C2 · 100 entries · Five themes

Literary Voice Imagery and Narrative Effects

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Open a theme, then select a word or phrase for its meaning, example and pronunciation.

1. Narrative voice (20 entries)
  1. self-conscious narration
  2. focalisation
  3. stream of consciousness
  4. free indirect discourse
  5. an epistolary narrative
  6. a retrospective narrator
  7. an embedded narrative
  8. a narrative hinge
  9. a frame narrative
  10. a narrative lacuna
  11. an implied reader
  12. unreliable narration
  13. a fragmentary account
  14. prolepsis
  15. a circular ending
  16. lend the narrator an air of authority
  17. an authorial intrusion
  18. the narrative present
  19. distinguish voice from author
  20. leave the rest to the imagination
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2. Figurative texture (20 entries)
  1. figurative density
  2. metonymy
  3. conceit
  4. synaesthesia
  5. synecdoche
  6. metaphorical
  7. connotative
  8. unspoken
  9. emblematic
  10. redolent
  11. unarticulated
  12. unstated
  13. embryonic
  14. evocative
  15. the tenor of a metaphor
  16. a vehicle for a metaphor
  17. unconcealed
  18. avowed
  19. denotation
  20. zeugma
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3. Rhythm and atmosphere (20 entries)
  1. assonance
  2. caesura
  3. enjambment
  4. consonance
  5. an extended conceit
  6. alliterative verse
  7. epistrophe
  8. an implied analogy
  9. a controlling metaphor
  10. an elegiac note
  11. a medial pause
  12. anaphora
  13. establish a sense of foreboding
  14. a mixed register
  15. oxymoron
  16. introduce a note of levity
  17. metrical variation
  18. give pathos to a scene
  19. set a sombre tone
  20. periodic sentence
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4. Perspective and distance (20 entries)
  1. interiority
  2. retrospective irony
  3. a focal character
  4. create a disquieting contrast
  5. evoke a vanished world
  6. render a character in the round
  7. an unmarked shift in perspective
  8. restricted point of view
  9. an elliptical exchange
  10. draw a character in broad strokes
  11. strip a character of agency
  12. flashback
  13. hold the reader in suspense
  14. imbue a scene with menace
  15. infuse an account with nostalgia
  16. a morally compromised protagonist
  17. undercut a heroic pose
  18. endow a character with agency
  19. analepsis
  20. parable
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5. Interpretive effects (20 entries)
  1. catharsis
  2. empathy
  3. deliberate indeterminacy
  4. distort
  5. ironic reversal
  6. euphemistic
  7. laudatory
  8. inchoate
  9. oblique
  10. vestigial
  11. ephemeral
  12. artifice
  13. verisimilitude
  14. glib
  15. suffuse
  16. temper the scene's sentimentality
  17. resist a sentimental resolution
  18. affected
  19. an unreliable focaliser
  20. temporal dislocation
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