Calembour in Literature

Calembour in Literature: Introduction

Calembour in literature, commonly known as punning, holds a significant role as a playful and clever linguistic device. This wordplay involves exploiting the multiple meanings or sounds of a term, adding layers of meaning to the narrative. Writers often use calembour to inject humor, wit, or subtle commentary into their works, engaging readers with the clever manipulation of language. Beyond its entertainment value, calembour serves as a tool for authors to convey complex ideas through linguistic nuances, contributing to the richness and depth of literary expression. Its versatile nature allows for its application across various literary genres, making it a timeless and enduring element in the literary landscape.

Calembour in Literature: Shakespearean Examples

1. Romeo and Juliet:
   • Calembour: “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”
   • Explanation: Mercutio plays on the double meaning of “grave,” suggesting both seriousness and foreshadowing his impending death.
2. Hamlet:
   • Calembour: “This fisher wharf, where our dear brother’s wreck.”
   • Explanation: Hamlet uses “wreck” to refer to both the destruction of a ship and the emotional ruin caused by his brother’s actions.
3. Macbeth:
   • Calembour: “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”
   • Explanation: Lady Macbeth reflects on her guilt, using “sweeten” to allude to both fragrance and moral cleansing.
4. Much Ado About Nothing:
   • Calembour: “I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by failing in love.”
   • Explanation: Benedick humorously explores the paradox of a man scorning love and then becoming the object of his own mockery when he falls in love.
5. As You Like It:
   • Calembour: “I like this place, and willingly could waste my time in it.”
   • Explanation: Rosalind uses “waste” to suggest both spending time and losing it, creating a playful ambiguity.
6. Twelfth Night:
   • Calembour: “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”
   • Explanation: This calembour plays on the dual meanings of “hanging,” referring both to execution and a decorative tapestry.
7. Hamlet:
   • Calembour: “Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun.”
   • Explanation: Hamlet uses the double meaning of “sun,” referring to both the celestial body and the king (his uncle), highlighting his discomfort with his uncle’s proximity.
8. King Lear:
   • Calembour: “Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!”
   • Explanation: Lear plays with the term “zed” (the letter ‘Z’), expressing his frustration with the letter’s seeming redundancy in the alphabet.
9. Merchant of Venice:
   • Calembour: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?”
   • Explanation: Shylock uses the calembour to emphasize the common humanity shared by Jews and Christians, challenging prevailing stereotypes.
10. A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
    • Calembour: “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
    • Explanation: Puck comments on the foolishness of humans, using “fools” to play on both the sense of silliness and the colloquial term for mortal beings.

Calembour in Literature: Examples

1. Charles Dickens – “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859):
   • Calembour: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
   • Explanation: Dickens cleverly contrasts the dual nature of the times, utilizing the repeated structure for emphasis and wordplay.
2. Lewis Carroll – “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865):
   • Calembour: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
   • Explanation: Carroll introduces a playful riddle, intentionally leaving the question unanswered and highlighting the whimsicality of Wonderland.
3. Oscar Wilde – “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895):
   • Calembour: “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time.”
   • Explanation: Wilde humorously explores the concept of a “double life,” employing a calembour on “being earnest.”
4. William Faulkner – “The Sound and the Fury” (1929):
   • Calembour: “I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it.”
   • Explanation: Faulkner uses “mausoleum” to symbolize both a tomb and a repository for memory, creating a complex play on words.
5. George Orwell – “Animal Farm” (1945):
   • Calembour: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
   • Explanation: Orwell satirically employs the calembour to highlight the hypocrisy and absurdity of the pigs’ proclamations in the allegorical novella.
6. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (1967):
   • Calembour: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
   • Explanation: Marquez uses “firing squad” both literally and metaphorically, creating a profound and tragic calembour.
7. J.K. Rowling – “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (1998):
   • Calembour: “Why spiders? Why couldn’t it be ‘follow the butterflies’?”
   • Explanation: Rowling cleverly contrasts the ominous nature of spiders with the more innocuous and whimsical image of butterflies, creating a humorous twist.
8. Haruki Murakami – “Kafka on the Shore” (2002):
   • Calembour: “Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on.”
   • Explanation: Murakami plays on the dual meanings of “disappear,” emphasizing the inability to escape reality by simply closing one’s eyes.
9. Arundhati Roy – “The God of Small Things” (1997):
   • Calembour: “In those early amorphous years when memory had only just begun, when life was full of Beginnings and no Ends, and Everything was Forever, Estha Orangedrink Lemondrink Man was seven and Rahel Esthapappu was almost nine.”
   • Explanation: Roy creatively uses the calembour on “Beginnings” and “Ends” to capture the essence of childhood innocence and the perception of time.
10. Kurt Vonnegut – “Slaughterhouse-Five” (1969):
    • Calembour: “There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again.”
    • Explanation: Vonnegut uses the calembour on “intelligent” to reflect the senselessness of discussing a massacre and the loss of meaningful expression in the face of tragedy.

Calembour in Literature: Relevance in Literary Theories

Literary Theory	Relevance of Calembour
Structuralism	Calembour can be seen as a linguistic structure, playing with the inherent structures of language to create meaning and significance.
Deconstruction	Calembour aligns with deconstructive principles by destabilizing language, revealing its multiple interpretations and inherent ambiguities.
Psychoanalytic Theory	Calembour may be analyzed through a psychoanalytic lens, exploring how language choices reflect unconscious thoughts and desires.
Feminist Criticism	Calembour can be examined for gendered language and how it contributes to or challenges traditional gender roles and stereotypes.
Marxist Criticism	Calembour may be analyzed for its socio-economic implications, revealing power dynamics and social commentary embedded in language.
New Criticism	Calembour’s significance lies in its contribution to the overall meaning and impact of a literary work, emphasizing close textual analysis.
Postcolonial Criticism	Calembour may be explored in postcolonial literature to uncover how language reflects cultural identities and challenges colonial legacies.
Reader-Response Theory	Calembour invites varied reader interpretations, engaging readers actively in the construction of meaning and contributing to their experience.
Postmodernism	Calembour aligns with postmodern principles by challenging linguistic norms, embracing intertextuality, and blurring the lines between high and low culture.
Cultural Studies	Calembour reflects cultural nuances and may be examined for its role in reinforcing or subverting cultural norms and values within literature.

Calembour in Literature: Relevant Terms

1. Wordplay: Playful and clever use of language.
2. Ambiguity: Presence of multiple meanings in a phrase.
3. Double Entendre: Phrase with two meanings, often suggestive.
4. Wit: Cleverness, often expressed through language.
5. Punning: Making a play on words for humor.
6. Irony: Using language to signify the opposite.
7. Satire: Humorous criticism or mockery.
8. Paronomasia: Formal term for wordplay.
9. Literary Device: Techniques enhancing literary impact.

Calembour in Literature: Suggested Readings

1. Abrams, M.H., and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.
2. Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Macmillan, 1865.
3. Cuddon, J.A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
4. Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Penguin, 1999.
5. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Oxford University Press, 1726.
6. Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Dover Publications, 1990.
7. Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. Harper Perennial, 1966.
8. Joyce, James. Ulysses. Vintage, 1990.
9. Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Macmillan, 1871.