Chiasmus

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In rhetoric, chiasmus is the figure of speech in which two clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the two clauses display inverted parallelism. Chiasmus was particularly popular in Latin literature, where it was used to articulate balance or order within a text.

Today, chiasmus is applied fairly broadly to any "criss-cross" structure, although in classical rhetoric, it was distinguished from other similar devices, such as the antimetabole. In its classical application, chiasmus would have been used for structures that do not repeat the same words and phrases, but invert a sentence's grammatical structure or ideas. The concept of chiasmus has been applied to motifs in stories and plays, producing chiastic structure.

The elements of a simple chiasmus are often labelled in the form A B B A, where the letters correspond to grammar, words, or meaning.

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[edit] Chiasmus in inverted meaning

But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er

Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves. —Shakespeare, Othello 3.3

"Dotes" and "strongly loves" share the same meaning and bracket "doubts" and "suspects."

[edit] Chiasmus in inverted grammar

An example of a parallel sentence is:

  • ”He knowingly lied and we blindly followed”
(A B A B)

Inverting into chiasmus:

  • "He knowingly lied and we followed blindly"
(A B B A)
  • "I love too much and hate too little"
  • "I love too much and too little hate."

Other examples:

  • "By day the frolic, and the dance by night". Samuel Johnson The Vanity of Human Wishes.
  • "His time a moment, and a point his space." Alexander Pope Essay on Man, Epistle I.
  • "Swift as an arrow flying, fleeing like a hare afraid..."

The clause above follows the form of adjective, simile, gerund, gerund, simile, adjective (A B C C B A).

[edit] Chiasmus in Latin

Chiasmus is often used in Latin poetry as an alternative form of the golden line, but it can be found in prose as well.

visceribus atras pascit effossis aves (10)

“He feeds the black birds with his gutted wounds”

AbVaB

(A and B denote nouns; a and b denote adjectives and the nouns they modify; V is the verb.)

Adest vir summa auctoritate et religione et fide, M. Lucullus, qui se non opinari sed scire non audisse sed vidisse, non interfuisse sed egisse dicit. (8)

"There is a man present of the highest authority, duty, and faith, M. Lucullus who (will testify) that he himself does not believe but knows, does not hear but sees, was not only present but did it himself."

The grammar of the Latin follows the form of Verb, Subject, ablative, ablative, ablative, Subject, (relative clause in indirect statement), infinitive, infinitive, infinitive, Verb. The ablatives of quality are bracketed by the subjects they modify and form a chiasmus within a chiasmus.

A B b b b B a a a A

Pliny the Younger also uses the chiamsus frequently in his letters. For example, in his letter about the death of Pliny the Elder when he is describing his uncle sailing into danger to save others he expresses it as:

'festinat illuc unde alii fugiunt'

He hurried to the place from where others were fleeing.

The 'festinat'(hurried) and the 'fugiunt' (were fleeing) are placed on the outside of the chiamus and the 'illuc' (to the place) and the 'unde' (where from) are in the middle. This beings out the contast between the two actions (hurring and fleeing), emphasising how brave his uncle's actions are.

[edit] Chiasmus as a synonym for antimetabole

These examples are often quoted by modern commentators to demonstrate chiasmus, although they are defined as antimetabole in the classical sense.

  • "...ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
  • "...Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.." John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
  • "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy
  • "Let's make sure that the Supreme Court does not pick the next president, and this president does not choose the next Supreme Court." Albert Gore Jr. at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
  • "America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way round. Human rights invented America." [1] Jimmy Carter Farewell Address
  • "What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog." Dwight D. Eisenhower January 1958 speech to the Republican National Committee
  • "Well, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men." Line spoken by Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933):
  • StarKist tuna advertisements from the 1980s included "Sorry, Charlie. StarKist doesn't want tunas with good taste — StarKist wants tunas that taste good." (N.B. This is more an example of antanaclasis)
  • There are examples of chiasmus in the Bible. For example, Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed."
  • An earlier example, from Croesus dates back to the 6th century BC: "In peace sons bury their fathers, but in war fathers bury their sons."
  • "In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, The Party can always find you!" Yakov Smirnoff

Chiasmus may be implied, as when Kermit the Frog says "Time's fun when you're having flies" or Mae West says "A hard man is good to find," or Jethro Tull's "In the beginning Man created God."

Chiasmus is not limited to an exchange of words; it can also involve the exchange of letters or syllables, as in Tom Waits' quote, "I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

An informal term for chiasmus introduced by Calvin Trillin and used particularly among political speechwriters is reversible raincoat sentences.

[edit] External links and references

[edit] See also

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