I once stumbled across a term that refers to a physical object that acts as a symbol. i.e. In Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" the portrait is a physical representation of Dorian's soul. I am trying to remember the specific term that describes this device.
Analogue?
Voices mysterious far and near,
Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
Are calling and whispering in my ear,
Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?
manifestation?
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
I think you are looking for the term referent.
Thanks for the advice guys. These aren't it though. It's a two-word phrase that specifically talks about when an object represents something in the story. i.e. the flower in Beauty & The Beast wilts.
The literary phrase had it's own wiki page. It was something like "objective fiction metonymy" (but not metonymy, I'm just giving an example)
Symbol thingy?
I'm hopeless at crossword clues. I'll await the outcome here with interest. I'm sure there's something, but I can't for the life of me think what it is. I'll know it when I hear it.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
Objective correlative?
T.S. Eliot:
“ The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked."
Example:
A haiku by Yosa Buson entitled, The Piercing Chill I Feel, illustrates the use of objective correlative within poetry:
The piercing chill I feel:
my dead wife’s comb, in our bedroom,
under my heel…
I think that was the term at the back of my mind.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
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