epanorthosis

The key rhetorical figure Beckett employs in producing a self-differentiating work is epanorthosis, a form of repetition in which clauses are restated but modified as the narrative constantly rewrites itself, as in the famous stuttering formulation from the end of The Unnamable: "You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on" (96).

The very last chapter, artificially attached to the romance after its first issuing and designed to satisfy readers frustrated by its unelucidated "mysteries," appears as the ironic ultimate epanorthosis of a text ridden with hesitations and stammers, condemning the reader to interpretation (over and against fixed knowledge): "I know, but may not tell." Epanorthosis, the ceaseless self-amendment of a text, implies that if there is knowledge, it is not to be irrevocably told.

Starting from an analysis of an extract from Marivaux' Journaux and from Lesage's Gil Blas de Santillane, he demonstrates that epanorthosis is not simply a rhetorical figure but also gives the discourse an ironic effect, thereby criticizing 'l'hypocrisie mondaine' (p.

Starting with the Sonnets, Hammond argues that Shakespeare "seems addicted to multiple definitions which by their sheer proliferation over-delineate, perpetually redescribing the young man, the poet, and their relationship" (63), through the use of correctio or epanorthosis, and paradiastole (redescription).

The playfulness here is delightful, especially in her self-correction (epanorthosis) "The glass must stretch / down his middle, / or rather down the edge." (7) She is clearly mocking his illusion of self-division, while pretending to be sympathetic.

Still, it is difficult to distinguish between metanoia and epanorthosis, sometimes called "correctic."