Bathos

For other uses, see Bathos (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with pathos, a successful arousal of sympathy and pity.

Bathos (UK: /ˈbeɪθɒs/ BAY-thoss;[1] Greek: βάθος, lit. "depth") is a literary term, first used in this sense in Alexander Pope's 1727 essay "Peri Bathous",[1] to describe an amusingly failed attempt at presenting artistic greatness. Bathos has come to refer to rhetorical anticlimax, an abrupt transition from a lofty style or grand topic to a common or vulgar one, occurring either accidentally (through artistic ineptitude) or intentionally (for comic effect).[2][3] Intentional bathos appears in satirical genres such as burlesque and mock epic. "Bathos" or "bathetic" is also used for similar effects in other branches of the arts, such as musical passages marked ridicolosamente. In film, bathos may appear in a contrast cut intended for comic relief or be produced by an accidental jump cut.

  1. ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "bathos, n. Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1885.
  2. ^ Fiske, Robert Hartwell (1 November 2011). Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Unendurable English: A Compendium of Mistakes in Grammar, Usage, and Spelling with commentary on lexicographers and linguists. Scribner. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4516-5134-8.
  3. ^ Abrams, Meyer Howard; Harpham, Geoffrey Galt (2009). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-4130-3390-8.