Below are elements that characterize the different genres. Each or several can be analyzed to provide insight into a work within the particular genre.

 

Fiction

Plot

structure

setting

character

point of view

language (diction, sentence pattern)]

style (metaphor, simile)

theme

irony

symbol

 

Poetry

Voice: Speaker, tone

Diction: denotation, connotation

Imagery

Figures of speech:  simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, metonymy

symbolism

More figures: irony, paradox, hyperbole, understatement

Allusion

tone

Sound: rhyme, alliteration, assonance

rhythm/meter

Structure: closed and open form

theme

 

Essay

voice

style

thesis

structure

 

Drama

characters

dialogue

setting

plot

structure

theme