Author: I. A. Sheff (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Pages\n 996–1007

Summary\n: Unlike the metaphor, the simile as a theoretical matter of classical antiquity thinking has been analysed by few researchers. Aristotle, paying particular attention to simile termed ει̉κών and denoting certain processes of building artistic reality, also creates a new original system of both functioning and constructing of simile. The analysis of the explicit part of his theory shows that Aristotle does not set strict limits or boundaries of the device expressed by simile, on the contrary, he tries to expand them as much as possible. The explicit part of his theory is balanced by the implicit one – the examples, each of which is self-sufficient and demonstrative in itself, and, at the same time, all these instances build a certain system, as all of them have similar properties. The realia involved in creating vehicles in Aristotle’s examples, being familiar and clear to his contemporaries, also carry a certain paradoxicality. Analysis of the examples also allows us to make conclusions on Aristotle’s attitude to the form of similes. For him it is rather free and, generally, not so important – both the connecting words and the length of similes are varied. Aristotle was the first author who did not only provide a description of the simile, but also showed the manifold applications of this artistic device in general, its diversity and variety. His Rhetoric differed from other treatises on the subject comprising a set of definitions and rules, as it was a scholarly discourse on the theory of elocution, which explains the nature of his analysis.

Keywords\n: comparison, simile, metaphor, ancient rhetoric, Aristotle.

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