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