tropes

Rhetorical Figure of the Day: Introducing Classical Rhetorical Figures in the Modern Classroom

Submitted by Deb Streusand 03Nov
Dictionary page showing the entry for chiasmus and related words

As a PhD student new to UT, I came to my teaching at the Department of Rhetoric and Writing with a knowledge of rhetoric derived from my experience at Mary Baldwin College's Shakespeare and Performance program. Professor Ralph Alan Cohen taught MFA students about the classical rhetorical figures Shakespeare would have learned in grammar school.

Crowdsourcing Narrative Techniques: TV Tropes in the Literature Classroom

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) 13Aug
Panel from webcomic XKCD--stick figure sits at computer clicking through website tvtropes, with caption It's like rickrolling, but you're trapped all day

I tend to be one of those lit instructors who rarely brings up the dreaded "literary devices" in the classroom.  Too often, handing out a list of tropes and techniques and asking students to recognize them in a text becomes a labelling exercise that does nothing to further the student's engagement with the work.

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