"What is Diction in Literature?": A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

[@SWLF]

If you enjoyed this video, give us a like, drop us a question about diction, or share your favorite example of the term in action in a novel, short story, or poem. Thanks for watching, everybody!

[@samisingh3085]

Thanks for sharing.

[@nathanhassallpoetry]

Awesome video. For poetry, I really enjoyed "Poetic Diction" by Owen Barfield, and English poet and critic who was one of the Inklings (with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, amongst others). I'll make a video on my channel about that book at some point. I also think cracking open a Thesaurus frequently allows us to keep seeing synonyms and expand our fluidity with diction. Thank you for the video!

[@SWLF]

Thanks so much for your kind words, Nathan! And HUGE thanks for adding some additional resources to the conversation! We're stoked to see your video when you get it together. Here's to making KZbin a fruitful place for literary discussions.

[@nathanhassallpoetry]

@@SWLF I hear you on helping make KZbin a place for literary discussions (and other literary things). I've been posting all our featured poetry reading videos from my time out in Malibu as Poet Laureate, too. That's been a true joy. I appreciate hearing you talk about novels and prose as my main focus is poetry (probably obvious by my KZbin name -- haha). I can't wait for more of your videos. I had already subbed but will click the bell so I can get notified. As we say in England, cheers! 🙏

[@Bonafide188]

I guess a good synonym for diction may be 'idiolect'. Not sure if it works though. Great video, thanks for all of these lessons

[@SWLF]

What a great observation, Bonafide188! Yes, that is exactly how we are thinking of diction in the case of Nick and Gatsby. Thanks for keeping the conversation going!

[@Volcanovski]

🖤 🙏🏻

[@SWLF]

Thanks, @Volcanovski ! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed the lesson!

[@Khatoon170]

Best definition of diction is choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, effectiveness . There are four levels of diction are formal , informal, colloquial or , slang . When analyzing diction in literature look for specific words or short Pharses that seem stronger than others. Purpose of diction to affect how reader feels about something or how they imagine scene author is trying to set . Poets use diction to convey actions reveal characters, implying attitudes , identifying themes , suggest values. Father of poetic diction is Alexander pope perface to lliad of homer . If we descend from hence to expression, we see bright imagination of homer shining out in most enlivened form fit . We acknowledge him father of poetic diction. First who taught that language of gods to men . Shakespeare uses diction when hamlet says save me to show he losing his mind . He is asking ghost of his dead father for help . Thank you for your wonderful educational literary channel.

[@SWLF]

Thanks so much for checking out another of our video lessons, Khatoon! We truly appreciate your support for this series!