prosopopoeia
- noun
- /ˌprɒsəˈpoʊpiə/
- Literature
:
prosopopeya
- As Paul de Man has argued about prosopopoeia, such an attempt is necessarily self-deconstructing: words can only gesture toward the desired presence.
- prosopopoeia is a trope
- prosopopoeia (or personification)
Examples
-
Browning's most characteristic technique is prosopopoeia, or making the dead speak, the trope employed in his dramatic monologues.
Academic text (2017) -
Its rhetorical mode, therefore, employs both prosopopoeia and autobiography, with Vallotton acting as ghostwriter for his deceased fictional subject.
Academic text (2015) -
Thus, in observing paintings of death, ekphrasis, describing the silent dead, alternates with prosopopoeia, making the dead speak.
Academic text (2017) -
As such, autobiography is an exemplary case of prosopopoeia (literally, the conferring of a mask), representing an absent, deceased, or imaginary person speaking or acting.
Academic text (2015) -
In the poem, the author uses prosopopoeia to give a voice to the wind, making it express its feelings about the changing seasons.
-
Shakespeare's use of prosopopoeia is evident when he has the characters of Fate and Death speak directly to the audience.
-
The speech employs prosopopoeia by portraying the town as a character that laments its lost history and forgotten stories.
Synonyms
20
3.7
Words used to mean something different to create a strong picture
2
7.5
Giving human qualities to things and ideas in stories
How Personified
- Literature
- Literature
263
4.2
Surface Forms
Etymology
Prosopopoeia comes from the Greek parts prosop- meaning 'face' or 'person' and -poeia meaning 'to make', a bit like a 'poet' who makes pictures with words. So prosopopoeia is literally 'making a person' out of an idea or thing, and writers use it to give ideas a human voice.