Literature
Trope
In literature, a trope refers to a common or recurring theme, motif, or device that conveys a specific idea or message. Tropes can include figures of speech, character types, or narrative patterns that are frequently used to convey certain meanings or evoke particular emotions in the reader. They often serve as recognizable elements that contribute to the overall structure and impact of a literary work.
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6 Key excerpts on "Trope"
eBook - PDFPersonae and Poiesis
The Poet and the Poem in Medieval Love Lyric
- Próspero Saíz(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
Topoi, according to Ernst Robert Curtius in European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), p. 70, are cliches which can be used in any form of literature .... Thus a topos is a help toward composing a literary work and serves a definite, restricted rhetorical function. The term Trope, as our discussion indicates, is more appropriate, since we are talking not only about a figure's rhetorical function but about the essence of poems. For a bold and imaginative treatment of the question of Tropes in modem poetry, see Frederic Will's Palamas, Lorca, and the Question of Tropes in Literature, Literature Inside Out (Cleveland: The Press of Western Reserve University, 1966), pp. 54-70. 11 As James J. Wilhelm suggests in The Cruelest Month: Spring, Nature, and Love in Classical and Medieval Lyrics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965), p. 208, it is perhaps no accident that the noun 'troubadour' or trobaire descends from the learned verb trobar or trop-ar, with the Ciceronian meaning 'to invert,' invenire. The word trobar simply means 'to find* (French trouver, Italian trovare). For a discussion of the origins of the word Trope see Pierre Bee, Petite anthologie de la lyrique occitane du Moyen Age (Avignon: Eduard Aubanel, 1962), p. 16. Martin de Riquer in La Llrica de los Trovadores, I (Barcelona: Escuela de Filologia, 1948), pp. xiii if., provides an excellent dis-cussion of the relationship of troubadour poetics to such Latin treatises as the Rhetorica ad Herennium. THE LYRIC OF THE IMAGINED STATE OF BEING 93 the words of one speaker. Therefore, in the second instance, the affirmation in symbolic terms of whatever it is the poet most deeply is trying to communicate of necessity must rely on metaphor; for metaphoric perception converted into words represents the action of the lyric. Indeed, the Trope tends to become the irredu-cible element of this kind of lyric.
eBook - PDFTropological Thought and Action
Essays on the Poetics of Imagination
- Jamin Pelkey, James W. Fernandez, Marko Živković(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Berghahn Books(Publisher)
CHAPTER 11 The Tropes of Music William O. Beeman Introduction: Tropes in Music Tropes are generally understood to be figurative representations that invoke cultural understandings other than would be understood were the represen-tations to be regarded in a prosaic and literal fashion. Symbolic expression, metaphor, metonymy, and other devices through which something represents or stands for something else have been explored by anthropologists almost since the beginning of the discipline. A revival of interest in this work in the last decade is due in no small part to the inspired work of James W. Fernandez (1986, 1991). Most work with Tropes has involved either linguistic or visual representa-tion. With regard to language, emphasis has been placed on semiotic represen-tation through discursive form. What has rarely been treated in anthropology, even regarding language, are tropic sound structures. Of course, the most developed sound structures in any society aside from language are musical structures. This chapter deals with Tropes in music, emphasizing the ways in which music can reflect symbolic meanings external to the music itself. For clarity, it is important to differentiate my usage of Tropes in music from the term “Trope” used in two other senses in the history of music. In medieval music, a Trope was an addition to, or an extension of, a traditional church chant, appended in order to render the chant appropriate for a particular occasion (Summers 2017). In the twentieth century, composer and music theorist Josef Matthias Hauer devised a technique for building twelve-tone compositions embodying building blocks of chord structures derived from the twelve-tone row, which he called “Tropes” (Šedivý and Friesinger 2011; Šedivý 2012). Though both of these historical uses of the term “Trope” involve extensions of the musical “text,” the present discussion deals with the tropic references found in music to other nonmusical dimensions of symbolic meaning.
- David Grant, Cynthia Hardy, Cliff Oswick, Linda L Putnam, David Grant, Cynthia Hardy, Cliff Oswick, Linda L Putnam(Authors)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
Good analysis rests not on just spotting … ‘which metaphor fits best’, but in using metaphor to unravel multiple patterns of significance and their interrelations. (Morgan, 1986, p. 342) Tropes 1 are an inevitable and unavoidable aspect of organizational life. They pervade the everyday interaction of organizational stakeholders and they inform and underpin the study of organizations (Manning, 1979). More generally, they are sense-making imagery used to describe, prescribe and circumscribe social reality (Burke, 1969b; White, 1978), and in the process, they also project, consti-tute and theorize particular constructions of those realities. Tropes are figures of speech in which words are used in non-literal ways, that is, words and phrases function symbolically to evoke meanings and ideas. Although prominent in literary and rhetorical analyses, the study of Tropes has recently developed explanatory power in a large number of disciplines, including history, geography, linguistics, philosophy and psychoanalysis (D’Angelo, 1987; Smith, 1996; White, 1978). The majority of this work centres on the four primary or master Tropes – metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony (Burke, 1969b; D’Angelo, 1992) from which other figures of speech are derived. The four Tropes are known as the classic topoi or sets of categories that symbolize relationships among concepts, for example, resemblance, substitution, part–whole and contra-diction, respectively (D’Angelo, 1987). While there has been considerable interest in applying metaphor to the study of social phenomena, other Tropes have received far less attention, even within lin-guistic work, where research on the other three Tropes is ‘not nearly so extensive as that on metaphor’ (Gibbs, 1993, p. 253), and in management where ‘if we dis-regard metaphor, research which examines the nature and application of Tropes within the field of organization theory is scarce’ (Oswick & Grant, 1996a, p. 222).
eBook - PDF- Christina Schoushkoff(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Society Publishing(Publisher)
16.50. METONYMY Definition: Metonymy in literature refers to the practice of not using the formal word for an object or subject and instead referring to it by using another word that is intricately linked to the formal name or word. It is the practice of substituting the main word with a word that is closely linked to it. Example: When we use the name “Washington D.C” we are talking about the U.S’ political hot seat by referring to the political capital of the United States because all the significant political institutions such as the Literary Devices 163 White House, Supreme Court, the U.S. Capitol and many more are located her. The phrase “Washington D.C.” is a metonymy for the government of the U.S. in this case. 16.51. MOOD Definition: The literary device ‘mood’ refers to a definitive stance the author adopts in shaping a specific emotional perspective towards the subject of the literary work. It refers to the mental and emotional disposition of the author towards the subject, which in turn lends a particular character or atmosphere to the work. The final tone achieved thus is instrumental in evoking specific, appropriate responses from the reader. Example: In Erich Segal’s Love Story, the relationship of the two protagonists is handled with such beauty, delicateness, and sensitivity that the reader is compelled to feel the trials and tribulations of the characters. 16.52. MOTIF Definition: The literary device ‘motif’ is any element, subject, idea or concept that is constantly present through the entire body of literature. Using a motif refers to the repetition of a specific theme dominating the literary work. Motifs are very noticeable and play a significant role in defining the nature of the story, the course of events and the very fabric of the literary piece.
Available until 2 Mar |Learn moreFolklore Concepts
Histories and Critiques
- Dan Ben-Amos, Henry Glassie, Elliott Oring(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Indiana University Press(Publisher)
From this perspective, repetition becomes an essential feature in the rela-tionship between motif and idea. But this is no longer a repetition that occurs in narrative transmission and is due to the special capacity of motif to survive the hardship of time. Rather, the conceptualization of a minimal narrative unit as a motif results from a deliberate, meaningful repetition of the same episode, even metaphor, in different contexts of the same general tradition or a single work. The very occurrence of the motif in variable literary contexts constitutes its significance and function. The motif serves to interrelate dif-ferent narrative contexts, reflect them on each other, and unify them into a notional, if not a narrative, whole. This idea echoes the Romantic motif insofar as “the fundamental motif becomes synonymous with ‘the underlying idea’” (Nygren 1953, 37), albeit with two basic exceptions. First, this motif is not a necessary moving force for actions within a situation; at most, it becomes a rhetorical force used by the speaker or the writer. Second, reoccurrence in at least two distinct historical occasions is one of its essential features. This idea of motif has been articulated in religious studies and, discussing its place in Old Testament studies, Shemaryahu Talmon offers the following definition: A literary motif is a representative complex theme which recurs within the framework of the Old Testament in variable forms and connections. It is rooted in an actual situation of anthropological or historical nature. In its secondary lit-erary setting, the motif gives expression to ideas and experiences inherent in the original situation, and is employed to reactualize in the audience the reactions of the participants in that original situation. The motif represents the essential meaning of the situation, not the situation itself. It is not a mere reiteration of the sensations involved, but rather a heightened and intensified representation of them.
eBook - PDF- Rhian Williams(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
While all of these figurative effects are exciting and enlightening, poetry does more than concentrate on meaning and content: it also provides us with particular arrangements of words – arrangements that are just as vital to a poem’s import as the individual words themselves. Poetry’s use of metre , rhyme and stress may importantly dictate (or simply shape) these arrangements (as seen in the discussion of rhyme, usual word order may be reversed in order to fit with a rhyme), but this original requirement has become a point of principle: poetry not only tolerates unusual arrangements, but encourages or indeed insists on them. This contributes to poetry’s ability to provide alternative, slanted perspectives on the world. A poem may start every line with the same word for a particular effect (‘And. . . And. . . And’), it may present a noun before an adjective (‘her cheeks red and glowing’ rather than ‘her red cheeks glowed’), or it may repeat words in forwards and backwards order (‘I broke the horse before the horse broke me’). These tricks of language play on the ordering of words: they are schemes. 6.1 Tropes Here some of the more common Tropes and schemes are explained along with some examples. Poems often use several Tropes at once, or they might combine Tropes with schemes. Some of these combinations are also considered here. Of course both Tropes and schemes occur in all forms of writing (especially in fictional prose) and speaking (especially in formal speeches) and many more exist than those considered here (for a useful introduction to rhetorical schemes, for example, see the website, rhetoric.byu.edu). These examples are simply those that occur most frequently in this book and illustrate poetry’s willingness and aptness to make us rethink linguistic expression. To recap: � l Tropes : wordplay based on the meaning of words � l schemes : wordplay based on the order of words.
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