Literary Devices

Forms of Prose Fiction

Novels- A long fiction almost always concentrating on character and incident and usually containing a plot.

Novellas- It is applied to a story some what longer than a short story but not long enough to be considered a novel.

Short Stories- A small prose fiction which concentrates on a few characters or often one single character which lacks a complicated plot and leisurely description.

Element of Prose Fiction

Narrative Techniques- This is simply the technique in having narrative skillls or styles of writing used by the author.

Point of View- This refers to the way in which a narrator approaches his/her material (characters,action,setting) and the audience.

Characterization- The way in which a writer creates characters in a play or narrative so as to attract or repel sympathy.

Setting- The time, place, environment and surroundings. Circumstances of an event of a play or story.

Theme- The abstract subject of a  literary work that is its central idea which may or maynot be explicite.

Plot- The arrangement or plan of incidents in Literary work ( novels, dramas, play).

Style- The characteristic manner in which a writer expresses himself or herself in the particular manner of an individual literary work.

Literary Devices

Imagery- A word or sequence of words that refers to any sensory experience.

Symbol- A visible object or action that suggests some further meaning in addition to itself.

Irony- A manner of speaking that implies a disrepancy.

Satire-Writing which diminishes its subject in the eyes of the reader by using ridicule and arousing contempt,hatred,scorn or disgust usuallly to highlight.

Allusion- This is a literary device that creates ideas and information in the reader's mind with a word or two.

Structual Devices

Stream of Consciousness- A common narrative technique in the modern novel ( an attempt to convey all the contents of a character's mind eg. feelings, thought,mind)

Interior Monologue- An attempt to convey in words the process of consciousness or thought ( as a means of narrating a story).

Flashback- A term borrowed from films. A sudden jump back in time to an early episode or scene in a story, novel,play, or film.

Foreshadow- The use of hints that suggest events that are to come.

Time Frame- A given interval Especially in relation to a particular event or process.

Motif- Some aspect of Literature ( a type of character, theme,image) which reoccurs frequently.

Juxtaposition- The use of two themes,characters,phrases,words or situations for comparison or contrast.

Types of Fiction

Fantasy Fiction- A story that could not happen and is not realistic

Humour Fiction- A story created to make the reader laugh.

Science Fiction- Tjis story is based on science and usually tells about events that are supernatural.

Mystery Fiction- Fiction stories that are usually realistic, about a mysterious event which is not explained or a crime that is not solved until the end of the story to keep the reader in suspense

Folk Tales - These fictions are stories with no known creator and is passed from generation to generation and usually has a meaning behind of it.

Historic Fiction- These are stories which take place during a particular time period in the past. The setting of the story is based on past event but the characters are fictional.

Romantic Fiction- This story deals with the mutual attraction between a man and a woman and normally has a happy ending.

Western Fiction- These stories are set primarily in the American West around the second half of the 19th century and features heros with rugged handsome features.