Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / Unit 12 AIL 1128 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Understatement as Testimony
Captions available
The idea
Unit four defined litotes from the glossary as deliberate understatement, usually for ironic or satiric effect. Here the effect is neither ironic nor satiric. Understating an atrocity makes the account harder to dismiss as exaggeration, which is a rhetorical calculation a witness might reasonably make.
In practice
Understatement, and not for irony.
Where people slip
The glossary's purposes do not exhaust it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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