A literary technique (also, literary device, procedure or method) is any element or the entirety of elements a writer intentionally uses in the structure of their work. Examples include an identifiable rule of thumb, a convention, a literary motif, an organization that is employed in literature and storytelling, or the absence of them. In the context of a play or motion picture, literary techniques or devices are referred to as dramatic.
"Literary techniques" is a catch-all term that may be distinguished from the term "devices".
Read more about Literary Technique: Definition, Annotated List of Literary Techniques
Famous quotes containing the words literary and/or technique:
“She had exactly the German way: whatever was in her mind to be delivered, whether a mere remark, or a sermon, or a cyclopedia, or the history of a war, she would get it into a single sentence or die. Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of the Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.”
—Viola Spolin (b. 1911)