Literary Theory and Analysis of Devices
What the task demands
You must name and analyse literary devices and explain their effect. Questions ask you to identify tropes and figures, describe composition and structure, and connect form to meaning.
Concepts to master
Tropes: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, epithet, comparison, personification, hyperbole, litotes, irony, oxymoron, allegory, symbol. Figures of sound and syntax: alliteration, assonance, anaphora, epiphora, parallelism, inversion, rhetorical question, gradation, antithesis. Structural concepts: composition, plot, conflict, climax, denouement, narrative perspective, lyrical speaker, rhythm and rhyme, stanza form, free verse.
Know the difference between a symbol (stable, culturally loaded) and a metaphor (local comparison), and between irony (saying the opposite) and sarcasm (aggressive irony).
Traps
- Naming a device without explaining its effect - the question often asks what it achieves.
- Confusing anaphora (repetition at the start) with epiphora (repetition at the end).
- Confusing antithesis (contrast of ideas) with oxymoron (contradictory words joined).
- Treating a comparison with като as a metaphor.
Rule of thumb
Always answer in the form: device - textual evidence - effect on meaning or emotion. A device named without an effect earns no credit.
Worked example
"Очите ѝ бяха две звезди." This is a comparison (две звезди with the verb бяха), not a metaphor, because the comparison is explicit. Its effect is idealisation of the beloved.