Imagery is the literary device of using vivid sensory language. Less commonly known as enargia, it is figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions in the reader or listener. Imagery in narrative literature can also be instrumental in conveying tone, mood, and other literary elements. In order to show this, writers use accompanying forms of figurative language to convey a certain message, idea, situation, setting, aesthetic, among others. That way, writers are able to get the readers to understand the ideas being conveyed without the original intent being lost.

Uses with Other Forms of Figurative Language

Imagery with Metaphors & Similes: provides specificity to whatever the reader is imagining because of comparisons presented.

Imagery with Symbolism: the underlying meaning placed onto something/someone as a result of symbolism creates a connection with a specific idea to a broader concept.

  • Auditory imagery pertains to sounds, noises, music, or the sense of hearing. (This kind of imagery may come in the form of onomatopoeia).
  • Dialogue can give depth to interpersonal relationships and conflicts that arise between characters.
  • Phenomenological, pertains to the mental conception of an item as opposed to the physical version.
  • Color imagery is the ability to visualize a color in its absence.

3 Necessities for Imagination

  • Directedness: putting the imagination's focus on a specific person, place, thing, event, etc.
  • Activity: because one is imagining something, they are actively exercising the muscle that is their brain.
  • Phenomenology: while one is imagining something, they can relate it to something that is relatively similar to it.

References

Further reading

  • Belyaev, Igor A. (2020), "Human-sizedness as a principle of for literary-artistic image, Proceedings of the Philological Readings (PhR 2019), EPSBS European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, London, 19–20 September 2019, pp. 560–567.
  • What is Imagery?: Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms