Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Anaphora
Etymologically, literary device anaphora comprises two Greek terms; ana which means back, and pherein which means to bear. It later evolved into anaphora which means repetition. It entered the Latin language and thus came into use in the English language in the late 16th century.
Grammatically, it is a noun and its plural is anaphoras. It is the use of pronouns to avoid repetition, while in rhetoric it is the use of some words or a phrase in the beginning of every new clause or successive clauses.
In a literal sense, anaphora means using a word referring back to the same word used earlier in the sentence.
Definition of Literary Device of Anaphora
In literature, rhetoric, and composition, this term comprises a number of words or a phrase that occurs in the beginning of every new clause, or new sentence, or verse. It is used to stress upon the same idea through this repetition. It often occurs in conjunction with epistrophe which is contradictory to anaphor. It means the use of some words or phrases to occur at the end of a clause of a sentence and in successive clauses, sentences, or verses.
Examples of Literary Device of Anaphora in Literature and Lyrics
Example # 1
From “She Used to Be Mine” by Sara Bareilles
She is messy but she’s kind
She is lonely most of the time
She is all of this mixed up and baked in a beautiful pie
She is gone but she used to be mine.
These are the last verses of Sara Bareilles’s lyric “She Used to be Mine” in which she has constantly used “She is…” in every verse. Although this repetition stresses upon the girl that she is referring to, it also highlights her manners and physical traits, creating a complete pen-picture of her friend.
Example # 2
From Animal Farm by George Orwell
We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty.
This passage occurs in Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell. The Old Major constantly refers to “We are…” to stress upon the collectivity of the animals to make them rise up for rebellion against man’s oppression and injustice meted out to the animals. Therefore, this anaphoric use of “We are…” rhetorically helps him persuade the animals to listen to him.
Example # 3
From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I like this day; I like that sky of steel; I like the sternnessand stillness of the world under this frost. I like Thornfield, its antiquity, its retirement, its old crowtrees and thorn-trees, its grey facade, and lines of dark windows reflecting that metal welkin: and yet how long have I abhorredthe very thought of it, shunned it like a great plague-house? How I do still abhor—
This passage occurs in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte has used “I like…” as an anaphora in this passage to cleverly present the first-person emphasis on the character of Jane. There is also the use of “its” which shows the repetition in an anaphoric way. Both of these examples led credence to the effectiveness of anaphora in writing.
Example # 4
From Hard Times by Charles Dickens
The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside.
This passage occurs in Hard Times written by Charles Dickens. Dickens here uses “The emphasis was…” to refer to the stress of the speaker through his different things such as voice, face, and hair. In a sense, he is referring to paralinguistic features that help a rhetor use his/her body language to persuade his/her listeners or readers.
Example # 5
From “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska
I prefer movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the Warta.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
The use of “I prefer…” in these verses shows how much stress is upon the personal preference of the poet. This example from “Possibilities” by Szymborska shows the beautiful use of an anaphora.
From Night by Elie Wiesel
I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger.
Although there are several examples of anaphoras in Night by Elie Wiesel, this one is interesting in that it shows how “I no longer..” and “I was” occur at different intervals to stress upon the point of religion and its role in the Holocaust. Wiesel has beautifully used his theological discourse to stress upon his Jewish identity.
Example # 6
From The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisenor
It might have been the day that gray photograph was taken. It might have been the day she was holding cousin Totchy and baby Frank. It might have been the moment she pointed to the camera for the kids to look and they wouldn’t. Maybe the sky didn’t look the day she fell down. Maybe God was busy. It could be true she didn’t dive right one day and hurt her spine. Or maybe the story that she fell very hard from a high step stool, like Totchy said, is true.
This passage occurs in the novel by Sandra Cisenor, The House on Mango Street. She constantly starts her sentence with “It might have been…” and “Maybe…” She wants to stress upon the fallibility of her memory and her guess about her friends and their activities. This also stresses upon the major point that she is referring to with reference to Mango Street.
How to Create Anaphora
- Plan what you want to stress upon such as “As I said…”
- Create your plan to use it in the first part of every clause of a sentence.
- Use it in conversation when talking about the same issue you have planned such as “As I said you have knowledge of it and you know it better. As I said earlier that you will win and as I said you won it.”
- Create three to four anaphoras in your conversation every day.
Benefits of Using Literary Device of Anaphora
- It helps repeat the same point to stress upon some specific discourse.
- Constantly repetition at a specific point helps make a deep impact on the audience.
- It helps audiences remember points easily and absorb the major lesson of a literary piece.
- It helps the writers to persuade the audience easily.
Anaphora in Literary Theory
- Although the use of the literary device of anaphora in literary theory is a bit ambiguous, as a rhetorical term, it helps the writers clarify their messages and stress upon the main point. However, its interpretations from the readers’ point of view rely mainly on the context. Therefore, it mostly depends on its antecedent or what comes after it. Hence, it is a dietic use of anaphora that works better. It means it is based on the context in which it is used.
- The literary device of anaphora is mostly associated with power and discourse. That is why it often appears significant in indigenous studies, post-colonial theory, post-structuralism, and most importantly in formalism. It is even considered an important part of the syntactical features of discourse.
- Anaphora is part and parcel of rhetoric. It emphasizes a point and lends credence of the argument of the writer by presenting him/her with handy logos.
Suggestion Readings
Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary Of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.
Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Reinhart, Tanya Miriam. The Syntactic Domain of Anaphora. Diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976.
Keep on learning: Literary Device: Characterization
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