Tone (literature)
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Look up tone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Tone is a literary technique that is a part of composition, which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work. Tone may be formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, ironic, guilty, condescending, or many other possible attitudes. Each piece of literature has at least one theme, or central question about a topic, and how the theme is approached within the work is known as the tone.
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Difference Between Tone And Mood
Tone and mood are not the same, although variations of the two words may on occasions be interchangeable terms. The tone of a piece of literature is what the speaker or narrator feels towards the subject, rather than what the reader feels. Mood is the general feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader. Mood is produced most effectively through the use of setting, theme, voice and tone.
Usage
All pieces of literature, even official documents, have some sort of tone. Authors create the tone of their piece of writing through the use of various other literary elements, such as diction, or word choice; syntax, the grammatical arrangement of words in a text for effect; imagery, or vivid appeals to the senses; details, facts that are included or omitted; extended metaphor, language that compares seemingly unrelated things throughout the composition.
While now used to discuss literature, the term tone was originally applied solely to music. This appropriated word has come to represent the attitudes and feelings that a speaker (in poetry), a narrator (in fiction), or an author (in non-literary prose) has towards the subject, situation, and/or the intended audience. It is important to recognize that the speaker, or narrator, of a piece of literature is not to be confused with the author. Likewise, the attitudes and feelings of the speaker, or narrator, should not be confused with those of the author. In general, the tone of a piece only refers to the attitude of the author if the writing is non-literary in nature.
In many cases, the tone of a piece of work may change and shift as the speaker or narrator’s perspective on a particular subject alters throughout the piece.
References
- ^ </ Glossary of Literary Terms., Hunter College Reading/Writing Center., 1998, http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/lit-terms.html, retrieved March 22, 2012.
- ^ Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays, eds. "Theme and Tone." The Norton Introduction to Literature, Portable 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 475-6. Print.
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