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English Literature
Literary Devices
Chiasmus
Chiasmus
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This article is an exciting one; a stimulating read this one will be. No, that's not Yoda. That was an example of chiasmus, a unique literary device you've likely seen before but may not have known the name of! Chiasmus often sounds like Yoda because, much like chiasmus, Yoda inverts his grammatical phrases. In its basic form, chiasmus involves taking the key concepts of one phrase, reversing them, and displaying the inverted phrase next to the original.
All of this may sound complicated at first, but you'll pick it up in no time. Let's look at the key elements, types, and examples of chiasmus to help you better understand how it's applied.
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Chiasmus: definition
To understand chiasmus, let's look at a basic definition and then identify the essential features of the device.
Chiasmus is a literary device. It involves stating one phrase and then inverting it in the following phrase, meaning that the critical elements of the first phrase feature in the second in reverse order. This is done to create a stylised effect, in which two constructions appear to mirror each other.
An example of chiasmus is:
I sprinted quickly; swiftly, I ran
As you can see, the colour-coded concepts are related, and the first and second phrases are mirrored. At first, this may seem confusing, so let's break down the crucial factors that make chiasmus unique.
Words that are 'related'
All sentences with chiasmus must contain words that are related to each other. Let's look at a simple example to explain this concept:
A pet could help with your worrying; that anxiety could be cured by a dog.
In this example, 'pet' is related to 'dog' and 'anxiety' is related to 'worrying'. You'll notice that the words in each phrase do not need to be identical; they only need to be related.
Two words can be 'related' in a variety of ways. The most common form of chiasmus contains words that have similar meanings, as seen in the example above. However, chiasmus can also include terms that are related because they are opposites of each other. For example:
I could not accept the end of the day, but when night arrived, I could not refuse it.