Confuzzled

[katyhasclogs]

Can anyone help me out with a definition of pathetic fallacy?

I always thought it was (among other things) when the weather reflected the mood of a person or story, and I'm sure that was what I was taught at school, but the Wikipedia entry seems to indicate it's more like what I would refer to as personification...

Comments

[katyhasclogs]

Dictionary.com and Encyclopedia Britannica seem to agree with Wikipedia...

I'm glad to know I'm not the only person to think the other explanation though. Maybe I'll go check the OED too.

[duck_or_rabbit]

Blackwell's Philosophic Encyclopedia is a good reference for academic terminology: ETA: some entries are public, some are not. Hit and miss. Sorry this isn't an open database like I thought it may be.

http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405106795_chunk_g978140510679517_ss1-41

[katyhasclogs]

Interesting, their definition seems slightly more nuanced and a little closer to what I'd originally thought, though not quite the same.

Thanks for the link. :)

Edited to say:

ETA: some entries are public, some are not. Hit and miss. Sorry this isn't an open database like I thought it may be.

That's ok - my uni has access to an e-book for it, so I got to read the entry that way.

[duck_or_rabbit]

Oh good! (I would've PM'ed you my own login credentials, so you know. ::give you scholarly nod, but not the snobby kind::)

Good luck :).

[bookish_brownie]

I always thought it was your definition, too. My Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms takes a middle road. It says it is "the poetic convention whereby natural phenomena which cannot feel as humans do are described as if they could...in sympathy with the poet's (or imagined speaker's) mood." (added emphasis).

[katyhasclogs]

Interesting... There seem to be a few different ways of looking at it. And I'm clearly far from alone in thinking what I did!

Thanks :)

[lady_bracknell]

As far as I know (and I'm watching Merlin and too lazy to go to the study for a book to check, lol) pathetic fallacy is a Ruskin term and relates more to art (even though it was later appropriated by lit critics). He was very interested in naturalism rather than imagination, and pathetic fallacy is his term for something that lacks the necessary scientific approach to rendering (which for him should include a sensory aspect but have that derive from reality rather than imagination). I think the Ruskin definition was later widened to encompass personification as an analogue in poetry of his thinking. I don't know if it that helps at all.

[katyhasclogs]

Yeah, what you say is mentioned in all those definitions, although I'm not sure if they're also implying that Ruskin used it for poetry eventually himself.

I think I might just write "the weather reflects the mood" and be done with it!

[shimotsuki]

No help here, I'm afraid. Don't know nothin' 'bout literature.

[katyhasclogs]

Well I'm afraid that's just not good enough. I may have to disown you. ;)

[shimotsuki]

Eep! Well, what if I told you I had 'John Barleycorn' turn up on my iPod Shuffle this morning on my walk to work? ;)

[katyhasclogs]

Cool! It always gives me a smile when a Japanese piece turns up on my iPod.

Recently I've been trying to decide if the tune of John Barleycorn is the same as the tune for 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter'. The only conclusion I've reached is that it's definitely the case with the Fairport version, but maybe not for other versions...