Writing, as mentioned in this article, is an interesting creative process with its own characteristics, tricks and subtleties. And one of the most effective ways to highlight a text from the general mass, giving it uniqueness, unusualness and the ability to arouse genuine interest and the desire to read it in full are literary writing techniques. They have been used at all times. First, directly by poets, thinkers, writers, authors of novels, stories and other works of art. Nowadays, they are actively used by marketers, journalists, copywriters, and indeed all those people who from time to time need to write bright and memorable text. But with the help of literary techniques, you can not only decorate the text, but also give the reader the opportunity to more accurately feel what exactly the author wanted to convey, to look at things from a perspective.
It doesn’t matter whether you write texts professionally, are taking your first steps in writing, or creating a good text just appears on your list of responsibilities from time to time, in any case, it is necessary and important to know what literary techniques a writer has. The ability to use them is a very useful skill that can be useful to everyone, not only in writing texts, but also in ordinary speech.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with the most common and effective literary techniques. Each of them will be provided with a vivid example for a more precise understanding.
Literary devices
Aphorism
- “To flatter is to tell a person exactly what he thinks about himself” (Dale Carnegie)
- “Immortality costs us our lives” (Ramon de Campoamor)
- “Optimism is the religion of revolutions” (Jean Banville)
Irony
Irony is a mockery in which the true meaning is contrasted with the real meaning. This creates the impression that the subject of the conversation is not what it seems at first glance.
- A phrase said to a slacker: “Yes, I see you are working tirelessly today.”
- A phrase said about rainy weather: “The weather is whispering”
- A phrase said to a man in a business suit: “Hey, are you going for a run?”
Epithet
An epithet is a word that defines an object or action and at the same time emphasizes its peculiarity. Using an epithet, you can give an expression or phrase a new shade, make it more colorful and bright.
- Proud warrior, be steadfast
- Suit fantastic colors
- beauty girl unprecedented
Metaphor
A metaphor is an expression or word based on the comparison of one object with another based on their common feature, but used in a figurative sense.
- Nerves of steel
- The rain is drumming
- Eyes on my forehead
Comparison
A comparison is a figurative expression that connects different objects or phenomena with the help of some common features.
- Evgeny went blind for a minute from the bright light of the sun as if mole
- My friend's voice reminded creak rusty door loops
- The mare was frisky How flaming fire bonfire
Allusion
An allusion is a special figure of speech that contains an indication or hint of another fact: political, mythological, historical, literary, etc.
- You are truly a great schemer (reference to the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”)
- They made the same impression on these people as the Spaniards made on the Indians of South America (a reference to the historical fact of the conquest of South America by the conquistadors)
- Our trip could be called “The Incredible Travels of Russians in Europe” (a reference to the film by E. Ryazanov “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia”)
Repeat
Repetition is a word or phrase that is repeated several times in one sentence, giving additional semantic and emotional expressiveness.
- Poor, poor little boy!
- Scary, how scared she was!
- Go, my friend, go ahead boldly! Go boldly, don’t be timid!
Personification
Personification is an expression or word used in a figurative sense, through which the properties of animate ones are attributed to inanimate objects.
- Snowstorm howls
- Finance sing romances
- Freezing painted windows with patterns
Parallel designs
Parallel constructions are voluminous sentences that allow the reader to create an associative connection between two or three objects.
- “The waves splash in the blue sea, the stars sparkle in the blue sea” (A.S. Pushkin)
- “A diamond is polished by a diamond, a line is dictated by a line” (S.A. Podelkov)
- “What is he looking for in a distant country? What did he throw in his native land? (M.Yu. Lermontov)
Pun
A pun is a special literary device in which, in the same context, different meanings of the same word (phrases, phrases) that are similar in sound are used.
- The parrot says to the parrot: “Parrot, I’ll scare you”
- It was raining and my father and I
- “Gold is valued by its weight, but by pranks - by the rake” (D.D. Minaev)
Contamination
Contamination is the creation of one new word by combining two others.
- Pizzaboy - pizza delivery man (Pizza (pizza) + Boy (boy))
- Pivoner – beer lover (Beer + Pioneer)
- Batmobile – Batman's car (Batman + Car)
Streamlines
Streamlined expressions are phrases that do not express anything specific and hide the author’s personal attitude, veil the meaning or make it difficult to understand.
- We will change the world for the better
- Acceptable losses
- It's neither good nor bad
Gradations
Gradations are a way of constructing sentences in such a way that homogeneous words in them increase or decrease their semantic meaning and emotional coloring.
- “Higher, faster, stronger” (Yu. Caesar)
- Drop, drop, rain, downpour, it’s pouring like a bucket
- “He was worried, worried, going crazy” (F.M. Dostoevsky)
Antithesis
Antithesis is a figure of speech that uses rhetorical opposition between images, states, or concepts that are interconnected by a common semantic meaning.
- “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter” (A.S. Pushkin)
- “He who was nobody will become everything” (I.A. Akhmetyev)
- “Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin” (G.R. Derzhavin)
Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a stylistic figure that is considered a stylistic error - it combines incompatible (opposite in meaning) words.
- Living Dead
- Hot Ice
- Beginning of the End
So, what do we see in the end? The number of literary devices is amazing. In addition to those we have listed, we can also name parcellation, inversion, ellipsis, epiphora, hyperbole, litotes, periphrasis, synecdoche, metonymy and others. And it is this diversity that allows anyone to apply these techniques everywhere. As already mentioned, the “sphere” of application of literary techniques is not only writing, but also oral speech. Supplemented with epithets, aphorisms, antitheses, gradations and other techniques, it will become much brighter and more expressive, which is very useful in mastering and development. However, we must not forget that the abuse of literary techniques can make your text or speech pompous and not as beautiful as you would like. Therefore, you should be restrained and careful when using these techniques so that the presentation of information is concise and smooth.
For a more complete assimilation of the material, we recommend that you, firstly, familiarize yourself with our lesson on, and secondly, pay attention to the manner of writing or speech of outstanding personalities. There are a huge number of examples: from ancient Greek philosophers and poets to the great writers and rhetoricians of our time.
We will be very grateful if you take the initiative and write in the comments about what other literary techniques of writers you know, but which we have not mentioned.
We would also like to know if reading this material was useful for you?
Why are artistic techniques needed? First of all, in order for the work to correspond to a certain style, implying a certain imagery, expressiveness and beauty. In addition, a writer is a master of associations, an artist of words and a great contemplator. Artistic techniques in poetry and prose make the text deeper. Consequently, both the prose writer and the poet are not satisfied with just the linguistic layer; they are not limited to using only the superficial, basic meaning of the word. In order to be able to penetrate into the depth of thought, into the essence of the image, it is necessary to use various artistic means.
In addition, the reader needs to be lured and attracted. To do this, various techniques are used that give special interest to the narrative and some mystery that needs to be solved. Artistic media are also called tropes. These are not only integral elements of the overall picture of the world, but also the author’s assessment, the background and general tone of the work, as well as many other things that we sometimes don’t even think about when reading another creation.
The main artistic techniques are metaphor, epithet and comparison. Although the epithet is often considered as a type of metaphor, we will not go into the jungle of the science of “literary criticism” and will traditionally highlight it as a separate means.
Epithet
The epithet is the king of description. Not a single landscape, portrait, interior can do without it. Sometimes a single correctly chosen epithet is much more important than an entire paragraph created specifically for clarification. Most often, when talking about it, we mean participles or adjectives that endow this or that artistic image with additional properties and characteristics. An epithet should not be confused with a simple definition.
So, for example, to describe the eyes, the following words can be suggested: lively, brown, bottomless, large, painted, crafty. Let's try to divide these adjectives into two groups, namely: objective (natural) properties and subjective (additional) characteristics. We will see that words such as "big", "brown" and "painted" convey in their meaning only what anyone can see, since it lies on the surface. In order for us to imagine the appearance of a particular hero, such definitions are very important. However, it is the “bottomless”, “living”, “crafty” eyes that will best tell us about his inner essence and character. We begin to guess that in front of us is an unusual person, prone to various inventions, with a living, moving soul. This is precisely the main property of epithets: to indicate those features that are hidden from us during the initial examination.
Metaphor
Let's move on to another equally important trope - metaphor. comparison expressed by a noun. The author’s task here is to compare phenomena and objects, but very carefully and tactfully, so that the reader cannot guess that we are imposing this object on him. This is exactly how, insinuatingly and naturally, you need to use any artistic techniques. “tears of dew”, “fire of dawn”, etc. Here dew is compared with tears, and dawn with fire.
Comparison
The last most important artistic device is comparison, given directly through the use of such conjunctions as “as if”, “as if”, “as if”, “exactly”, “as if”. Examples include the following: eyes like life; dew like tears; tree, like an old man. However, it should be noted that the use of an epithet, metaphor or comparison should not only be used for the sake of a catchphrase. There should be no chaos in the text, it should gravitate towards grace and harmony, therefore, before using this or that trope, you need to clearly understand for what purpose it is used, what we want to say by it.
Other, more complex and less common literary devices are hyperbole (exaggeration), antithesis (contrast), and inversion (reversing word order).
Antithesis
A trope such as antithesis has two varieties: it can be narrow (within one paragraph or sentence) and extensive (placed over several chapters or pages). This technique is often used in works of Russian classics when it is necessary to compare two heroes. For example, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in his story “The Captain's Daughter” compares Pugachev and Grinev, and a little later Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol will create portraits of the famous brothers, Andriy and Ostap, also based on the antithesis. The artistic techniques in the novel "Oblomov" also include this trope.
Hyperbola
Hyperbole is a favorite device in such literary genres as epics, fairy tales and ballads. But it is found not only in them. For example, the hyperbole “he could eat a wild boar” can be used in any novel, short story, or other work of the realistic tradition.
Inversion
Let's continue to describe artistic techniques in the works. Inversion, as you might guess, serves to give the work additional emotionality. It can most often be observed in poetry, but this trope is often used in prose. You can say: “This girl was more beautiful than others.” Or you can shout out: “This girl was more beautiful than the others!” Immediately, enthusiasm, expression, and much more arise, which can be noticed when comparing the two statements.
Irony
The next trope, irony, or hidden authorial ridicule, is also used quite often in fiction. Of course, a serious work should be serious, but the subtext hidden in irony sometimes not only demonstrates the wit of the writer, but also forces the reader to take a breath for a while and prepare for the next, more intense scene. In a humorous work, irony is indispensable. The great masters of this are Zoshchenko and Chekhov, who use this trope in their stories.
Sarcasm
Another one is closely related to this technique - it is no longer just a good laugh, it reveals shortcomings and vices, sometimes exaggerates the colors, while irony usually creates a bright atmosphere. In order to have a more complete understanding of this trail, you can read several tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Personification
The next technique is personification. It allows us to demonstrate the life of the world around us. Images appear such as grumbling winter, dancing snow, singing water. In other words, personification is the transfer of the properties of animate objects to inanimate objects. So, we all know that only humans and animals can yawn. But in literature one often encounters such artistic images as a yawning sky or a yawning door. The first of them can help create a certain mood in the reader and prepare his perception. The second is to emphasize the sleepy atmosphere in this house, perhaps loneliness and boredom.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron is another interesting technique, which is a combination of incompatible things. This is both a righteous lie and an Orthodox devil. Such words, chosen completely unexpectedly, can be used by both science fiction writers and lovers of philosophical treatises. Sometimes just one oxymoron is enough to build an entire work that has dualism of existence, an insoluble conflict, and a subtle ironic subtext.
Other artistic techniques
It is interesting that the “and, and, and” used in the previous sentence is also one of the artistic means called polyunion. Why is it needed? First of all, to expand the narrative range and show, for example, that a person has beauty, intelligence, courage, and charm... And the hero also knows how to fish, and swim, and write books, and build houses...
Most often, this trope is used in conjunction with another, called This is the case when it is difficult to imagine one without the other.
However, this is not all artistic techniques and means. Let us also note rhetorical questions. They don't require an answer, but still make readers think. Perhaps everyone knows the most famous of them: “Who is to blame?” and "What should I do?"
These are just basic artistic techniques. In addition to them, we can distinguish parcellation (division of a sentence), synecdoche (when the singular is used instead of the plural), anaphora (similar beginning of sentences), epiphora (repetition of their endings), litotes (understatement) and hyperbole (on the contrary, exaggeration), periphrasis (when some word is replaced by its brief description. All these means can be used both in poetry and in prose. Artistic techniques in a poem and, for example, a story, are not fundamentally different.
Genres (types) of literature
Ballad
A lyric-epic poetic work with a clearly expressed plot of a historical or everyday nature.
Comedy
Type of dramatic work. Displays everything ugly and absurd, funny and absurd, ridicules the vices of society.
Lyric poem
A type of fiction that emotionally and poetically expresses the author's feelings.
Peculiarities: poetic form, rhythm, lack of plot, small size.
Melodrama
A type of drama in which the characters are sharply divided into positive and negative.
Novella
A narrative prose genre characterized by brevity, a sharp plot, a neutral style of presentation, lack of psychologism, and an unexpected ending. Sometimes used as a synonym for story, sometimes called a type of story.
A poetic or musical-poetic work characterized by solemnity and sublimity. Famous odes:
Lomonosov: “Ode on the capture of Khotin, “Ode on the day of accession to the All-Russian throne of Her Majesty Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.”
Derzhavin: “Felitsa”, “To Rulers and Judges”, “Nobleman”, “God”, “Vision of Murza”, “On the Death of Prince Meshchersky”, “Waterfall”.
Feature article
The most authentic type of narrative, epic literature, depicting facts from real life.
Song or chant
The most ancient type of lyric poetry. A poem consisting of several verses and a chorus. Songs are divided into folk, heroic, historical, lyrical, etc.
Tale
An epic genre between a short story and a novel, which presents a number of episodes from the life of the hero (heroes). The story is larger in scope than a short story and depicts reality more broadly, depicting a chain of episodes that make up a certain period in the life of the main character. It contains more events and characters than a short story. But unlike a novel, a story usually has one storyline.
Poem
A type of lyric epic work, a poetic plot narrative.
Play
The general name for dramatic works (tragedy, comedy, drama, vaudeville). Written by the author for performance on stage.
Story
Small epic genre: a prose work of small volume, which, as a rule, depicts one or more events in the hero’s life. The circle of characters in the story is limited, the action described is short in time. Sometimes a work of this genre may have a narrator. The masters of the story were A.P. Chekhov, V.V. Nabokov, A.P. Platonov, K.G. Paustovsky, O.P. Kazakov, V.M. Shukshin.
Novel
A large epic work that comprehensively depicts the lives of people during a certain period of time or during an entire human life.
Characteristic properties of the novel:
Multilinearity of the plot, covering the fates of a number of characters;
The presence of a system of equivalent characters;
Covering a wide range of life phenomena, posing socially significant problems;
Significant duration of action.
Examples of novels: “The Idiot” by F.M. Dostoevsky, “Fathers and Sons” by I.S. Turgenev.
Tragedy
A type of dramatic work telling about the unfortunate fate of the main character, often doomed to death.
Epic
The largest genre of epic literature, an extensive narrative in verse or prose about outstanding national historical events.
There are:
1. ancient folklore epics of different peoples - works on mythological or historical subjects, telling about the heroic struggle of the people with the forces of nature, foreign invaders, witchcraft forces, etc.
2. a novel (or a series of novels) depicting a large period of historical time or a significant, fateful event in the life of a nation (war, revolution, etc.).
The epic is characterized by:
- wide geographical coverage,
- a reflection of the life and everyday life of all layers of society,
- nationality of content.
Examples of epics: “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, “Quiet Don” by M.A. Sholokhov, “The Living and the Dead” by K.M. Simonov, “Doctor Zhivago” by B.L. Pasternak.
| Literary movements Classicism Artistic style and movement in European literature and art of the 17th - early 19th centuries. The name is derived from the Latin "classicus" - exemplary. Features: 1. Appeal to the images and forms of ancient literature and art as an ideal aesthetic standard. 2. Rationalism. A work of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself. 3. Classicism is interested only in the eternal, the unchangeable. He discards individual characteristics and traits. 4. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. 5. A strict hierarchy of genres has been established, which are divided into “high” and “low” (comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has strict boundaries and clear formal characteristics. The leading genre is tragedy. 6. Classical dramaturgy approved the so-called principle of “unity of place, time and action,” which meant: the action of the play should take place in one place, the duration of the action should be limited to the duration of the performance, the play should reflect one central intrigue, not interrupted by side actions . Classicism originated and received its name in France (P. Corneille, J. Racine, J. Lafontaine, etc.). After the Great French Revolution, with the collapse of rationalistic ideas, classicism went into decline, and romanticism became the dominant style of European art. Romanticism One of the largest movements in European and American literature of the late 18th - first half of the 19th century. In the 18th century, everything factual, unusual, strange, found only in books and not in reality, was called romantic. Main features: 1. Romanticism is the most striking form of protest against the vulgarity, routine and prosaicness of bourgeois life. The social and ideological prerequisites are disappointment in the results of the Great French Revolution and the fruits of civilization in general. 2. General pessimistic orientation - ideas of “cosmic pessimism”, “world sorrow”. 3. Absolutization of the personal principle, the philosophy of individualism. At the center of a romantic work there is always a strong, exceptional personality opposed to society, its laws and moral standards. 4. “Dual world”, that is, the division of the world into real and ideal, which are opposed to each other. The romantic hero is subject to spiritual insight and inspiration, thanks to which he penetrates into this ideal world. 5. "Local color." A person who opposes society feels a spiritual closeness with nature, its elements. This is why romantics so often use exotic countries and their nature as a setting. Sentimentalism A movement in European and American literature and art of the second half of the 18th – early 19th centuries. Based on Enlightenment rationalism, he declared that the dominant of “human nature” is not reason, but feeling. He sought the path to an ideal-normative personality in the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. Hence the great democracy of sentimentalism and its discovery of the rich spiritual world of ordinary people. Close to pre-romanticism. Main features: 1. True to the ideal of a normative personality. 2. In contrast to classicism with its educational pathos, he declared feeling, not reason, to be the main thing in human nature. 3. The condition for the formation of an ideal personality was considered not by the “reasonable reorganization of the world,” but by the release and improvement of “natural feelings.” 4. Sentimentalism opened up the rich spiritual world of the common people. This is one of his conquests. 5. Unlike romanticism, the “irrational” is alien to sentimentalism: he perceived the inconsistency of moods, the impulsiveness of mental impulses as accessible to rationalistic interpretation. Characteristic features of Russian sentimentalism: a) Rationalistic tendencies are quite clearly expressed; b) Strong moralizing attitude; c) Educational trends; d) Improving the literary language, Russian sentimentalists turned to colloquial norms and introduced vernaculars. The favorite genres of sentimentalists are elegy, epistle, epistolary novel (novel in letters), travel notes, diaries and other types of prose in which confessional motifs predominate. Naturalism A literary movement that developed in the last third of the 19th century in Europe and the USA. Characteristics: 1. Striving for an objective, accurate and dispassionate portrayal of reality and human character. The main task of naturalists was to study society with the same completeness with which a scientist studies nature. Artistic knowledge was likened to scientific knowledge. 2. A work of art was considered as a “human document”, and the main aesthetic criterion was the completeness of the act of cognition carried out in it. 3. Naturalists refused to moralize, believing that reality depicted with scientific impartiality was in itself quite expressive. They believed that there were no unsuitable subjects or unworthy topics for a writer. Hence, plotlessness and social indifference often arose in the works of naturalists. Realism A truthful depiction of reality. A literary movement that emerged in Europe at the beginning of the 19th century and remains one of the main trends in modern world literature. The main features of realism: 1. The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself. 2. Literature in realism is a means of a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him. 3. Cognition of reality occurs with the help of images created by typing the facts of reality. Character typification in realism is carried out through the “truthfulness of details” of the specific conditions of the characters’ existence. 4. Realistic art is life-affirming art, even with a tragic resolution to the conflict. Unlike romanticism, the philosophical basis of realism is Gnosticism, the belief in the knowability of the surrounding world. 5. Realistic art is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development. It is capable of detecting and capturing the emergence and development of new social phenomena and relationships, new psychological and social types. Symbolism Literary and artistic movement of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The foundations of the aesthetics of symbolism were formed in the late 70s. gg. 19th century in the works of French poets P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, S. Mallarmé and others. Symbolism arose at the junction of eras as an expression of the general crisis of Western-type civilization. He had a great influence on all subsequent development of literature and art. Main features: 1. Continuity with romanticism. The theoretical roots of symbolism go back to the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer and E. Hartmann, to the work of R. Wagner and some ideas of F. Nietzsche. 2. Symbolism was primarily aimed at the artistic symbolization of “things in themselves” and ideas that are beyond sensory perceptions. A poetic symbol was considered as a more effective artistic tool than an image. The symbolists proclaimed an intuitive comprehension of world unity through symbols and the symbolic discovery of correspondences and analogies. 3. The musical element was declared by the Symbolists to be the basis of life and art. Hence the dominance of the lyrical-poetic principle, the belief in the suprareal or irrational-magical power of poetic speech. 4. Symbolists turn to ancient and medieval art in search of genealogical relationships. Acmeism A movement in Russian poetry of the 20th century, which was formed as the antithesis of symbolism. The Acmeists contrasted the mystical aspirations of symbolism towards the “unknowable” with the “element of nature”, declared a concrete sensory perception of the “material world”, and returned the word to its original, non-symbolic meaning. This literary movement was established in the theoretical works and artistic practice of N.S. Gumilyov, S.M. Gorodetsky, O.E. Mandelstam, A.A. Akhmatova, M.A. Zenkevich, G.V. Ivanov and other writers and poets . All of them united into the group "Workshop of Poets" (operated from 1911 - 1914, resumed in 1920 - 22). In 1912 - 13 published the magazine "Hyperborea" (editor M.L. Lozinsky). Futurism (Derived from the Latin futurum - future). One of the main avant-garde movements in European art of the early 20th century. The greatest development has occurred in Italy and Russia. The general basis of the movement is a spontaneous feeling of the “inevitability of the collapse of old things” (Mayakovsky) and the desire to anticipate and realize through art the coming “world revolution” and the birth of a “new humanity.” Main features: 1. Break with traditional culture, affirmation of the aesthetics of modern urban civilization with its dynamics, impersonality and immorality. 2. The desire to convey the chaotic pulse of a technicalized “intensive life”, an instantaneous change of events and experiences, recorded by the consciousness of the “man of the crowd”. 3. Italian futurists were characterized not only by aesthetic aggression and shocking conservative taste, but also by a general cult of power, an apology for war as “hygiene of the world,” which later led some of them to Mussolini’s camp. Russian Futurism arose independently of Italian and, as an original artistic phenomenon, had little in common with it. The history of Russian futurism consisted of a complex interaction and struggle of four main groups: a) “Gilea” (cubo-futurists) - V.V. Khlebnikov, D.D. and N.D. Burlyuki, V.V. Kamensky, V.V. Mayakovsky, B.K. Lifshits; b) “Association of Ego-Futurists” - I. Severyanin, I. V. Ignatiev, K. K. Olimpov, V. I. Gnedov and others; c) “Mezzanine of Poetry” - Khrisanf, V.G. Shershenevich, R. Ivnev and others; d) “Centrifuge” - S.P. Bobrov, B.L. Pasternak, N.N. Aseev, K.A. Bolshakov and others. Imagism A literary movement in Russian poetry of the 20th century, whose representatives stated that the goal of creativity is creating an image. The main expressive means of imagists is metaphor, often metaphorical chains that compare various elements of two images - direct and figurative. The creative practice of Imagists is characterized by shocking and anarchic motives. The style and general behavior of Imagism was influenced by Russian Futurism. Imagism as a poetic movement arose in 1918, when the “Order of Imagists” was founded in Moscow. The creators of the “Order” were Anatoly Mariengof, who came from Penza, former futurist Vadim Shershenevich, and Sergei Yesenin, who was previously part of the group of new peasant poets. Imagism virtually collapsed in 1925. In 1924, Sergei Yesenin and Ivan Gruzinov announced the dissolution of the “Order”; other imagists were forced to move away from poetry, turning to prose, drama, and cinema, largely for the sake of making money. Imagism was criticized in the Soviet press. Yesenin, according to the generally accepted version, committed suicide, Nikolai Erdman was repressed |
Literary and poetic devices
Allegory
Allegory is the expression of abstract concepts through concrete artistic images.
Examples of allegory:
The stupid and stubborn are often called the Donkey, the coward - the Hare, the cunning - the Fox.
Alliteration (sound writing)
Alliteration (sound writing) is the repetition of identical or homogeneous consonants in a verse, giving it a special sound expressiveness (in versification). In this case, the high frequency of these sounds in a relatively small speech area is of great importance.
However, if entire words or word forms are repeated, as a rule, we are not talking about alliteration. Alliteration is characterized by irregular repetition of sounds, and this is precisely the main feature of this literary device.
Alliteration differs from rhyme primarily in that the repeating sounds are not concentrated at the beginning and end of the line, but are absolutely derivative, albeit with high frequency. The second difference is the fact that, as a rule, consonant sounds are alliterated. The main functions of the literary device of alliteration include onomatopoeia and the subordination of the semantics of words to associations that evoke sounds in humans.
Examples of alliteration:
"Where the grove neighs, guns neigh."
"About a hundred years
grow
we don't need old age.
Year to year
grow
our vigor.
Praise,
hammer and verse,
land of youth."
(V.V. Mayakovsky)
Anaphora
Repeating words, phrases, or combinations of sounds at the beginning of a sentence, line, or paragraph.
For example:
« Not intentionally the winds were blowing,
Not intentionally there was a thunderstorm"
(S. Yesenin).
Black ogling the girl
Black maned horse!
(M. Lermontov)
Quite often, anaphora, as a literary device, forms a symbiosis with such a literary device as gradation, that is, increasing the emotional character of words in the text.
For example:
“Cattle die, a friend dies, a man himself dies.”
Antithesis (opposition)
Antithesis (or opposition) is a comparison of words or phrases that are sharply different or opposite in meaning.
Antithesis makes it possible to make a particularly strong impression on the reader, to convey to him the strong excitement of the author due to the rapid change of concepts of opposite meanings used in the text of the poem. Also, opposing emotions, feelings and experiences of the author or his hero can be used as an object of opposition.
Examples of antithesis:
I swear first on the day of creation, I swear by it last in the afternoon (M. Lermontov).
Who was nothing, he will become everyone.
Antonomasia
Antonomasia is an expressive means, when used, the author uses a proper name instead of a common noun to figuratively reveal the character of the character.
Examples of antonomasia:
He is Othello (instead of "He is very jealous")
A stingy person is often called Plyushkin, an empty dreamer - Manilov, a person with excessive ambitions - Napoleon, etc.
Apostrophe, address
Assonance
Assonance is a special literary device that consists of repeating vowel sounds in a particular statement. This is the main difference between assonance and alliteration, where consonant sounds are repeated. There are two slightly different uses of assonance.
1) Assonance is used as an original tool that gives an artistic text, especially poetic text, a special flavor. For example:
Our ears are on top of our heads,
A little morning the guns lit up
And the forests are blue tops -
The French are right there.
(M.Yu. Lermontov)
2) Assonance is widely used to create imprecise rhyme. For example, “hammer city”, “incomparable princess”.
One of the textbook examples of the use of both rhyme and assonance in one quatrain is an excerpt from the poetic work of V. Mayakovsky:
I won’t turn into Tolstoy, but into a fat man -
I eat, I write, I’m a fool from the heat.
Who hasn't philosophized over the sea?
Water.
Exclamation
An exclamation can appear anywhere in a work of poetry, but, as a rule, authors use it to intonationally highlight particularly emotional moments in the verse. At the same time, the author focuses the reader’s attention on the moment that particularly excited him, telling him his experiences and feelings.
Hyperbola
Hyperbole is a figurative expression containing an exorbitant exaggeration of the size, strength, or significance of an object or phenomenon.
Example of a hyperbole:
Some houses are as long as the stars, others as long as the moon; baobabs to the skies (Mayakovsky).
Inversion
From lat. inversio - permutation.
Changing the traditional order of words in a sentence to give the phrase a more expressive shade, intonation highlighting of a word.
Inversion examples:
The lonely sail is white
In the blue sea fog... (M.Yu. Lermontov)
The traditional order requires a different structure: A lonely sail is white in the blue fog of the sea. But this will no longer be Lermontov or his great creation.
Another great Russian poet, Pushkin, considered inversion one of the main figures of poetic speech, and often the poet used not only contact, but also remote inversion, when, when rearranging words, other words are wedged between them: “The old man obedient to Perun alone...”.
Inversion in poetic texts performs an accent or semantic function, a rhythm-forming function for building a poetic text, as well as the function of creating a verbal-figurative picture. In prose works, inversion serves to place logical stresses, to express the author’s attitude towards the characters and to convey their emotional state.
Irony
Irony is a powerful means of expression that has a hint of mockery, sometimes slight mockery. When using irony, the author uses words with opposite meanings so that the reader himself guesses about the true properties of the described object, object or action.
Pun
A play on words. A witty expression or joke based on the use of words that sound similar but have different meanings or different meanings of one word.
Examples of puns in literature:
A year for three clicks for you on the forehead,
Give me some boiled food spelt.
(A.S. Pushkin)
And previously served me poem,
Broken string, poem.
(D.D. Minaev)
Spring will drive anyone crazy. Ice - and that got under way.
(E. Meek)
Litotes
The opposite of hyperbole, a figurative expression containing an exorbitant understatement of the size, strength, or significance of any object or phenomenon.
Example of litotes:
The horse is led by the bridle by a peasant in big boots, a short sheepskin coat, and large mittens... and he himself from marigold! (Nekrasov)
Metaphor
Metaphor is the use of words and expressions in a figurative sense based on some kind of analogy, similarity, comparison. Metaphor is based on similarity or resemblance.
Transferring the properties of one object or phenomenon to another based on their similarity.
Examples of metaphors:
Sea problems.
Eyes are burning.
Boiling desire.
Noon was burning.
Metonymy
Examples of metonymy:
All flags will be visiting us.
(here flags replace countries).
I'm three dishes ate.
(here the plate replaces the food).
Address, apostrophe
Oxymoron
A deliberate combination of contradictory concepts.
Look, she it's fun to be sad
Such elegantly naked
(A. Akhmatova)
Personification
Personification is the transference of human feelings, thoughts and speech to inanimate objects and phenomena, as well as to animals.
These signs are selected according to the same principle as when using metaphor. Ultimately, the reader develops a special perception of the described object, in which the inanimate object has the image of a living being or is endowed with qualities inherent in living beings.
Impersonation examples:
What, a dense forest,
Got thoughtful,
Sadness dark
Foggy?
(A.V. Koltsov)
Be careful of the wind
From the gate came out,
Knocked through the window,
Ran on the roof...
(M.V. Isakovsky)
Parcellation
Parcellation is a syntactic technique in which a sentence is intonationally divided into independent segments and highlighted in writing as independent sentences.
Parcelation example:
“He went too. To the store. Buy cigarettes” (Shukshin).
Periphrase
A paraphrase is an expression that conveys the meaning of another expression or word in a descriptive form.
Examples of paraphrase:
King of beasts(instead of a lion)
Mother of Russian rivers(instead of Volga)
Pleonasm
Verbosity, the use of logically unnecessary words.
Examples of pleonasm in everyday life:
In May month(suffice it to say: in May).
Local aborigine (suffice it to say: aborigine).
White albino (suffice it to say: albino).
I was there personally(suffice it to say: I was there).
In literature, pleonasm is often used as a stylistic device, a means of expression.
For example:
Sadness and melancholy.
Sea ocean.
Psychologism
An in-depth depiction of the hero’s mental and emotional experiences.
Refrain
A repeated verse or group of verses at the end of a song verse. When a refrain extends to an entire stanza, it is usually called a chorus.
A rhetorical question
A sentence in the form of a question to which no answer is expected.
Example:
Or is it new for us to argue with Europe?
Or is the Russian unaccustomed to victories?
(A.S. Pushkin)
Rhetorical appeal
An appeal addressed to an abstract concept, an inanimate object, an absent person. A way to enhance the expressiveness of speech, to express an attitude towards a particular person or object.
Example:
Rus! where are you going?
(N.V. Gogol)
Comparisons
Comparison is one of the expressive techniques, when used, certain properties that are most characteristic of an object or process are revealed through similar qualities of another object or process. In this case, such an analogy is drawn so that the object whose properties are used in comparison is better known than the object described by the author. Also, inanimate objects, as a rule, are compared with animate ones, and the abstract or spiritual with the material.
Comparison example:
then my life sang - howled -
Buzzed - like the autumn surf –
And she cried to herself.
(M. Tsvetaeva)
Symbol
Symbol- an object or word that conventionally expresses the essence of a phenomenon.
The symbol contains a figurative meaning, and in this way it is close to a metaphor. However, this closeness is relative. Symbol contains a certain secret, a hint that allows one to only guess what is meant, what the poet wanted to say. The interpretation of a symbol is possible not so much by reason as by intuition and feeling. The images created by symbolist writers have their own characteristics; they have a two-dimensional structure. In the foreground there is a certain phenomenon and real details, in the second (hidden) plane there is the inner world of the lyrical hero, his visions, memories, pictures born of his imagination.
Examples of symbols:
dawn, morning - symbols of youth, the beginning of life;
night is a symbol of death, the end of life;
snow is a symbol of cold, cold feeling, alienation.
Synecdoche
Replacing the name of an object or phenomenon with the name of a part of this object or phenomenon. In short, replacing the name of a whole with the name of a part of that whole.
Examples of synecdoche:
Native hearth (instead of “home”).
Floats sail (instead of “a sailboat is sailing”).
“...and it was heard until dawn,
how he rejoiced Frenchman..." (Lermontov)
(here “French” instead of “French soldiers”).
Tautology
Repetition in other words of what has already been said, which means it does not contain new information.
Examples:
Car tires are tires for a car.
We have united as one.
Trope
A trope is an expression or word used by the author in a figurative, allegorical sense. Thanks to the use of tropes, the author gives the described object or process a vivid characteristic that evokes certain associations in the reader and, as a result, a more acute emotional reaction.
Types of trails:
metaphor, allegory, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, irony.
Default
Silence is a stylistic device in which the expression of a thought remains unfinished, is limited to a hint, and the speech that has begun is interrupted in anticipation of the reader’s guess; the speaker seems to announce that he will not talk about things that do not require detailed or additional explanation. Often the stylistic effect of silence is that unexpectedly interrupted speech is complemented by an expressive gesture.
Default examples:
This fable could be explained more -
Yes, so as not to irritate the geese...
Gain (gradation)
Gradation (or amplification) is a series of homogeneous words or expressions (images, comparisons, metaphors, etc.) that consistently intensify, increase or, conversely, reduce the semantic or emotional significance of the conveyed feelings, expressed thoughts or described events.
Example of ascending gradation:
Not I'm sorry Not I'm calling Not I'm crying...
(S. Yesenin)
In sweetly misty care
Not an hour, not a day, not a year will leave.
(E. Baratynsky)
Example of descending gradation:
He promises him half the world, and France only for himself.
Euphemism
A neutral word or expression that is used in conversation to replace other expressions that are considered indecent or inappropriate in a given case.
Examples:
I'm going to powder my nose (instead of going to the toilet).
He was asked to leave the restaurant (instead, He was kicked out).
Epithet
A figurative definition of an object, action, process, event. An epithet is a comparison. Grammatically, an epithet is most often an adjective. However, other parts of speech can also be used, for example, numerals, nouns or verbs.
Examples of epithets:
velvet leather, crystal ringing
Epiphora
Repeating the same word at the end of adjacent segments of speech. The opposite of anaphora, in which words are repeated at the beginning of a sentence, line, or paragraph.
Example:
“Scallops, all scallops: a cape from scallops, on the sleeves scallops, Epaulettes from scallops..." (N.V.Gogol).
| Poetic meter Poetic meter is a certain order in which stressed and unstressed syllables are placed in a foot. A foot is a unit of verse length; repeated combination of stressed and unstressed syllables; a group of syllables, one of which is stressed. Example: A storm covers the sky with darkness 1) Here, after a stressed syllable, one unstressed syllable follows - a total of two syllables. That is, it is a two-syllable meter. A stressed syllable can be followed by two unstressed syllables - then this is a three-syllable meter. 2) There are four groups of stressed-unstressed syllables in the line. That is, it has four feet. MONOSYLLABLE SIZE Brachycolon is a monocotyledonous poetic meter. In other words, a verse consisting of only stressed syllables. Example of brachycolon: Forehead – Chalk. Bel Coffin. Pop sang. Sheaf of Arrows – Holy Day! Crypt Blind. Shadow - To hell! (V. Khodasevich) BISYLLABLE MEASURES Trochaic A two-syllable poetic foot with stress on the first syllable. That is, the first, third, fifth, etc. syllables are stressed in a line. Main sizes: - 4-foot - 6-foot - 5-foot An example of a tetrameter trochee: A storm covers the sky with darkness ∩́ __ / ∩́ __ /∩́ __ / ∩́ __ Whirling snow whirlwinds; ∩́ __ / ∩́ __ / ∩ __ / ∩́ (A.S. Pushkin) Iambic A two-syllable poetic foot with stress on the second syllable. That is, the second, fourth, sixth, etc. syllables are stressed in a line. A stressed syllable can be replaced by a pseudo-stressed one (with secondary stress in the word). Then the stressed syllables are separated not by one, but by three unstressed syllables. Main sizes: - 4-foot (lyrics, epic), - 6-foot (poems and dramas of the 18th century), - 5-foot (lyrics and dramas of the 19-20th centuries), - free multi-foot (fable of the 18th-19th centuries ., comedy 19th century) Example of iambic tetrameter: My uncle has the most honest rules, __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ When he is seriously ill, __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ ∩ / __ ∩́ / He Respect forced myself __ ∩ / __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ And I couldn’t think of anything better. __ ∩́ / __ ∩́ / __ ∩ / __ ∩́ / (A.S. Pushkin) An example of iambic pentameter (with pseudo-stressed syllables, they are highlighted in capital letters): We are the result of the interference of the state of the Gorod, __ ∩ / __ ∩ / __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ But, sowing, we are to look at ... __ __ ∩ / __ ∩ / __ __ __ __ / __ ∩́ (A.S. Pushkin) THREE-SYLLABLE METERS Dactyl Three-syllable poetic foot with stress on the first syllable. Main sizes: - 2-foot (in the 18th century) - 4-foot (from the 19th century) - 3-foot (from the 19th century) Example: Heavenly clouds, eternal wanderers! ∩́ __ __ /∩́ __ __ / ∩́ __ __ / ∩́ __ __ / The azure steppe, the pearl chain... ∩́ __ __ /∩́ __ __ / ∩́ __ __ / ∩́ __ __ / (M.Yu .Lermontov) Amphibrachium A three-syllable poetic foot with stress on the second syllable. Main sizes: - 4-foot (beginning of the 19th century) - 3-foot (from the middle of the 19th century) Example: It is not the wind that rages over the forest, __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ __ / It is not the streams that run from the mountains - __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ / Frost-voivode on patrol __ ∩́__ / __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ __ / Walks around his possessions. __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ __ / __ ∩́ / (N.A. Nekrasov) Anapest A three-syllable poetic foot with stress on the last syllable. Main sizes: - 4-foot (from the middle of the 19th century) - 3-foot (from the middle of the 19th century) Example of a 3-foot anapest: Oh, spring without end and without edge - __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / __ Without end and without edge dream! __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / I recognize you, life! I accept! __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / __ And I greet you with the ringing of the shield! __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / __ __ ∩́ / (A. Blok) How to remember the features of two- and three-syllable meters? You can remember using this phrase: Dombai is walking! Lady, lock the gate in the evening! (Dombay is not only a mountain; translated from some Caucasian languages it means “lion”). Now let's move on to three-syllable feet. The word LADY is formed from the first letters of the names of three-syllable feet: D– dactyl AM– amphibrachium A– anapest And in the same order, the following words of the sentence belong to these letters: You can also imagine it this way: |
Plot. Plot elements
Plot A literary work is a logical sequence of actions of the characters.
Plot elements:
exposition, beginning, climax, resolution.
Exposition- introductory, initial part of the plot, preceding the plot. Unlike the plot, it does not affect the course of subsequent events in the work, but outlines the initial situation (time and place of action, composition, relationships of characters) and prepares the reader’s perception.
The beginning- the event from which the development of action in the work begins. Most often, conflict is outlined in the beginning.
Climax- the moment of the highest tension of the plot action, in which the conflict reaches a critical point in its development. The culmination can be a decisive clash between the heroes, a turning point in their fate, or a situation that reveals their characters as fully as possible and especially clearly reveals a conflict situation.
Denouement– final scene; the position of the characters that has developed in the work as a result of the development of the events depicted in it.
Elements of Drama
Remarque
An explanation given by the author in a dramatic work, describing how he imagines the appearance, age, behavior, feelings, gestures, intonations of the characters, and the situation on stage. Directions are instructions for the performers and the director staging the play, an explanation for readers.
Replica
An utterance is a phrase a character says in response to the words of another character.
Dialogue
Communication, conversation, statements of two or more characters, whose remarks follow in turn and have the meaning of actions.
Monologue
The speech of the actor, addressed to himself or to others, but, unlike dialogue, does not depend on their remarks. A way to reveal the character’s state of mind, show his character, and acquaint the viewer with the circumstances of the action that were not embodied on stage.
Related information.
TROPE
Trope is a word or expression used figuratively to create artistic image and achieving greater expressiveness. Paths include techniques such as epithet, comparison, personification, metaphor, metonymy, sometimes they include hyperboles and litotes. No work of art is complete without tropes. The artistic word is ambiguous; the writer creates images, playing with meanings and combinations of words, using the environment of the word in the text and its sound - all this constitutes the artistic possibilities of the word, which is the only tool of the writer or poet.
Note!
When creating a trope, the word is always used in a figurative sense.
Let's look at different types of trails:
EPITHET(Greek Epitheton, attached) is one of the tropes, which is an artistic, figurative definition. An epithet can be:
adjectives: gentle face (S. Yesenin); these poor villages, this meager nature...(F. Tyutchev); transparent maiden (A. Blok);
participles: edge abandoned(S. Yesenin); frenzied dragon (A. Blok); takeoff illuminated(M. Tsvetaeva);
nouns, sometimes together with their surrounding context: Here he is, leader without squads(M. Tsvetaeva); My youth! My little dove is dark!(M. Tsvetaeva).
Any epithet reflects the uniqueness of the author’s perception of the world, therefore it necessarily expresses some kind of assessment and has a subjective meaning: a wooden shelf is not an epithet, so there is no artistic definition here, a wooden face is an epithet expressing the speaker’s impression of the interlocutor’s facial expression, that is, creating an image.
There are stable (permanent) folklore epithets: remote, portly, kind Well done, It's clear sun, as well as tautological, that is, repetition epithets, the same root with the defined word: Eh, bitter grief, boring boredom, mortal! (A. Blok).
In a work of art an epithet can perform various functions:
- describe the subject figuratively: shining eyes, eyes- diamonds;
- create an atmosphere, mood: gloomy morning;
- convey the attitude of the author (storyteller, lyrical hero) to the subject being characterized: “Where will our prankster?" (A. Pushkin);
- combine all previous functions in equal shares (in most cases of using the epithet).
Note! All color terms in a literary text they are epithets.
COMPARISON is an artistic technique (trope) in which an image is created by comparing one object with another. Comparison differs from other artistic comparisons, for example, likenings, in that it always has a strict formal sign: a comparative construction or a turnover with comparative conjunctions as if, as if, exactly, as if and the like. Expressions like he looked like... cannot be considered a comparison as a trope.
Examples of comparisons:
Comparison also plays certain roles in the text: sometimes authors use the so-called detailed comparison, revealing various signs of a phenomenon or conveying one’s attitude towards several phenomena. Often a work is entirely based on comparison, such as, for example, V. Bryusov’s poem “Sonnet to Form”:
PERSONALIZATION- an artistic technique (trope) in which an inanimate object, phenomenon or concept is given human properties (do not be confused, exactly human!). Personification can be used narrowly, in one line, in a small fragment, but it can be a technique on which the entire work is built (“You are my abandoned land” by S. Yesenin, “Mother and the evening killed by the Germans”, “The violin and a little nervously” by V. Mayakovsky, etc.). Personification is considered one of the types of metaphor (see below).
Impersonation task- to correlate the depicted object with a person, to make it closer to the reader, to figuratively comprehend the inner essence of the object, hidden from everyday life. Personification is one of the oldest figurative means of art.
HYPERBOLA(Greek: Hyperbole, exaggeration) is a technique in which an image is created through artistic exaggeration. Hyperbole is not always included in the set of tropes, but by the nature of the use of the word in a figurative meaning to create an image, hyperbole is very close to tropes. A technique opposite in content to hyperbole is LITOTES(Greek Litotes, simplicity) is an artistic understatement.
Hyperbole allows the author to show the reader in an exaggerated form the most characteristic features of the depicted object. Often hyperbole and litotes are used by the author in an ironic way, revealing not just characteristic, but negative, from the author’s point of view, aspects of the subject.
METAPHOR(Greek Metaphora, transfer) - a type of so-called complex trope, a speech turn in which the properties of one phenomenon (object, concept) are transferred to another. A metaphor contains a hidden comparison, a figurative likening of phenomena using the figurative meaning of words; what the object is compared to is only implied by the author. No wonder Aristotle said that “to compose good metaphors means to notice similarities.”
Examples of metaphor:
METONYMY(Greek Metonomadzo, rename) - type of trope: figurative designation of an object according to one of its characteristics.
Examples of metonymy:
When studying the topic “Means of Artistic Expression” and completing assignments, pay special attention to the definitions of the concepts given. You must not only understand their meaning, but also know the terminology by heart. This will protect you from practical mistakes: knowing firmly that the technique of comparison has strict formal characteristics (see theory on topic 1), you will not confuse this technique with a number of other artistic techniques, which are also based on the comparison of several objects, but are not a comparison .
Please note that you must begin your answer either with the suggested words (by rewriting them) or with your own version of the beginning of the complete answer. This applies to all such tasks.
Recommended reading:
- Literary criticism: Reference materials. - M., 1988.
- Polyakov M. Rhetoric and literature. Theoretical aspects. - In the book: Questions of poetics and artistic semantics. - M.: Sov. writer, 1978.
- Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1974.
What makes fiction different from other types of texts? If you think that this is a plot, then you are mistaken, because lyric poetry is a fundamentally “plotless” area of literature, and prose is often plotless (for example, a prose poem). Initial “entertainment” is also not a criterion, since in various eras fiction performed functions that were very far from entertainment (and even the opposite of it).
“Artistic techniques in literature are, perhaps, the main attribute that characterizes fiction.”
Why are artistic techniques needed?
Techniques in literature are intended to give the text
- various expressive qualities,
- originality,
- identify the author’s attitude to what is written,
- and also to convey some hidden meanings and connections between parts of the text.
At the same time, outwardly, no new information seems to be introduced into the text, because the main role is played by various ways of combining words and parts of a phrase.
Artistic techniques in literature are usually divided into two categories:
- trails,
- figures.
A trope is the use of a word in an allegorical, figurative sense. The most common trails:
- metaphor,
- metonymy,
- synecdoche.
Figures are ways of syntactically organizing sentences that differ from the standard arrangement of words and give the text one or another additional meaning. Examples of figures include
- antithesis (opposition),
- internal rhyme,
- isocolon (rhythmic and syntactic similarity of parts of the text).
But there is no clear boundary between figures and paths. Techniques such as
- comparison,
- hyperbola,
- litotes, etc.
Literary devices and the emergence of literature
Most artistic techniques generally originate from primitive
- religious ideas,
- will accept
- superstitions
The same can be said about literary devices. And here the distinction between tropes and figures takes on a new meaning.
The trails are directly related to ancient magical beliefs and rituals. First of all, this is the imposition of a taboo on
- name of the item,
- animal,
- pronouncing a person's name.
It was believed that when designating a bear by its direct name, one could bring it upon the one who pronounces this word. This is how they appeared
- metonymy,
- synecdoche
(bear – “brown”, “muzzle”, wolf – “gray”, etc.). These are euphemisms (“decent” replacement for an obscene concept) and dysphemisms (“obscene” designation of a neutral concept). The first is also associated with a system of taboos on certain concepts (for example, the designation of genital organs), and the prototypes of the second were originally used to avoid the evil eye (according to the ideas of the ancients) or to etiquettely humiliate the named object (for example, oneself before a deity or a representative of a higher class). Over time, religious and social ideas were “debunked” and subjected to a kind of profanation (that is, the removal of sacred status), and paths began to play an exclusively aesthetic role.
The figures appear to have a more “mundane” origin. They could serve the purpose of memorizing complex speech formulas:
- rules
- laws,
- scientific definitions.
Similar techniques are still used in children's educational literature, as well as in advertising. And their most important function is rhetorical: to draw increased public attention to the content of the text by deliberately “violating” strict speech norms. These are
- rhetorical questions
- rhetorical exclamations
- rhetorical appeals.
“The prototype of fiction in the modern sense of the word were prayers and spells, ritual chants, as well as speeches of ancient orators.”
Many centuries have passed, “magic” formulas have lost their power, but on a subconscious and emotional level they continue to influence a person, using our inner understanding of harmony and orderliness.
Video: Visual and expressive means in literature