Literary technique

A literary technique (also known as literary device) is any method an author uses to convey their message. This distinguishes them from literary elements, which exist inherently in literature.

Literary techniques pertaining to setting

Name	Definition	Example
Backstory	Story that precedes events in the story being told—past events or background that add meaning to current circumstances.	Though The Lord of the Rings trilogy takes place towards the end of the Third Age, the narration in the beginning of the movie trilogy gives glimpses of the mythological/historical events which took place in the First and Second Age.
Infodumping (also, plot dump)	Occurs when background information is unelaborately told as opposed to narrated.	The so-called "As you know, Bob" conversation.

Literary techniques pertaining to plots

Name	Definition	Example
Backstory	Story that precedes events in the story being told—past events or background that add meaning to current circumstances	Though The Lord of the Rings trilogy takes place towards the end of the Third Age, the narration gives glimpses of the mythological/historical events which took place in the First and Second Age.
Chekhov's gun	Insertion of an apparently irrelevant object early in a narrative for a purpose only revealed later. See foreshadowing and repetitive designation.	In each of the Harry Potter novels, Harry and his classmates learn a spell or about a facet of the Wizarding World that later comes into play at the climax of the book; e.g. in The Chamber of Secrets, the students are raising mandrakes in Herbology, which quite conveniently are able to cure petrification towards the end of the novel.
Cliffhanger	The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future episode for the resolution.	Almost every episode of the TV shows like Dexter and Breaking Bad ends with one of the characters in a predicament (about to be caught by thugs, about to be exposed by the authority, or a family member or a friend finds out the main character's dirty secret).
Cut-up technique	An aleatory literary technique in which a text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. Most commonly, cut-ups are used to offer a non-linear alternative to traditional reading and writing.	Tristan Tzara created poetry on the spot incorporating random clips of cut-up newspaper in such a way that the short excerpt of the news becomes the backbone of the "poetic plot" in the process of creation.
Deus ex machina (a machination, or act of god)	Resolving the primary conflict by a means unrelated to the story (e.g., a god appears and solves everything). This device dates back to ancient Greek theater, but can be a clumsy method that frustrates the audience.	An example occurs in Mighty Aphrodite.
Eucatastrophe	Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, a climactic event through which the protagonist appears to be facing a catastrophic change. However, this change does not materialize and the protagonist finds himself as the benefactor of such a climactic event; contrast peripety/peripateia.	At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Gollum forcibly takes away the Ring from Frodo, suggesting that Sauron would eventually take over Middle Earth. However, Gollum celebrates too eagerly and clumsily and falls into the lava, whereby the ring is destroyed and with it Sauron's power. In a way, Gollum does what Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring intended to do through the whole plot of the trilogy, which was to throw the ring into the lake of fire in the heart of Mount Doom.
Flashback (or analeptic reference)	General term for altering time sequences, taking characters back to the beginning of the tale, for instance	The story of "The Three Apples" in Arabian Nights tale begins with the discovery of a young woman's dead body. After the murderer later reveals himself, he narrates his reasons for the murder as a flashback of events leading up to the discovery of her dead body at the beginning of the story.
Flashforward	Also called prolepsis, a scene that temporarily jumps the narrative forward in time. Flashforwards often represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future. They may also reveal significant parts of the story that have not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail.	Occurs in A Christmas Carol when Mr. Scrooge visits the ghost of the future. It is also frequent in the later seasons of the television series Lost.
Foreshadowing	Implicit yet intentional efforts of an author to suggest events which have yet to take place in the process of narration. See also repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun	A narration might begin with a male character who has to break up a schoolyard fight among some boys who are vying for the attention of a girl, which was introduced to foreshadow the events leading to a dinner time squabble between the character and his twin brother over a woman, whom both are courting at the same time.
Frame story, or a story within a story	A main story that organizes a series of shorter stories.	Early examples include Panchatantra, Arabian Nights, and The Decameron. A more modern example is Brian Jacques' The Legend of Luke.
Framing device	A single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at the beginning and end of a work. The use of framing devices allow for frame stories to exist.	In Arabian Nights, Scheherazade, the newly wed wife to the King, is the framing device. As a character, she is telling the "1,001 stories" to the King, in order to delay her execution night by night. However, as a framing device her purpose for existing is to tell the same 1,001 stories to the reader.
MacGuffin	A plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so important.
In medias res	Beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events. A specific form of narrative hook.	The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer are prime examples. The latter work begins with the return of Odysseus to his home of Ithaka and then in flashbacks tells of his ten years of wandering following the Trojan War.
Narrative hook	Story opening that "hooks" readers' attention so they will keep reading	"In medias res" is an example.
Plot device	Object or character whose sole purpose is to advance the plot	Indiana Jones chasing after some mystical object is a good example. The mere knowledge that a mystical device exists is what makes the plot progress. This is in contrast to the Ring in the LOTR plot. Whether The One Ring to Rule Them All can be considered a mere plot device is debatable because more than the Ring itself is Sauron's initiative to conquer Middle Earth that the character must do the things to progress the plot. In addition to driving the plot along, the Ring ends up representing a sinister symbol of the human greed for power.
Plot twist	Unexpected change ("twist") in the direction or expected outcome of the plot. See also twist ending.	An example occurs in The Crying Game.
Poetic justice	Virtue ultimately rewarded, or vice punished, by an ironic twist of fate related to the character's own conduct	Wile E. Coyote coming up with a contraption to catch the Road Runner, only to be foiled and caught by his own devices. Each sin's punishment in Dante's Inferno is a symbolic instance of poetic justice.
Predestination paradox	Time travel paradox where a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" them to travel back in time	In Doctor Who, the main character repeatedly finds himself under the obligation of having to travel back in time because of something his future character has done.
Quibble	Plot device based on an argument that an agreement's intended meaning holds no legal value, and that only the exact, literal words agreed on apply.	For example, William Shakespeare used a quibble in The Merchant of Venice: Portia saves Antonio in a court of law by pointing out that the agreement called for a pound of flesh, but no blood, so Shylock can collect only if he sheds no blood.
Red herring	A rhetorical tactic of diverting attention away from an item of significance.	For example, in mystery fiction, an innocent party may be purposefully cast as highly suspicious through emphasis or descriptive techniques to divert attention from the true guilty party.
Repetitive designation	Repeated references to a character or object that appears insignificant at first, but later suddenly intrudes in the narrative.	Arabian Nights. See also foreshadowing and Chekhov's gun.
Self-fulfilling prophecy	Prediction that, by being made, makes itself come true.	Early examples include the legend of Oedipus, and the story of Krishna in the Mahabharata. There is also an example of this in Harry Potter when Lord Voldemort heard a prophecy (made by Sybill Trelawney to Dumbledore) that a boy born at the end of July, whose parents had defied Voldemort thrice and survived, would be made marked as his equal. Because of this prophecy, Lord Voldemort sought out Harry Potter (believing him to be the boy spoken of) and tried to kill him. His parents died protecting him, and when Voldemort tried to cast a killing curse on Harry, it rebounded and took away most of his strength, and gave Harry Potter a unique ability and connection with the Dark Lord thus marking him as his equal
Story within a story (Hypodiegesis)	A story told within another story. See also frame story.	In Stephen King's The Wind Through the Keyhole, of the Dark Tower series, the protagonist tells a story from his past to his companions, and in this story he tells another relatively unrelated story.
Ticking clock scenario	Threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillers where salvation and escape are essential elements	In the TV show "24", the main character, Jack Bauer often finds himself interrogating a terrorist who is caught in order to disarm a bomb.
Unreliable narrator	The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in his narration and possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.	An example is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Literary techniques pertaining to narrative perspective

Name	Definition	Example
Author surrogate	Characters which are based on authors, usually to support their personal views. Sometimes an intentionally or unintentionally idealized version of them. A variation is the Mary Sue or Gary Stu, which primarily serves as an idealized self-insertion.	Socrates in the writings of Plato.
Breaking the fourth wall	An author or character addresses the audience directly (also known as direct address). This may acknowledge to the reader or audience that what is being presented is fiction, or may seek to extend the world of the story to provide the illusion that they are included in it.	The characters in Sesame Street often break the fourth wall when they address their viewers as part of the ongoing storyline, which is possible because of the high level of suspension of belief afforded by its audience—children.
Defamiliarization	Forcing the reader to recognize common things in an unfamiliar or strange way, to enhance perception of the familiar.	A character who is trapped in a winter mountain cabin runs out of food and cooks his leather boots. While he is eating his own boots, he realizes how tough the leather of his boots was.
Epiphany	A sudden perspective or insight which is revealed to the reader onto a problem which had previously eluded all attempts at understanding, which in turn, changes the interpretation of the plot, character, narrative perspective, tone, and/or the style of writing. Epiphanies occur spontaneously through an external stimulus or an internal reflection.	Archimedes bathing in a pool of water and realizing the solution to the problem of estimating the volume of a given object.
First-person Narration	A text presented from the point of view of a character, especially the protagonist, as if the character is telling the story themselves. (Breaking the fourth wall is an option, but not a necessity, of this format.)	Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn uses the title character as the narrator, while Sherlock Holmes is primarily told from Watson's perspective.
Magical realism	Describing events in a real-world setting but with magical trappings, often incorporating local customs and invented beliefs. Different from urban fantasy in that the magic itself is not the focus of the story.	Particularly popular with Latin American authors like Gabriel García Márquez. Elsewhere, Salman Rushdie's work provides good examples.
Mooreeffoc (also written Moor Eeffoc)	Coined by Charles Dickens and, as used by G. K. Chesterton. It means describing everyday inanimate objects as if they behaved as humans. See also Naturalistic Fallacy.	A toaster screaming for attention. Lightbulbs blinking tiredly. A book gaping of hunger.
Second-person Narration	A text written in the style of a direct address, in the second-person.	Rape: A Love Story.
Stream of consciousness	The author uses narrative and stylistic devices to create the sense of an unedited interior monologue, characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that trace a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. The outcome is a highly lucid perspective with a plot. Not to be confused with free writing.	An example is "Ulysses".
Third-person Narration	A text written as if by an impersonal narrator who is not affected by the events in the story. Can be omniscient or limited, the latter usually being tied to a specific character, a group of characters, or a location.	A Song of Ice and Fire is written in multiple limited third-person narrators that change with each chapter. The Master and Margarita uses an omniscient narrator.
Unreliable narrator	The narrator of the story is not sincere, or introduces a bias in his narration and possibly misleads the reader, hiding or minimizing events, characters, or motivations.	An example is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Literary techniques pertaining to style

See also: Figure of speech

Name	Definition	Example
Allegory	A symbolic story.	The account of Jesus could be interpreted as a story of many different people who work very hard and succeed with improving the world. Their reward is then extreme ingratitude. Timeless religious allegories are usually referred to as myths.
Alliteration	Repeating the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.	In the film V for Vendetta the main character performs a couple of soliloquies with a heavy use of alliteration. e.g.. "Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."
Amplification (rhetoric)	Amplification refers to a literary practice wherein the writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information to it in order to increase its worth and understanding.	e.g. Original sentence- The thesis paper was difficult. After amplification- The thesis paper was difficult: it required extensive research, data collection, sample surveys, interviews and a lot of fieldwork.
Anagram	Rearranging the letters of a word or a phrase to form a new phrase or word.	e.g. An anagram for "debit card" is "bad credit". As you can see, both phrases use the same letters. By mixing the letters a bit of humor is created.
Asyndeton	When sentences do not use conjunctions (e.g.: and, or, nor) to separate clauses, but run clauses into one another, usually marking the separation of clauses with punctuation.	An example is when John F. Kennedy said on January the 20th 1961 "...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
Bathos	An abrupt transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect. While often unintended, bathos may be used deliberately to produce a humorous effect.	:The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant. (Jennifer Hart, Arlington)
Caesura	A break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line. This technique frequently occurs within a poetic line grammatically connected to the end of the previous line by enjambment.	e.g. in "Know then thyself. ‖ Presume not God to scan."
Dionysian imitatio	The literary method of copying and improving on material provided by previous writers.	In Ancient Greece was first formulated by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the subsequent Latin rhetoricians adopted this literary method instead of Aristotle's mere imitation of nature.
Distancing Effect	Removing obstacles erected to create an illusion for the audience in a play. Example of such behavior is hiding theatre machinery, the stage curtain and instead of having scenery spelling out the scenario of a scene.	Popularized by 20th century playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Dramatic visualization	Representing an object or character with abundant descriptive detail, or mimetically rendering gestures and dialogue to make a scene more visual or imaginatively present to an audience.	This technique appears at least as far back as the Arabian Nights.
Euphuism	An artificial, highly elaborate way of writing or speaking. Named from Euphues (1579) the prose romance by John Lyly.	"Is it not far better to abhor sins by the remembrance of others' faults, than by repentance of thine own follies?" (Euphues, 1, lecture by the wise Neapolitan)
Hyperbole	Exaggeration used to evoke strong feelings or create an impression which is not meant to be taken literally.	Sally could no longer hide her secret. Her pregnant belly was bigger than the planet on which she stood.
Imagery	Forming mental images of a scene using descriptive words, especially making use of the human senses. The same as sensory detail.	When the boots came off his feet with a leathery squeak, a smell of ferment and fish market immediately filled the small tent. The skin of his toes were red and raw and sensitive. The malodorous air was so toxic he thought he could almost taste his toes.
Leitwortstil	Purposefully repeating words that usually express a motif or theme important to the story.	This dates back at least to the Arabian Nights.
Maypoling	The rearrangement of words of the latter of two consecutive sentences so that the latter sentence adds color and mood to the former while borrowing its words to affirm or deny its existence.	e.g. "The large red room was gloomy. The gloomy redness of the room was due largely to..."
Metonymy	Word or phrase in a figure of speech in which a noun is referenced by something closely associated with it, rather than explicitly by the noun itself. This is not to be confused with synecdoche, in which a part of the whole stands for the thing itself.	Metonomy: The boxer threw in the towel. Synecdoche: She gave her hand in marriage.
Overstatement	Exaggerating something, often for emphasis (also known as hyperbole)	Sally's pregnant belly most likely weighed as much as the scooter she used to ride before she got pregnant.
Onomatopoeia	Word that sounds the same as, or similar to what the word means.	"Boom goes the dynamite."
Oxymoron	A term made of two words that deliberately or coincidentally imply each other's opposite.	"terrible beauty"
Paradox	A phrase that describes an idea composed of concepts that conflict.	"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." (A Tale of Two Cities)
Parody	Ridicule by overstated imitation, usually humorous.	MAD Magazine
Pastiche	Using forms and styles from another author, generally as an affectionate tribute.	Such as the many stories featuring Sherlock Holmes not written by Arthur Conan Doyle, or much of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Pathos	Emotional appeal, one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric that the author uses to inspire pity or sorrow towards a character—typically does not counterbalance the target character's suffering with a positive outcome, as in Tragedy.	In Romeo and Juliet, the two main characters each commit suicide at the sight of the supposedly dead lover, however the audience knows these actions to be rash and unnecessary. Therefore, Shakespeare makes for the emotional appeal for the unnecessary tragedy behind the young characters' rash interpretations about love and life.
Polyptoton	Using words derived from similar roots or origins with different meanings or roles within the sentence.	An example of polyptoton which by the nature of the root word used also contains alliteration and rhyme: His ambulation was not amble. It was more of a wobble and stumble.
Polysyndeton	Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, this provides a sense of exaggeration designed to wear down the audience.	An example of this is in the first chapter of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: "A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin".
Satire	The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices.	An example is Network.
Sensory detail	sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. The same as imagery	The boot was tough and sinewy between his hard-biting teeth. There was no flavor to speak of except for the blandness of all the dirt that the boot had soaked up over the years. The only thing the boot reminded him of was the smell of a wet-dog.
Tone	Overall attitude an author appears to hold toward key elements of the work. Strictly speaking, tone is generally an effect of literary techniques, on the level of a work's overall meaning or effect. The tone of a whole work is not itself a literary technique. However, the tone of a work, especially in a discrete section, may help create the overall tone, effect, or meaning of the work.	The novel Candide makes fun of its characters' suffering, while The Sorrows of Young Werther takes its protagonist's suffering very seriously.
Understatement	A diminishing or softening of a theme or effect.	The broken ends of the long bone was sticking through the bleeding skin, but it wasn't something that always killed a man.
Vertical Story-telling	The italicizing of words at the end of select sentences to remind the reader of a consequential moment in the narrative without adjusting the mechanics of the story to allow lengthy and potentially distracting text. First used by the American author Iimani David.	Anathema Rhodes: Dreams (2009). Published by The New York Literary Society
Word play	Sounds of words used as an aspect of the work.	A pun is a common example of word play.

Literary techniques pertaining to theme

Name	Definition	Example
Conceit	An extended metaphor associated with metaphysical poetry that pushes the imagination's limits to portray something indescribable.
Irony	This discrepancy between expectation and reality occurs in three forms: situational irony, where a situation features a discrepancy between what is expected and what is actualized; dramatic irony, where a character is unaware of pivotal information already revealed to the audience (the discrepancy here lies in the two levels of awareness between the character and the audience); and verbal irony, where one states one thing while meaning another. The difference between verbal irony and sarcasm is exquisitely subtle and often contested. The concept of irony is too often misunderstood in popular usage. Unfortunate circumstances and coincidences do not constitute irony (nor do they qualify as being tragic). See the Usage controversy section under irony, and the term tragedy.	A person hears a prophecy about himself. His endeavor to stop the prophecy from coming true, makes it come true.
Symbolism	One thing representing something else.	In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, all doodads are very crooked and unnatural. This symbolizes that the movie takes place in a dream. An overt example of symbolism occurs in the film The Matrix. The main character in that film, Neo, is forced to make a choice. Either he chooses a red pill or a blue pill. The blue pill means continue living in a faked cyber reality. The red pill means living in the real world and seeing how it really is.
Thematic patterning	Distributing recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea disparate events and disparate frames have in common.	Each of the chapters of Ulysses by James Joyce.

Literary techniques pertaining to character

Name	Type	Notes
Anthropomorphism	The same thing as personification.	Form of personification that applies human-like characteristics to animals or objects
Echoing	Defined as the mimicking of dialogue by characters after a shifted context or place in time to underscore the importance of the dialogue and its relation to the theme. Also known as "shadowing". This technique, like foreshadowing, clues the reader to a portent of things to come only after the repetition is made later in the narrative. Used by the American author Iimani David.	Example, The Bastard published by The New York Literary Society
Hamartia	The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.	Oedipus kills his own father because he doesn't understand his true parentage.
Pathetic fallacy	Reflecting a character's (usually the protagonist) mood in the atmosphere or inanimate objects. Related to anthropomorphism and projection	For example, the storm in William Shakespeare's King Lear, which mirrors Lear's mental deterioration.
Personification	Using comparative metaphors and similes to give living characteristics to non-living objects. The same thing as anthropomorphism.	A talking rock.

Literary techniques pertaining to genre

Name	Definition	Example
Bildungsroman	A type of novel concerned with education, development, and maturation of a young protagonist. Essentially, a bildungsroman traces the formation of a protagonist's maturity (the passage from childhood to adulthood) by following the development of his/her mind and character.	Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Carry on, Mr. Bowditch, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Spirited Away
Epistolary novel	Novel in the form of a series of documents (letters, e-mails, etc.) exchanged between characters.	Pamela by Samuel Richardson (1740), The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett (1771), Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782), Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)
Roman à clef	A fictitious novel in which representations of real people and real events are disguised. The "key" lists the relationship between the nonfiction characters and the fiction characters.	The Bell Jar, Primary Colors

References

• Heath, Peter (May 1994), "Reviewed work(s): Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights by David Pinault", International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge University Press) 26 (2): 358–360, doi:10.1017/s0020743800060633