that is,
not to use clearly controversial assertions for the omitted premises. Aside from its everyday use as a logical
shorthand, enthymeme finds its greatest use in writing as an instrument for slightly understating yet clearly
pointing out some assertion, often in the form of omitted conclusion. By making the reader work out the
syllogism for himself, you impress the conclusion upon him, yet in a way gentler than if you spelled it out in so
many words:
*It is essential to anchor the dam in genuine solid rock, rather than in sandstone, and the Trapper's
Bluff area provides the only solid rock for seven miles on either side of the designated optimum site.
*Yes, it is a beautiful car, but it does not have an automatic hood-ornament washer, and I just will not
have a car without one.
27. Enumeratio: detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly:
*I love her eyes, her hair, her nose, her cheeks, her lips [etc.].
*When the new highway opened, more than just the motels and restaurants prospered. The stores
noted a substantial increase in sales, more people began moving to town, a new dairy farm was started, the old
Main Street Theater doubled its showings and put up a new building . . . .
28. Epanalepsis repeats the beginning word of a clause or sentence at the end. The beginning and the
end are the two positions of strongest emphasis in a sentence, so by having the same word in both places, you
call special attention to it:
*Water alone dug this giant canyon; yes, just plain water.
*To report that your committee is still investigating the matter is to tell me that you have nothing to
report.
Many writers use epanalepsis in a kind of "yes, but" construction to cite common ground or admit a truth and
then to show how that truth relates to a more important context:
*Our eyes saw it, but we could not believe our eyes.
*The theory sounds all wrong; but if the machine works, we cannot worry about theory.
*In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world. --John 16:33 (NASB)
29. Epistrophe (also called antistrophe) forms the counterpart to anaphora, because the repetition of
the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences:
*Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all
things else that withstand evil, forever are subdued. --Wilson
*And all the night he did nothing but weep Philoclea, sigh Philoclea, and cry out Philoclea. --Philip
Sidney
*You will find washing beakers helpful in passing this course, using the gas chromatograph desirable for
passing this course, and studying hours on end essential to passing this course.
Epistrophe is an extremely emphatic device because of the emphasis placed on the last word in a phrase or
sentence. If you have a concept you wish to stress heavily, then epistrophe might be a good construction to use.
The danger as usual lies in this device's tendency to become too rhetorical. Consider whether these are
successful and effective or hollow and bombastic:
*The cars do not sell because the engineering is inferior, the quality of materials is inferior, and the
workmanship is inferior.
*The energies of mankind are often exerted in pursuit, consolidation, and enjoyment; which is to say,
many men spend their lives pursuing power, consolidating power, and enjoying power.
30. Epithet is an adjective or adjective phrase appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by naming a key
or important characteristic of the subject, as in "laughing happiness," "sneering contempt," "untroubled sleep,"
"peaceful dawn," and "lifegiving water." Sometimes a metaphorical epithet will be good to use, as in "lazy road,"
"tired landscape," "smirking billboards," "anxious apple." Aptness and brilliant effectiveness are the key
considerations in choosing epithets. Be fresh, seek striking images, pay attention to connotative value. A
transferred epithet is an adjective modifying a noun which it does not normally modify, but which makes
figurative sense:
*At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth of thieves and murderers . . . . --George Herbert
*Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold / A sheep hook . . . . --John Milton
*In an age of pressurized happiness, we sometimes grow insensitive to subtle joys.
The striking and unusual quality of the transferred epithet calls attention to it, and it can therefore be used to
introduce emphatically an idea you plan to develop. The phrase will stay with the reader, so there is no need to
repeat it, for that would make it too obviously rhetorical and even a little annoying. Thus, if you introduce the
phrase, "diluted electricity," your subsequent development ought to return to more mundane synonyms, such as
"low voltage," "brownouts," and so forth. It may be best to save your transferred epithet for a space near the
conclusion of the discussion where it will be not only clearer (as a synonym for previously stated and clearly
understandable terms) but more effective, as a kind of final, quintessential, and yet novel conceptualization of
the issue. The reader will love it.
31. Epizeuxis: repetition of one word (for emphasis):
*The best way to describe this portion of South America is lush, lush, lush.
*What do you see? Wires, wires, everywhere wires.
*Polonius: "What are you reading?" Hamlet: "Words, words, words."
32. Eponym substitutes for a particular attribute the name of a famous person recognized for that
attribute. By their nature eponyms often border on the cliché, but many times they can be useful without
seeming too obviously trite. Finding new or infrequently used ones is best, though hard, because the name-andattribute relationship needs to be well established. Consider the effectiveness of these:
*Is he smart? Why, the man is an Einstein. Has he suffered? This poor Job can tell you himself.
*That little Caesar is fooling nobody. He knows he is no Patrick Henry.
*When it comes to watching girls, Fred is a regular Argus.
*You think your boyfriend is tight. I had a date with Scrooge himself last night.
*We all must realize that Uncle Sam is not supposed to be Santa Claus.
*An earthworm is the Hercules of the soil.
Some people or characters are famous for more than one attribute, so that when using them, you must somehow
specify the meaning you intend:
*With a bow and arrow, Kathy is a real Diana. [Diana was goddess of the moon, of the hunt, and of
chastity.]
*Those of us who cannot become a Ulysses and see the world must trust our knowledge to picture books
and descriptions. [Ulysses was a hero in the Trojan War as well as a wanderer afterwards.]
In cases where the eponym might be less than clear or famous, you should add the quality to it:
*The wisdom of a Solomon was needed to figure out the actions of the appliance marketplace this
quarter.
Eponym is one of those once-in-awhile devices which can give a nice touch in the right place.
33. Exemplum: citing an example; using an illustrative story, either true or fictitious:
*Let me give you an example. In the early 1920's in Germany, the government let the printing presses
turn out endless quantities of paper money, and soon, instead of 50-pfennige postage stamps, denominations up
to 50 billion marks were being issued.
34. Expletive is a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis
to the words immediately proximate to the expletive. (We emphasize the words on each side of a pause or
interruption in order to maintain continuity of the thought.) Compare:
*But the lake was not drained before April.
*But the lake was not, in fact, drained before April.
Expletives are most frequently placed near the beginning of a sentence, where important material has been
placed:
*All truth is not, indeed, of equal importance; but if little violations are allowed, every violation will in
time be thought little. --Samuel Johnson
But sometimes they are placed at the very beginning of a sentence, thereby serving as signals that the whole
sentence is especially important. In such cases the sentence should be kept as short as possible:
*In short, the cobbler had neglected his soul.
*Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. --John
4:14 (NIV)
Or the author may show that he does not intend to underemphasize an objection or argument he rejects:
*To be sure, no one desires to live in a foul and disgusting environment. But neither do we want to
desert our cities.
In a few instances, especially with short sentences, the expletive can be placed last:
*It was a hot day indeed.
*Harold won, of course.
A common practice is setting off the expletive by commas, which increases the emphasis on the surrounding
words, though in many cases the commas are necessary for clarity as well and cannot be omitted. Note how the
expletive itself is also emphasized:
*He without doubt can be trusted with a cookie.
*He, without doubt, can be trusted with a cookie.
An expletive can emphasize a phrase:
*The Bradys, clearly a happy family, live in an old house with squeaky floors.
Transitional phrases, accostives, some adverbs, and other interrupters can be used for emphasizing portions of
sentences, and therefore function as kinds of quasi-expletives in those circumstances.
*We find a few people, however, unwilling to come.
*"Your last remark," he said, "is impertinent."
*There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. --Samuel Johnson
Some useful expletives include the following: in fact, of course, indeed, I think, without doubt, to be sure,
naturally, it seems, after all, for all that, in brief, on the whole, in short, to tell the truth, in any event, clearly,
I suppose, I hope, at least, assuredly, certainly, remarkably, importantly, definitely. In formal writing, avoid
these and similar expletives: you know, you see, huh, get this. And it goes without saying that you should avoid
the unprintable ones.
35. Hyperbaton includes several rhetorical devices involving departure from normal word order. One
device, a form of inversion, might be called delayed epithet, since the adjective follows the noun. If you want to
amplify the adjective, the inversion is very useful:
*From his seat on the bench he saw the girl content-content with the promise that she could ride on
the train again next week.
But the delayed epithet can also be used by itself, though in only a relatively few cases:
*She had a personality indescribable.
*His was a countenance sad.
Some rhetoricians condemn delayed epithet altogether in formal writing because of its potential for abuse. Each
case must be tested carefully, to make sure it does not sound too poetic:
*His was a countenance friendly.
*These are rumors strange.
And especially make sure the phrase is not affected, offensive, or even disgusting:
*Welcome to our home comfortable.
*That is a story amazing.
I cannot give you a rule (why does "countenance sad" seem okay when "countenance friendly" does not?) other
than to consult your own taste or sense of what sounds all right and what does not. A similar form of inversion we
might call divided epithets. Here two adjectives are separated by the noun they modify, as in Milton's "with
wandering steps and slow." Once again, be careful, but go ahead and try it. Some examples:
*It was a long operation but successful.
*Let's go on a cooler day and less busy.
*So many pages will require a longer staple, heavy-duty style.
Another form of hyperbaton involves the separation of words normally belonging together, done for effect or
convenience:
*In this room there sit twenty (though I will not name them) distinguished people.
You can emphasize a verb by putting it at the end of the sentence:
*We will not, from this house, under any circumstances, be evicted.
*Sandy, after a long struggle, all the way across the lake, finally swam to shore.
You might want to have a friend check your excursions into hyperbatonic syntax, and if he looks at you askance
and says, "My, talk funny you do," you might want to do a little rewriting. But, again, do not mark this off your
list just because you might not be always successful at it.
36. Hyperbole, the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or
effect. In formal writing the hyperbole must be clearly intended as an exaggeration, and should be carefully
restricted. That is, do not exaggerate everything, but treat hyperbole like an exclamation point, to be used only
once a year. Then it will be quite effective as a table-thumping attention getter, introductory to your essay or
some section thereof:
*There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy.
*Or it can make a single point very enthusiastically:
*I said "rare," not "raw." I've seen cows hurt worse than this get up and get well.
Or you can exaggerate one thing to show how really different it is from something supposedly similar to which it
is being compared:
*This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make, my love.
*If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and
brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. --Luke 14:26 (NASB)
Hyperbole is the most overused and overdone rhetorical figure in the whole world (and that is no hyperbole); we
are a society of excess and exaggeration. Nevertheless, hyperbole still has a rightful and useful place in art and
letters; just handle it like dynamite, and do not blow up everything you can find.
37. Hypophora consists of raising one or more questions and then proceeding to answer them, usually at
some length. A common usage is to ask the question at the beginning of a paragraph and then use that paragraph
to answer it:
*There is a striking and basic difference between a man's ability to imagine something and an animal's
failure. . . . Where is it that the animal falls short? We get a clue to the answer, I think, when Hunter tells us . . .
. --Jacob Bronowski
*What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?. . . What does the
Scripture say? "Abraham believed God. --Rom. 4:1,3 (NIV)
This is an attractive rhetorical device, because asking an appropriate question appears quite natural and helps to
maintain curiosity and interest. You can use hypophora to raise questions which you think the reader obviously
has on his mind and would like to see formulated and answered:
*What behavior, then, is uniquely human? My theory is this . . . . --H. J. Campbell
*But what was the result of this move on the steel industry? The annual reports for that year clearly
indicate. . . .
Hypophora can also be used to raise questions or to introduce material of importance, but which the reader
might not have the knowledge or thought to ask for himself:
*How then, in the middle of the twentieth century, are we to define the obligation of the historian to
his facts?..... The duty of the historian to respect his facts is not exhausted by . . . . --Edward Hallett Carr
*But it is certainly possible to ask, How hot is the oven at its hottest point, when the average
temperature is 425 degrees? We learned that the peak temperatures approached . . . .
And hypophora can be used as a transitional or guiding device to change directions or enter a new area of
discussion:
*But what are the implications of this theory? And how can it be applied to the present problem?
*How and why did caveat emptor develop? The question presents us with mysteries never fully
answered. --Ivan L. Preston
Notice how a series of reasonable questions can keep a discussion lively and interesting:
*How do we know the FTC strategy is the best, particularly in view of the complaints consumerists
have made against it? Isn't there some chance that greater penalties would amount to greater deterrents? Why
not get the most consumer protection simultaneously with the most punishment to offenders by easing the
requirements for guilt without easing the punishment? . . . It happens that that's been tried, and it didn't work
very well. --Ivan L. Preston
In the above example, the writer went on for several paragraphs to discuss the case which "didn't work very
well." It would also be possible for a writer to ask several questions and then answer them in an orderly way,
though that has the danger of appearing too mechanical if not carefully done.
38. Hypotaxis: using subordination to show the relationship between clauses or phrases (and hence the
opposite of parataxis):
*They asked the question because they were curious.
*If a person observing an unusual or unfamiliar object concludes that it is probably a spaceship from
another world, he can readily adduce that the object is reacting to his presence or actions when in reality there
is absolutely no cause-effect relationship. --Philip Klass
*While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. --John 9:5
39. Litotes, a particular form of understatement, is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the
word which otherwise would be used. Depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the
effect of understatement, or becomes an intensifying expression. Compare the difference between these
statements:
*Heat waves are common in the summer.
*Heat waves are not rare in the summer.
Johnson uses litotes to make a modest assertion, saying "not improperly" rather than "correctly" or "best":
*This kind of writing may be termed not improperly the comedy of romance. . . .
Occasionally a litotic construction conveys an ironic sentiment by its understatement:
*We saw him throw the buckets of paint at his canvas in disgust, and the result did not perfectly
represent his subject, Mrs. Jittery.
Usually, though, litotes intensifies the sentiment intended by the writer, and creates the effect of strong feelings
moderately conveyed.
*Hitting that telephone pole certainly didn't do your car any good.
*If you can tell the fair one's mind, it will be no small proof of your art, for I dare say it is more than
she herself can do. --Alexander Pope
*A figure lean or corpulent, tall or short, though deviating from beauty, may still have a certain union
of the various parts, which may contribute to make them on the whole not unpleasing. --Sir Joshua Reynolds
*He who examines his own self will not long remain ignorant of his failings.
*Overall the flavors of the mushrooms, herbs, and spices combine to make the dish not at all
disagreeable to the palate.
But note that, as George Orwell points out in "Politics and the English Language," the "not un-" construction (for
example, "not unwilling") should not be used indiscriminately. Rather, find an opposite quality which as a word is
something other than the quality itself with an "un" attached. For instance, instead of, "We were not
unvictorious," you could write, "We were not defeated," or "We did not fail to win," or something similar.
40. Metabasis consists of a brief statement of what has been said and what will follow. It might be called
a linking, running, or transitional summary, whose function is to keep the discussion ordered and clear in its
progress:
*Such, then, would be my diagnosis of the present condition of art. I must now, by special request, say
what I think will happen to art in the future. --Kenneth Clark
*We have to this point been examining the proposal advanced by Smervits only in regard to its legal
practicability; but next we need to consider the effect it would have in retarding research and development work
in private laboratories.
*I have hitherto made mention of his noble enterprises in France, and now I will rehearse his worthy
acts done near to Rome. --Peacham
The brief little summary of what has been said helps the reader immensely to understand, organize, and
remember that portion of your essay.
Metabasis serves well as a transitional device, refocusing the discussion on a new but clearly derivative area:
*Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the
kind of writing that they lead to. --George Orwell
It can also be used to clarify the movement of a discussion by quickly summing up large sections of preceding
material:
*By the foregoing quotation I have shown that the language of prose may yet be well adapted to
poetry; and I have previously asserted that a large portion of the language of every good poem can in no respect
differ from that of good prose. I will go further. I do not doubt that it may be safely affirmed, that there neither
is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. --William
Wordsworth
*Having thus explained a few of the reasons why I have written in verse, and why I have chosen
subjects from common life, and endeavored to bring my language near to the real language of men, . . . I
request the reader's permission to add a few words with reference solely to these particular poems and to some
defects which will probably be found in them. --Ibid.
*Now that we have discussed the different kinds of cactus plants available to the landscape architect,
their physical requirements for sun, soil, irrigation, and drainage, and the typical design groupings selected for
residential areas, we ought to examine the architectural contexts which can best use-enhance and be enhanced
by--cactus planters and gardens.
*Thus we have surveyed the state of authors as they are influenced from without, either by the frowns
or favor of the great, or by the applause or censure of the critics. It remains only to consider how the people, or
world in general, stand affected towards our modern penmen, and what occasion these adventurers may have of
complaint or boast from their encounter with the public. --Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury
One caution should be mentioned. Metabasis is very difficult to use effectively in short papers: since it is a
summarizing device, it must have some discussion to sum up. In practice, this means something on the order of
five pages or more. Thus, metabasis could be very handy in the middle of a ten or twenty page paper; in a three
page paper, though, both its necessity and its utility would be questionable. But use your own judgment. Words
used to signal further discussion after the summary include these: now, next, additionally, further, besides,
equally important, also interesting, also important, also necessary to mention, it remains. You can also use words
of comparison and contrast, such as these: similarly, on the other hand, by contrast.
41. Metanoia (correctio) qualifies a statement by recalling it (or part of it) and expressing it in a better,
milder, or stronger way. A negative is often used to do the recalling:
*Fido was the friendliest of all St. Bernards, nay of all dogs.
*The chief thing to look for in impact sockets is hardness; no, not so much hardness as resistance to
shock and shattering.
*And if I am still far from the goal, the fault is my own for not paying heed to the reminders--nay, the
virtual directions--which I have had from above. --Marcus Aurelius
*Even a blind man can see, as the saying is, that poetic language gives a certain grandeur to prose,
except that some writers imitate the poets quite openly, or rather they do not so much imitate them as
transpose their words into their own work, as Herodotus does. --Demetrius
Metanoia can be used to coax the reader into expanding his belief or comprehension by moving from modest to
bold:
*These new textbooks will genuinely improve the lives of our children, or rather the children of the
whole district.
Or it can be used to tone down and qualify an excessive outburst (while, of course, retaining the outburst for
good effect):
*While the crack widens and the cliff every minute comes closer to crashing down around our ears, the
bureaucrats are just standing by twiddling their thumbs--or at least they have been singularly unresponsive to our
appeals for action.
The most common word in the past for invoking metanoia was "nay," but this word is quickly falling out of the
language and even now would probably sound a bit strange if you used it. So you should probably substitute "no"
for it. Other words and phrases useful for this device include these: rather, at least, let us say, I should say, I
mean, to be more exact, or better, or rather, or maybe. When you use one of the "or" phrases (or rather, or to
be more exact), a comma is fine preceding the device; when you use just "no," I think a dash is most effective.
42. Metaphor compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Unlike a simile or
analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another. Very frequently a
metaphor is invoked by the to be verb:
*Affliction then is ours; / We are the trees whom shaking fastens more. --George Herbert
*Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life." --John 6:35 [And compare the use of metaphor in 6:3263]
*Thus a mind that is free from passion is a very citadel; man has no stronger fortress in which to seek
shelter and defy every assault. Failure to perceive this is ignorance; but to perceive it, and still not to seek its
refuge, is misfortune indeed. --Marcus Aurelius
The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be
continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter. --Joshua Reynolds
Just as frequently, though, the comparison is clear enough that the a-is-b form is not necessary:
*The fountain of knowledge will dry up unless it is continuously replenished by streams of new learning.
*This first beam of hope that had ever darted into his mind rekindled youth in his cheeks and doubled
the lustre of his eyes. --Samuel Johnson
*I wonder when motor mouth is going to run out of gas.
*When it comes to midterms, it's kill or be killed. Let's go in and slay this test.
*What sort of a monster then is man? What a novelty, what a portent, what a chaos, what a mass of
contradictions, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, a ridiculous earthworm who is the repository of truth, a sink
of uncertainty and error; the glory and the scum of the world. --Blaise Pascal
*The most learned philosopher knew little more. He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her
immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery. . . . I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments
that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined. -Mary Shelley
*The furnace of affliction had softened his heart and purified his soul.
Compare the different degrees of direct identification between tenor and vehicle. There is fully expressed:
*Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it
is not sound, your body is full of darkness. --Luke 11:34 (RSV)
Here, the comparison, "the eye is a lamp," is declared directly, and the point of similarity is spelled out. There is
semi-implied:
*And he said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and
tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course."' --Luke 13:32 (RSV)
Here, the comparison, "Herod is a fox," is not directly stated, but is understood as if it had been. There is
implied:
*. . . For thou hast been my help, and in the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy. --Psalm 63:7 (RSV)
Here, the comparison, "God is a bird [or hen]" is only implied. Stating the metaphorical equation directly would
have been rhetorically ineffective or worse because of the awkward thought it creates. The classical rhetorician
Demetrius tells us that when there is a great difference between the subject and the comparison, the subject
should always be compared to something greater than itself, or diminishment and rhetorical failure result. You
might write, "The candle was a little sun in the dark room," but you wouldn't write, "The sun was a big candle
that day in the desert." In Psalm 63, however, there is nothing greater than God to compare him to, and the
psalmist wants to create a sense of tenderness and protection, drawing upon a familiar image. So, the
comparison is saved by using an implied metaphor. And there is very implied:
*For if men do these things when the tree is green what will happen when it is dry? --Luke 23:31 (NIV)
Here the comparison is something like "a prosperous time [or freedom from persecution] is a green [flourishing,
healthy] tree." And the other half of the metaphor is that "a time of persecution or lack of prosperity is a dry
[unhealthy, dead(?)] tree." So the rhetorical question is, "If men do these [bad] things during times of prosperity,
what will they do when persecution or their own suffering arrives?" Like simile and analogy, metaphor is a
profoundly important and useful device. Aristotle says in his Rhetoric, "It is metaphor above all else that gives
clearness, charm, and distinction to the style." And Joseph Addison says of it:
*By these allusions a truth in the understanding is as it were reflected by the imagination; we are able
to see something like color and shape in a notion, and to discover a scheme of thoughts traced out upon matter.
And here the mind receives a great deal of satisfaction, and has two of its faculties gratified at the same time,
while the fancy is busy in copying after the understanding, and transcribing ideas out of the intellectual world
into the material.
So a metaphor not only explains by making the abstract or unknown concrete and familiar, but it also enlivens by
touching the reader's imagination. Further, it affirms one more interconnection in the unity of all things by
showing a relationship between things seemingly alien to each other. And the fact that two very unlike things can
be equated or referred to in terms of one another comments upon them both. No metaphor is "just a metaphor."
All have significant implications, and they must be chosen carefully, especially in regard to the connotations the
vehicle (image) will transfer to the tenor. Consider, for example, the differences in meaning conveyed by these
statements:
*That club is spreading like wildfire.
*That club is spreading like cancer.
*That club is really blossoming now.
*That club, in its amoebic motions, is engulfing the campus.
And do you see any reason that one of these metaphors was chosen over the others?
*The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. --Luke 10:2
*The pile of dirt is high, but we do not have many shovels.
*The diamonds cover the ground, but we need more people to pick them up.
So bold and striking is metaphor that it is sometimes taken literally rather than as a comparison. (Jesus' disciples
sometimes failed here--see John 4:32ff and John 6:46-60; a few religious groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses
interpret such passages as Psalm 75:8 and 118:15 literally and thus see God as anthropomorphic; and even today
a lot of controversy surrounds the interpretation of Matthew 26:26.) Always be careful in your own writing,
therefore, to avoid possible confusion between metaphor and reality. In practice this is usually not very difficult.
43. Metonymy is another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some rhetoricians
do not distinguish between the two), in which the thing chosen for the metaphorical image is closely associated
with (but not an actual part of) the subject with which it is to be compared.
*The orders came directly from the White House.
In this example we know that the writer means the President issued the orders, because "White House" is quite
closely associated with "President," even though it is not physically a part of him. Consider these substitutions,
and notice that some are more obvious than others, but that in context all are clear:
*You can't fight city hall.
*This land belongs to the crown.
*In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread . . . . --Genesis 3:19
*Boy, I'm dying from the heat. Just look how the mercury is rising.
*His blood be on us and on our children. --Matt. 27:25
*The checkered flag waved and victory crossed the finish line.
*Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
*Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. --Psalm 100:1-2 (KJV)
The use of a particular metonymy makes a comment about the idea for which it has been substituted, and
thereby helps to define that idea. Note how much more vivid "in the sweat of thy face" is in the third example
above than "by labor" would have been. And in the fourth example, "mercury rising" has a more graphic, physical,
and pictorial effect than would "temperature increasing." Attune yourself to such subtleties of language, and
study the effects of connotation, suggestion, substitution, and metaphor.
44. Onomatopoeia is the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes.
"Buzz," for example, when spoken is intended to resemble the sound of a flying insect. Other examples include
these: slam, pow, screech, whirr, crush, sizzle, crunch, wring, wrench, gouge, grind, mangle, bang, blam, pow,
zap, fizz, urp, roar, growl, blip, click, whimper, and, of course, snap, crackle, and pop. Note that the connection
between sound and pronunciation is sometimes rather a product of imagination ("slam" and "wring" are not very
good imitations). And note also that written language retains an aural quality, so that even unspoken your writing
has a sound to it. Compare these sentences, for instance:
*Someone yelled, "Look out!" and I heard the skidding of tires and the horrible noise of bending metal
and breaking glass.
*Someone yelled "Look out!" and I heard a loud screech followed by a grinding, wrenching crash.
Onomatopoeia can produce a lively sentence, adding a kind of flavoring by its sound effects:
*The flies buzzing and whizzing around their ears kept them from finishing the experiment at the
swamp.
*No one talks in these factories. Everyone is too busy. The only sounds are the snip, snip of scissors and
the hum of sewing machines.
*But I loved that old car. I never heard the incessant rattle on a rough road, or the squeakitysqueak
whenever I hit a bump; and as for the squeal of the tires around every corner--well, that was macho.
*If you like the plop, plop, plop of a faucet at three in the morning, you will like this record.
45. Oxymoron is a paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adjective-noun ("eloquent silence") or
adverb-adjective ("inertly strong") relationship, and is used for effect, complexity, emphasis, or wit:
*I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves and their art.....-Jonathan Swift
*The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head . . . .--Alexander
Pope
*He was now sufficiently composed to order a funeral of modest magnificence, suitable at once to the
rank of a Nouradin's profession, and the reputation of his wealth. --Samuel Johnson
Oxymoron can be useful when things have gone contrary to expectation, belief, desire, or assertion, or when
your position is opposite to another's which you are discussing. The figure then produces an ironic contrast which
shows, in your view, how something has been misunderstood or mislabeled:
*Senator Rosebud calls this a useless plan; if so, it is the most helpful useless plan we have ever
enacted.
*The cost-saving program became an expensive economy.
Other oxymorons, as more or less true paradoxes, show the complexity of a situation where two apparently
opposite things are true simultaneously, either literally ("desirable calamity") or imaginatively ("love precipitates
delay"). Some examples other writers have used are these: scandalously nice, sublimely bad, darkness visible,
cheerful pessimist, sad joy, wise fool, tender cruelty, despairing hope, freezing fire. An oxymoron should
preferably be yours uniquely; do not use another's, unless it is a relatively obvious formulation (like "expensive
economy") which anyone might think of. Also, the device is most effective when the terms are not common
opposites. So, instead of "a low high point," you might try "depressed apex" or something.
46. Parallelism is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are
expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism
also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence. Any sentence elements can be
paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quickly becomes ridiculous). You might choose
parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them:
*Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the
forest of Darkness.
Or parallel verbs and adverbs:
*I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door.
*Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book.
Or parallel verbs and direct objects:
*He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit.
Or just the objects:
*This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted
Mercedes.
Or parallel prepositional phrases:
*He found it difficult to vote for an ideal truth but against his own self interest.
*The pilot walked down the aisle, through the door, and into the cockpit, singing "Up, Up, and Away."
Notice how paralleling rather long subordinate clauses helps you to hold the whole sentence clearly in your head:
*These critics--who point out the beauties of style and ideas, who discover the faults of false
constructions, and who discuss the application of the rules--usually help a lot in engendering an understanding of
the writer's essay.
*When, at the conclusion of a prolonged episode of agonizing thought, you decide to buy this car; when,
after a hundred frantic sessions of begging stone-faced bankers for the money, you can obtain sufficient funds;
and when, after two more years of impatience and frustration, you finally get a driver's license, then come see
me and we will talk about a deal.
*After you corner the market in Brazilian coffee futures, but before you manipulate the price through
the ceiling, sit down and have a cup of coffee with me (while I can still afford it).
It is also possible to parallel participial, infinitive, and gerund phrases:
*He left the engine on, idling erratically and heating rapidly.
*To think accurately and to write precisely are interrelated goals.
*She liked sneaking up to Ted and putting the ice cream down his back, because he was so cool about it.
In practice some combination of parts of speech or sentence elements is used to form a statement, depending as
always on what you have to say. In addition, the parallelism, while it normally should be pretty close, does not
have to be exact in its syntactical similarity. For example, you might write,
He ran up to the bookshelves, grabbed a chair standing nearby, stepped painfully on his tiptoes, and pulled the
fifty-pound volume on top of him, crushing his ribs and impressing him with the power of knowledge. Here are
some other examples of parallelism:
*I shall never envy the honors which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered
among the writers who have given ardor to virtue, and confidence to truth. --Samuel Johnson
*They had great skill in optics, and had instructed him to see faults in others, and beauties in himself,
that could be discovered by nobody else. . . . --Alexander Pope
*For the end of a theoretical science is truth, but the end of a practical science is performance. -Aristotle
47. Parataxis: writing successive independent clauses, with coordinating conjunctions, or no
conjunctions:
*We walked to the top of the hill, and we sat down.
*In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. --Genesis
1:1-2 (KJV)
*The Starfish went into dry-dock, it got a barnacle treatment, it went back to work.
In this last example above, note that a string of very short sentences can be connected by commas when the
elements are parallel. Longer sentences and unparallel sentence structures need at least semicolons to connect
them.
48. Parenthesis, a final form of hyperbaton, consists of a word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an
aside in the middle of another sentence:
*But the new calculations--and here we see the value of relying upon up-to-date information--showed
that man-powered flight was possible with this design.
*Every time I try to think of a good rhetorical example, I rack my brains but--you guessed--nothing
happens.
*As the earthy portion has its origin from earth, the watery from a different element, my breath from
one source and my hot and fiery parts from another of their own elsewhere (for nothing comes from nothing, or
can return to nothing), so too there must be an origin for the mind. --Marcus Aurelius
*But in whatever respect anyone else is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am just as bold myself. --2 Cor.
11:21b (NASB)
*The violence involved in jumping into (or out of) the middle of your sentence to address the reader
momentarily about something has a pronounced effect.
Parenthesis can be circumscribed either by dashes--they are more dramatic and forceful--or by parentheses (to
make your aside less stringent). This device creates the effect of extemporaneity and immediacy: you are
relating some fact when suddenly something very important arises, or else you cannot resist an instant comment,
so you just stop the sentence and the thought you are on right where they are and insert the fact or comment.
The parenthetical form also serves to give some statements a context (stuffed right into the middle of another
sentence at the most pertinent point) which they would not have if they had to be written as complete sentences
following another sentence. Note that in the first example above the bit of moralizing placed into the sentence
appears to be more natural and acceptable than if it were stated separately as a kind of moral conclusion, which
was not the purpose or drift of the article.
49. Personification metaphorically represents an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes-attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on. Ideas and abstractions can also be personified.
*The ship began to creak and protest as it struggled against the rising sea.
*We bought this house instead of the one on Maple because this one is more friendly.
*This coffee is strong enough to get up and walk away.
*I can't get the fuel pump back on because this bolt is being uncooperative.
*Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. --Genesis 4:10b (NIV)
*That ignorance and perverseness should always obtain what they like was never considered as the end
of government; of which it is the great and standing benefit that the wise see for the simple, and the regular act
for the capricious. --Samuel Johnson
*Wisdom cries aloud in the streets; in the markets she raises her voice . . . .--Psalm 1:20 (RSV; and cf.
1:21-33)
While personification functions primarily as a device of art, it can often serve to make an abstraction clearer and
more real to the reader by defining or explaining the concept in terms of everyday human action (as for example
man's rejection of readily available wisdom is presented as a woman crying out to be heard but being ignored).
Ideas can be brought to life through personification and objects can be given greater interest. But try always to
be fresh: "winking stars" is worn out; "winking dewdrops" may be all right. Personification of just the natural
world has its own name, fiction. And when this natural-world personification is limited to emotion, John Ruskin
called it the pathetic fallacy. Ruskin considered this latter to be a vice because it was so often overdone (and let
this be a caution to you). We do not receive much pleasure from an overwrought vision like this:
*The angry clouds in the hateful sky cruelly spat down on the poor man who had forgotten his umbrella.
Nevertheless, humanizing a cold abstraction or even some natural phenomenon gives us a way to understand it,
one more way to arrange the world in our own terms, so that we can further comprehend it. And even the socalled pathetic fallacy can sometimes be turned to advantage, when the writer sees his own feelings in the
inanimate world around him:
*After two hours of political platitudes, everyone grew bored. The delegates were bored; the guests
were bored; the speaker himself was bored. Even the chairs were bored.
50. Pleonasm: using more words than required to express an idea; being redundant. Normally a vice, it is
done on purpose on rare occasions for emphasis:
*We heard it with our own ears.
*And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone. --Matthew 17:8
51. Polysyndeton is the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause, and is thus
structurally the opposite of asyndeton. The rhetorical effect of polysyndeton, however, often shares with that of
asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up.
*They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked.
Use polysyndeton to show an attempt to encompass something complex:
*The water, like a witch's oils, / Burnt green, and blue, and white. --S. T. Coleridge
*[He] pursues his way, / And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. --John Milton
The multiple conjunctions of the polysyndetic structure call attention to themselves and therefore add the effect
of persistence or intensity or emphasis to the other effect of multiplicity. The repeated use of "nor" or "or"
emphasizes alternatives; repeated use of "but" or "yet" stresses qualifications. Consider the effectiveness of
these:
*And to set forth the right standard, and to train according to it, and to help forward all students
towards it according to their various capacities, this I conceive to be the business of a University. --John Henry
Newman
*We have not power, nor influence, nor money, nor authority; but a willingness to persevere, and the
hope that we shall conquer soon.
In a skilled hand, a shift from polysyndeton to asyndeton can be very impressive:
*Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the
servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with
the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. --Isaiah 24:1-2
(KJV)
52. Procatalepsis, by anticipating an objection and answering it, permits an argument to continue
moving forward while taking into account points or reasons opposing either the train of thought or its final
conclusions. Often the objections are standard ones:
*It is usually argued at this point that if the government gets out of the mail delivery business, small
towns like Podunk will not have any mail service. The answer to this can be found in the history of the Pony
Express . . . .
*To discuss trivialities in an exalted style is, as the saying is, like beautifying a pestle. Yet some people
say we should discourse in the grand manner on trivialities and they think that this is a proof of outstanding
oratorical talent. Now I admit that Polycrates [did this]. But he was doing this in jest, . - . and the dignified tone
of the whole work was itself a game. Let us be playful..... [but] also observe what is fitting in each case . . . . -Demetrius
Sometimes the writer will invent probable or possible difficulties in order to strengthen his position by showing
how they could be handled if they should arise, as well as to present an answer in case the reader or someone
else might raise them in the course of subsequent consideration:
*But someone might say that this battle really had no effect on history. Such a statement could arise
only from ignoring the effect the battle had on the career of General Bombast, who was later a principal figure
at the Battle of the Bulge.
*I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be
urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and it was
indeed the principal design in offering it to the world. --Jonathan Swift
Objections can be treated with varying degrees of seriousness and with differing relationships to the reader. The
reader himself might be the objector:
*Yet this is the prime service a man would think, wherein this order should give proof of itself. If it
were executed, you'll say. But certain, if execution be remiss or blindfold now, and in this particular, what will it
be hereafter and in other books? --John Milton
Or the objector may be someone whose outlook, attitude, or belief differs substantially from both writer and
reader-though you should be careful not to set up an artificial, straw-man objector:
*Men of cold fancies and philosophical dispositions object to this kind of poetry, [saying] that it has not
probability enough to affect the imagination. But to this it may be answered that we are sure, in general, there
are many intellectual beings in the world besides ourselves . . . who are subject to different laws and economies
from those of mankind . . . . --Joseph Addison
*Occasionally a person of rash judgment will argue here that the high-speed motor is better than the
low-speed one, because for the same output, high speed motors are lighter, smaller, and cheaper. But they are
also noisier and less efficient, and have much greater wear and shorter life; so that overall they are not better.
By mentioning the obvious, and even the imaginatively discovered objections to your argument, you show that
(1) you are aware of them and have considered them and (2) there is some kind of reasonable response to them,
whether given in a sentence or in several paragraphs. An objection answered in advance is weakened should your
opponent bring it up, while an objection ignored, if brought up, may show you to be either ignorant or dishonest.
Indeed, it might be better to admit an objection you cannot answer than to suppress it and put yourself on the
side of darkness and sophistry:
*Those favoring the other edition argue that the same words in this text cost more money. This I admit,
and it does seem unfortunate to pay twice the price for essentially the same thing. Nevertheless, this text has
larger type, is made better, and above all has more informative notes, so I think it is worth the difference.
Finally, note that procatalepsis can be combined with hypophora, so that the objection is presented in the form
of a question:
*I now come to the precepts of Longinus, and pretend to show from them that the greatest sublimity is
to be derived from religious ideas. But why then, says the reader, has not Longinus plainly told us so? He was not
ignorant that he ought to make his subject as plain as he could. For he has told us. . . . --John Dennis
*But you might object that, if what I say is actually true, why would people buy products advertised
illogically? The answer to that lies in human psychology . . . .
53. Rhetorical pause: a natural pause, unmarked by punctuation, introduced into the reading of a line
by its phrasing or syntax. Rhetorical pauses do not affect scansion.
54. Rhetorical question (erotesis) differs from hypophora in that it is not answered by the writer,
because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis, or
provocation, or for drawing a conclusionary statement from the facts at hand.
*But how can we expect to enjoy the scenery when the scenery consists entirely of garish billboards?
*. . . For if we lose the ability to perceive our faults, what is the good of living on? --Marcus Aurelius
*Is justice then to be considered merely a word? Or is it whatever results from the bartering between
attorneys?
Often the rhetorical question and its implied answer will lead to further discussion:
*Is this the end to which we are reduced? Is the disaster film the highest form of art we can expect
from our era? Perhaps we should examine the alternatives presented by independent film maker Joe Blow . . . .
*I agree the funding and support are still minimal, but shouldn't worthy projects be tried, even though
they are not certain to succeed? So the plans in effect now should be expanded to include . . . . [Note: Here is an
example where the answer "yes" is clearly desired rhetorically by the writer, though conceivably someone might
say "no" to the question if asked straightforwardly.]
Several rhetorical questions together can form a nicely developed and directed paragraph by changing a series of
logical statements into queries:
*We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it? What does Nature
hold dearer, or more proper to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless the firewood underwent some change?
Could you be nourished if the food suffered no change? Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is of the
same order, and no less necessary to Nature? --Marcus Aurelius
Sometimes the desired answer to the rhetorical question is made obvious by the discussion preceding it:
*The gods, though they live forever, feel no resentment at having to put up eternally with the
generations of men and their misdeeds; nay more, they even show every possible care and concern for them. Are
you, then, whose abiding is but for a moment, to lose patience--you who are yourself one of the culprits? -Marcus Aurelius
When you are thinking about a rhetorical question, be careful to avoid sinking to absurdity. You would not want
to ask, for example, "But is it right to burn down the campus and sack the bookstore?" The use of this device
allows your reader to think, query, and conclude along with you; but if your questions become ridiculous, your
essay may become wastepaper.
55. Scesis Onomaton emphasizes an idea by expressing it in a string of generally synonymous phrases or
statements. While it should be used carefully, this deliberate and obvious restatement can be quite effective:
*We succeeded, we were victorious, we accomplished the feat!
*Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that deal corruptly. -Isaiah 1:4
*But there is one thing these glassy-eyed idealists forget: such a scheme would be extremely costly,
horrendously expensive, and require a ton of money.
*Wendy lay there, motionless in a peaceful slumber, very still in the arms of sleep.
*May God arise, may his enemies be scattered, may his foes flee before him. --Psalm 68:1 (NIV)
Scesis onomaton does have a tendency to call attention to itself and to be repetitive, so it is not used in formal
writing as frequently as some other devices.
*But if well done, it is both beautiful and emphatic.
56. Sententia: quoting a maxim or wise saying to apply a general truth to the situation; concluding or
summing foregoing material by offering a single, pithy statement of general wisdom:
*But, of course, to understand all is to forgive all.
*As the saying is, art is long and life is short.
*For as Pascal reminds us, "It is not good to have all your wants satisfied."
57. Simile is a comparison between two different things that resemble each other in at least one way. In
formal prose the simile is a device both of art and explanation, comparing an unfamiliar thing to some familiar
thing (an object, event, process, etc.) known to the reader.
When you compare a noun to a noun, the simile is usually introduced by like:
*I see men, but they look like trees, walking. --Mark 8:24
*After such long exposure to the direct sun, the leaves of the houseplant looked like pieces of
overcooked bacon.
*The soul in the body is like a bird in a cage.
When a verb or phrase is compared to a verb or phrase, as is used:
*They remained constantly attentive to their goal, as a sunflower always turns and stays focused on the
sun.
*Here is your pencil and paper. I want you to compete as the greatest hero would in the race of his
life.
Often the simile--the object or circumstances of imaginative identity (called the vehicle, since it carries or
conveys a meaning about the word or thing which is likened to it)-precedes the thing likened to it (the tenor). In
such cases, so usually shows the comparison:
*The grass bends with every wind; so does Harvey.
*The seas are quiet when the winds give o're; / So calm are we when passions are no more. --Edmund
Waller
But sometimes the so is understood rather than expressed:
*As wax melts before the fire,/ may the wicked perish before God. --Psalm 68:2b
Whenever it is not immediately clear to the reader, the point of similarity between the unlike objects must be
specified to avoid confusion and vagueness. Rather than say, then, that "Money is like muck," and "Fortune is like
glass," a writer will show clearly how these very different things are like each other:
*And money is like muck, not good except it be spread. --Francis Bacon
*Fortune is like glass--the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken. --Publilius Syrus
*Like a skunk, he suffered from bad publicity for one noticeable flaw, but bore no one any ill will.
*James now felt like an old adding machine: he had been punched and poked so much that he had
finally worn out.
*This paper is just like an accountant's report: precise and accurate but absolutely useless.
Many times the point of similarity can be expressed in just a word or two:
*Yes, he is a cute puppy, but when he grows up he will be as big as a house.
*The pitching mound is humped too much like a camel's back.
And occasionally, the simile word can be used as an adjective:
*The argument of this book utilizes pretzel-like logic.
*This gear has a flower-like symmetry to it.
Similes can be negative, too, asserting that two things are unlike in one or more respects:
*My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. . . . --Shakespeare
*John certainly does not attack the way a Sherman tank does; but if you encourage him, he is bold
enough.
Other ways to create similes include the use of comparison:
*Norman was more anxious to leave the area than Herman Milquetoast after seeing ten abominable
snowmen charging his way with hunger in their eyes.
*But this truth is more obvious than the sun--here it is; look at it; its brightness blinds you.
Or the use of another comparative word is possible:
*Microcomputer EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) resembles a chalk board in that it
is used for consultation instead of figuring, and shows at each glance the same information unless erased and
rewritten.
*His temper reminds me of a volcano; his heart, of a rock; his personality, of sandpaper.
*His speech was smoother than butter. . . .--Psalm 55:21
So a variety of ways exists for invoking the simile. Here are a few of the possibilities:
x is like y x is not like y x is the same as y
x is more than y x is less than y x does y; so does z
x is similar to y x resembles y x is as y as z
x is y like z x is more y than z x is less y than z
But a simile can sometimes be implied, or as it is often called, submerged. In such cases no comparative word is
needed:
*The author of this poem is almost in the position of a man with boxes and boxes of tree ornaments,
but with no tree to decorate. The poet has enough imagery handy to decorate anything he can think of, if only he
can fix upon a "trim invention." The "sense" he does locate is obscured; the ivy hides the building completely.
*When I think of the English final exam, I think of dungeons and chains and racks and primal screams.
*Leslie has silky hair and the skin of an angel.
58. Symploce: combining anaphora and epistrophe, so that one word r phrase is repeated at the
beginning and another word or phrase is repeated at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences:
*To think clearly and rationally should be a major goal for man; but to think clearly and rationally is
always the greatest difficulty faced by man.
59. Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the
genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion,
section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa).
* Farmer Jones has two hundred head of cattle and three hired hands.
Here we recognize that Jones also owns the bodies of the cattle, and that the hired hands have bodies attached.
This is a simple part-for-whole synecdoche. Here are a few more:
*If I had some wheels, I'd put on my best threads and ask for Jane's hand in marriage.
*The army included two hundred horse and three hundred foot.
*It is sure hard to earn a dollar these days.
*Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living soul. --Genesis 2:7
And notice the other kinds of substitutions that can be made:
*Get in here this instant or I'll spank your body. [Whole for part--i.e. "body" for "rear end"]
*Put Beethoven on the turntable and turn up the volume. [Composer substituted for record]
*A few hundred pounds of twenty dollar bills ought to solve that problem nicely. [Weight for amount]
*He drew his steel from his scabbard and welcomed all comers. [Material for thing made]
*Patty's hobby is exposing film; Harold's is burning up gasoline in his dune buggy. [Part for whole]
*Okay team. Get those blades back on the ice. [Part for whole]
Take care to make your synecdoche clear by choosing an important and obvious part to represent the whole.
Compare:
*His pet purr was home alone and asleep.
*His pet paws [whiskers?] was home alone and asleep.
One of the easiest kinds of synecdoche to write is the substitution of genus for species. Here you choose the class
to which the idea or thing to be expressed belongs, and use that rather than the idea or thing itself:
*There sits my animal [instead of "dog"] guarding the door to the henhouse.
*He hurled the barbed weapon [instead of "harpoon"] at the whale.
A possible problem can arise with the genus-for-species substitution because the movement is from more specific
to more general; this can result in vagueness and loss of information. Note that in the example above some
additional contextual information will be needed to clarify that "weapon" means "harpoon" in this case, rather
than, say, "dagger" or something else. The same is true for the animal-for-dog substitution. Perhaps a better
substitution is the species for the genus--a single, specific, representative item symbolic of the whole. This form
of synecdoche will usually be clearer and more effective than the other:
*A major lesson Americans need to learn is that life consists of more than cars and television sets. [Two
specific items substituted for the concept of material wealth]
*Give us this day our daily bread. --Matt. 6:11
*If you still do not feel well, you'd better call up a sawbones and have him examine you.
*This program is for the little old lady in Cleveland who cannot afford to pay her heating bill.
60. Understatement deliberately expresses an idea as less important than it actually is, either for ironic
emphasis or for politeness and tact. When the writer's audience can be expected to know the true nature of a
fact which might be rather difficult to describe adequately in a brief space, the writer may choose to understate
the fact as a means of employing the reader's own powers of description. For example, instead of endeavoring to
describe in a few words the horrors and destruction of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, a writer might
state:
*The 1906 San Francisco earthquake interrupted business somewhat in the downtown area.
The effect is not the same as a description of destruction, since understatement like this necessarily smacks of
flippancy to some degree; but occasionally that is a desirable effect. Consider these usages:
*Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and everybody smiled . . . . To begin perfect
happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well . . . . --Jane Austen
*Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the
worse. --Jonathan Swift
*You know I would be a little disappointed if you were to be hit by a drunk driver at two a.m., so I
hope you will be home early.
In these cases the reader supplies his own knowledge of the facts and fills out a more vivid and personal
description than the writer might have.
In a more important way, understatement should be used as a tool for modesty and tactfulness. Whenever you
represent your own accomplishments, and often when you just describe your own position, an understatement of
the facts will help you to avoid the charge of egotism on the one hand and of self-interested puffery on the
other. We are always more pleased to discover a thing greater than promised rather than less than promised--or
as Samuel Johnson put it, "It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into
smoke." And it goes without saying that a person modest of his own talents wins our admiration more easily than
an egotist. Thus an expert geologist might say, "Yes, I know a little about rocks," rather than, "Yes, I'm an expert
about rocks." (An even bigger expert might raise his eyebrows if he heard that.)
Understatement is especially useful in dealing with a hostile audience or in disagreeing with someone, because
the statement, while carrying the same point, is much less offensive. Compare:
*The second law of thermodynamics pretty much works against the possibility of such an event.
*The second law of thermodynamics proves conclusively that that theory is utterly false and ridiculous.
Remember, the goal of writing is to persuade, not to offend; once you insult or put off your opponent, objector,
or disbeliever, you will never persuade him of anything, no matter how "obviously wrong" he is or how clearly
right you are. The degree and power of pride in the human heart must never be underestimated. Many people
are unwilling to hear objections of any kind, and view disagreement as a sign of contempt for their intellect. The
use of understatement allows you to show a kind of respect for your reader's understanding. You have to object
to his belief, but you are sympathetic with his position and see how he might have come to believe it; therefore,
you humbly offer to steer him right, or at least to offer what you think is a more accurate view. Even those who
agree with you already will be more persuaded because the modest thinker is always preferable to the flaming
bigot. Compare these statements and consider what effect each would have on you if you read them in a
persuasive article:
*Anyone who says this water is safe to drink is either stupid or foolish. The stuff is poisoned with
coliform bacteria. Don't those idiots know that?
*My opponents think this water is drinkable, but I'm not sure I would drink it. Perhaps they are not
aware of the dangerous bacterial count . . . [and so on, explaining the basis for your opinion].
61. Zeugma includes several similar rhetorical devices, all involving a grammatically correct linkage (or
yoking together) of two or more parts of speech by another part of speech. Thus examples of zeugmatic usage
would include one subject with two (or more) verbs, a verb with two (or more) direct objects, two (or more)
subjects with one verb, and so forth. The main benefit of the linking is that it shows relationships between ideas
and actions more clearly. In one form (prozeugma), the yoking word precedes the words yoked. So, for example,
you could have a verb stated in the first clause understood in the following clauses:
*Pride opresseth humility; hatred love; cruelty compassion. --Peacham
*Fred excelled at sports; Harvey at eating; Tom with girls.
*Alexander conquered the world; I, Minneapolis.
A more important version of this form (with its own name, diazeugma) is the single subject with multiple verbs:
*. . . It operated through the medium of unconscious self-deception and terminated in inveterate
avarice. --Thomas Love Peacock
*Mr. Glowry held his memory in high honor, and made a punchbowl of his skull. --Ibid.
*This terrace . . . took in an oblique view of the open sea, and fronted a long track of level sea-coast .
. . . --Ibid.
*Fluffy rolled on her back, raised her paws, and meowed to be petted.
Notice that two or three verb phrases are the usual proportion. But if you have a lot to say about the actions of
the subject, or if you want to show a sort of multiplicity of behavior or doings, you can use several verbs:
*When at Nightmare Abbey, he would condole with Mr. Glowry, drink Madeira with Scythrop, crack
jokes with Mr. Hilary, hand Mrs. Hilary to the piano, take charge of her fan and gloves, and turn over her music
with surprising dexterity, quote Revelations with Mr. Toobad, and lament the good old times of feudal darkness
with the Transcendental Mr. Flosky. --Thomas Love Peacock
Two or more subordinate relative pronoun clauses can be linked prozeugmatically, with the noun becoming the
yoking word:
* His father, to comfort him, read him a Commentary on Ecclesiastes, which he had himself composed,
and which demonstrated incontrovertibly that all is vanity. --Thomas Love Peacock
*O books who alone are liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who serve
you faithfully! --Richard de Bury
You could have two or more direct objects:
*With one mighty swing he knocked the ball through the window and two spectators off their chairs.
*He grabbed his hat from the rack in the closet, his gloves from the table near the door, and his car
keys from the punchbowl.
Or a preposition with two objects:
*Mr. Glowry was horror-struck by the sight of a round, ruddy face, and a pair of laughing eyes. -Thomas Love Peacock
*Sometimes you might want to create a linkage in which the verb must be understood in a slightly
different sense:
*He grabbed his hat from the rack by the stairs and a kiss from the lips of his wife.
*He smashed the clock into bits and his fist through the wall.
In hypozeugma the yoking word follows the words it yokes together. A common form is multiple subjects:
*Hours, days, weeks, months, and years do pass away. --Sherry
*The moat at its base, and the fens beyond comprised the whole of his prospect. --Peacock
*To generate that much electricity and to achieve that kind of durability would require a completely
new generator design.
It is possible also to hold off a verb until the last clause:
*The little baby from his crib, the screaming lady off the roof, and the man from the flooded
basement were all rescued.
Hypozeugma can be used with adjectives or adjective phrases, too. Here, Peacock uses two participial phrases,
one past and one present:
*Disappointed both in love and in friendship, and looking upon human learning as vanity, he had come
to a conclusion that there was but one good thing in the world, videlicet, a good dinner . . . .
The utility of the zeugmatic devices lies partly in their economy (for they save repetition of subjects or verbs or
other words), and partly in the connections they create between thoughts. The more connections between ideas
you can make in an essay, whether those connections are simple transitional devices or more elaborate rhetorical
ones, the fewer your reader will have to guess at, and therefore the clearer your points will be.