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List of narrative techniquesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A narrative technique (also known, more narrowly for literary fictional narratives, as a literarytechnique, literary device, or fictional device) is any of several specific methods the creator of a narrativeuses to convey what they want[1]—in other words, a strategy used in the making of a narrative to relayinformation to the audience and, particularly, to "develop" the narrative, usually in order to make it morecomplete, complicated, or interesting. Literary techniques are distinguished from literary elements, whichexist inherently in works of writing.

Contents

1 Narrative techniques pertaining to setting2 Narrative techniques pertaining to plots3 Narrative techniques pertaining to perspective4 Narrative techniques pertaining to style5 Narrative techniques pertaining to theme6 Narrative techniques pertaining to character7 Notes

Narrative techniques pertaining to setting

Name Definition ExampleBackstory Story that precedes events in

the story being told—pastevents or background that addmeaning to currentcircumstances.

Though The Lord of the Rings trilogy takes placetowards the end of the Third Age, the narration in thebeginning of the movie trilogy gives glimpses of themythological/historical events which took place in theFirst and Second Age.

Narrative techniques pertaining to plots

Name Definition ExampleBackstory Story that precedes events in

the story being told—pastevents or background that addmeaning to currentcircumstances

Though The Lord of the Rings trilogy takes placetowards the end of the Third Age, the narration givesglimpses of the mythological/historical events whichtook place in the First and Second Age.

Cliffhanger The narrative endsunresolved, to draw theaudience back to a futureepisode for the resolution.

Almost every episode of the TV shows like Dexter andBreaking Bad ends with one of the characters in apredicament (about to be caught by thugs, about to beexposed by the authority, or a family member or a friendfinds out the main character's dirty secret).

Deus ex Resolving the primary An example occurs in Mighty Aphrodite.

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Deus exmachina (amachination,or act of god;lit. “god out ofthe machine”)

Resolving the primaryconflict by a means unrelatedto the story (e.g., a godappears and solveseverything). This device datesback to ancient Greek theater,but can be a clumsy methodthat frustrates the audience.

An example occurs in Mighty Aphrodite.

Eucatastrophe Coined by J. R. R. Tolkien, aclimactic event through whichthe protagonist appears to befacing a catastrophic change.However, this change doesnot materialize and theprotagonist finds himself asthe benefactor of such aclimactic event; contrastperipety/peripateia.

At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Gollum forciblytakes away the Ring from Frodo, suggesting that Sauronwould eventually take over Middle Earth. However,Gollum celebrates too eagerly and clumsily and fallsinto the lava, whereby the ring is destroyed and with itSauron's power. In a way, Gollum does what Frodo andthe Fellowship of the Ring intended to do through thewhole plot of the trilogy, which was to throw the ringinto the lake of fire in the heart of Mount Doom.

Flashback (oranalepticreference)

General term for altering timesequences, taking charactersback to the beginning of thetale, for instance

The story of "The Three Apples" in Arabian Nights talebegins with the discovery of a young woman's deadbody. After the murderer later reveals himself, henarrates his reasons for the murder as a flashback ofevents leading up to the discovery of her dead body atthe beginning of the story.

Flashforward Also called prolepsis, a scenethat temporarily jumps thenarrative forward in time.Flashforwards often representevents expected, projected, orimagined to occur in thefuture. They may also revealsignificant parts of the storythat have not yet occurred, butsoon will in greater detail.

Occurs in A Christmas Carol when Mr. Scrooge visitsthe ghost of the future. It is also frequent in the laterseasons of the television series Lost.

Foreshadowing Implicit yet intentional effortsof an author to suggest eventswhich have yet to take placein the process of narration.See also repetitivedesignation and Chekhov'sgun

A narration might begin with a male character who hasto break up a schoolyard fight among some boys whoare vying for the attention of a girl, which wasintroduced to foreshadow the events leading to a dinnertime squabble between the character and his twinbrother over a woman, whom both are courting at thesame time.

Frame story, ora story withina story

A main story that organizes aseries of shorter stories.

Early examples include Panchatantra, Arabian Nights,and The Decameron. A more modern example is BrianJacques' The Legend of Luke.

Framingdevice

A single action, scene, event,setting, or any element ofsignificance at the beginningand end of a work. The use of

framing devices allow for

In Arabian Nights, Scheherazade, the newly wed wife tothe King, is the framing device. As a character, she istelling the "1,001 stories" to the King, in order to delayher execution night by night. However, as a framing

device her purpose for existing is to tell the same 1,001

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framing devices allow forframe stories to exist.

device her purpose for existing is to tell the same 1,001stories to the reader.

MacGuffin A plot device in the form ofsome goal, desired object, orother motivator that theprotagonist pursues, oftenwith little or no narrativeexplanation as to why it isconsidered so important.

In medias res Beginning the story in themiddle of a sequence ofevents. A specific form ofnarrative hook.

The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer are primeexamples. The latter work begins with the return ofOdysseus to his home of Ithaka and then in flashbackstells of his ten years of wandering following the TrojanWar.

Narrative hook Story opening that "hooks"readers' attention so they willkeep reading

Any non­fiction book is often introduced with aninteresting factoid.

Plot twist Unexpected change ("twist")in the direction or expectedoutcome of the plot. See alsotwist ending.

An example occurs in The Crying Game.

Poetic justice Virtue ultimately rewarded, orvice punished, by an ironictwist of fate related to thecharacter's own conduct

Wile E. Coyote coming up with a contraption to catchthe Road Runner, only to be foiled and caught by hisown devices. Each sin's punishment in Dante's Infernois a symbolic instance of poetic justice.

Predestinationparadox

Time travel paradox where atime traveler is caught in aloop of events that"predestines" them to travelback in time

In Doctor Who, the main character repeatedly findshimself under the obligation of having to travel back intime because of something his future character has done.

Quibble Plot device based on anargument that an agreement'sintended meaning holds nolegal value, and that only theexact, literal words agreed onapply.

For example, William Shakespeare used a quibble inThe Merchant of Venice: Portia saves Antonio in a courtof law by pointing out that the agreement called for apound of flesh, but no blood, so Shylock can collectonly if he sheds no blood.

Red herring Diverting attention away froman item of significance.

For example, in mystery fiction, an innocent party maybe purposefully cast as highly suspicious throughemphasis or descriptive techniques to divert attentionfrom the true guilty party.

Self­fulfillingprophecy

Prediction that, by beingmade, makes itself come true.

Early examples include the legend of Oedipus, and thestory of Krishna in the Mahabharata. There is also anexample of this in Harry Potter when Lord Voldemortheard a prophecy (made by Sybill Trelawney toDumbledore) that a boy born at the end of July, whoseparents had defied Voldemort thrice and survived,would be made marked as his equal. Because of this

prophecy, Lord Voldemort sought out Harry Potter

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prophecy, Lord Voldemort sought out Harry Potter(believing him to be the boy spoken of) and tried to killhim. His parents died protecting him, and whenVoldemort tried to cast a killing curse on Harry, itrebounded and took away most of his strength, and gaveHarry Potter a unique ability and connection with theDark Lord thus marking him as his equal

Story within astory(Hypodiegesis)

A story told within anotherstory. See also frame story.

In Stephen King's The Wind Through the Keyhole, ofthe Dark Tower series, the protagonist tells a story fromhis past to his companions, and in this story he tellsanother relatively unrelated story.

Ticking clockscenario

Threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillerswhere salvation and escapeare essential elements

In the TV show "24", the main character, Jack Baueroften finds himself interrogating a terrorist who iscaught in order to disarm a bomb.

Unreliablenarrator

The narrator of the story isnot sincere, or introduces abias in his narration andpossibly misleads the reader,hiding or minimizing events,characters, or motivations.

An example is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Narrative techniques pertaining to perspective

Name Definition ExampleAuthor surrogate Characters which are based

on authors, usually to supporttheir personal views.Sometimes an intentionallyor unintentionally idealizedversion of them. A variationis the Mary Sue or Gary Stu,which primarily serves as anidealized self­insertion.

Socrates in the writings of Plato.

Breaking thefourth wall

An author or characteraddresses the audiencedirectly (also known as directaddress). This mayacknowledge to the reader oraudience that what is beingpresented is fiction, or mayseek to extend the world ofthe story to provide theillusion that they are includedin it.

The characters in Sesame Street often break the fourthwall when they address their viewers as part of theongoing storyline, which is possible because of thehigh level of suspension of belief afforded by itsaudience—children. The American political dramashow House of Cards also uses this techniquefrequently to let the viewers know what the maincharacter Frank Underwood is thinking and planning.

Defamiliarization Writing about somethingdescribing character awe and

wonder[2]

A character travels to an exotic land. He writes lettersto someone home.

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wonder[2]

First­personNarration

A text presented from thepoint of view of a character,especially the protagonist, asif the character is telling thestory themselves. (Breakingthe fourth wall is an option,but not a necessity, of thisformat.)

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn usesthe title character as the narrator, while SherlockHolmes is primarily told from Watson's perspective.

Magical realism Describing events in a real­world setting but withmagical trappings, oftenincorporating local customsand invented beliefs.Different from urban fantasyin that the magic itself is notthe focus of the story.

Particularly popular with Latin American authors likeGabriel García Márquez. Elsewhere, Salman Rushdie'swork provides good examples.

Second­personNarration

A text written in the style ofa direct address, in thesecond­person.

Rape: A Love Story.

Stream ofconsciousness

The author uses narrative andstylistic devices to create thesense of an unedited interiormonologue, characterized byleaps in syntax andpunctuation that trace acharacter's fragmentarythoughts and sensoryfeelings. The outcome is ahighly lucid perspective witha plot. Not to be confusedwith free writing.

An example is "Ulysses".

Third­personNarration

A text written as if by animpersonal narrator who isnot affected by the events inthe story. Can be omniscientor limited, the latter usuallybeing tied to a specificcharacter, a group ofcharacters, or a location.

A Song of Ice and Fire is written in multiple limitedthird­person narrators that change with each chapter.The Master and Margarita uses an omniscientnarrator.

Unreliablenarrator

The narrator of the story isnot sincere, or introduces abias in his narration andpossibly misleads the reader,hiding or minimizing events,characters, or motivations.

An example is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

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Narrative techniques pertaining to style

Name Definition ExampleAllegory A symbolic story. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan is a narrative

that serves completely as an allegory, with the maincharacter Christian representing a follower ofChristianity on his journey through life, encounteringdaily struggles as he aims towards the Celestial City(Heaven).

Alliteration Repeating the same letter orconsonant sound at thebeginning of adjacent orclosely connected words.

In the film V for Vendetta the main character performs acouple of soliloquies with a heavy use of alliteration.e.g.. "Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran,cast vicariously as both victim and villain by thevicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer ofvanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant,vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitudenow venerates what they once vilified. However, thisvalorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified,and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulentvermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violentlyvicious and voracious violation of volition. The onlyverdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not invain, for the value and veracity of such shall one dayvindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, thisvichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis­à­vis anintroduction, and so it is my very good honor to meetyou and you may call me V."

Amplification(rhetoric)

Amplification refers to aliterary practice wherein thewriter embellishes thesentence by adding moreinformation to it in order toincrease its worth andunderstanding.

e.g. Original sentence­ The thesis paper was difficult.After amplification­ The thesis paper was difficult: itrequired extensive research, data collection, samplesurveys, interviews and a lot of fieldwork.

Anagram Rearranging the letters of aword or a phrase to form anew phrase or word.

e.g. An anagram for "debit card" is "bad credit". As youcan see, both phrases use the same letters. By mixingthe letters a bit of humor is created.

Asyndeton When sentences do not useconjunctions (e.g.: and, or,nor) to separate clauses, butrun clauses into one another,usually marking theseparation of clauses withpunctuation.

An example is when John F. Kennedy said on Januarythe 20th 1961 "...that we shall pay any price, bear anyburden, meet any hardship, support any friend, opposeany foe to assure the survival and the success ofliberty."

Bathos An abrupt transition in stylefrom the exalted to thecommonplace, producing a

:The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extendedone slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

(Jennifer Hart, Arlington)[5]

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commonplace, producing aludicrous effect. While oftenunintended, bathos may beused deliberately to produce ahumorous effect.[3][4]

(Jennifer Hart, Arlington)[5]

Caesura A break, especially a sensepause, usually near themiddle of a verse, andmarked in scansion by adouble vertical line. Thistechnique frequently occurswithin a poetic linegrammatically connected tothe end of the previous lineby enjambment.

e.g. in "Know then thyself. ‖ Presume not God to scan."

DistancingEffect

Deliberately making theaudience not identifying withcharacters in order to lettingthem become scrutinized.[6]

Popularized by 20th century playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Dramaticvisualization

Representing an object orcharacter with abundantdescriptive detail, ormimetically renderinggestures and dialogue tomake a scene more visual orimaginatively present to anaudience.

This technique appears at least as far back as theArabian Nights.[7]

Euphuism An artificial, highly elaborateway of writing or speaking.Named from Euphues (1579)the prose romance by JohnLyly.

"Is it not far better to abhor sins by the remembrance ofothers' faults, than by repentance of thine own follies?"(Euphues, 1, lecture by the wise Neapolitan)

Hyperbole Exaggeration used to evokestrong feelings or create animpression which is notmeant to be taken literally.

Sally could no longer hide her secret. Her pregnantbelly was bigger than the planet on which she stood.

Imagery Forming mental images of ascene using descriptivewords, especially making useof the human senses. Thesame as sensory detail.

When the boots came off his feet with a leatherysqueak, a smell of ferment and fish market immediatelyfilled the small tent. The skin of his toes were red andraw and sensitive. The malodorous air was so toxic hethought he could almost taste his toes.

Leitwortstil Purposefully repeating wordsthat usually express a motifor theme important to thestory.

This dates back at least to the Arabian Nights.[8]

Metonymy Word or phrase in a figure ofspeech in which a noun isreferenced by something

Metonomy: The boxer threw in the towel. Synecdoche:She gave her hand in marriage.

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referenced by somethingclosely associated with it,rather than explicitly by thenoun itself. This is not to beconfused with synecdoche, inwhich a part of the wholestands for the thing itself.

Overstatement Exaggerating something,often for emphasis (alsoknown as hyperbole)

Sally's pregnant belly most likely weighed as much asthe scooter she used to ride before she got pregnant.

Onomatopoeia Word that sounds the sameas, or similar to what theword means.

"Boom goes the dynamite."

Oxymoron A term made of two wordsthat deliberately orcoincidentally imply eachother's opposite.

"terrible beauty"

Paradox A phrase that describes anidea composed of conceptsthat conflict.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." (ATale of Two Cities)

Parody Ridicule by overstatedimitation, usually humorous.

MAD Magazine

Pastiche Using forms and styles fromanother author, generally asan affectionate tribute.

Such as the many stories featuring Sherlock Holmes notwritten by Arthur Conan Doyle, or much of the CthulhuMythos.

Pathos Emotional appeal, one of thethree modes of persuasion inrhetoric that the author usesto inspire pity or sorrowtowards a character—typically does notcounterbalance the targetcharacter's suffering with apositive outcome, as inTragedy.

In Romeo and Juliet, the two main characters eachcommit suicide at the sight of the supposedly deadlover, however the audience knows these actions to berash and unnecessary. Therefore, Shakespeare makesfor the emotional appeal for the unnecessary tragedybehind the young characters' rash interpretations aboutlove and life.

Polyptoton Words derived from the sameroot in a sentence.

"Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are." JohnF. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.

Polysyndeton Polysyndeton is the use ofseveral conjunctions in closesuccession, this provides asense of exaggerationdesigned to wear down theaudience.

An example of this is in the first chapter of GreatExpectations by Charles Dickens: "A man who hadbeen soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamedby stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, andtorn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glaredand growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head ashe seized me by the chin"

Satire The use of humor, irony orexaggeration to criticize.

An example is Network. One of the earliest examples isGullivers Travels, written by Jonathan Swift. Also the

TV show South Park is an example of satire.

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TV show South Park is an example of satire.Sensory detail sight, sound, taste, touch,

smell. The same as imageryThe boot was tough and sinewy between his hard­bitingteeth. There was no flavor to speak of except for theblandness of all the dirt that the boot had soaked upover the years. The only thing the boot reminded him ofwas the smell of a wet­dog.

Understatement A diminishing or softening ofa theme or effect.

The broken ends of the long bone were sticking throughthe bleeding skin, but it wasn't something that alwayskilled a man.

Narrative techniques pertaining to theme

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Name Definition ExampleIrony This discrepancy between

expectation and reality occursin three forms: situationalirony, where a situationfeatures a discrepancybetween what is expected andwhat is actualized; dramaticirony, where a character isunaware of pivotalinformation already revealedto the audience (thediscrepancy here lies in thetwo levels of awarenessbetween the character and theaudience); and verbal irony,where one states one thingwhile meaning another. Thedifference between verbalirony and sarcasm isexquisitely subtle and oftencontested. The concept ofirony is too oftenmisunderstood in popularusage. Unfortunatecircumstances andcoincidences do not constituteirony (nor do they qualify asbeing tragic). See the Usagecontroversy section underirony, and the term tragedy.

A person hears a prophecy about himself. His endeavorto stop the prophecy from coming true, makes it cometrue.

Metaphor Evoking imagination bymeans of using figurativelanguage.

Thematicpatterning

Distributing recurrentthematic concepts andmoralistic motifs amongvarious incidents and framesof a story. In a skillfullycrafted tale, thematicpatterning may emphasize theunifying argument or salientidea disparate events anddisparate frames have incommon.

Each of the chapters of Ulysses by James Joyce.

Narrative techniques pertaining to character

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Name Type NotesAnthropomorphism Form of personification that applies human­like

characteristics to animals or objectsHamartia The character flaw of an

initially rich and powerfulhero that leads to his tragicdownfall.

Oedipus kills his own father because he doesn'tunderstand his true parentage.

Pathetic fallacy Reflecting a character's(usually the protagonist)mood in the atmosphere orinanimate objects. Related toanthropomorphism andprojection

For example, the storm in William Shakespeare'sKing Lear, which mirrors Lear's mentaldeterioration.

Personification Using comparativemetaphors and similes togive living characteristics tonon­living objects. The samething as anthropomorphism.

A talking rock.

Notes1. Orehovec, Barbara (2003). Revisiting the Reading Workshop: A Complete Guide to Organizing and Managing anEffective Reading Workshop That Builds Independent, Strategic Readers (illustrated ed.). Scholastic Inc. p. 89.ISBN 0439444047.

2. http://beyondthemargins.com/2010/05/do­you­defamiliarize­2/3. Fiske, Robert Hartwell (1 November 2011). Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Unendurable English: ACompendium of Mistakes in Grammar, Usage, and Spelling with commentary on lexicographers and linguists(http://books.google.com/books?id=JZqfZfIvtlsC&pg=PA71). Scribner. p. 71. ISBN 978­1­4516­5134­8.

4. Abrams, Meyer Howard; Harpham, Geoffrey Galt (2009). A Glossary of Literary Terms(http://books.google.com/books?id=o9VkYJuVn9YC&pg=PA24). Cengage Learning. p. 24. ISBN 978­1­4130­3390­8.

5. High School Analogies (http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the­25­funniest­analogies­collected­by­high­school­english­teachers/)

6. Graham Allen (2 June 2004). Roland Barthes (http://books.google.com/books?id=o4Sg_gx3soIC&pg=PA29).Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 1­134­50341­5.

7. Heath, Peter (May 1994), "Reviewed work(s): Story­Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights by David Pinault",International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge University Press) 26 (2): 358–360,doi:10.1017/s0020743800060633 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1017%2Fs0020743800060633)

8. Heath (1994) p.360

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