Any literary work contains a number of special stylistic devices, for example, metaphor, comparison, grotesque or hyperbole. Literature simply cannot do without specific linguistic means that give the work its special artistic expressiveness. Without stylistic devices, books of any genre would turn into usual description facts and content would resemble dry scientific works.
Definition
Hyperbole in literature is a means by which the properties of objects or phenomena are clearly and deliberately exaggerated in order to enhance the impact on readers. This stylistic device can be found in almost any writer, both classic and modern author.
- “every stroke, the shock is ready” N. A. Nekrasov;
- “as wide as the Black Sea” N.V. Gogol about Cossack trousers;
- “the wind blew and rose” Russian folk tales;
- “snores like a tractor” I. Ilf, E. Petrov;
- “chalk, chalk all over the earth” B. Pasternak.
Difference from similar linguistic means
Hyperbole in literature has similarities with other stylistic devices: metaphor, simile or grotesque. But there is significant differences. Grotesque is always a mixture of reality and fantasy, beauty and ugliness in order to create a special comic image. Simile and metaphor, just like hyperbole, compare objects and phenomena, but hyperbole is always an exaggeration. Examples: “legs like an elephant”, “high to the sky”, “said a thousand times”, etc.
Linguistic means of understatement
Hyperbole in literature has its opposite - litotes. This stylistic device is based on the understatement of objects or phenomena, for example, “a little man with a fingernail,” “the cat cried,” “just a stone’s throw away.” Some linguists consider litotes not an independent stylistic device, but a special case of hyperbole.
Language means in colloquial speech
Do not think that figurative expressions are an invention of the classics of the 16-17th centuries. Both hyperbole and other stylistic devices have been known since ancient times. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount - “as quickly as a camel will pass through the eye of a needle” or “waving, the street will become” in ancient Russian epics about Ilya Muromets. Hyperbole is actively used in colloquial speech, without it our language would be much poorer. Examples: “haven’t seen each other for a hundred years”, “at least a dime a dozen”, “an eternity”, “a berry is as big as a fist”, “I’m falling off my feet from fatigue”, etc. It also finds its application in oratory - the goal is everything the same, with the help of exaggeration to attract the attention of the audience and enhance the expressiveness of speech. Hyperbole is also used in advertising slogans, for example, “more than taste” or “never can't put it down.”
Visualization
There is also a visual analogue of this stylistic device, for example, on propaganda posters of the Soviet period, the figure of a Bolshevik always rose sharply not only above people, but also above the roofs of houses. The understatement of images (litotes) can be found in Bosch’s paintings, where a person is shown as small and insignificant, as a symbol of the vanity and insignificance of sinful everyday life.
Remember, hyperbole in literature is a figurative expression, so it should not be taken literally. It is only a means to focus attention or enhance expressiveness.
Writing acquires a special power of influence on human minds thanks to certain linguistic means. The use of stylistic devices makes literary text especially expressive, emotional, leaves the reader with an indelible impression of reading literature.
What is hyperbole in Russian?
A stylistic device, the name of which is borrowed from the ancient Greek language and is translated as “exaggeration,” is present in classical and modern works along with metaphor, epithet, metonymy, synecdoche, etc. What is hyperbole in literature? This is a deliberate exaggeration of the properties of phenomena and objects. The linguistic device is used in Russian colloquial speech for emotional enhancement, when there is not just the transfer of dry information, but a personal assessment of what is happening is emphasized.
The figure of speech was the favorite means of expression of the authors of folk tales and epics. The stylistic device was widely used by writers whose works became classics of literature. Humorous and satirical stories and poetic creativity provide visual reinforcement. Exaggeration is used wherever it is necessary to highlight one or another fact of reality.
Why is exaggeration used in literature?
Hyperbole catches attention, has a stimulating effect on the imagination, makes you look at the facts of reality in a new way, feel their significance, special role. Exaggeration overcomes the limits set by verisimilitude, imbues a person, thing, or natural phenomenon supernatural characteristics. expressive means emphasizes the conventionality of the world created by the writer. What is hyperbole in literature? The technique indicates the author’s attitude towards the depicted - sublime, idealistic or, conversely, mocking.
How is artistic exaggeration realized?
To clearly understand what hyperboles are in literature, you need to know the methods of implementing amplification inherent in the text work of art. Expressiveness is achieved by the writer through the use of lexical hyperboles, including the words “completely”, “at all”, “all”. The metaphorical device is based on a figurative comparison. Phraseological hyperboles in literature are set expressions. Quantitative amplification includes a number designation.
Lexical hyperboles
Expressiveness is created in literature through the use of certain words:
completely bad, completely incomprehensible handwriting, no good, everyone knows.
Metaphorical hyperboles
The following phrases contain figurative transfer: the whole world is a theater, a forest of hands, a boundless ocean of love, promise mountains of gold.
Phraseological hyperboles
The following exaggerations are common expressions:
the goat understands, I’ll beat you like a baby, the contract is cheaper than the paper it’s written on.
Quantitative hyperbolas
Numerical exaggerations contain the following expressions:
a thousand things to do for the evening, I warned you a million times, a mountain of folders with papers.
Poetic examples of hyperbole in Russian
The expressiveness of a poetic work is achieved by exaggerating the meaning of sentences:
But I love - for what, I don’t know myself -
Its steppes are coldly silent,
Her boundless forests sway,
The floods of its rivers are like seas (M.Yu. Lermontov)
The sunset glowed with one hundred and forty suns... (V.V. Mayakovsky)
Midnight whirlwind - the hero is flying!
Darkness from his brow, dust whistling from him!
Lightning from the eyes runs ahead,
The oak trees lie in a row behind (G.R. Derzhavin).
Goy, Rus', my dear,
The huts are in the robes of the image...
No end in sight -
Only blue sucks eyes (S. Yesenin).
Literary exaggeration in prose
The stylistic device has found application in classical works literature:
Meanwhile, before the eyes of those traveling, a wide, endless plain, intercepted by a chain of hills, spread out. (A.P. Chekhov “Steppe”)
A rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper. (N.V. Gogol “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”)
Unheard of activity suddenly began to boil in all parts of the city... (M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”)
Video: Definition of hyperbole
Hello, dear readers of the blog site. All of us in our lives have said or heard similar expressions at least once (and some more than once): YOU ARE ALWAYS LATE or HAVEN'T SEEN SEEN FOR A HUNDRED YEARS.
And few people thought that these phrases were devoid of any common sense. So, a person simply cannot “always be late.” And it’s impossible for someone not to see each other for “a hundred years,” if only because people rarely live that long.
Such exaggerations in Russian are called hyperboles and they will be discussed in this publication.
Hyperbole is a beautiful exaggeration
This word itself is Greek - “hyperbole” and it means “excess, excess, exaggeration.”
Hyperbole is one of the means strengthening emotional assessment, which consists in excessive exaggeration of any phenomena, qualities, properties or processes. This creates a more impressive image.
Moreover, exaggeration often reaches completely incomprehensible concepts, sometimes even. Any foreigner, if translated literally, will be clearly puzzled. We have long been accustomed to them, and perceive them as completely normal.
Here are examples of the most commonly used hyperboles in everyday life:
SCARE TO DEATH
A THOUSAND SORRY
AT LEAST FLY
RIVERS OF BLOOD
MOUNTAINS OF CORPSES
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER
GO OVER A THOUSAND KILOMETERS
STAYED ALL DAY
LOTS OF MONEY
A Feast FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
SEA OF TEARS
NOT SEEN FOR 100 YEARS
OCEAN OF PASSIONS
WEIGHS ONE HUNDRED POUNDS
Smother in your arms
SCARED TO DEATH
All listed expressions we constantly use in colloquial speech. And for the sake of experiment, just try to parse them verbatim and see how funny and sometimes absurd some of them are.
Well, for example, “at least fill yourself up” - this should be such an amount of liquid that it is enough for a whole pool into which you could plunge headlong. Although in fact, with this expression we just want to say that we have a lot of drinks - even more than we need.
Or does the phrase “a lot of money” actually mean just good things? financial condition, and not that a person has collected all his savings and let’s put them in one pile.
And we do not use the expression “to travel a thousand kilometers” when we are talking about a real distance, for example, from Moscow to Volgograd or Rostov-on-Don. But simply in the sense of “far”, although in fact in real numbers the distance there may be only a few kilometers.
And this way you can “debunk” absolutely any hyperbole. But you shouldn't do this. They do not have to mean the absolute truth; their task is to characterize a specific situation or thought in the most picturesque way, enhancing her emotional coloring.
Examples of hyperbole in fiction
In fact, such exaggerations are very old literary device. It was used, and this was almost a thousand years ago. With the help of hyperboles, the strength of the heroes and their opponents was repeatedly strengthened.
The heroic sleep lasted 12 DAYS (well, a person cannot sleep for almost two weeks)
Countless forces stood in the way of the hero - A WOLF WILL NOT OUTRUN THEM IN A DAY, A RAVE WILL NOT FLY FROM THEM IN A DAY (how many enemies should there be - a million?)
The hero waves his hand - A STREET IS AMONG ENEMIES, he waves another - AN ALLEY (that is, with one blow the hero kills several dozen at once)
Ilya Muromets took a club WEIGHTING ONE HUNDRED POUDS (here you must understand that one hundred pounds is one and a half tons)
The Nightingale the Robber whistles - THE FOREST IS LOANING TO THE GROUND, AND PEOPLE ARE FALLING DEAD (well, this is something out of a fairy tale)
Exactly the same hyperboles occur in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". For example:
“The Russians blocked with scarlet shields wide margins, seeking honor for yourself, and glory for the prince” or “An army such that you can splash the Volga with oars, and scoop up the Don with helmets.”
Among writers, Nikolai Vasilyevich has the most hyperbole Gogol. There are exaggerations in almost every one of his famous work. For example, he describes the Dnieper River:
A rare bird will fly to the middle of the Dnieper.
The Dnieper is like a road without end in length and without measure in width.
Or he uses exaggerations in his words, putting them in the mouths of the heroes:
I would destroy you all into flour! (Governor)
Thirty-five thousand couriers alone... The State Council itself is afraid of me. (Khlestakov)
And in " Dead souls" there are these words: "Countless human passions like the sands of the sea."
Almost every writer or poet uses hyperbole. With their help, they, for example, more colorfully describe the character of the heroes of works or show their author's attitude to them.
Moreover, writers often do not use already established expressions, but try to come up with something of their own.
Here's more examples of hyperbole in literature:
- And a mountain of bloody bodies prevented the cannonballs from flying (Lermontov)
- The sunset glowed with a hundred and forty suns (Mayakovsky)
- A million torments (Griboyedov)
- A decent person is ready to run away to distant lands for you (Dostoevsky)
- And the pine tree reaches the stars (Mandelshtam)
- In the dream, the janitor became as heavy as a chest of drawers (Ilf and Petrov)
Examples of hyperbole in advertising
Of course, without such an interesting technique that allows enhance the real meaning of words, advertisers couldn’t get through either. A lot of slogans are based on this principle. After all, the task is to attract the client’s attention, while promising “mountains of gold” and in every possible way emphasizing the uniqueness of the product:
- Taste on the verge of possible (chewing gum "Stimorol")
- Control over the elements (Adidas sneakers)
- King of salads (Oliviez mayonnaise)
The principle of hyperbole is also often used in the creation of advertising videos. For example, a series of famous videos about Snickers bars with the slogan “You are not you when you are hungry.” Where various characters turn into completely different people and start doing all sorts of stupid things, and only a candy bar can bring them back to normal.
These commercials clearly exaggerate (greatly exaggerate) the feeling of hunger and the “miraculous” power of Snickers itself.
Well the simplest example The hyperbole that is used in advertising is expressions like “the best”, “the most stylish”, “the most comfortable” and so on, but about prices, on the contrary, they say “the lowest”.
Instead of a conclusion
Give greater expressiveness and emotional coloring Any expression can be expressed not only with the help of hyperbole. There is a technique in the Russian language that is its complete opposite. He does not exaggerate, but, on the contrary, reduces the significance.
Before you can blink an eye, the years have already flown by.
This technique is called "". This will be discussed in detail in our next article.
Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site
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More than once I have heard, and even used, such a term as hyperbole.
Hyperbole in literature is used, as a rule, to denote a stylistic device of particularly exaggerating the properties of the described phenomenon or object, thereby enhancing the impression made.
In this article, I invite my readers to go into the fascinating world of their native language. After reviewing the information provided here, you can get answers to the following questions:
- What does the concept of hyperbole include in literature?
- For what purpose is it used?
- How often do we, without noticing it ourselves, use this
I decided to break the article into three parts: first, I’ll tell you more about the etymology of the word itself, then we’ll talk about the history and reasons for the emergence of the concept itself, and finally, you’ll learn about the role of hyperbole in modern stylistics.
Part 1. Etymology and modern definition of the word
So, first of all, let's delve into the history. From an etymological point of view, the word Greek origin“hyperbole” consists of two parts “hyper” and “bole”. The first is translated into Russian as “over”, “through” or “too”, while the second can be interpreted as “throw”, “throwing”, “throwing”. Around the 18th century, the word “hyperbole”, meaning “exaggeration,” appeared in the Latin language and began to be widely used.
There is also the opposite term - litotes. And if hyperbole in literature implies “exaggeration,” then litotes, on the contrary, is used for deliberate understatement.
For example, the phraseological units “sea of smells”, “ocean of love”, “haven’t seen each other for a hundred years” can be a hyperbole, while litotes can be “with a thimble”, “at your fingertips”.
Part 2. Reasons for the emergence of the term
It is probably difficult to imagine that the desire to excessively exaggerate both the significance and physical features objects originated in human thinking back in the days of the primitive communal system. Of course, the judgments of the first people on the planet were significantly different from the train of thought of people today. In those distant times, there was simply no clear line between fiction and real-life concepts. As you know, many centuries ago, hunters animated the world around them, leaders, animals, and natural phenomena. They endowed them with supernatural abilities, for example, incredible size, magical power, excessive dexterity and resourceful mind. Why? This process was simply inevitable, because... was the result of a huge dependence on the forces of nature, a lack of understanding of its laws, the inability to master everything that is happening, or the inability to explain to oneself the reasons for the occurrence of a particular event. The result was fear, a feeling of defenselessness, dependence, and as a result - imaginary gratitude, admiration, surprise and exaggeration.
Part 3. Hyperbole. Literature, classical and modern
In order to give the work artistic expressiveness, the authors try to use a variety of them, the most common of which are metaphors, comparisons, epithets and hyperboles. Currently, such hyperbole is used based on the interaction of the emotional and logical meaning of the same word.
I will give examples of hyperbole in literature: “This has already been said a thousand times” (quantity is exaggerated), “Enemies are smashed to smithereens” (quality), “He left, and the world ceased to exist for her” (emotions).
Sometimes it is very difficult not to confuse a hyperbole with a simile or metaphor, since they also often compare two objects. Remember that hyperbole in literature always means exaggeration. Let's say, "His feet were as big as skis." At first glance, this example resembles a comparison, but, remembering how long the skis actually are, you can understand that this is an exaggeration, and therefore a hyperbole.
The author usually resorts to this stylistic device to enhance the impression or sharpen the image. Modern realities also need to use hyperbole in order to enhance the effect of influencing the imagination or attracting attention.
April 7, 2014The 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 back 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.
Video on the topic
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 add 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.