The Wonderful Uses of Literary Devices

Literary Devices can make the words of a novel pop up into your head as if you were watching a 3D movie. They can be amazing when well used. Coupled with your imagination, there are no limits to how Literary Devices can enhance the content of a story and make it come alive for you with ultra-realistic fervor. We will eventually discuss some basic applications of Literary Devices in future posts, with examples. As for now, consider this list of the Literary Devices we have at our disposal, and see how many you know already: -MIKE EYE

A

• Accumulation
• Acrostic
• Active Voice
• Ad Hominem
• Adage
• Adynaton
• Allegory
• Alliteration
• Allusion
• Ambiguity
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anacoluthon
• Anadiplosis
• Anagnorisis
• Anagram
• Analogy
• Analytical Essay
• Anapest
• Anaphora
• Anecdote
• Antagonist
• Antanaclasis
• Antecedent
• Anthimeria
• Anthology
• Anthropomorphism
• Anti-Climax
• Anti-Hero
• Antimetabole
• Antiphrasis
• Antistrophe
• Antithesis
• Aphorism
• Aphorismus
• Aporia
• Aposiopesis
• Apostrophe
• Appositive
• Archaism
• Archetype
• Argument
• Argumentative Essay
• Aside
• Assertion
• Assonance
• Asyndeton
• Atmosphere
• Attitude
• Audience
• Auditory Imagery
• Autobiography

B

• Balanced Sentence
• Ballad
• Bandwagon
• Bathos
• Bias
• Bildungsroman
• Biography
• Black Humor
• Blank Verse

C

• Cacophony
• Cadence
• Caesura
• Canon
• Canto
• Caricature
• Catachresis
• Catalog
• Catastrophe
• Catharsis
• Cause and Effect Essay
• Character
• Characterization
• Chiasmus
• Circumlocution
• Claim
• Cliché
• Cliffhanger
• Climax
• Coherence
• Colloquialism
• Comedy
• Comic Relief
• Comparatives
• Comparison
• Comparison and Contrast Essay
• Conceit
• Concession
• Conflict
• Connotation
• Consonance
• Context
• Contrast
• Couplet
• Critical Essay
• Critique
• Cumulative Sentence

D

• Dactyl
• Deductive Reasoning
• Denotation
• Denouement
• Deus Ex Machina
• Diacope
• Dialect
• Dialogue
• Diatribe
• Dichotomy
• Diction
• Didacticism
• Digression
• Dilemma
• Direct Characterization
• Discourse
• Dissonance
• Distortion
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Drama
• Dramatic Irony
• Dramatic Monologue
• Dynamic Character
• Dysphemism
• Dystopia

E

• Elegy
• Elision
• Ellipsis
• End Rhyme
• End-Stopped Line
• Enjambment
• Enthymeme
• Enumeration
• Epic
• Epigram
• Epigraph
• Epilogue
• Epiphany
• Epiphora
• Epistle
• Epistolary
• Epistrophe
• Epitaph
• Epithet
• Epizeuxis
• Eponym
• Eristic
• Essay
• Ethos
• Eulogy
• Euphemism
• Euphony
• Evidence
• Exact Rhyme
• Exaggeration
• Exemplum
• Existentialism
• Expletive
• Explication
• Explicatory Essay
• Exposition
• Expository Essay
• Extended Metaphor
• External Conflict
• Eye Rhyme

F

• Fable
• Fairy Tale
• Fallacy
• Falling Action
• Fantasy
• Farce
• Feminine Rhyme
• Fiction
• Figurative Language
• Figure of Speech
• Flash-Forward
• Flashback
• Flat Character
• Foil
• Folklore
• Foot
• Foreshadowing
• Frame Story
• Free Verse

G

• Genre

H

• Haiku
• Half Rhyme
• Hamartia
• Hero
• Homily
• Homograph
• Homophone
• Hook
• Hubris
• Humor
• Hyperbaton
• Hyperbole
• Hypophora
• Hypotaxis
• Hypothetical Question

I

• Iamb
• Iambic Pentameter
• Idiom
• Illusion
• Imagery
• Imperative Sentence
• Implied Metaphor
• In Medias Res
• Inciting Incident
• Induction
• Inference
• Innuendo
• Internal Rhyme
• Intertextuality
• Invective
• Inversion
• Irony
• Isocolon

J

• Jargon
• Juxtaposition

K

• Kenning
• Kinesthesia

L

• Lampoon
• Legend
• Limerick
• Line Break
• Litotes
• Logos
• Lyric
• Lyric Poem

M

• Main Idea
• Malapropism
• Maxim
• Meiosis
• Melodrama
• Memoir
• Metalepsis
• Metaphor
• Metaphysical
• Meter
• Metonymy
• Monologue
• Mood
• Moral
• Motif
• Motivation
• Myth

N

• Narrative
• Narrative Poem
• Naturalism
• Nemesis
• Neologism
• Non Sequitur
• Nostalgia
• Novel
• Novella

O

• Octave
• Ode
• Omniscient
• Onomatopoeia
• Ordinal Number
• Overstatement
• Oxymoron

P

• Pacing
• Palindrome
• Parable
• Paradox
• Paralipsis
• Parallel Structure
• Parallelism
• Paraphrase
• Paraprosdokian
• Parataxis
• Parenthesis
• Parody
• Paronomasia
• Parrhesia
• Passive Voice
• Pastiche
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Pathos
• Pedantic
• Pentameter
• Periphrasis
• Persona
• Personification
• Perspective
• Persuasion
• Persuasive Essay
• Play
• Pleonasm
• Plot
• Poem
• Poetic Justice
• Point of View
• Polyptoton
• Polysyndeton
• Portmanteau
• Procatalepsis
• Process Essay
• Prologue
• Propaganda
• Prose
• Prosody
• Prosthesis
• Protagonist
• Proverb
• Pun

Q

• Quatrain

R

• Realism
• Rebuttal
• Red Herring
• Reductio ad Absurdum
• Refrain
• Refutation
• Repetition
• Resolution
• Rhetoric
• Rhetorical Devices
• Rhetorical Question
• Rhyme
• Rhyme Scheme
• Rhythm
• Riddle
• Rising Action
• Romance
• Romanticism
• Round Character
• Run-On Sentence

S

• Sarcasm
• Satire
• Scansion
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Semantic
• Sensory Language
• Sesquipedalian
• Sestet
• Sestina
• Setting
• Short Story
• Sibilance
• Simile
• Simple Paragraph
• Situational Irony
• Slang
• Snark
• Solecism
• Soliloquy
• Sonnet
• Sound Devices
• Speaker
• Spondee
• Stanza
• Static Character
• Straw Man
• Stream of Consciousness
• Style
• Subjective
• Subplot
• Superlative
• Surrealism
• Suspense
• Syllogism
• Symbolism
• Syncope
• Synecdoche
• Synesis
• Synesthesia
• Syntax

T

• Tautology
• Tercet
• Theme
• Thesis
• Tmesis
• Tone
• Tragedy
• Tragic Flaw
• Tragic Hero
• Tragicomedy
• Transition
• Tricolon
• Trimeter
• Trochaic
• Trope
• Truism

U

• Understatement
• Undertone
• Utopia

V

• Verbal Irony
• Verisimilitude
• Vernacular
• Verse
• Vignette
• Villanelle
• Voice
• Volta

W

• Wit

Z

• Zeugma
• Zoomorphism