32 pages • 1 hour read
LonginusOn the Sublime
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 100A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 16-29 Summary
This section comprises Longinus’s discussion of “figures”—rhetorical devices and figures of speech. While it is beyond the scope of his treatise to deal with every possible figure, he will touch on those that “complement greatness” (27).
Figures of speech “naturally reinforce greatness” in writing (29). Rhetorical questions and their answers can make a passage more successful and convincing. By asking a question and then answering it himself, the writer produced an effect of emotional spontaneity. An effect of urgent emotion is achieved by asyndeton, a literary device in which connective particles (like “and”) are omitted and the clauses proceed in a disconnected fashion. A similar device, hyperbaton, is an arrangement of words or ideas that imitates the flow of our thoughts, conveying a “living passion.” An even greater effect is accomplished when two or three of these figures are combined.
Other sources of greatness are to use plural nouns in sequence, or, the opposite, to designate separate things together, using a collective noun.
Other examples of figures that convey greatness, emotion, and immediacy are:
- The historic present, in which historical events are described in the present tense;
- Changing person abruptly during a speech (e.g., talking about a group of people in the third person, then suddenly speaking to them directly);
- Periphrasis, or substituting a different or metaphorical phrase for a common word (e.g., saying “the fated journey” in place of “death”).
Chapters 16-29 Analysis
Longinus’s chapters on rhetorical devices and figures of speech emphasize that powerful writing must balance the greatness of technical special effects with a natural, spontaneous response to its environment and audience.
A figure can convey the effect of an object or an action more vividly than plain description can—for example, a violent scene can be made more visceral to the reader if the writer uses an abrupt series of phrases. Longinus also ascribes rhetorical power to the use of collective nouns. We use such a device when we say, for example, “America attacked Germany,” where the entire country stands in for certain people. An opposite device, designates singular things by plurals, for a grand effect. In both cases, the success of the device lies in the unexpected turn of phrase.
Though figures enrich writing, Longinus reminds his readers to maintain balance by not overusing them. Periphrasis, for instance, means varying word choice by substituting a synonymous word or phrase, similar to our modern concept of the “elegant variation.” Longinus recommends this device but also warns that it is a “hazardous business” and not to use it excessively (40).
Rhetorical devices must arise naturally rather than being contrived, and must express a relatable human state of mind. Longinus praises Thucydides, an Athenian historian and general, for the feeling of suspense his use of hyperbaton creates, breaking up clauses to suggest a frantic series of thoughts. Longinus especially admires Demosthenes, who uses hyperbaton to lead his audience on a “dangerous” journey, awaiting the outcome and fearing that it might collapse at any moment. Demosthenes’s rhetoric reflects the emotional state of watching a fight: it conveys “realistic vehemence” and compels the audiences to “experience that danger” (34).
