Rhetorical and Literary Devices

1. Rhetorical and Literary Devices powerpoint 5

2. Rhetorical and Literary Devices: • anastrophe (inversion): “in literary style and rhetoric, the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as, in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies (“the form divine”), a verb before its subject (“Came the dawn”), or a noun preceding its preposition (“worlds between”). Inversion is most commonly used in poetry in which it may both satisfy the demands of the meter and achieve emphasis.…” “When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not, hmmm?” Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi “Adventure? Excitement? Craves not a jedi these things.” Silent Bob, Mallrats.

3. Rhetorical and Literary Devices: • scenario: an outline or model of supposed sequence of events (usually in a screenplay). • simile: a comparison using the words like or as. • symbol: “A symbol is a person, place, or thing comes to represent an abstract idea or concept, anything that stands for something beyond itself.”

4. Rhetorical and Literary Devices: • synecdoche: “a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).” • other examples: Lend me your ears. Give us our daily bread. White-collar criminals. He has many mouths to feed. A new set of wheels.

5. Rhetorical and Literary Devices: • theme 1: “a subject of discourse or rumination. • theme 2: “aunifying or dominant idea, motif, etc.,asinaworkof art.” • thesis 1: “a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially onetobe discussed andproved or to be maintained against objections.” • thesis 2: “a dissertation on a subject with research.”

6. Rhetorical and Literary Devices: • tone: the feelings of an author toward his/her content, material, or the audience for whom he/she is writing. • cacophony: “the use of words and phrases that imply strong, harsh sounds within the phrase. These words have jarring and dissonant sounds that create a disturbing, objectionable atmosphere.” Ex. “Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!/Make no parley—stop for no expostulation…” or “His fingers rapped and pounded the door, and his foot thumped against the yellowing wood.”

7. Rhetorical and Literary Devices • euphemism: thesubstitutionofa mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt. Instead of they had sex, they spent the night together, or they shared a special hug. • metonymy: afigureofspeechthatconsists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to whichitisrelated,orofwhich it isapart, as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “the bottle” for “strong drink,” or “count heads” for “count people.”

8. Rhetorical and Literary Devices enjambment: the running on of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break. Meaning flows as the lines progress, and the reader's eye is forced to go on to the next sentence. I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are; the want of which vain dew Perchance shall dry your pities; but I have That honourable grief lodged here which burns Worse than tears drown. ~The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare

9. Rhetorical and Literary Devices • Examples of tone-- • didactic: related to teaching or instruction. • elegiac: expressing sorrow or lamentation; mournful. • erudite: characterized by being learned or scholarly • pejorative: having a disparaging,derogatory,orbelittlingeffectorforce. • satirical: having a mocking tone in order to raise awareness about issues.

10. Rhetorical and Literary Devices • pun: the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words. • "BenBattlewas a soldier bold, And used to war's alarms: But a cannonball took off his legs, So he laiddown his arms."(ThomasHood)

11. Rhetorical and Literary Devices • understatement: an understatement is a figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is. An understatement is a tool that helps to develop other figures of speech such as ironyand sarcasm by deliberately decreasing the severity of a situation when an intense response is expected by the listeners or the readers. • In Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caulfield says: “I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”