Trope (literature)

For other uses, see Trope (disambiguation).

A literary trope is a common pattern, theme, motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning. The term trope derives from Greek τροπή "turn, turning"¹, from τρόπος - tropos "turn, direction, way"² related to the root of τρέπω - trepō, "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change"³.

Rhetoricians have closely analyzed the bewildering array of "turns and twists" used in poetry and literature and have provided an extensive list of very precise labels for these poetic devices. Some examples include

For a longer list, see Rhetorical remedies.

Various scholars throughout history, beginning with Quintilian, Ramus, and Vico, have argued that a great deal of our conceptualization of experience, even the foundation of human consciousness, is based on figurative schemes of thought which include not only metaphor, but also metonymy, synecdoche and irony. Tropes do not merely provide a way for us to talk about how we think, reason, and imagine, they are also constitutive of our experience.⁴

References

^ Trope, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
^ Tropos, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
^ Trepo, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
^ Gibbs, Raymond W. Jr.: Process and products in making sense of tropes from : Metaphor and Thought (Ortony, Andrew (Editor), Cambridge University Press, 1993), page 252

Trope (literature)

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