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Paradox, Hyperbole, and Understatement

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Paradox, Hyperbole, and Understatement. By Fiona Fong and Abigail Darby. Paradox. An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Paradox, Hyperbole, and Understatement


1
Paradox, Hyperbole, and Understatement
  • By Fiona Fong and Abigail Darby

2
Paradox
  • An apparent contradiction that is nevertheless
    somehow true.
  • The contradiction usually stems from one of the
    words being used figuratively, or with more than
    one denotation.
  • The value of the paradox is its shock value.

3
Examples of Pardoxes
  • Much madness is the divinest senseMuch sense,
    the starkest madness. (Much Madness is Divinest
    Sense, Emily Dickinson)
  • Time present and time past are both perhaps
    present in time future, and time future contained
    in time past. (Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot)

4
Hyperbole (Overstatement)
  • Simply exaggeration, but exaggeration in the
    service of truth.

5
Examples of Hyperboles
  • I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere
    ages and ages hence. (The Road Not Taken, Robert
    Frost)
  • Close to the sun in lonely lands (The Eagle,
    Alfred Lord Tennyson)
  • Saw catalogues of domes (Pathedy of Manners,
    Ellen Kay)

6
Understatement
  • Saying less than one means, saying what is
    literally true but with a good deal less force
    than the situation warrants.

7
Examples of Understatements
  • And so I smiled, but he poked out his tongue,
    and called me, Nigger. (Incident, Countee
    Cullen)
  • Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly
    stopped for me. (Because I could not stop for
    Death, Emily Dickinson)

8
Fathom This
  • It is paradoxical that one can emphasize a truth
    either by overstating it or by understating it.
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