pathos

pathos
pathos, poignancy, bathos are comparable when they denote the quality found in human situations, or especially in works of art or literature, which moves one to pity or sorrow.
Pathos is the common term in critical and literary use; because of its early and long-continued association with aesthetics it often implies the arousing of emotions which give pleasure rather than pain and it suggests the detachment of an observer rather than personal involvement in the perturbing events or situations
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pathos is the luxury of grief ; and when it ceases to be other than a keen- edged pleasure it ceases to be pathosPatmore

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Often, also, pathos implies not so much an effect produced on the person who sees, hears, or reads, as the art, device, or trick employed (as by a writer, speaker, or artist) in seeking to produce such an effect
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he passed without an effort from the most solemn appeal to the gayest raillery, from the keenest sarcasm to the tenderest pathos—J. R. Green

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"My poor children, what had I ever done to you that would drive you to such a step?" The touch of pathos was all that Jane needed to stiffen her— Mary Austin

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Poignancy is sometimes preferred by literary and art critics to pathos because it carries no suggestion of artificiality and centers the attention on the genuineness of the thing's emotional quality and of the emotions it arouses; it also specifically implies a power to pierce the mind or heart so that the reader, hearer, or observer feels acutely as well as with aesthetic pleasure the emotion aroused whether it be pity or sorrow or another overwhelming emotion
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the most famous of the women-poets of Japan, whose verse expresses with peculiar poignancy a sense of the glory of beauty and the pathos of it— Binyon

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felt the poignancy of the kakapo's plight and had somehow managed to slip in this intimation of pity for a fellow creature— Tilford

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Bathos is often applied to a false or pretentious pathos and typically implies a maudlin sentimentality so detached from reality as to arouse disgusted contempt rather than the softer emotions that it is intended to elicit
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the poet seeks to render soulfully the blubbering of a happy idiot, and falls into bathosCiardi

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But bathos may also apply to a silly and artificially lugubrious reaction to something emotionally appealing that is akin to self-pity
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the voice of God, even at second-hand, should do more than make us sniff moistly in self-indulgent bathosHateh

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New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.

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  • Pathos — Pathos …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • PATHOS — Évocation de l’expérience humaine dans une représentation propre à faire naître la pitié, la sympathie, chez le lecteur ou le spectateur. Distinct des passions plus élevées de la tragédie, le pathos (du grec pathos : «souffrance, passion») naît,… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Pathos — (pronEng|ˈpeɪːθɒs) ( el. ) is one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric (along with ethos and logos). Pathos appeals to the audience s emotions. It is a part of Aristotle s philosophies in rhetoric. Not to be confused with bathos (βάθος)… …   Wikipedia

  • Pathos — est un mot grec qui signifie « souffrance, passion ». Chez Aristote Le pathos désigne un des trois moyens de persuasion du discours dans la rhétorique classique depuis Aristote[1]. Tandis que le pathos est une méthode de persuasion par… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Pathos — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Pathos es un vocablo griego (πάθος) que puede tomar varias acepciones. Es uno de los los tres modos de persuasión en la retórica (junto con el ethos y el logos), según la filosofía de Aristóteles. En la retórica de… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Pathos — Sn Leidenschaft, überzogener Gefühlsausdruck erw. fremd. Erkennbar fremd (17. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus gr. páthos Leiden, Leidenschaft , zu gr. páschein leiden, erleiden, erdulden . Adjektiv: pathetisch.    Ebenso nndl. pathos, ne. pathos,… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • pathos — [pā′thäs΄, pā′thôs΄] n. [Gr pathos, suffering, disease, feeling, akin to pathein, paschein, to suffer, feel < IE base * kwenth , to suffer, endure > OIr cessaim, I suffer] 1. Rare suffering 2. the quality in something experienced or… …   English World dictionary

  • Pathos — Pa thos (p[=a] th[o^]s), n. [L., from Gr. pa qos a suffering, passion, fr. paqei^n, pas chein, to suffer; cf. po nos toil, L. pati to suffer, E. patient.] That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • pathos —    pàthos    (s.m.) L oratore, per far sì che l arbitro della situazione penda dalla sua parte, cerca di suscitare un effetto emozionale: il grado più violento di emozione è il pathos, mentre l ethos rappresenta quello più mo­derata. Il pathos è… …   Dizionario di retorica par stefano arduini & matteo damiani

  • Pathos — Pathos: Das Fremdwort für »Leidenschaft, feierliche Ergriffenheit; übertriebene Gefühlsäußerung« wurde Ende des 17. Jh.s aus griech. páthos »Leid, Leiden, Schmerz; Unglück; Leidenschaft« entlehnt, einer Bildung zu griech. páschein »erfahren,… …   Das Herkunftswörterbuch

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