Anachrony: the Literary Technique of Presenting Material out of Chronological Order;

How to Sound Like You Know What You’re Talking About (and maybe even learn something in the process) Anachrony: The literary technique of presenting material out of chronological order; alternatively, the achronological presentation of events. Anachronous narratives are characterized by plots in which events are recounted in an order different from their chronological sequence. There are three major types of anachrony: 1) analepsis, the insertion of scenes that have occurred in the past; 2) prolepsis, the insertion of scenes that preview future events or developments; and 3) ellipses, a chronological gap indicating that material has been omitted. Analepsis, the most common form of which is flashback, usually occurs near the beginning of a work and often recounts an event that occurred before the opening scene.

Diction: Narrowly defined, a speaker’s (or author’s) word choice. The term may also refer to the general type or character of language used in speech or in a work of literature. In this broader sense, diction is typically divided into two components: vocabulary and syntax. By vocabulary, we mean the degree of difficulty, complexity, abstractness, formality, and currency of words used, as well as the origin of the words chosen (native or foreign, Latinate or Germanic, and so forth). Syntax refers to the arrangement – the ordering, grouping, and placement – of words within a phrase, clause, or sentence. The term may also be extended to encompass such things as the degree of complexity versus simplicity or fragmentation versus completeness manifested in a given arrangement of words.

Epigraph: A term that can be used to refer to an inscription on a coin, stone, stature, or building, but more commonly employed by literary scholars and critics to refer to a passage printed on the title page or first page of a literary work or at the beginning of each section of such a work. Epigraphs, which tend to set the tone or establish the theme of what follows, are generally taken from earlier, influential texts by other authors.

Figurative language: Language that employs one or more figures of speech to supplement and even modify the literal, denotative meanings of words with additional connotations and richness. Figurative language adds color and immediacy to imagery. Although figurative language can be used for decorative or purely aesthetic purposes, it is used primarily to attain some specific effect on the reader.

Foreshadowing: The technique of introducing into a narrative material that prepares the reader or audience for future events, actions, or revelations. Foreshadowing often involves the creation of a mood or atmosphere that suggests an eventual outcome; the introduction of objects, facts, events, or characters that hint at or otherwise prefigure a developing situation or conflict; or the exposition of significant character traits allowing the reader or audience to anticipate that character’s actions or fate. Occasionally, the theme or conclusion of a work is foreshadowed by its title. Prolepsis, the evocation in narrative of scenes or events that take place at a later point in the story, necessarily foreshadows that future event or action.

Imagery: A term used to refer to: 1) the actual language that a writer uses to convey a visual picture; and 2) the use of figures of speech, often to express abstract ideas in a vivid and innovative way. Imagery of this second type makes use of such devices as simile, personification, metonymy, among many others. Imagery is a central component of almost all imaginative literature and is often said to be the chief element in poetry. Two major types of imagery exist – the literal and the figurative. Literal imagery is purely descriptive, representing an object or event with words that draw on or appeal to the kind of experiences gained through the five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell). Figurative imagery may call to mind real things that can be perceived by the senses, but it does so as a way of describing something else – often some abstract idea that cannot be literally or directly described. Whether literal or figurative, however, imagery is generally intended to make whatever the author is describing concrete in the readers mind, to give it some tangible and real existence rather than a purely intellectual one. Imagery also provides the reader with a sense of vividness and immediacy.

In medias res: Latin for “in the middle of things,” the technique of beginning a narrative in the middle of the action. Crucial events that occurred before the point at which the narrative actually begins are related at some appropriate later time, generally through one or more flashbacks.

Interior monologue: A mode of narrative intended to reveal to the reader the subjective thoughts, emotions, and fleeting sensations experienced by a character. Interior monologue is a type of stream of consciousness, in which a character’s subjective and ever-flowing mental commentary and observation are presented, usually through free indirect discourse. Interior monologue functions much as soliloquy does in drama, rendering individual thought processes that go unexpressed in conversation or dialogue. An interior monologue can be either direct or indirect. In a direct interior monologue, the author presents the character’s inner thoughts and emotions transparently in a seemingly uninterrupted, random manner straight from the character’s inner mind. When indirect interior monologue is used, the author selects – and may comment upon – elements from the stream of consciousness. Irony: A contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality. This disparity may be manifested in a variety of ways. A discrepancy may exist between what someone says and what he or she actually means, between what someone expects to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what actually is true. Furthermore, the term irony may be applied to events, situations, and even structural elements of a work, not just to statements. Irony is commonly employed as a “wink” that the listener or reader is expected to notice so that he or she may be “in on the secret.” Speakers and authors may even use irony as a general mode of expression rather than to make discrete ironic statements. In this sense, one might describe an author’s very tone as ironic.

Mood: Defined by some critics as synonymous with atmosphere, by others as synonymous with tone, and by still others as synonymous with both. Tone refers to the attitude of authors toward their readers, toward their subject matter, and even toward themselves; atmosphere refers to the general feeling created in the reader by the work at a given point, which may be entirely different from the tone. The atmosphere of a work may be oppressive without its tone being so, although the two inevitably affect one another. Mood is probably closer to atmosphere than to tone, but as a general term, it can correctly be applied to either. One could say that an author creates a somber mood (thereby using it as a synonym for atmosphere), and one could also say than an author’s mood is somber (thereby using it as a synonym for tone to describe the author’s attitude toward the audience or subject matter).

Motif: A unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject, or narrative detail. A given motif may be unique to a work or it may appear in numerous works.

Plot: The arrangement and interrelation of events in a narrative work, chosen and designed to engage the reader’s attention and interest (or even to arouse suspense or anxiety) while also providing a framework for the exposition of the author’s message, or theme, and for other elements such as characterization, symbol, and conflict. Plot is distinguished from story, which refers to a narrative of events ordered chronologically, not selectively, and with an emphasis on establishing causality. Story is the raw material from which plot is constructed. Crafting a plot requires choosing not only which elements of a story to include – and what order to tell them in – but also relating the events of a story to one another so that causality may be established convincingly. Plot, unlike story, frees authors from the constraints of chronology and enables them to present their chosen subjects in whatever way they see fit to elicit the desired emotional response from readers. Point of View: The vantage point from which a narrative is told. A narrative is typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view; the second-person point of view is extremely rare. Novels sometimes, but infrequently, mix points of view. In a narrative told from a first-person perspective, the author tells the story through a character who refers to himself or herself as “I.” Such a narrator is usually (but not always) a major participant in the action. This first-person narrator recounts events as he or she experiences, remembers or hears about them. First-person narrators are sometimes unreliable narrators, who color or distort matters in ways that the reader (at least eventually) detects. Third-person narratives come in two types: omniscient and limited. An author taking an omniscient point of view assumes the vantage point of an all-knowing narrator able not only to recount the action thoroughly and reliably, but also to enter the mind of any character at any time in order to reveal his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the reader. (Such a narrator, it should be pointed out, can conceal as well as reveal at will). An author using the limited POV recounts the story through the eyes of a single character. The reader is thus usually privy to the inner thoughts and feelings of only one character and receives the story as that character understands and experiences it, although not in that character’s own voice. Such a narrator is generally an observer of or a participant in the action.

Setting: That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that provides the general background for the characters and plot of a literary work. The general setting of a work may differ from the specific setting of an individual scene or event; nonetheless, specific settings may be said to contribute to the overall setting. Setting frequently plays a crucial role in determining the atmosphere of a work.

Style: Used generally, the way in which a literary work is written, the devices the author uses to express his or her thoughts and convey the work’s subject matter. The message or material that the author communicates to the reader, along with how the author chooses to present it, produce an author’s individual style. Style can be investigated from a number of vantage points. It may be viewed, for instance, in light of the means an author uses to create an effect; a critic may thus focus on things as a work’s diction, imagery, and rhetorical devices. Style may also be discussed with regard to a literary period, movement, or even author.

Theme: Not simply the subject of a literary work, but rather a statement that the text seems to be making about that subject. The statement can be (and often was, in older literature) moral; in more modern works, the theme may emanate from an unmoralized, or less obviously moral, perspective. Theme is distinguished from motif, a term that usually refers to a unifying element in an artistic work, especially any recurrent image, symbol, character type, subject, or narrative detail. In a broader sense, motif can even refer to any recurrent theme that helps to unify a given work of literature.

Tone: The attitude of the author toward the reader or the subject matter of a literary work. An author’s tone may be serious, playful, mocking, angry, commanding, apologetic, and so forth. The term is now often used to mean “tone of voice,” a difficult-to-determine characteristic of discourse through which writers (and each of us in our daily conversations) reveal a range of attitudes. Some critics simply equate tone with voice, a term referring to the authorial presence that pervades a literary work, lying behind or beyond such things as imagery, character, plot, or even theme.