LITERAR

Y
DEVICES
 TELL ME SOMETHING
ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE
AUTHOR.

WHY IS HE/SHE
YOUR FAVOURITE?
LITERARY
DEVICES
These are narrative techniques used by the
author to ignite a spark of excitement, open a
wondrous path of imagination, boost energy into
writing, craft to convey information and add
texture to narration.
APHORISM
Statement of truth or opinion expressed in a
concise and witty manner. The term is often applied
to philosophical, moral, and literary principles.

Pride goeth before a fall. [Proverb]

…even a proverb is no proverb until your life has
illustrated it. [John Keats]
“You never really understand a person until you
consider things from his point of view – until you
climb into his skin and walk around in it.”[Harper
Lee]
 EPIPHANY
It is the part where the character realizes his or her
actions or a sudden revelation after which events
are seen in a similar experience/context.

“Suddenly he felt terribly embarrassed as he looked at her. Somehow

he was ashamed to his mother of his youthful paternity. It made him
feel guilty, as if he had taken something no properly his. He dropped
his eyes and pretended to dust dirt off his kundiman shorts.”
“FOOTNOTE TO YOUTH”
BY: JOSE GARCIA VILLA
JUXTAPOSITION
Involves two themes, characters, phrases,
words or situation together for comparison
and contrast

A Tales of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness...”
CHECKHOV’S GUN
Insertion of an apparently and seemingly
irrelevant object early in the selection to which
the purpose is revealed later

The Prisoner of Azkaban, we discover the real reason

that Scabbers, a rat highlighted in the first
scenes/events in the story isn't actually a rat but a
wizard/criminal in hiding.
FORESHADOWING
literary device in which a writer gives an advance
hint of what is to come later in the story.
Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a
story, or a chapter, and helps the reader develop
expectations about the coming events in a story.
“When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide”

“The corners of the ceiling have darkened, creaks heard on

a windy day”
FLASHBACKING
A general term for altering sequences of
events in the story, taking characters back to
the beginning of the tale.

“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got

his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed,
and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football
were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about
his injury.”
FLASH FORWARD
Also called as prolepsis, an interjected scene
that temporarily jumps the narrative forward in
time.

“A Christmas Carol depicts the character Scrooge in

a flash-forward scene. The tightfisted and ill-tempered
Scrooge is visited by the “Ghost of Christmas Yet to
Come,” who shows him his future”
CLIFFHANGER
Creates an open ending in the story by leaving the conflict
unresolved. Its purpose is to draw the audience back to the
future episode for solution or another form of plot

Pork Empanada Story: “ masarap kuya, masarap. Sa

Katipunan, patuloy na nagdaan ang mga sasakyan,
mabilis at mabagal…”

“I could see that balloon and the moon shining through it

but I couldn’t begin to imagine what was going to happen
to us.”
FRAME STORY
A story within a story

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a frame story. Different

characters come together to take a pilgrimage to
Canterbury, and along the way, they all tell a different story.
So, the overall tale of the pilgrim's journey is a frame for the
various narratives that are told within the story.
RHETORICAL QUESTION
Posing a question without expecting
something in reply to create persuasive effect
to its reader
“Who is the traitor and who is the patriot? What am I?”
(The Dilemma of the Last Filipino, Hilarion Henares)

“If you prick us, do we not bleed?

If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
FIGURES OF SPEECH

Creative group of words used beyond its

literal meaning to enhance sense of
impression and intensify ideas
FIGURES OF SPEECH REVIEW!!!!
SIMILE HYPERBOLE
METAPHOR PERSONIFICATION
ONOMATOPOEIA APOSTROPHE
IRONY ALLUSION
ASSONANCE EUPHEMISM
ALLITERATION OXYMORON
ANAPHORA PARADOX
METONYMY
SYNECDOCHE
ALLUSION
is a reference to a person, place,
event, or literary work that a writer expects the
reader to recognize and understand. It may
come from history, geography, literature, art,
music, or religion.

In a circle of friends, one is the Maria

Clara.
I have found the Romeo I have been waiting
all my life.
SIMILE - comparison of two unlike things using “like” and “as” :
Fresh delight of love and passion like the spring that comes
after winter
METAPHOR- direct comparison of two unlike things without “like or as”
Your fist is the hammer which one should not irresponsibly let
loose.
PERSONIFICATION- expression giving human qualities to
objects/animals
How could one possibly avoid the cries of the heaven.
APOSTROPHE- addresses inanimate objects as real objects
Oh thy stars and moon, please make me beautiful tonight.
HYPERBOLE-statements using exaggerated terms or ideas
I can love you for more than a thousand years
IRONY- contradictory statements or situations reveal a reality that is
different from what appears to be true
Hansel and Gretel (Grimm fairy tale): the witch, who intended to eat
Hansel and Gretel, is trapped by the children in her own oven
ONOMATOPOEIA- the use of words to imitate sound
The buzzing bee, the cackling hen

ANAPHORA-repetition of a word
My darling, my darling, my wife, my bride

ALLITERATION-repetition of consonant sound

Wild, woolly, threatening throngs

ASSONANCE-repetition of the vowel sound

Heap that she leaves

OXYMORON-contradictory term formed by words brought together

What a deafening silence!
What does it mean to be perfectly imperfect?
PARADOX- a statement or sentiment that appears contradictory to common sense yet
true.
You have to die in order to live
The child is the father of the man.
METONYMY-word or phrase substituted for another to which it is associated to the
idea referred to
He was an avid reader of Chaucer( representation of Chaucer’s poems and works)
The white house always needs protection(white house-the place where the
president live and not a literal house painted with white)

SYNECDOCHE- shows a part to whole or whole to part

The entrance fee for the Horror Booth is 100 per head.(head – to represent the
whole person/one person)

EUPHEMISM- substitution of a delicate or inoffensive word/term for those unpleasant

associations
Passed away for dead. (My grandmother passed away is better than My
grandmother is dead.)
Do not be shy, being hair disadvantaged make you unique.(having no hair, better
than using “BALD”)
 LITERARY
APPROACHES
 Formalistic Approach.
Examines the elements of form, style, structure, tone,
imagery, symbols, etc. A primary goal for formalist
critics is to determine how such elements work together
with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers.

How is the work’s structure unified?

How do various elements if the work reinforce its meaning?
What recurring patterns (related words, images, etc.) can you
find? How does it affect the text?
 Biographical Approach.
This approach focuses on connection
of work to author’s personal
experiences.

What aspects of the author’s personal life are relevant to this

story?
Which of the author’s beliefs are reflected in the text?
 Philosophical Approach.
This approach focuses on themes,
view of the word, moral statements,
author’s psychology, etc.

What is the story talk about the nature of good and evil?
What does the story say about the human nature?
What is the author’s influence in terms of motivations and
behaviors?
 Historical Approach.
This approach seeks to understand a literary work
by investigating the social cultural, and intellectual
context that produced it-a context that necessarily
includes the artist’s biography and milieu.

How does it reflect the time in which it was written?

How accurate does the story depicts the time it reflects?
What historical events or movements might have influenced the
writer?
 Psychological Approach.
This approach focuses on the psychology of
the characters. It reflects that modern
psychology has had upon both literature and
literary criticism.

Which of the behaviors of the characters are conscious ones?

Which are unconscious ones?
Given the background, how plausible is the character’s behavior?
Do any of the characters correspond to Freud’s Personality theory
of the psyche (ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO)?
 Sociological Approach.
This approach focuses on man’s
relationship to others in society,
politics, religion, and business.

What is the relationship between the characters and their

society?
Does the story address societal issues such as race, gender,
socioeconomics and politics?
How does the story reflect the rural or suburban values?
 Feminist Criticism.
This criticism examines images of
women and concepts of the
feminists.
How are women portrayed in the text?
How does the female characters relate to one another? Do
these relationships have conflicts? Are the conflicts resolved?
 Mythological Criticism.
One key concept here is the Archetype.
“a symbol, character, situation, or image
that evokes a deep universal response

How were the symbols used in the story?

What is the relationship of the symbols to the content of the
story?
How does using symbols affect the entire narrative?
 Deconstructionist Criticism.
This approach rejects the traditional
assumption that language can accurately
represent reality.

Does the writer have control of the meaning of their texts?

Focusing on how language is used to achieve power, as when they
try to understand how some interpretations of a literary work come to be
regarded as “truth”.
How can the work be broken down into mutually
irreconcilable position
 Reader-response Criticism.
This approach attempts to describe what happens in the reader’s
mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that reading like writing,
is a creative process. “transaction between the physical text and
the mind of a reader”

How does the story relate to reader’s reality?

How does the reader comprehend the story?
Does the reader have a different interpretation of the text to the writer?