Roopa Banerjee
An understatement is a literary device where the author deliberately diminishes or plays down the importance or intensity of a situation, typically for rhetorical or satirical purposes. Or paradoxically, for emphasis.
Understatements are used to emphasise the exact traits that they downplay. When used ironically, they provide humour and effect. When used literally, they downplay […]
Roopa Banerjee
“This cricket match is a classic showdown as each team considers the other its nemesis.”
“I can’t believe we have to present our projects on the same day as Anil. He’s my academic nemesis; his presentations are always top-notch.”
We often use the word nemesis in our daily conversations without realising that it’s a popular literary […]
Roopa Banerjee
Have you read a book or watched a movie where a problem in the plot seems insurmountable and then suddenly a new character or plot twist helps everything fall into place? Did it feel contrived, or did you believe the author resorted to it to end the story in a convincing manner? Well, what […]
Roopa Banerjee
Did you ever wonder why most fairy tales have an older female villain character? For instance, the wicked stepmother in Cinderella and Snow White. In A Little Mermaid, the sea-witch is an aging woman who yearns for youth and beauty. These characters are examples of a literary device known as motif — a recurrent […]
Roopa Banerjee
“Working hard, or hardly working?”
Such reversal of words is known as chiasmus. A popular literary device, it has been used for centuries in literature, speeches, and pop culture to capture readers’ attention, stimulate reflection, and leave a lasting impact.
In the realm of literary devices, chiasmus stands out as a beautifully symmetrical and thought-provoking figure […]
Roopa Banerjee
In fiction writing, writers use a wide array of literary devices to express emotions, create compelling characters, and enhance the narrative. One such powerful literary device is invective, which allows writers to unleash scathing criticism or vehement disapproval of individuals, ideas, and institutions.
The word invective traces its roots to the Latin invectivus, which means […]
Roopa Banerjee
Fiction writers often use varied literary devices to create engaging and thought-provoking narratives. One such popular device is a non sequitur, a Latin term that translates to ‘it does not follow’. A non sequitur is a statement or event that has no logical connection to the preceding narrative. While logic may dictate a linear […]
Roopa Banerjee
“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet
In the world of literature, authors use a diverse array of literary devices to engage readers, stir up emotions, and explore complex themes. One such intriguing literary device is aporia, a rhetorical and narrative technique that creates uncertainty or puzzlement in […]
Roopa Banerjee
“Had ye been there — for what could that have done?” wrote poet John Milton in Lycidas. The sentence is interrupted midway and goes on to express an entirely different thought. This is anacoluthon — a literary device that intentionally disrupts the structure and syntax of a sentence, resulting in a unique and impactful […]
Roopa Banerjee
A tritagonist is the third most important character in a story. She may act as the instigator or cause of suffering of the protagonist. Her presence in a tale ensures sympathy for the main character.
In fiction writing, authors often use a variety of literary devices to create compelling and multi-dimensional characters. One such is […]
Roopa Banerjee
“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” When someone wants to put a positive spin on a negative outcome, we oft hear this line. It suggests a negative (lemon) and follows up with a positive (lemonade). This is a clever way of using the literary device antanagoge defined as balancing a negative with a […]
Roopa Banerjee
Although in the iconic movie Sound of Music, Hollywood star Julie Andrews crooned this advice, ‘Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…,’ many tend to enjoy films or read books whose plots don’t start at the beginning. They start bang in the middle with flashbacks to establish context. This […]
Roopa Banerjee
When you are told that your friend is a tree hugger, you know it means she is an environmentalist. A pencil pusher, similarly, is someone who follows a clerical job. Tree hugger and pencil pusher are examples of a literary device known as kenning.
This figure of speech involves using a compound word or phrase […]
Roopa Banerjee
“I wish I had more time to spend with my family.” When we say this, we are expressing a wish to be fulfilled. We know that this wish conveys our sense of longing and regret and hope for a better situation, even if it is unlikely to be realised. But what most of us […]
Roopa Banerjee
When we watch a realistic film, we laud it as a ‘slice of life’ movie while recommending it to friends. The same is true for books that faithfully portray life as it is. Writers use verisimilitude to create the real-life effect.
Verisimilitude is defined as being real or near to truth. It is used in […]
It’s usually the turning point in a story when the protagonist moves from ignorance to awareness, writes Roopa Banerjee
Anagnorisis is the moment in a literary work or film when the protagonist acknowledges another character’s true worth and/or truth about her own circumstance. It’s the turning point of a story when a character moves from ignorance […]
Literature abounds with examples of antiphrasis that enables writers to convey irony, writes Roopa Banerjee
With the winter bringing with it cold, cough, flu and viral infections of all types, parents are anxious about children catching them. A good way to prepare children to repulse virus attacks is to build and strengthen their bodily immunity. The […]
A sudden reversal of fortune in a fictional story is known as peripeteia, writes Roopa Banerjee
One has lost count of the number of times when in a film or book an unexpected event changed and/or reversed the course of a story midway. This sudden reversal of fortune in a story is known as peripeteia.
Liberally used […]
A hypallage is a figure of speech in which the syntactic relationship between two words is interchanged, resulting in unspoken personification of an inanimate or abstract noun, writes Roopa Banerjee
Every time you are wished ‘Good Morning,’ you are hearing a hypallage. A morning has no feelings, good or bad, but it is you who says […]
Anton Chekhov, a Russian playwright and short story-writer, believed that writers should not introduce details that don’t contribute to the story
How many times have you read a book or watched a movie that gives details which have no significance in the story to follow? This has long been a pet peeve of the literary world […]
Euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable and inoffensive phrase for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant, Roopa Banerjee
When a colleague or friend says, “I am under the weather,” we know that she is feeling physically unwell. But instead of stating the bald truth, she prefers to use a euphemism.
Euphemism is the substitution […]
Foreshadowing is usually used at the beginning of a story and helps readers build up expectations about forthcoming outcomes, writes Roopa Banerjee
Foreshadowing is a literary device used by writers to convey a hint of what is to come later in a narrative. It is usually used at the beginning of a story, and arouses reader […]
-Roopa Banerjee
Zeitgeist defines the spirit of an age or time period denoted by ideas, beliefs, literature, philosophy, etc of that period. The word coined in the 17th century comes from the German zeit i.e, time and geist which means spirit.
Zeitgeist is a useful literary tool for writers as it conveys popular thinking of a given […]
This literary device owes its origins to American columnist and writer Franklin P. Adams, who coined it an anagram of patronym, i.e, apt
Roopa Banerjee
Aptronym is a personal name that aptly describes its owner. Aka aptonym or namephreak, the name describes the occupation or character of its owner, usually humorously. This literary device owes its origins […]
In its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis implies the skilful exclusion of words suggested by a previous clause in the sentence
Roopa Banerjee
Many of us know ellipsis merely as a punctuation mark with three periods to indicate that some written matter has been eliminated from a sentence. However, in its oldest sense as a […]
Charactonym is a name that is descriptive of the character who bears it
Roopa Banerjee
Have you observed that some characters in books, TV shows and films bear names that depict and/or describe their personalities? For instance Ebenezer Scrooge, the mean miser, in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. The name Scrooge gives readers clear indication of him […]
Zeugma skilfully uses a single verb to refer to two different objects in an ungrammatical but striking way, writes Roopa Banerjee
In quick succession, Meena lost her job, her house, and her mind! Did this sentence make you do a double take and read again? That’s because it was a zeugma — an interesting literary form […]
A popular rhetorical device, anapodoton is when the main clause of a phrase that is unsaid, is implied by a well-known subordinate clause, writes Roopa Banerjee
When someone says, ‘When in Rome…’ and leaves the sentence midway, we know that the sentence would go on to have a main clause i.e, ‘Do as Romans do’. […]
Ambiguity gives freedom to readers to use their imagination to explore various meanings and interpretations – Roopa Banerjee
Ambiguous words/statements allow for more than one meaning; create confusion, sometimes causing intentional and/or unintentional humour.
For instance in the following sentence, “The boy helped a stray dog in blue pyjamas,” one may think the stray dog was wearing […]
I want to write books and act on stage and sing songs and solve mysteries and learn new things and travel everywhere and live life – Roopa Banerjee
If a friend narrates her life’s ambitions as above, your first reaction is likely to be a sigh and think that that it is a very long sentence! […]
Foil is a literary device which enables readers to appreciate the protagonist’s strengths and virtues through comparison and contrast with a supportive character, writes Roopa Banerjee
PW readers can surely recall at least few movies/books featuring an exceptionally intelligent protagonist who is always accompanied by a person not too smart. For instance, in the popular Hindi […]
The healing process of releasing deep repressed emotions such as grief, pity and fear, is known as catharsis, writes Roopa Banerjee
How many times have we shed tears while watching a tragic movie and later felt relieved and less burdened? I’m sure on several occasions at least.
The process of releasing deep repressed emotions such as grief, […]
Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, and clauses are rearranged in a sentence, without altering the meaning, writes Roopa Banerjee
“A nice time we had, the ducks playing, watching, the duck pond.” This sentence made you pause, I know. What I meant to say was “We had a nice time at the […]
Soliloquy comes from the Latin soliloquium, which means talking to oneself
-Roopa Banerjee
Soliloquy is expressing thoughts aloud, without addressing another person or persons. It comes from the Latin word soliloquium, which means ‘talking to oneself.’
This literary form was popularised in the 16th century by the bard William Shakespeare. An example is when Romeo declares his love […]
Imagery is a literary form that uses figurative language to evoke a sensory experience and create a picture with words
ROOPA BANERJEE
Most readers will agree that the reason we love to read books is that they transport us to different
worlds. For the few moments, minutes or hours that we read, we live in an imaginary […]
An intersection between a simile and metaphor, this literary form captures the reader/listener’s attention by comparing two dissimilar objects – Roopa Banerjee
When someone says, ‘A broken heart is like a damaged clock,’ it seems an unlikely comparison but yet it makes the point. A heart and clock are dissimilar objects, but this ingenious analogy prompts […]
Anachronism is when a person, object or event of a different time and era makes an appearance in a different time period – Roopa Banerjee
Fans of the movie Back to the Future (1985) will remember the scene when Marty McFly replays rock-n-roll pioneer Chuck Berry’s 1958 hit Johnny B. Goode. This is a carefully placed […]
Hypophora is a figure of speech in which a speaker/writer raises a question and immediately provides an answer – Roopa Banerjee
Ask yourself a question and answer it yourself. Does that sound weird? It shouldn’t, as it is a popular literary device used by writers and speakers. Hypophora is a figure of speech in which a […]
Zoomorphism is assigning animal-like qualities to humans, gods, and inanimate objects – Roopa Banerjee
Spiderman, Spiderman!
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web any size,
Catches thieves, just like flies.
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!
Most of us are familiar with these catchy lines from the theme song of the cult Spiderman cartoon and movie […]
At some point of time all clichés were excellently worded phrases. In fact, so well-liked that they were overused, moving gradually to the category of disliked axioms – Roopa Banerjee
A cliché is a phrase, idea or expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning and uniqueness. Sometimes, events or occasions […]
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