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Trope (literature)

 

 
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Trope (literature)
 
 
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A literary trope is a common pattern, theme
Theme (literature)

A theme is a simile used to relate to idioms and or literary work a message or lesson conveyed by a written text. This message is usually about life, society or human nature....
, motif
Motif (narrative)

In a narrative, such as a novel or a film, motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the piece?s major Theme ....
 in literature, or a figure of speech
Figure of speech

A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or locution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity....
 in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning. The term trope derives from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
  "turn, turning", from - tropos "turn, direction, way" related to the root of - trepo, "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change".

Rhetoricians have closely analyzed the bewildering array of "turns and twists" used in poetry and literature and have provided an extensive list of very precise labels for these poetic devices.






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A literary trope is a common pattern, theme
Theme (literature)

A theme is a simile used to relate to idioms and or literary work a message or lesson conveyed by a written text. This message is usually about life, society or human nature....
, motif
Motif (narrative)

In a narrative, such as a novel or a film, motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the piece?s major Theme ....
 in literature, or a figure of speech
Figure of speech

A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or locution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity....
 in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning. The term trope derives from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
  "turn, turning", from - tropos "turn, direction, way" related to the root of - trepo, "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change".

Rhetoricians have closely analyzed the bewildering array of "turns and twists" used in poetry and literature and have provided an extensive list of very precise labels for these poetic devices. Some examples include
  • metaphor
    Metaphor

    Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
  • metonymy
    Metonymy

    Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept....
  • irony
    Irony

    Irony is a Literary technique or rhetorical device, in which there is an wiktionary:incongruous or wiktionary:discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood....
  • oxymoron
    Oxymoron

    An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradiction terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek language oxy and moros ....
  • hyperbole
    Hyperbole

    Hyperbole comes from ancient Greek "?pe?????" and is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is rarely meant to be taken literally....
  • litotes
    Litotes

    In rhetoric, litotes is a figure of speech in which, rather than making a certain statement directly, a speaker expresses it even more effectively, or achieves emphasis, by denying its opposite....
  • periphrasis
    Circumlocution

    Circumlocution is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech. In its most basic form, circumlocution is using many words to describe something simple ....
  • antithesis
    Antithesis

    Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition. In setting the opposite, an individual brings out of a contrast in the meaning by an obvious contrast in the Idiom....
For a longer list, see Rhetorical remedies.

Various scholars throughout history, beginning with Quintilian
Quintilian

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman Empire rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in Middle ages schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing....
, Ramus
Petrus Ramus

Petrus Ramus, or Pierre de la Ram?e , France Humanism, logician, and educational reformer, was born at the village of Cuts in Picardy, a member of a noble but impoverished family: his father was a farmer and his grandfather father a charcoal-burner....
, and Vico
Giambattista Vico

'Giovanni Battista Vico' or 'Vigo' was an Italy philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist.A critic of modern rationalism and apologist of classical antiquity, Vico's magnum opus is titled "Principles/Origins of [re]New[ed] Science about the Common Nature of Nations" ....
, have argued that a great deal of our conceptualization of experience, even the foundation of human consciousness, is based on figurative schemes of thought which include not only metaphor, but also metonymy
Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept....
, synecdoche
Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which:* a term denoting a part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or* a term denoting a thing is used to refer to part of it , or...
 and irony
Irony

Irony is a Literary technique or rhetorical device, in which there is an wiktionary:incongruous or wiktionary:discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood....
. Tropes (in the sense of figures of speech) do not merely provide a way for us to talk about how we think, reason, and imagine, they are also constitutive of our experience.

In modern usage, "trope" often means "a common or overused theme or device: cliché
Cliché

A clich? or cliche is a saying, expression or idea which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning, especially when at some earlier time it was considered distinctively meaningful or novel, rendering it a stereotype....
."

See also

  • Trope (linguistics)
    Trope (linguistics)

    In linguistics, trope is a rhetoric figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i.e., using a word in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form....
  • Figure of speech
    Figure of speech

    A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or locution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity....
  • Fantasy tropes and conventions
    Fantasy tropes and conventions

    There are many Trope that show up throughout the fantasy genre in different guises. Worldbuilding in particular has many common conventions, as do, to a lesser extent, plot and characterization....


External links

- A wiki-style trope catalog