Module 1 Overview-Flashback & Foreshadowing
What Are Literary Elements?
Take a minute and imagine building a house. (Stick with us, here.) What are some of the things that you would absolutely have to include in order to make a house? Some of those non-negotiable elements are a roof, walls, a kitchen, and a bathroom. If you didn't have these elements, you wouldn't have a house. Heck, you might not even have a building!
A literary element's definition is pretty similar. Literary elements are the things that all literature—whether it's a news article, a book, or a poem—absolutely have to have. Just like a house, the elements might be arranged slightly differently...but at the end of the day, they're usually all present and accounted for. Literary elements are the fundamental building blocks of writing, and they play an important role in helping us write, read, and understand literature.
You might even say that literary elements are the DNA of literature.
How Is a Literary Element Different From a Literary Device?
But wait! You've also learned about literary devices Links to an external site.(sometimes called literary techniques), which writers use to create literature!
So what makes a literary element different from a literary device?
Let's go back to our house metaphor for a second. If literary elements are the must-have, cannot-do-without parts of a house, then literary devices are the optional decor. Maybe you like a classic style (a trope Links to an external site.!), or perhaps you're more of an eclectic kind of person (a conceit Links to an external site.)! Just because you decorate your house like a crazy person Links to an external site.doesn't make it any less of a house. It just means you have a...unique personal style.
Literary devices are optional techniques that writers pick and choose from to shape the style, genre, tone, meaning, and theme of their works. For example, literary devices are what make Cormac McCarthy's western novel, Blood Meridian Links to an external site., so different from Matt McCarthy's medical memoir, The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly Links to an external site.. Conversely, literary elements—especially the elements that qualify both works as "books"—are what keep them shelved next to each other at Barnes & Noble. They're the non-negotiable things that make both works "literature."
Follow the link below and explore the PrepScholar explanations and examples of Literary Elements!