Literary Theory: An Introduction Literary Elements

Literary Theory: An Introduction Literary Elements

Genre

Non-fiction, Theory

Setting and Context

Literary context

Narrator and Point of View

Third-person narrator.

Tone and Mood

Critical, explanatory, scholarly, and literary

Protagonist and Antagonist

A protagonist and antagonist are not present in the text, which is mostly analytic.

Major Conflict

There is no precise conflict in the text.

Climax

The text does not have an archetypal climax; it is largely descriptive.

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

Eagleton understates the literary implication of George Orwell's essays: “ It would probably have come as a surprise to George Orwell to hear that his essays were to be read as though the topics discussed were less important than the way he discussed them.” The understatement underscores the complexity and difficulty of defining literature.

Allusions

Literary and historical allusions relating classic literary works completed by renowned authors such as Milton and Shakespeare

Philosophical allusions such as ‘Heidegger’s philosophy’

Imagery

Eagleton provides imageries of the attributes that dominated literary works during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Paradox

“The failure of religion” during the final years of the 19th century is paradoxical considering how widespread religion was then in the Victorian society.

Parallelism

Literary movements such as ‘structuralism, post-structuralism, New-Historicism, and psychoanalysis’ are compared and contrasted.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Don Quixote denotes gentlemanliness/chivalry.

Personification

N/A

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