Is there a specific literary term to describe the attributing of the characteristics of one object to another?

7.90K views

Similar to personification or anthropomorphism, except rather than personifying an object by giving it human characteristics or trying to humanize an object or animal by making it appear as human, one would use a attribute characteristics taken from gasoline and attribute them to a character’s words or works, such as poetry, phrases, sentences, and so on (which is a bit of an abstract example, but…), taking a description of blood as an object and giving it the properties of acid. Does that make sense?

Specific instance is:

“…Burning, kerosene sentences;
Cyanide cigarettes, burning.
Chiasmus. Alliteration. *insert word I’m looking for*”

The thought being that I am describing the sentences as if they were made of kerosene, implying that they are flammable, volatile, dangerous in the way that kerosene is dangerous.

I’ll just leave it at your feet: thoughts?

0

A good question, indeed. Well, I have not yet come across with such literary term, attributing characteristics of one object to another other than personification and anthropomorphism.

0

Would this not be an example of metaphor?