Present

By Fengjun Yuan

Emelie Sandoval

Eric Moreau

Types of AllusionDefinition of Allusion: A

brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional in history or another work of literature.

Uses: If a character uses an allusion, it says a lot about what kind of person he is. Allusions in narration also add new shades of meaning to the story.

Charles Darwin and Wrinkles the Wonderbrain play a friendly game of "Dominant Predator" to illustrate how natural selection can gradually produce something even as complex as an eye.

Types of Allusion Casual Reference:"the use of

language which recalls a specific antecedent, but only in a general sense" that is relatively unimportant to the new context

Single Reference: the hearer or reader is intended to "recall the context of the model and apply that context to the new situation“

Self-Reference: the locus is in the poet's own work

Corrective Allusion: the imitation is clearly in opposition to the original source's intentions

Apparent Reference: which seems clearly to recall a specific model but which on closer inspection frustrates that intention

Multiple Reference or Conflation: refers in various ways simultaneously to several sources, fusing and transforming the cultural traditions.

“He was a real Romeo with the ladies.” Romeo was a character in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, and was very romantic in expressing his love for Juliet.

“I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse.” This refers to the horse that the Greeks built that contained all the soldiers. It was given as a gift to the enemy during the Trojan War and, once inside the enemy's walls, the soldiers broke out. By using trickery, the Greeks won the war.

AttitudeDefinition: The way a

person views something or tends to behave towards it, often in an evaluative way.(stylistic/rhetorical device)

Use: To make readers understand the person’s point of view more easily.

Hyena needs to change laughing demeanor to receive sympathy from jury. (sarcastic)

For example, Hamlet’s attitude toward Gertrude is a mixture of affection and revulsion, changing from one to the other within a single scene.

Jane Austen’s attitude toward Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice combines respect for his wit and intelligence with disapproval of his failure to take sufficient responsibility for the rearing of all of his daughters.

Attitude

RepetitionDefinition: The simple

repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words.(Rhetorical device)

Use: In order to emphasize something.

Example: Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately linkedto one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody.(Natalia Ginzburg, The Little Virtues, 1962)

ImageryDefinition: The

author’s use of sensory related words to project a picture and evoke the readers’ emotions.

It deals with the five senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing.

Imagery

There are three kinds of figures of speech: comparisons, substitutions, and ambiguities.

On a starry winter night in Portugal

Where the ocean kissed the southern shore

There a dream I never thought would come to pass

Came and went like time spent through an hourglass

-Teena Marie, “Portuguese Love”

Choice of Details Definition: Details are most

commonly the facts given by the author or speaker as support for the attitude or tone. The speaker’s perspective shapes what details are given and which are not.

Example: Chaucer’s “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales is celebrated for its use of a few details to bring the characters to life.  The miller, for example, is described as being brawny and big-boned, able to win

ToneDefinition:

A literary technique that is a part of composition, which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work.

Use: How you express it.

ToneExamples:My mistress’ eyes are

nothing like the sun. (restrained)

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king. (somber, candid)

Love sets you going like a fat gold watch. (fanciful)

Smiling, the boy fell dead.(shocking)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands.(dramatic)

ReliabilityDefinition:  A

quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust.

Use: To tell readers the truth.

Interior Monologue Definition: “Stream of

Consciousness” writing that represents the inner thoughts of a character. Recording the internal or emotional thoughts or feelings of an individual.

Uses: A literary attempt to present the mental processes of a character before they are formed into regular patterns of speech or logical sequence

ForeshadowingDefinition: to

indicate beforehand, prefigure,

Uses: to prepare the reader for what comes later on in the work to a certain degree

AsideDefinition:

“Breaking the Fourth Wall”, the character speaks to the audience and no other characters, a brief but true statement of the characters unspoken thoughts

Uses: intended for the audience or reader

FlashbackDefinition: an event or

scene taking place before the present time in the narrative is inserted into the chronological structure of the work, form of reminiscence

Uses: to interrupt the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence to confirm an explanation of a factor of a characters development

ApostropheDefinition: poetic figure

of speech in which a personification is addressed to an emotion, the deceased, or a Greek god, etc.

Uses: to give the speaker the ability to address a listener who is not present, sometimes an imaginary person, or idea/quality

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,How I wonder what you are.Up above the world so high,Like a diamond in the sky.“- “The Star”, Jane Taylor, 1806

"Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as naught; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness.”- “Frankenstein”, Mary Shelley, 1818

SoliloquyDefinition: the act of

talking to oneself, a dramatic monologue that represents a series of unspoken reflections, self revealing

Uses: usually used in dramas where characters speak to themselves of their thoughts and feelings as well as to the audience, not towards other characters

Point of ViewDefinition: Point of view is

the way the author allows you to "see" and "hear" what's going on. Point of view comes in three varieties: First person, second person, and third person. Also, omniscient, limited omniscient, and objective.

Use: A way for the reader to get inside a character’s head, to know what they are thinking, feeling, seeing and experiencing.

Manipulation of TimeDefinition:  "Manipulation

of time" in writing is when the novelist changes this pattern for artistic or plot reasons, such as flashbacks [where the action in chapter 2 actually precedes the action in chapter 1] or flash forwards, where the novelist wants us to know about something in the future before continuing with the rest of the story.

DialogueDefinition: Is a

conversation, or a literary work in the form of a conversation. Use: To reveal characters and to advance the plot. Also, the lines spoken by a character in a play, essay, story, or novel.

Turning PointsDefinition: It's a

point (usually an event) in a book where the plot/story takes a (sometimes unexpected) turn, and things change. 

Use: To catch the readers attention.

StereotypeDefinition: Is a character,

with generalized traits (characteristics that make the character a group representative rather than an individual). Writers sometimes use stereotypes as minor characters.

Uses: So that the character is immediately identified with a group.

Thank you! :)