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any Literary / Literature / English majors / minors on ST today? i have a ? ....

Posted by i'm not dead yet ! (aka pacrat) May 2 '10, 12:15

is there a word for something in literature where you use something as a 'vehicle' to accomplish something in the story, or to otherwise make a plot point work ?

for example, if i were writing something, and i needed an excuse for the phone lines in someone's house to go out and / or electricity in general for that matter, and so i insert something where a guy down the road just wrecked, smacked into a telephone pole, and took out the transformer ... is there a literary term for this device ?

Responses:

a contrivance -- nm - black dynamite May 2, 12:35
MacGuffin -- (link) - Danedukenuuk May 2, 12:25 1
- not really -- nm - black dynamite May 2, 12:28
plot device -- nm - Roger More May 2, 12:17 1
- agreed -- nm - Beaker May 2, 13:50

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any Literary / Literature / English majors / minors on ST today? i have a ? ....

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