Topothesia
Topothesia is “the description of an imaginable or non-existent place”.[1] It has been classified as a type of enargia[2] (a synonym to “hypotyposis”), which is a “generic name for a group of figures aiming at vivid, lively description”. Edgar Allan Poe used enargia frequently to describe his characters in his literary works.[3] According to Philip Hardie, a professor at the University of Cambridge, its determining characteristic is its position within a text. Normally, when the descriptive analysis of a place is found to discontinue a narrative, this interrupting section can be considered topothesia. In addition, it has a stereotyped entry formula that facilitates distinguishing the narrative from the descriptive. In most famous texts, topothesia begins with est locus (“there is a place” in Latin), as can be seen in Metamorphoses[4] by Ovid.[5]
Etymology[edit]
Topothesia is derived from a mixture of two Greek words: “topos” (τοπος), which literally translated means “place”, and the suffix “-thesia”, which is obtained from the noun "thesis", meaning “setting forth". In ancient Greek the word always seems to refer to the description or arrangement of a real place,[6] while the application of the word to an imaginary description (as opposed to "topographia", the description of a real place) is first found in the Latin commentator Servius.[7]
Examples[edit]
Topothesia is a tool often used in poetry rather than by orators. A renowned poet who frequently utilized topothesia along with other forms of enargia was Edgar Allan Poe. A popular poem that featured various examples of topothesia is “Dreamland”.[8]
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of Space – Out of Time.
Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily. (“Dream-Land,” 7:89)[9]
However, this rhetorical term was apparent in other of Poe's works of fiction like “The Domain of Arnheim”.[10] This short story was recognized for its repeated use of topothesia. According to author and professor at York University, Brett Zimmerman, “the tale’s entire second half is a description of Arnheim, an artificial paradise on Earth – “the phantom handiwork, conjointly, of the Sylphs, of the Fairies, of the Genii, and of the Gnomes” (6: 196). We also have “Landor’s Cottage: A Pendant to ‘The Domain of Arnheim’.” That piece really has no plot; it is extended topothesia – an exercise in picturesque description of a place…”[11]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Oxford, Topos.
- ^ Oxford, Enargia.
- ^ Zimmerman 2005, p. 195.
- ^ Anderson 1998, [full citation needed].
- ^ Hardie 2002, p. 122.
- ^ Liddell-Scott-Jones, "τοποθεσία".
- ^ On Vergil's Aeneid 1.159
- ^ Zimmerman 2005, p. 321.
- ^ Poe 2012.
- ^ Poe.
- ^ Zimmerman 2005, p. 322.
References[edit]
Primary Sources[edit]
- Oxford Dictionary (American English). United States.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)[full citation needed] - "Online Etymology Dictionary". 2014.
Secondary Sources[edit]
- Anderson, William S. (1998). Metamorphoses.[full citation needed]
- Books 1-5 ISBN 9780806128948
- Books 6-10 ISBN 9780806114569
- Connors, Robert J. (1995). The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing.
- Hardie, Philip R. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Ovid.
- Liddell-Scott-Jones. Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed.). s.v.
- Poe, Edgar Allan (2012). The Domain of Arnheim.
- Poe, Edgar Allan. Dream-Land.
- Zimmerman, Brett (2005). Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style.