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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Question about a rhetorical term #159817 05/17/2006 10:55 PM Joined: May 2006 Posts: 1 Tabi stranger Tabi stranger Joined: May 2006 Posts: 1 Does anyone have any idea if there is a term to describe the technique that many Gothic authors use, especially Mary Shelley with the character of Victor Frankenstein, where the speaker claims that "there are no words to express the pain I felt that night", or "nobody can understand the agony I went through". Something along the lines of paralipsis or apophasis or ennoia (?) but I wasn't sure that these quite fit. A lecturer once made it our weekly assignment to discover this term but I didn't return for the answer and have regretted it ever since! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Question about a rhetorical term #159818 05/17/2006 11:39 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 You could go hunting in the Sylva Rhetoricae. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Question about a rhetorical term #159819 05/18/2006 12:40 PM Joined: May 2005 Posts: 456 SE US Aramis addict Aramis addict Joined: May 2005 Posts: 456 SE US No amount of pondering can capture the real answer but will throw in 'unspeakable hyperbole' just for effect. ÅΓª╥┐↕§ Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Question about a rhetorical term #159820 05/18/2006 1:16 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh Not quite rhetorical, but how about ineffable and nescient agony? Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Question about a rhetorical term #159821 05/18/2006 4:47 PM Joined: May 2005 Posts: 456 SE US Aramis addict Aramis addict Joined: May 2005 Posts: 456 SE US Here is an article that delves deeply into that literary 'mechanism', without allowing Aramis to glean a compact term for it, other than perhaps 'negation': http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Articles/kincaid.html ÅΓª╥┐↕§ Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: a rhetorical flourish about a rhetorical term #159822 05/18/2006 10:35 PM Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 maverick Carpal Tunnel maverick Carpal Tunnel Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 > Waiving as inadmissible, crude, and certainly unpublishable the possibility that Mary Shelley simply didn't have very many words at her disposal and was thus stymied... heh, a nice example of paralipsis squared! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Connexions #159823 05/19/2006 5:14 PM Joined: May 2005 Posts: 456 SE US Aramis addict Aramis addict Joined: May 2005 Posts: 456 SE US Quote: You could go hunting in the Sylva Rhetoricae. Did not look at it last time here; that site is outstanding! Thanks for posting it. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

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