Every person 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 an enhanced impression on readers.
This stylistic device is used by many contemporary writers and authors.
What is the difference between hyperbole and other literary devices?
Hyperbole has similarities with other stylistic devices, such as
- metaphor,
- grotesque,
- comparison.
However, these language tools have differences. So, for example, the grotesque is one of the types
- artistic imagery,
- contrast between reality and fantasy,
- ugliness and beauty,
which helps to 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 the literature also has an opposite method, which also compares phenomena, but in a diminutive way. It's called lithot. Example:
- give a hand,
- Tom Thumb.
Cause of hyperbole
It is difficult to imagine that the need for excessive exaggeration originated in 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 idea of what fiction and reality are. The oldest people endowed magic power those phenomena that could not be explained. They were afraid of such phenomena. As a result, they began to appear
- Gratitude,
- astonishment,
- worship,
- exaggeration.
Use of hyperbole in modern and classical literature
Without use literary devices the work will be insipid, boring and uninteresting. Therefore, all authors use them in their works. The basis of the use of hyperbole in literature is the interaction of expansive and naturally occurring meanings of the same phrases.
- this news has already been told a million times (there is an exaggeration of the number);
- they quarreled to the nines (quality is affected);
- he left her alone, and the world was gone for her (emotions involved).
“Hyperbole is very easy to confuse with similar devices such as metaphor and simile. Their task is also to compare objects and phenomena. But one must always remember that if there is any exaggeration in the comparison, then this is hyperbole.
If you say that his ears are like those of an elephant, then it is clear that this is a comparison. But if you analyze it, you can understand that this is an exaggeration, that such a comparison was used in figuratively since human ears can't be that big. Therefore, this comparison is a hyperbole.
This approach is used for
- giving expression to the proposal,
- importance,
- to draw the reader's attention to it.
In Russian literature, they willingly used this technique Russian classics
- A.S. Griboedov,
- A.N. Ostrovsky,
- N.V. Gogol,
- L.N. Tolstoy.
Epics are also full of hyperbole. 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 remember television commercials, most of them use hyperbolic technique.
Video: Japanese advertisement
More than once I have heard, and even used, such a term as hyperbole.
Hyperbole in the literature is used, as a rule, in order to designate a stylistic device of a special exaggeration of the properties of the described phenomenon or object, thereby enhancing the impression made.
In this article, I invite my readers to go to fascinating world mother tongue. After reviewing the information provided here, you can get answers to the following questions:
- What does the concept of hyperbole in literature include?
- For what purpose is it used?
- Do we often, without noticing it ourselves, use this
I decided to divide the article into three parts: first, to tell in more detail about the etymology of the word itself, then we will talk about the history and reasons for the emergence of the concept itself, and, finally, you will learn about the role of hyperbole in modern style.
Part 1. Etymology and modern definition words
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”, the second can be interpreted as “throw”, “throwing”, “throwing”. Since about the 18th century Latin the word "hyperbole" signified by "exaggeration" appears and begins to be widely used.
There is also an opposite term - litote. And if hyperbole in literature implies "exaggeration", then litotes, on the contrary, are used for deliberate understatement.
For example, phraseologisms “a sea of smells”, “an ocean of love”, “have not seen each other for a hundred years” can act as a hyperbole, “with a thimble”, “at hand” as a litote.
Part 2. Reasons for the emergence of the term
It is probably hard to imagine that the desire to exaggerate both the importance and physical features subject originated in the thinking of man in the days of the primitive communal system. Of course, the judgments of the first people on the planet differed significantly from the train of thought of today's people. In those distant times, there was simply no clear line between fiction and reality. existing concepts. As you know, many centuries ago, hunters animated the world around them, leaders, animals, natural phenomena. They gave them supernatural abilities, for example, incredible size, magical power, excessive dexterity and dodgy mind. Why? This process was simply inevitable, because. was the result of a huge dependence on the forces of nature, a misunderstanding of its laws, an inability to master everything that happens, or the inability to explain to oneself the causes of an event. As a result, there 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 artistic expressiveness to the work, the authors try to use various metaphors, comparisons, epithets and hyperbole are considered the most common among them. Currently, such as hyperbole is used, based on the interaction of the emotional and logical meanings of the same word.
I will give examples of hyperbole in the literature: “This has already been said a thousand times” (the number is exaggerated), “The 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 hyperbole with comparison or metaphor, since they also often compare two objects. Remember that hyperbole in literature always means exaggeration. Say, "His feet were as big as skis." At first glance, this example resembles a comparison, but remembering what the actual length of the skis is, you can understand that this is an exaggeration, which means hyperbole.
The author usually resorts to this stylistic device to enhance the impression or sharpen the image. Modern realities also require the use of hyperbole in order to enhance the effect of influencing the imagination or attracting attention.
Russian literature is replete with a variety of speech turns. In order to make speech more vivid and expressive, people often use figurative means of language and stylistic devices: comparison, inversion, and others. Everyone in his life, when reading this or that literature, probably met with such a concept as hyperbole, not even suspecting the meaning of this term.
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Use in literature
Hyperbolas in literature very fond of using all writers without exception. They do this in order to decorate their works, making them more emotional, vivid, filled.
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 attention of the reader, exciting his imagination, causing him numerous vivid emotions.
Hyperbole, in turn, just helps to achieve such necessary effects. So what is hyperbole in ? This is an artistic medium based on an 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 for?
They free the reader from reality and attribute supernatural characteristics natural phenomena and people. Hyperbole in literature plays by no means last role, as it makes our speech more lively, and allows you 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 device is give brightness, emotionality and persuasiveness to the text. It is also often used by humorous writers to create comic images for characters in their works, allowing the reader's imagination to revive them in their imagination. .
How to find hyperbole in text?
Complete the task "find hyperbole in the text" is quite simple, because among all the others speech turns they are distinguished by the fact that they have clear exaggeration. Examples of usage: "this girl had saucer-sized eyes in surprise" or, "this dog was the size of an elephant."
All these phrases are apparent exaggeration of reality, because you will not meet a girl on the street with such big eyes or a dog the size of an elephant, because there are simply none and cannot be in nature. These are the most simple examples the use of the considered stylistic device in the Russian literary language.
Attention! To find hyperbole in the text, it is enough to pay attention to a clear significant exaggeration.
What is hyperbole in Russian?
Linguistics refers to any excessive exaggeration of properties, qualities, phenomena or actions to form an effective and eye-catching created image hyperbole .
It is used not only in literary language.
In normal colloquial speech she is also a frequent visitor. The difference between the first application and the second is that in his speech a person uses existing statements, and the writer seeks to create his own, exclusive statement in order to highlight own work from many others.
Examples
Examples of hyperbole from artistic and colloquial speech:
- "rivers of blood";
- "always late";
- "mountains of corpses";
- “have not seen each other for a hundred years”;
- "scare to death";
- “I said a hundred times”;
- "a million apologies";
- "sea of ripened wheat";
- “I have been waiting for an eternity”;
- “stood all day”;
- "at least fill up";
- "a house a thousand kilometers away";
- "Always late."
Examples in fiction
It can be said that everything classical works rest on the transfer of the author's emotions to the reader, who moves him into a situation created by himself. Hyperbole in literature classical works very actively used by many famous authors.
Literature is rich in means artistic expressiveness that help authors the best way convey your idea to the reader. So, when studying the works of the classics, students look for epithets, comparisons, personifications in them and try to figure out why the writer used this or that technique. To the number artistic means also applies to hyperbole, which we will consider.
Definition
Consider what a hyperbole is, examples of which will be given below. This is a special deliberate exaggeration that allows you to achieve the effect the author needs. The term is very ancient, the technique began to be used in the era of antiquity. used to express hyperbole language tools: words, combinations of words and sentences.
The simplest examples
Hyperbole is widely used in Russian. Examples will show that we often use this technique without even paying attention. For example, the words "I've already told you a thousand times!". In this case, “a thousand times” is an exaggeration, because the author of the statement, firstly, is unlikely to have said anything so many times. Secondly, she did not count the number of her repetitions. Another example of hyperbole in Russian: "We haven't seen each other for a hundred years." Here we are talking that people have not met for a long period of time, but certainly not a hundred years.
Saying that he has a million problems, a person will emphasize that he now has a black streak in life, and there is no talk of a clear quantitative description of the problems. Similar examples many can be given:
- "There are a hundred reasons why I still strive to get an education."
- “Grandfather has a thousand sores, and he is still working in the garden.”
- “You won’t believe it, you saw such a large man yesterday. Not a man, but an elephant. Here the hyperbola is connected to the comparison element. A person is likened to an elephant in terms of weight.
- "Sit, work, earn a million!". This example clearly sounds ironic. The speaker greatly exaggerates the earning potential of his opponent, mockingly makes fun of him.
- “You say Masha didn’t go to college? Yes, everyone knows this!” The example presents lexical hyperbole, exaggeration is achieved through the phrase "everyone knows". It is clear that this is not so, because residents of another city may not know about Masha's problems, and they are not interested in them.
Often, without paying attention ourselves, we use hyperbole. The examples in Russian given above illustrate this idea.
Varieties
There are several types of hyperbole in Russian:
- Lexical. Exaggeration is achieved by using the words "perfectly", "all", "absolutely". For example, a completely useless person, everyone has long known this.
- Metaphorical. This is a memorable comparison. For example, the forest of hands, golden mountains.
- Phraseological. Use For example, a goat understands.
- Quantitative. Numerals: A million things to do, a thousand ideas.
All these types of exaggerations can be used by native speakers unconsciously, without being perceived as an artistic and stylistic device.
Modern options
Young people often use hyperbole in speech. There are many examples in Russian:
- “We have already passed this 100,500 times! Is it hard to remember?
- “We still have a wagon and a small cart of time, we will do everything.”
Such statements allow you to make speech more figurative and expressive.
From works of art
Writers often use hyperbole. Examples from the literature are quite varied. So, very often Pushkin turned to this technique: "All the flags will visit us."
Yesenin, when creating the image of Rus', used an exaggeration: "There is no end in sight, only the blue sucks the eyes."
There are hyperbole in Mayakovsky's lyrics:
- “In battle I praise millions, I see millions, I sing millions.”
- The poem "Cloud in Pants" ends very in an interesting way based on the technique of exaggeration: “Hey, you! Sky! Take off your hat! I'm going!" This helps the poet to express the strength and power of the human personality.
- Often the poet exaggerates the size human body, creating capacious and sharp satirical image: "Two arshins of faceless pink dough, head in Kazbek, stomach in the ditch."
Several interesting examples hyperbole in Russian when exaggeration concerns inanimate objects: to heaven baobabs, sting a kilometer.
Often, for the effect of exaggeration, the poet uses words in a figurative sense: block, carcass. Or combinations of words that individually do not have this property, but put together create hyperbolization: glasses-bicycles, eyes, two meadows.
An example of hyperbole from the literature can also be found in the work of other writers: “harem trousers, the width of the Black Sea” (Gogol), “for four years we prepared an escape, we saved three tons of grubs” (Vysotsky).
We examined what hyperbole is, and examples of its use by masters of the word. This technique makes it possible to make the writers' speech figurative and more expressive, to draw the reader's attention to some property or feature of the described object or person. Also, it was deliberate exaggeration that often helped the author express his attitude to what was happening.
