Topothesia

Topothesia is “the description of an imaginable or non-existent place”.^[1] It has been classified as a type of enargia^[2] (a synonym to “hypotyposis”), which is a “generic name for a group of figures aiming at vivid, lively description”. Edgar Allan Poe used enargia frequently to describe his characters in his literary works.^[3] According to Philip Hardie, a professor at the University of Cambridge, its determining characteristic is its position within a text. Normally, when the descriptive analysis of a place is found to discontinue a narrative, this interrupting section can be considered topothesia. In addition, it has a stereotyped entry formula that facilitates distinguishing the narrative from the descriptive. In most famous texts, topothesia begins with est locus (“there is a place” in Latin), as can be seen in Metamorphoses^[4] by Ovid.^[5]

Etymology

Topothesia is derived from a mixture of two Greek words: “topos” (τοπος), which literally translated means “place”, and the suffix “-thesia”, which is obtained from the word “aisthesia”^[6] (αίσθημα), which means “perception/feeling by the senses”^[7][8]. The definition of the word “topographia” differs from topothesia. It is derived from the same word (“topos”), however, its Greek suffix “-graphia” means “description of” resulting in the meaning of topographia to be a “description of a real place”.^[8]

In rhetoric

“Topoi” (s. topos), a sub-category within the first canon of rhetoric (inventio), is derived from topothesia. They are classifications that depict the relationship between ideas, which Aristotle partitioned into “common” and “special” groups. Topoi are used in arguments as modes of persuasion by inventing or conceptualizing declarative theses.^[9] The arguments that are creatively produced rather than gestated from previous examples are regarded as topothesia since they are descriptions of imaginary theories.

Examples

Topothesia is a tool often used in poetry rather than by orators. A renowned poet who frequently utilized topothesia along with other forms of enargia was Edgar Allan Poe. A popular poem that featured various examples of topothesia is “Dreamland”.^[10]

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of Space – Out of Time.

Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily. (“Dream-Land,” 7:89)^[1]

1. ^ Poe 2012.

However, this rhetorical term was apparent in other of Poe’s works of fiction like “The Domain of Arnheim”.^[11] This short story was recognized for its repeated use of topothesia. According to author and professor at York University, Brett Zimmerman, “the tale’s entire second half is a description of Arnheim, an artificial paradise on Earth – “the phantom handiwork, conjointly, of the Sylphs, of the Fairies, of the Genii, and of the Gnomes” (6: 196). We also have “Landor’s Cottage: A Pendant to ‘The Domain of Arnheim’.” That piece really has no plot; it is extended topothesia – an exercise in picturesque description of a place…”^[12]

Notes

References