In literature, authors establish themselves thanks to a personal writing style using their own device to convey emotions and feelings to the reader. Indeed the narrative technique needs to be understood to make it clear. First of all, it will be useful to distinguish the different points of view in narration.
The narrative can be presented with a point of view, in other words the narrator says only what a given character knows. It may also imply an omniscient narrator, in this case the narrator knows more than any of the characters. If the narrator says less than the character knows, it is called the objective narrative. Sometimes the narrator is self-conscious mentioning their difficulty to tell the story.
Several kinds of speech may be represented such as: direct speech (introduced by a reporting verb), free indirect speech (the words or thoughts are given directly), indirect speech, semi-indirect speech (when the quotation marks are kept), free indirect speech (the introductory verb is omitted). In each solution, the narrator’s presence is more or less noticeable or felt.
Another crucial aspect of the narrative is the figures of speech. A METAPHOR is a figure of speech in which a direct comparison is made that imaginatively relates one object or idea with another. An ONOMATOPOEIA is a word that imitates a sound. An IMAGERY evokes sensory experience in the reader providing them with sights, tastes, smells, sounds. When inanimate things or abstract ideas are given human attributes it is called PERSONIFICATION. If deliberate exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect this is called HYPERBOLE. A SYNECDOCHE is when a part is represented by the whole or the whole by the part. A SIMILE uses the words “like” or “as” to compare two unlike things. There is an OXYMORON when two contradictory terms are used together as in: “sweet sorrow”. As for a LITOTE, it consists of negating its opposite, for example: “you are not wrong”. An UNDERSTATEMENT, as in: “Torture can be uncomfortable at times”, is under the literal reality; it is the opposite of an hyperbole.
A device : une technique
To convey : transmettre
The quotation marks (or quote marks/ inverted commas) : les guillemets
An imagery : une image
A sight : une vision
Inanimate : inanimé
The whole : l’ensemble
A simile : une comparaison, une analogie
Unlike : différent
An understatement : un euphémisme
