prosopopoeia

{{Short description|Rhetorical device}}{{distinguish|Prosopography}}

A prosopopoeia ({{langx|grc|προσωποποιία}}, {{IPAc-en|p|r|ɒ|s|əʊ|p|əʊ|ˈ|p|iː|ə}}) is a rhetorical device in which a non-human element speaks or is spoken to as a human. The term derives from the Greek words {{transliteration|grc|prósopon}} ({{Translation|face, person}}) and {{transliteration|grc|poiéin}} ({{Translation |to make, to do}}).{{cite book |last1=Lanham |first1=Richard A. |title=A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms |date=1 January 1991 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-07669-3 |page=123 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnzAQgAACAAJ |language=en}} {{cite journal |last1=Barroso |first1=Paulo |title=Prosopopeia Como Orto-Doxia Estética e Retórica: Literariedade e Eficácia do Discurso da Publicidade |journal=Vista |date=10 November 2023 |issue=12 |pages=e023011 |doi=10.21814/vista.5201 |url=https://doi.org/10.21814/vista.5201 |language=pt |issn=2184-1284|hdl=10400.19/8035 |hdl-access=free }}

Prosopopoeiae are used mostly to give another perspective on the action being described. For example, in Cicero's Pro Caelio, Cicero speaks as Appius Claudius Caecus, a stern old man. This serves to give the "ancient" perspective on the actions of the plaintiff. Prosopopoeiae can also be used to take some of the load off the communicator by placing an unfavorable point of view on the shoulders of an imaginary stereotype. The audience's reactions are predisposed to go towards this figment rather than the communicator himself.

This term also refers to a figure of speech in which an animal or inanimate object is ascribed human characteristics or is spoken of in anthropomorphic language. Quintilian writes of the power of this figure of speech to "bring down the gods from heaven, evoke the dead, and give voices to cities and states" (Institutes of Oratory Book IX Chapter 2).

Prosopopoeia is the English title of Farid Tali's novel (originally written in French) in which the central narrative is spoken through the body of the author's late brother.{{cite web |title=Prosopopoeia by Farid Tali |url=https://www.europenowjournal.org/2017/01/31/prosopopoeia/ |website=www.europenowjournal.org}}{{cite web |title=Silence is a Ghost: Jane Wong and Aditi Machado in Conversation |url=https://lithub.com/silence-is-a-ghost-jane-wong-and-aditi-machado-in-conversation/ |website=Literary Hub |date=24 February 2017}} PROSOPOPOIA. Or Mother Hubberds Tale., Edmund Spenser, was published 1591. {{cite web|url=https://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/hubberd.html|website=www.luminarium.org|title=Spenser's Minor Poems|editor=Ernest de Sélincourt|editor-link=Ernest de Sélincourt|date=1910|publication-place=Oxford|publication-date=1591|access-date=|url-status=|archive-url=|archive-date=}}