Metaphor & Figuration
Prosopopoeia
Giving an absent, dead, or non-human speaker actual lines to say — a voice, not just human qualities. The borrowed voice carries authority the author could not claim directly.
Cicero making the state of Rome herself rebuke Catiline.
Don't confuse it with Personification. Personification stops at attributing human qualities; prosopopoeia hands over the microphone.
In the Reader — 3 excerpts
April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster,
124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with prosopopoeia most often — company reveals character.
Asyndeton 4 Anaphora 4 Catachresis 3 Polyptoton 3
The rest of the family
Metaphor Simile Catachresis Metonymy Synecdoche Personification Pathetic Fallacy Transferred Epithet / Hypallage Metalepsis Symbol Allusion Mythopoesis