Literary Techniques

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  • Intertexuality
    • Epigraphs: inserting someone else’s art into your own
    • Allusion: reference to other art (literature, music, physical art, etc.)
  • Metafiction: the author as a character in the story
  • Pastiche: mish-mashing genres; so Running in the Family is memoir/personal narrative but it’s also family history and there’s poetry mixed in as well.
  • Non-linear narrative: the narrative jumps around; how does the disconnected nature of the story affect the reader’s experience?
  • Section divisions: the section divisions are deliberately selected and carefully named. What is the relationship between the names of the sections and their content?
  • Magical realism: fantastical elements (dreams, etc.) incorporated into descriptions of real events. What is the effect of adding those magical elements?
  • Direct dialogue: there is very little in the work that is actual dialogue. What does he choose to communicate through direct dialogue and why is that significant?
  • Humour (dislocated): a lot of the subject matter is serious, bordering on traumatic. However, the author describes a lot of this with humour. Why does he do this and what is the effect?