Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / Unit 4 AIL 0318 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Lexicon: Litotes
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The idea
The glossary defines litotes as the deliberate use of understatement, usually for ironic or satiric effect, with the example that one is not as young as one used to be. Understatement lowers the register beneath the occasion, and that deliberate mismatch is itself the tone.
In practice
Saying less than the occasion asks.
Where people slip
The mismatch is the point.
Your place on the trail
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