What's the name for this literary device??

Question

I'm looking for a name of a literary device: it involves talking about something by claiming not to talk about it. For example, "I won't bore you with the details of her public service, how she rescued four kids from a burning building; I won't mention the countless hours she has spent every day pulling weeds in the hot sun." Is there a word for this or have I gone mad?

Answer 1

Interesting question. It's called apophasis, or sometimes praeteritio or occupatio. It's when you emphasize something by purportedly ignoring it.

Answer 2

allegory: each and every ingredient of the tale is an emblem representative of a much better precis theory or adventure. foil: a character who's the total opposite of yet another character (often the protagonist) personification: giving inanimate products or suggestions human characteristics or awareness tragic flaw: the single characteristic or character illness which motives the downfall of the protagonist characterization: the author's potential of conveying to the reader a character's character, historic past, values, actual attributes, etc. exposition: the place the author interrupts the tale with a view to describe something foreshadowing: the place destiny events in a narrative are suggested by employing the author in the previous they take place. hyperbole: an define which exaggerates, often employing extremes or superlatives, which includes, "it is the main important cookie interior the international!" alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds with close proximity, often with consecutive words interior the comparable sentence or line. dramatic irony: while the readers or aim industry are attentive to particular issues that the characters interior the tale are no longer attentive to. motif: a habitual significant thought or photograph symbolism: using particular products or photographs to symbolize precis thoughts or suggestions. in comparison to metaphor, an emblem is something tangible or seen that represents something precis or familiar tone: the plain emotional state or thoughts-set of the speaker or author/narrator putting: the time and place the place the tale occurs temper: the ambience or emotional situation created by employing the piece, interior the putting subject: the main thought or message of the piece

Answer 3

Satire

The nature of satire overlaps with sarcasm and hyperbole. Satire is a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.

Play on Words - The Pun

A pun is a humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest different meanings and applications such as when Jesus told the disciples, "Let the dead bury the dead" (Matt. 8:22).

You'll have to excuse me if i'm wrong I wasn't the best in Literature in high school.

Answer 4

I thought my way to "sardonic" and thence to the dictionary and, new to me, "sardonicism." So we've both learned something, and the boys can lay down their butterfly nets.

Edit - Goldie, you rogue, when you get around to publishing your first dictionary, I'm going to buy one.