Literary Devices

Literary devices are techniques or methods used by authors to enliven or inform their prose. They are identifiable conventions or structures employed in literature and storytelling. Not all literary devices will be used within one work. The Picture Book Database tracks the following literary devices:

  • allegory
  • alliteration
  • allusion
  • ambiguity
  • analogy
  • anecdote
  • antihero
  • ambiguity
  • aphorism
  • aptronym
  • archetype
  • cliché
  • colloquialism
  • connotation
  • counterpoint
  • dialogue balloons
  • flashback
  • flash forward
  • foreshadowing
  • hyperbole
  • idiom
  • imagery
  • inference
  • irony
  • metafiction
  • metaphor
  • motif
  • onomatopoeia
  • oxymoron
  • paradox
  • parallelism
  • parody
  • personification
  • poetic justice
  • point of view
  • portmanteau
  • pun
  • rebus
  • satire
  • serendipity
  • simile
  • stereotype
  • symbolism
  • understatement