Literary Conventions

Zora Neale Hurston

Imagery Invoking Ancestors Point of View Plot Style

About Zora Neale Hurston

Language

Zora on Marriage

Photographs "Shotgun " by John Biggers ; "Georgia landscape" by Hale Woodruff

Selection List: Works Examined: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Sula by Toni Morrison Meridian by Alice Walker   Literary Conventions   Questions and Exercises

"Imagery" signifies the totality of sense perception through objects and qualities referred to in a work of literature.  Using literal or figurative description, imagery may be created through metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech.  Although they are frequently though of as "mental pictures," images should not be considered merely as visual representations of a referenced object.  Rather, images should also be examined for auditory (sound), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and/or kinesthetic (sensations of movement) qualities. 

In addition to the body of images in a work of literature, imagery can be discussed in terms of "tropes."  Tropes are words or phrases where the original meanings are altered.  They occur in four types:  images, metaphors, similes, and symbols.  Often, the analysis of tropes is believed to suggest the author's motivation, attitudes, and deeper meaning within the work, to name a few. 

Program content by Violet Bryan,Ph.D. and Robin Vander