Hyperbole (from the Greek hyperbole - exaggeration). “All great works. - wrote A. Gorky, “all those works that are examples of highly artistic literature rest precisely on exaggeration, on a broad typification of phenomena.” Gorky confidently and unmistakably puts exaggeration and typification side by side, based on his own writing and reading experience, meaning by this the artist’s ability and ability to see the most essential in the observed phenomena, extract the main meaning from them, condense it with the power of imagination into an artistic image.
Exaggeration is the “core” of typing.
One of the most spectacular and effective techniques of artistic exaggeration is hyperbole in literature. It allows you to “present unrepresentability”, “correlate the incomparable”, that is, to give this or that detail most acutely and sharply - in a portrait, in the internal appearance of a character, in a phenomenon of the objective world. Let us emphasize - objective. Because when talking about hyperbole, it should be borne in mind that no matter how incredible, no matter how fantastic it may be, it is always based on life material, life content.
The artistic persuasiveness and ambiguity of hyperbole are all the more significant the more clearly the reader imagines the specific essence of the image or situation.
Thus, one of the main characters of Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” Khlestakov, says about himself that he has “extraordinary lightness in his thoughts.” In a society based on universal reverence for rank, on all-encompassing hypocrisy, Khlestakov’s lies, with all its hyperbolic absurdity (“as I pass through the department, it’s just an earthquake, everything trembles and shakes like a leaf,” etc.), is accepted by provincial officials as pure the truth.
Another example. In Márquez’s novel “The Autumn of the Patriarch,” the story about the “thousand-year-old” patriarch is told from “we,” and this technique of using a collective point of view, polyphony, makes it possible to feel and imagine the atmosphere of rumors and omissions about the hero. Nothing is known for sure about the dictator from the very beginning - and until the end of the book. Each new interpretation of his actions reveals only one of the sides of his appearance, where exclusivity and difference from ordinary people come to the fore. And this gives the whole narrative style a certain hyperbolic quality.
To create a hyperbolic artistic image are used various types tropes: comparisons, likenings, metaphors, epithets, etc. Their function is to exaggerate the subject, to clearly reveal the contradiction between its content and form, to make the image more impressive and catchy. By the way, the same goal can be pursued by understatement, litotes, which can be considered as a type of hyperbole, like hyperbole in literature “with a minus sign.” Depending on the socio-aesthetic orientation of the work, the same event can be perceived as “giant” or “small”. In D. Swift's novel “The Travels of Lemuel Gulliver,” hyperbole and litotes coexist: in the first part of the book, contemporary England is shown to the writer as if through a diminishing glass, in the second - through a magnifying glass. In the land of Lilliputians, oxen and sheep are so tiny that the hero loads hundreds of them into his boat. Matching these dimensions are everything else that Gulliver encounters in this country, right down to the social structure and political events. With a satirical understatement, Swift makes the reader understand that the claims of island, “Lilliputian”, in essence, England for world domination (for the role of “mistress of the seas”, for vast colonial possessions, etc.), which seemed great and grandiose to many Englishmen, are, if you think about it, insignificant and even funny.
Another impressive hyperbolic image is from the very beginning of the novel: the hero comes to his senses after a shipwreck and cannot lift his head from the ground - each of his hair is twisted onto a “Lilliputian” peg driven into the ground. Here, hyperbole in literature takes on a symbolic meaning, suggesting an individual in captivity among many insignificant passions and circumstances...
It is in satirical work hyperbole is most often appropriate and artistically justified. V. Astafiev in “The Tsar Fish”, with the help of this technique, reveals the inner squalor of one of the “nature lovers”, the poacher Rokhotalo: “The fisherman Rokhotalo lay like a motionless block behind a hot fire. shaking the shore with snoring, as if from womb to throat, the anchor chain of a ship rocked by the waves rolled from throat to womb.” Here the author's assessment of the character with his insatiably aggressive attitude towards nature, a character personifying soulless dullness, emerges. However, hyperbole in literature, even “mocking”, may not be clearly satirical. The range of use of this prima is quite wide, covering humor, irony, and comedy.
The history of hyperbole goes back to the distant past - to folklore, to folk tales, generous with satirical images and comic situations. However, at about the same time, a completely different type of hyperbole arose - very far from laughter. In epics, legends, and heroic tales we find one that can be called idealizing. Thus, in the Russian epic it is depicted historical experience people, their heroic struggle against invaders and oppressors. In images epic heroes the people expressed their understanding of duty and honor, courage and patriotism, kindness and selflessness. The heroes of epics - heroes - are endowed with ideal human qualities, as a rule, exaggerated, hyperbolic. The depiction of the epic hero primarily emphasizes his supernatural physical strength: “If there were a ring in the earth, / And there was a ring in the sky, / He would grab these rings in one hand, / He would pull the sky to the earth,” the epic says about Ilya Muromtse. In a similar way, his weapons and his actions are exaggerated. On the battlefield, he wields an iron club-shalyga “weighing exactly one hundred bullets”, a bow and arrows “in a scythe of fathoms”, or even simply grabs the legs of an enemy who turns up and destroys the enemy’s “great strength” with it: swings to the right - appears in the enemy’s crowd “street”, to the left - “alley”. The horse of Ilya Muromets can cover many miles in one gallop, for it flies “above a standing forest, just below a walking cloud”...
The images of opponents are also hyperbolized - but in a satirical way. epic heroes. For example, if Ilya Muromets is outwardly no different from those around him, then his “adversary” Idolishche is “two fathoms” tall, and his shoulders are “oblique fathoms”, and he has eyes like “beer bowls”, and a nose like “elbow” “... Thanks to this contrasting external comparison, the hero’s victory looks especially impressive, deserving of popular glorification.
Every person has at least once encountered the concept of hyperbole in literature. But not everyone knows what this term means.
Hyperbole is a stylistic device used in literature
- to exaggerate any action,
- to create a stronger impression on readers.
This stylistic device is used by many modern writers and authors.
What is the difference between hyperbole and other literary devices?
Hyperbole also has similarities with other stylistic devices, such as
- metaphor,
- grotesque,
- comparison.
Nevertheless, these linguistic means have differences. For example, grotesque is one of the types
- artistic imagery,
- contrast between reality and fantasy,
- ugliness and beauty,
which helps create a comical image.
To compare objects or phenomena, the following techniques are used:
- metaphor,
- comparison.
Hyperbole in literature is also a means of comparison, but in a more exaggerated format. For example:
- ears like an elephant,
- legs like a giraffe
- neck like an ostrich
- it was explained to him a million times, etc.
Hyperbole in literature also has an opposite technique, which also compares phenomena, but in a diminutive direction. It's called litotes. Example:
- within easy reach,
- Tom Thumb.
The reason for hyperbole
It's hard to imagine that the need for extreme exaggeration dates back to ancient times. People's judgments modern society are strikingly different from the worldview of ancient people, who had completely fantastic ideas about the world. In those distant times, people could not have a clear understanding of what fiction and reality are. The earliest people endowed magical power those phenomena that could not be explained. They were afraid of such phenomena. As a result, they began to appear
- Gratitude,
- astonishment,
- admiration,
- exaggeration.
Use of hyperbole in modern and classical literature
No use literary devices the work will be bland, boring and uninteresting. Therefore, all authors use them in their works. The basis for the use of hyperbole in literature is the interaction of expansive and naturally following meanings of the same phrases.
- this news has already been told a million times (the number is being exaggerated);
- they had a huge fight (the quality was affected);
- he left her alone and there was no more peace for her (emotions involved).
“Hyperbole is very easy to confuse with similar devices such as metaphor and simile. Their task also consists of comparing objects and phenomena. But we must always remember that if there is any exaggeration in the comparison, then this is hyperbole.”
If you say that he has ears like an elephant, then you can see that this is a comparison. But if you analyze, you can understand that this is an exaggeration, that such a comparison was used in a figurative sense, since human ears cannot be that big. Therefore, this comparison is a hyperbole.
This technique is used for
- giving expressiveness to a sentence,
- significance, significance
- to focus the reader's attention on it.
In Russian literature they readily used this technique Russian classics
- A.S. Griboyedov,
- A.N. Ostrovsky,
- N.V. Gogol,
- L.N. Tolstoy.
Epic stories are also full of hyperboles. In poetry, hyperbole is most often used in conjunction with other techniques.
“Modern realities without the use of hyperbole will be absolutely meaningless. Therefore, their use can be found in almost all speech communications. If you think about television advertisements, most of them use hyperbolic technique.”
Video: Japanese advertising
Literary tropes are artistic devices, words or expressions used by the author to enhance the expressiveness of the text and enhance the imagery of the language.
Tropes include , comparison , epithet , hyperbole , . This article will talk about hyperbole and its antonym - litotes.
Wikipedia says that hyperbole is a word from Greek language and denotes exaggeration. The first part of the word “hyper” is found in many words with the meaning of exaggeration, excess: hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperthyroidism, hyperfunction.
Hyperbole in literature is artistic exaggeration. In addition, the concept of hyperbola is in geometry, and there it denotes the geometric locus of points.
This article will discuss hyperbole from a literary point of view. Its definition, how long it has been known, by whom and where it is used. It is found everywhere: in literary works, in oratory, in everyday conversations.
Hyperbole in fiction
It has been known since ancient times. In ancient Russian epics there is often exaggeration when describing heroic heroes and their exploits:
Hyperboles often occur in fairy tales and folk songs: “that’s mine, my heart groans like autumn forest buzzing.”
The author of the ancient Russian story About Prince Vsevolod often uses hyperbole, he writes: “You can sprinkle the Volga with oars, and scoop up the Don with helmets,” to show how numerous his squad is. Here exaggeration is used to exalt the poetic characterization of the prince.
For the same purpose N.V. Gogol uses hyperboles to poetically describe the Dnieper River: “a road, without measure in width, without end in length.” “A rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper.” “And there is no river. equal to him in the world.”
But more often Gogol uses it in his satirical works with irony and humor, ridiculing and exaggerating the shortcomings of his heroes.
Hyperboles in the monologues of the heroes of Gogol’s “The Inspector General”:
- Osip - “It was as if a whole regiment had blown trumpets.”
- Khlestakov - “...Thirty-five thousand couriers alone,” “as I pass... it’s just an earthquake, everything is trembling and shaking,” “the State Council itself is afraid of me.”
- Mayor - “I would grind you all into flour!”
Gogol often uses artistic exaggeration on the pages of his work “Dead Souls”.
"Countless as sea sands, human passions…»
Emotional and loud hyperbole in poetry V. Mayakovsky:
- “The sunset glowed with one hundred and forty suns...”
- “Shine and no nails! This is the slogan of mine and the sun”
In verse A. Pushkin , S. Yesenina and many other poets use artistic exaggeration in describing events and landscape.
"No end in sight
Only blue sucks eyes.”
S. Yesenin
IN colloquial speech exaggeration is used every day without thinking. We especially often resort to it in a state of passion, irritation, so that the interlocutor better understands our feelings.
“I have already called a hundred times, presented thousands of troubles, and almost died of anxiety,”
“I explain it to you twenty times, but you still do it wrong.”
“You’re late again, you’ve waited forever again.”
Sometimes when declaring love:
“I love you like no one can love, more than anyone in the world.”
Litotes and its meaning
Antonym of hyperbole - litotes, artistic understatement. In their colloquial speech, people constantly use both exaggeration and understatement.
Before you have time to blink your eye, life has flown by. When you wait, a second drags on for years. The waist is thin, thinner than a reed.
Hyperbole and litotes, together with other artistic techniques, make Russian speech expressive, beautiful and emotional.
Don't miss: artistic technique in literature and Russian language.
Zooming in and out in fiction
Writers creating literary text of their work, can realistically describe life, without resorting to exaggeration or understatement of surrounding objects. But some authors understate or exaggerate not only words, but also objects of the surrounding world, creating a fantastic unreal world.
A striking example serves Lewis Carroll's fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". The heroine of a fairy tale finds herself in a world where she and all the heroes she meets change their sizes. Authors need this technique to express their thoughts and views on certain problems and suggest ways to eradicate them. You can remember “Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput” by Jonathan Swift.
Writers with a satirical, romantic and heroic orientation in their work often resort to fantasy. It is creative, original, invented by the author, but based on the real social and living conditions of the authors. The writer creates a fantastic work, but his situations echo real events.
When the social reality that gave rise to the creation of this fantastic work passes, the new generation no longer understands everything where such fantastic inventions came from.
Hyperbole and litotes make a literary text more expressive and help convey emotions more accurately. Without them creative work it would be boring and faceless. Not only the authors, but also ordinary people in everyday conversations they cannot do without them, although they do not know their names, but simply emotionally express their feelings and thoughts.
April 7, 2014
The Russian language today is one of the ten most beautiful and, according to linguists, it has about half a million words, not including professionalisms and dialects. Great Russian writers contributed to the development of Russian literary language, thanks to which the language was replenished with artistic and expressive means that are used in writing and speech today.
Development of the Russian literary language and the first trails
The literary Russian language began to take shape in the 11th century, during the period of the existence of the state Kievan Rus. Then the first chronicles and masterpieces of ancient Russian literature were created. Even a thousand years ago, authors used artistic and expressive means of language (tropes): personification, epithet, metaphor, hyperbole and litotes. Examples of these terms are still common today, both in fiction, and in everyday speech.
The concepts of "hyperbole" and "litotes"
Having heard the term “hyperbole” for the first time, history experts will probably associate it with the legendary country of Hyperborea, and mathematicians will remember a line consisting of two branches, which is called hyperbole. But how does this term relate to literature? Hyperbole is a stylistic figure that is used to enhance the expressiveness of a statement and deliberate exaggeration. It is not difficult to guess that this term has an antonym, because if a language has means for exaggeration, there must certainly be a stylistic figure that serves for understatement. Such an artistic and expressive means is litotes. The following examples will clearly show what litotes is and how often it is used in speech.
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The thousand-year history of hyperbole
Hyperbole is very common in ancient Russian literature, for example, in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “To him in Polotsk he rang the morning bells, early at St. Sophia’s the bells rang, and he heard the ringing in Kiev.” Analyzing the sentence, you can understand the meaning: the sound of the bell that rang in Polotsk reached Kyiv! Of course, in reality this cannot be, otherwise the residents of nearby settlements would lose their hearing. The term is of Latin origin: hyperbole means “exaggeration.” Almost all poets and writers used hyperbole, but Nikolai Gogol, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin stood out especially for their frequent use in their works. So, in Gogol’s play “The Inspector General” there was “a watermelon worth seven hundred rubles” on the table - another exaggeration, because a watermelon cannot cost that much, unless, of course, it is gold. In Mayakovsky’s “An Extraordinary Adventure,” the sunset glowed “as high as one hundred and forty suns,” that is, incredibly bright.
Litotes in fiction
Having found out the meaning of a hyperbole, it will not be at all difficult to figure out what litotes is. Gogol also often referred to this term. In the story “Nevsky Prospekt,” he described one man’s mouth as so small that he could not miss more than two pieces. In Nikolai Nekrasov’s famous poem “Peasant Children,” the hero is a small man, but this does not mean he is a centimeter tall: with the cast, the author only wanted to emphasize that the old short man was carrying a heavy armful of firewood. Sentences with litotes can also be found in other authors. By the way, this term comes from the Greek word litotes, which means “simplicity, restraint.”
Litotes and hyperbole in everyday speech
A person, without noticing it, uses hyperbole and litotes in everyday life very often. If you can still guess the meaning of hyperbole thanks to the well-known cognate verb “to hyperbolize,” what litotes is remains a mystery to many. Having gone broke, a rich man will say: “I have no money - the cat cried,” and when he sees a tiny girl walking down the street, you can notice what a “thumbelina” she is, and if she is a little guy, “a tom-thumb.” These are the most common examples of litotes. Each of us also uses hyperbole very often, for example, having met a friend by chance, the first remark will be “haven’t seen each other for a hundred years,” and a mother, tired of making the same remark to her fidgety son, will say: “I told you a thousand times!” . So, we can once again conclude that not everyone knows what litotes and hyperbole are, but even a three-year-old child uses these techniques.
Cultural significance of tropes
The role of stylistic figures in the Russian language is great: they give emotional coloring, enhance images and make speech more expressive. Without them, the works of Pushkin and Lermontov would have lost their splendor, and now you can use beautiful speech patterns more confidently, since you know, for example, what litotes is.
In literature it is impossible to do without these techniques, which make the Russian language one of the most expressive, complex and rich. So take care of the Russian language - this treasure, this heritage, as Turgenev and our other outstanding compatriots bequeathed to us.
Russian literature is replete with a variety of speech patterns. In order to make speech more vivid and expressive, people often use figurative language and stylistic devices: comparison, inversion and others. Everyone in his life, while reading this or that literature, has probably encountered such a concept as hyperbole, without even knowing the meaning of this term.
Use in literature
Hyperboles in literature All writers, without exception, love to use it. They do this in order to decorate their works, making them more emotional, bright, and full.
And this is not at all surprising, because without this stylistic figure and others like it, any work would be empty, boring and absolutely uninteresting. It is unlikely that such works would capture the reader’s attention, exciting his imagination, evoking in him numerous vivid emotions.
Hyperbole, in turn, helps to achieve such necessary effects. So what is a hyperbole in ? This artistic medium images, based on an excessive exaggeration of reality.
Advice! Another definition of hyperbole is exaggeration to the point of implausibility, so it is very important to remember and keep in mind that it does not need to be taken literally!
What is hyperbole used for?
They free the reader from the confines of reality and attribute supernatural characteristics natural phenomena and people. Hyperbole in literature does not play a role at all last role, since it makes our speech more lively and allows us to feel the emotional and state of mind narrator or author of the text.
This allows them to clearly and correctly convey the verbal atmosphere of the story. The function of hyperbole as a technique is - add brightness, emotionality and persuasiveness to the text. It is also often used by humor writers to create comic images for characters in their works, allowing the reader’s imagination to revive them in his imagination. .
How to find a hyperbole in a text?
Completing the task “find hyperbolas in the text” is quite simple, since among all the others speech patterns they stand out because they contain obvious exaggerations. Examples of usage: “this girl had eyes the size of saucers in surprise” or “this dog was the size of an elephant.”
All these phrases are apparent exaggeration of reality, because you won’t meet a girl with such big eyes on the street or a dog the size of an elephant, because such things simply do not exist and cannot exist in nature. These are the most simple examples use of the subject stylistic device in Russian literary language.
Attention! To find hyperbole in a text, it is enough to pay attention to an obvious significant exaggeration.
What is hyperbole in Russian?
Linguistics names any excessive exaggeration of properties, qualities, phenomena or actions to form a spectacular and attention-grabbing image created with a hyperbole .
It is used not only in literary language.
In ordinary colloquial speech it is also frequent guest. The difference between the first application and the second is that in his speech a person uses already existing statements, and the writer strives to create his own, exclusive statement in order to distinguish his own work from many others.
Examples
Examples of hyperbole from literary and colloquial speech:
- "rivers of blood";
- “You’re always late”;
- “mountains of corpses”;
- “haven’t seen each other for a hundred years”;
- "scare to death";
- “I told you a hundred times”;
- “a million apologies”;
- “a sea of ripened wheat”;
- “I’ve been waiting forever”;
- “I stood there all day”;
- “at least get wet”;
- “a house a thousand kilometers away”;
- "always late."
Examples in fiction
We can say that everything classical works rely on the transfer of the author’s emotions to the reader, who moves him into a situation created by himself. Hyperbole in literature, in classical works very actively used by many famous authors.