Need the Name of a Rhetorical Device
May 19, 2010 3:54 PM   Subscribe

What is the rhetorical term for the literary device where a sense of mystery is heightened by having characters talk about something that has not been revealed to the reader?

I'm thinking specifically of Faulkner's Light in August, where what people are talking about is only revealed (usually slowly) later in the narrative.
posted by Short Attention Sp to Writing & Language (10 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
foreshadowing?
posted by emilyd22222 at 3:55 PM on May 19, 2010


+1 foreshadowing, just through dialogue.
posted by jander03 at 3:59 PM on May 19, 2010


Response by poster: Yes, foreshadowing is the English word, but what is the Latin?
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:19 PM on May 19, 2010


I don't know the Latin word for "foreshadowing" -- in my experience 'foreshadowing' is an acceptable technical term.

If you mean something unexplained and mysterious that engages the reader, whether in dialogue or not, that's hermeneutic code, which isn't exactly the same thing as foreshadowing.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 5:35 PM on May 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Yes, S&T, that is close to the answer. Maybe I'm daft, but I thought Cicero had a latinate term to describe this device.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:50 PM on May 19, 2010


what about something like "in medias res" - beginning in the middle of things
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 6:14 PM on May 19, 2010


In screenwriting, this is called drawing out (or 'extending') the reveal. It's teasing the audience with information slowly, such as in snippets of conversation.

Probably not what you are looking for, though.
posted by rokusan at 6:34 PM on May 19, 2010


Oh, and your example characters are alluding to something without making it clear what they're talking about, leaving the reader to wonder or puzzle it out... though I expect that the term allusion isn't quite five-dollar enough for your needs here.
posted by rokusan at 6:36 PM on May 19, 2010


Could it be presage?
posted by emilyd22222 at 7:40 PM on May 19, 2010


Could you be thinking of apophasis or paralepsis?
posted by clockzero at 8:46 PM on May 19, 2010


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