Identifying markers of literary devices

[chuckd]

How do you identify history, allegories, parables, poetry, metaphors, etc.?

For example, what markers exist to make the Song of Solomon an allegory? Or Hosea?

What makes "this is my body" a symbol?

What makes Genesis 1 not an allegory as many say?

Should all be interpreted as history unless other literary device markers are found?

 

[VictorBravo]

Maybe someone has come up with a formula, but I don't know of one.

The most important thing is to become familiar with the language. Consider what we do in English:

A guy drives up in a new car and a friend says, "Hey, nice wheels!"

Most of us understand that as a synecdoche, that is, a figure of speech where "wheels" means the entire new car.

When someone writes, "first I got up, then I made coffee, then I got ready for work, then I got in the car....." We take that as a narrative simply because of context.

But suppose that person said something else before that sentence above, something like: "Instead of sitting in bed all day, wish this had happened: first I got up...." We see then that this is not a narrative, but something else.

So, familiarity with the text, context, familiarity with other texts, all go into determining what you are asking.