Talk:List of narrative techniques

organization
Would it not be better to break the list down into sections? One for say poetics, another for plotting, setting, rhetoric, etc. Within each section, list named techniques, give a brief explanation, and link to a specific article for whichever technique which should have room for examples, comparisons and contrasts, along with notable examples of usage. If I'm not badly mistaken, many of the entries in this listing have main articles already so this would save doubling information while making the page more user friendly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.178.26 (talk) 08:21, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Implication?
Is implication not a Literary technique? --Ne0Freedom 10:09, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Suggested merger to "Tropes"
I have removed most non-listed content on this page because it is virtually only fluff, Judging by the search of "Literary technique" and it's supposed equivalents on Google Books, suggests that non of these in fact are established terms. Nevertheless, "Trope" seems to be a much more common known synonym. That is in my opinion reason enough for a merger. --Spannerjam (talk) 15:22, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Oppose merger. Many, nay, most identifiable literary techniques are not tropes in any widely used sense of the word. Rather, one might say that the employment of tropes is but one of many classes of literary techniques. ~ Ningauble (talk) 17:15, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Could you please elaborate, perhaps with an example? --Spannerjam (talk) 19:21, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure merging with "Tropes" would be helpful. The terms have very different audiences. Tropes includes more expansive and heuristically defined authorial movements, impossible to catalogue to anywhere near exhaustion. Literary techniques and devices--which denote differently as it is--cover a portion of the territory as we commonly use those terms. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.150.16.2 (talk) 16:07, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

This definition sucks
Indiana Jones chasing after some mystical object is a good example. The mere knowledge that a mystical device exists is what makes the plot progress. This is in contrast to the Ring in the LOTR plot. Whether The One Ring to Rule Them All can be considered a mere plot device is debatable because more than the Ring itself is Sauron's initiative to conquer Middle Earth that the character must do the things to progress the plot. In addition to driving the plot along, the Ring ends up representing a sinister symbol of the human greed for power.

This definition sucks,e specialyl the LOTR bit, sounds like some fanboy arguing — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.210.6.40 (talk) 23:20, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

MacGuffin?
Should not MacGuffin be included? Surely it should? 124.168.82.134 (talk) 23:56, 4 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Added under Plot. If anyone can think of a good, concise example to go in the example box please add same. 124.168.82.134 (talk) 00:11, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Frame story
Another modern example is All Our Yesterdays (Star Trek: The Original Series), although I am not certain whether another example is needed, so I am not adding this myself. — Anita5192 (talk) 03:11, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 23 May 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: moved. Although the technical request was opposed, no opposition was detailed here. Number  5  7  19:04, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Literary technique → Narrative technique – Nearly all information mentioned in this page function for narratives as a whole, not exclusively fictional narratives. This follows the logic of earlier precedents, such as the move of Plot (fiction) to Plot (narrative). --Relisted. George Ho (talk) 05:55, 30 May 2015 (UTC) – Wolfdog (talk) 22:28, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * This is a contested technical request (permalink). Anthony Appleyard (talk) 22:39, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * OK, thanks! Wolfdog (talk) 14:24, 31 May 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

class=List
is wrong. All such templates must be FL or List. Otherwise, no class will be shown on the Talk page or Categories. --Dthomsen8 (talk) 16:15, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Allegory
I propose that the CS Lewis example, which is widely regarded as a false example of allegory (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ckvz) be replaced with George Orwell's Animal Farm, or with John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, both of which are unquestionably allegories and can be referenced with an authoritative source, not simply an illustration from dictionary.com. For example, from JSTOR Notes on Satire and Allegory Martin Turner (talk) 19:44, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Term that I think exists but isn't here
I came here in search of a term that I think I've heard before, for a story element that appears throughout a story or even a series of stories but is subsidiary to the plot, serving primarily as a vehicle for linking subplots or episodes that otherwise have no relation to each other. Example: Room 104, a TV anthology, the unrelated episodes of which are all set in the same hotel room, though nothing about that room is key to any of the episodes. I think there've been films where a video tape or a gun has served that purpose, passing from hand to hand.

"MacGuffin" comes close, but this isn't necessarily something that's an object of pursuit; I'd say MacGuffins are a subset of this, or they at least intersect with it. The treasure in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World or the prize in Rat Race, for example, is a MacGuffin, pursued by a collection of unrelated characters, and it sets the stage for a collection of barely related vignettes involving those characters, individually or in groups. That latter aspect, setting the stage, is what I'm focused on.

If there is a term, then it seems to me it ought to be added to the article. Largoplazo (talk) 12:43, 11 February 2020 (UTC)


 * I think what you seek is already here. It seems to me that the hotel room in Room 104 is simply a setting, regardless of how many times it is used, and something physical like the treasure in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World or the prize in Rat Race is a MacGuffin if its essential nature is not important to the plot, and Chekhov's gun if it is.—Anita5192 (talk) 16:25, 11 February 2020 (UTC)


 * I'm looking specifically for a term that connotes serving as a unifying force among a number of otherwise mostly or completely unrelated story elements. A setting, like Room 104, can be the unifying element, but the term setting doesn't convey that. Almost any story imaginable has one or more settings, but, in most cases, they aren't serving the function that I'm describing. Largoplazo (talk) 17:22, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Chekhov's gun doesn't serve this purpose either. Largoplazo (talk) 17:27, 11 February 2020 (UTC)