Imagery
Imagery is the literary device of using vivid sensory language. Less commonly known as enargia, it is figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions in the reader or listener. Imagery in narrative literature can also be instrumental in conveying tone, mood, and other literary elements.[1] Imagery is most often used by writers to get readers and listeners to understand the ideas being conveyed without losing the original intent.[2]
Types
There are five major types of sensory imagery, each corresponding to a sense, feeling, action, or reaction:
- Visual imagery pertains to graphics, visual scenes, pictures, or the sense of sight.
- Auditory imagery pertains to sounds, noises, music, or the sense of hearing. (This kind of imagery may come in the form of onomatopoeia).
- Olfactory imagery pertains to odors, aromas, scents, or the sense of smell.
- Gustatory imagery pertains to flavors or the sense of taste.
- Tactile imagery pertains to physical textures or the sense of touch.
Other types of imagery include:
- Kinesthetic imagery pertains to movements.
- Organic imagery / subjective imagery, pertains to personal experiences of a character's body, including emotion and the senses of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain.[3]
- Phenomenological, pertains to the mental conception of an item as opposed to the physical version.
- Color imagery is the ability to visualize a color in its absence.
References
- ^ Malewitz, Raymond (8 November 2019). "What is Imagery?". Definitions and Examples. Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms. Oregon State School of Writing, Literature and Film. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
- ^ Paudyal, Homa Nath Sharma (2023-07-17). "The Use of Imagery and Its Significance in Literary Studies". The Outlook: Journal of English Studies. 14: 114–127. doi:10.3126/ojes.v14i1.56664. ISSN 2773-8124.
- ^ "Poetics of Robert Frost: Examples". Friends of Robert Frost. Archived from the original on 2013-05-04. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
Further reading
- Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) (20 July 2021). The time machine. ISBN 978-1-7225-2491-3. OCLC 1261367980.
External links
- Fieser, James; Dowden, Bradley (eds.). "Imagery and Imagination". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 2161-0002. OCLC 37741658.
- Thomas, Nigel J.T (Winter 2011), "Mental Imagery", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, retrieved February 16, 2012
- Belyaev, Igor A. (2020), "Human-sizedness as a principle of existance [sic] for literary-artistic image, Proceedings of the Philological Readings (PhR 2019), EPSBS European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, London, 19–20 September 2019, pp. 560–567.
- What is Imagery?: Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms