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2018-3-17 10:23 |
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本帖最后由 吕下阿蒙 于 2018-2-9 13:01 编辑
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A thrill went through the packed court literally electrifying everybody, so writes James Joyce in Ulysses.
No, the thrill described in that quote is not one specially equipped with an electrical charge. Joyce's using the world literally to mean "in effect" or "virtually".
Many people object to this extended use of literally. But Joyce isn't alone in employing it. xxx and xxx used it. So did Mark Twain and Willa Cather. Also Vladimir Nabokov and David Foster Wallace. One might say that literature is literally riddled with it.
Charles Dickens was a pioneer of the use. In Nicholas Nickleby he writes that one character literally feasted his eyes in silence upon another.
But the evolution of this use began much earlier. xxx complained that his daily bread is literally implored. Alexander Pope commented every day with me is literally another yesterday, for it's exactly the same.
In these instances the adverb adds emphasis to the word or phrase that follows it, that word or phrase being intended in a literal sense.
Dickens merely placed the same intensifyer in front of a figurative phrase that can't be taken literally. The result? Pure hyperbole, which is a legitimate literary tool.
Does this mean you should use literally this way. Maybe, but remember that hyperbole requires care in handling, and that your audience may not recoganize it for what it is.
You can tell someone that you literally devour novels, and that your kids were literally bouncing off the walls, but be prepared for your listeners to refuse to lend you books and to be curious about the composition of your offspring. |
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发表于 2018-2-8 23:51:12
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