Literary Devices and Concepts notes, Unit 1, Background to English Literature-III, 2nd Year, 3rd Semester, B.A English Literature

 University of Madras

Syllabus with effect from 2020-2021

B.A English Literature

[2^nd Year, 3^rd Semester]

Background to English Literature-III

UNIT 1:

II. Literary Devices/Concepts.

1.    1.6. POETRY

Onomatopoeia, Pathetic fallacy, Poetic license, Apostrophe, Personification, oxymoron, zeugma

Onomatopoeia

        Onomatopoeia (also known as, “nominatio,” “nominis,” “confictio,” “the new namer”; etymologically from the Greek, literally “name making”) is a tuneful technique which involves the use of a word, or phraseOpens in new window, the sound of which resembles or naturally imitates the sound of the thing signified.

In Onomatopoeia, the sounds are often produced by human beings, animals and objects. Sounds produced by human beings include but not limited to: “hey,” “clap,” “patter,” “giggle,” “ouch,” “mm,” “oh,” etc. Likewise, the sounds from animals include: “hum,” “tweet,” “cackle,” “bark,” “croak,” “squeak,” “quack,” etc. And those from objects include: “ding-dong,” “beep,” “tick-tock,” “vroom,” “click-click,” “crackle,” “rattle,” etc. Some object sounds can be associated with some action or movement.

Onomatopoetic sounds usually produce a resounding effect of the sense it signifies, thus making the signification efficiently expressive. For example: the name of the bird “cuckoo” reproduces the resounding effect of its song; the word “bang” reproduces resounding effect of an explosive sound or a gun-shot.

Onomatopoeia is used by writers and poets as figurative language to create a heightened experience for the reader. Onomatopoetic words are descriptive and provide a sensory effect and vivid imagery in terms of sight and sound. This literary device is prevalent in poetry, as onomatopoetic words are also conducive to rhymes.

Common Examples of Onomatopoeia:

The buzzing bee flew away.

The sack fell into the river with a splash.

The books fell on the table with a loud thump.

He looked at the roaring

The rustling leaves kept me awake.

 

Pathetic fallacy:      

        The term "pathetic fallacy" was coined by a British writer named John Ruskin, who defined it as "emotional falseness." Ruskin originally used the term to criticize what he saw as the sentimental attitude of 18th century Romantic poets toward nature. The meaning of the term has shifted over time, and now is often used to simply describe, rather than criticize, the attribution of emotions to non-human things.

Pathetic fallacy is a specific type of personification, or the attribution of human qualities to non-human things.

        Generally, pathetic fallacy is confused with personification. The fact is that they differ in their function. Pathetic fallacy gives human emotions to inanimate objects of nature; for example, referring to weather features reflecting a mood. Personification, on the other hand, is a broader term. It gives human attributes to abstract ideas, animate objects of nature, or inanimate non-natural objects.

        For example, the following descriptions refer to weather and how it affects the mood, which can add atmosphere to a story: smiling skies, somber clouds, angry storm, or bitter winter.

 

Poetic license:

        The literary term poetic license is a thing of many names that comes in many forms. Also known as artistic license, literary license, dramatic license, historical license, narrative licence, licentia poetica, or just simply license, poetic license is a conversational term (or sometimes a euphemism).

The term comes from Latin. Poetic derives from the Latin poeta, which means "poet" or "maker." License comes from the Latin licentia, which means "to be permitted." Basically, poetic license involves the departure of facts or even rules for language in order to create a different effect, usually dramatic, for a piece of work or speech.

This term is more commonly used in reference to a poet's work when they have ignored some of the rules for grammar for its effect. Shakespeare does this a lot in his works. The infamous line from Julius Caesar: "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears" is one example as he has omitted the use of the word "and" after "Romans" in order to keep the line in iambic pentameter.

 

Apostrophe:

       Apostrophe (etymologically derived from the Greek word apostrophein, literally meaning “to turn away”), is a rhetorical device which consists when an orator interrupts the flow of the discourse; turning his attention from his immediate audience, to address some person or other objects different from that to which the discourse was at first directed.

      This figure is seldom used; but when it is used, it is usually in a fashion of violent commotion, which the speaker turns himself on all sides, and appeals to the living and the dead, to angels and to men, to rocks, groves, and rivers, for the justice of his cause, or calls upon them to sympathize with his joy, grief, or resentment.

       For example, when Juliet talks to dead Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

Apostrophe may also be used in calling upon an abstract idea as in "O Death....".

 

Personification:

        Personification is a figure of speech in which an idea or thing is given human attributes and/or feelings or is spoken of as if it were human. Personification is a common form of metaphor in that human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman things. This allows writers to create life and motion within inanimate objects, animals, and even abstract ideas by assigning them recognizable human behaviors and emotions.

        Personification exists in three degrees. In the first degree of personification, the object is presented as having some qualities that properly belong only to living creatures. It is often exhibited by simply using the masculine or feminine pronoun instead of the neuter. Thus, a boat is represented as a female, war as a male, in these expressions: “Pull a stroke or two — away with her into deep water;” “War then showed his devastations.”

        The second degree of personification involves the representation of an object as acting, or manifesting emotion, like a thing of life. Personifications of this kind, which are employed not as expressions of excited feeling, but as convenient condensations, to avoid circumlocutions, and the frequent repetitions of long descriptions. Thus, the word “nature” is used as though it were the name of a person, when evidently the author does not intend to personify any fancied being or power, but it is more convenient to use that appellation than some such expression as “the plan according to which material things act,” or “the properties which this subject has;” and it is more convenient to represent it as a person than to speak of the phenomena described as simple effects.

The third degree of Personification is seen when an object is addressed as if alive, and listening to the speaker. When the mind is sufficiently aroused, this boldest kind of Personification is pre-eminently forcible and beautiful. Personification of this kind need not be confined to the sublimest subjects or to oratorical writing.

 

Oxymoron:

  An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two seemingly contradictory or opposite ideas to create a certain rhetorical or poetic effect and reveal a deeper truth. Generally, the ideas will come as two separate words placed side by side.

    An oxymoron (AHX-ee-MORE-ahn), from the Greek for “pointedly foolish” or “dully sharp,” is a contradiction in terms. It seems illogical on its face, as the basic construction is word + antonymic (the opposite of that word) modifier; for example, minor crisis, as the former means “little or insignificant” while the latter can mean “emergency.” As its etymology suggests, oxymorons are often used for humor, especially satire.

     This excerpt from Irish poet William Butler Yeats’ famous poem "Easter 1916" has the prominent oxymoron "terrible beauty," which is repeated again at the end of the poem. Despite the "terrible" things that happened and the many lives lost, Yeats uses the term "beauty" to bring attention to the positive ideals of independence that gained ground as a result of this event: this desire for self-government is what spurred the Irish War of Independence just a few years later.

In this sense, the uprising was simultaneously terrible (in that it led to death) and beautiful (in its romantic aspirations for independence).

 

Zeugma:

     Zeugma (derives from Greek, meaning 'yoking' or 'bonding'), is a figure concerned with syntactical construction by which a word stands in the same relation to two other words, but conveying two different meanings at the same time. Zeugma can be humorous or interesting.

In Zeugma, thus, one verb is connected with two nouns, to each of which a separate verb should properly be supplied.

The essential features of this figure are :

(i) There are two nouns.

(ii) One verb is connected with these two nouns.

(iii) Each of these nouns requires a separate verb.

Zeugma can be used to create drama, add emotion, or produce a level of shock value. While there can still be an underlying sense of confusion, generally, a zeugma is used purposely.

For example, "He hid his feelings and the ball." In the following sentence 'hid' is used to describe about the feelings as well as the ball.

1.2.    1.7. DRAMA

Poetic justice [Nemesis], Alienation effect, Defamiliarization, Fourth Wall, breaking the Fourth Wall, Disguise, Foreshadowing, Suspension of disbelief

Poetic justice [Nemesis]:

        Poetic justice deals with the idea that good deeds are rewarded while evil ones are punished.

When bad or evil characters have some type of calamity or misfortune befall them in a literary work. While the "bad guys" are not always punished in real life, it is typical for the "good guys" to win in a work of literature.

        The term was coined by the critic Thomas Rymer in his The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd (1678) with reference to Elizabethan poetic drama: such justice is ‘poetic’, then, in the sense that it occurs more often in the fictional plots of plays than in real life. As Miss Prism explains in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, ‘The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily.’

 

Alienation effect:

        Defamiliarization is a Russian Formalist concept adapted in by Bertolt Brecht and he called it an alienation effect.  This is used by dramatists mainly to make familiar aspects of the social reality seem strange to prevent an emotional connection with the audience. Many dramas use this effect to constantly remind the audience that this is a work of art and needs no emotional connection. The technique involves breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience.

 

Defamiliarization:

Defamiliarization, as the word implies, is a process where something familiar is no longer perceived as such. Specifically in writing, defamiliarization in literature refers to a technique (a literary device, in a sense) where the writer offers familiar, common things in an odd, unorthodox way.

The purpose of defamiliarization is to cause the readers to question their perception of reality (the known and familiar), through this process it actually facilitates a much deeper and more comprehensive understanding of reality.

       

Fourth Wall:

        In theater, the fourth wall is that invisible forcefield around the stage that keeps actors in their own little world, and separate from the audience. Actors on stage—and even on screen (we're looking at you, Jim Halpert)—sometimes break the fourth wall for dramatic (or comedic) effect, and directly address the audience. The fourth wall didn't really develop in the theater until the late 18th and 19th centuries.

 

Breaking the fourth:

Breaking the fourth wall is not only reserved for comedy shows; for us book nerds, you may have come across it as metafiction in literature. The term originated from theatre and works from the perception of the stage as three solid walls. The fourth being invisible. The characters talk to the space inhabited by the audience. It plays a wider role in the genre of metafiction in literature.

The narrator allows us to understand characters more through the eyes of other people. It can be difficult to truly know how a character behaves until they are positioned through the lens of another. How others perceive them without them knowing and how their actions come across are easier to describe this way than through a first-person narrative.

 

Disguise:

A disguise can be anything which conceals or changes a person's physical appearance, including a wig, glasses, makeup, fake moustache, costume or other items. Camouflage is a type of disguise for people, animals and objects. Hats, glasses, changes in hair style or wigs, plastic surgery, and make-up are also used.

 

Foreshadowing:

        Foreshadowing is a literary device that writers utilize as a means to indicate or hint to readers something that is to follow or appear later in a story. Foreshadowing, when done properly, is an excellent device in terms of creating suspense and dramatic tension for readers. It can set up emotional expectations of character behaviors and/or plot outcomes. This can heighten a reader’s enjoyment of a literary work, enhance the work’s meaning, and help the reader make connections with other literature and literary themes.

 

Suspension of disbelief:

        To 'suspend disbelief' is to temporarily accept as believable of events or characters that would ordinarily be seen as incredible. This is usually to allow an audience to appreciate works of literature or drama that are exploring unusual ideas.

Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the idea of a "willing suspension of disbelief" in his 1815 Biographia Literaria, where he referred to it as "poetic faith."

Suspension of disbelief is especially important when reading in genres like Magical Realism, Gothic Literature, Science Fiction, or Fantasy, where some weird stuff is bound to go down.

 

1.3.   1.8. NOVEL

Satire, Epiphany, Paradox, Symbolic, Flat and Round Characters

 Satire:

        Satire is broadly defined as a literary genre that uses ridicule, irony, wit, sarcasm, etc. to expose folly or vice or to lampoon an individual or group of individuals. Thus a work of satire is crafted to mock and blame culprits with the primary goal of imparting positive change in them.

        It brings about the picturesque scene of a ridiculous world created by the satirist meant to excites laugher or merriment; and it is the introduction of the real world meant to invite reflection on how society might correct ridiculous habits or people simultaneously.

 

Epiphany:

        An epiphany is a sudden realization or discovery that illuminates a new perception or awareness. Epiphany is often used to describe a rapid feeling of clarity or insight in terms of finding an essential meaning or solution–what many describe as an “aha!” moment. Epiphanies often take place at the climax of the story arc.

 

Paradox:

        A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, or that must be both true and untrue at the same time. Paradoxes are quirks in logic that demonstrate how our thinking sometimes goes haywire, even when we use perfectly logical reasoning to get there.

But a key part of paradoxes is that they at least sound reasonable. They’re not obvious nonsense, and it’s only upon consideration that we realize their self-defeating logic.

 

Symbolic:

        Symbolism is a literary device that refers to the use of symbols in a literary work. A symbol is something that stands for or suggests something else; it represents something beyond literal meaning. In literature, a symbol can be a word, object, action, character, or concept that embodies and evokes a range of additional meaning and significance.

        Symbolism began as an artistic movement in French poetry in the 19th century to combat realism in favor of romanticism. It comes from the Latin word symbolus, which means “a sign of recognition.”

 

Flat and Round Characters:

        E. M. Forster, in his 1927 Aspects of the Novel, applied the terms “flat” and “round” to describe fictional characters. Those true to life he considered to be “round,” while “flat” characters served only one purpose in the story.

        Authors create flat characters to represent a specific idea or quality. Flat characters are “immediately recognizable and can usually be represented by a single sentence,” or characteristic. A flat character wants one thing. For example, Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations, is a flat character who seeks only revenge for being abandoned on her wedding day.

Flat characters:

• lack depth or development.
• support the main character, or other characters. Many stories and novels in fact feature flat characters as main characters, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson for example, as well as the characters in various stories such as the “Twilight” series.
• maintain the characteristics or familiar traits of a stereotype, e.g., Miss Havisham as the jilted bride.
• maintain one perspective or viewpoint.
• help create atmosphere, mood, or comedy.
• are vivid but simple.
• predictable in terms of their behavior.
• are easily recognizable by readers and remembered for these very characteristics.       

     When a flat character takes on multiple aspects and a realistic character defects, the flat persona curves towards the rounded character. 

The term “round” refers to characters sufficiently complex “to be able to surprise the reader without losing credibility,” as William Harmon and Hugh Holman state in their classic work, A Handbook to Literature. As readers, we invest more emotion in round characters and may well feel disappointed when we no longer have them in our lives, once we finish reading their stories. 

Round characters: 

• appear human, with multiple aspects to their personalities.
• let us know what they are thinking.
• can surprise us.
• are convincing and rich in character with flaws and qualities.
• have potential to change and develop throughout the story.
• desire something.
• experience conflict and therefore character development.
• are either likable or despicable.

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