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7 Types of Ambiguity - For Merge

This document provides an overview and summary of William Empson's influential 1930 book "Seven Types of Ambiguity". The book introduced a new style of literary criticism called New Criticism and analyzed seven types of ambiguities Empson found in poetry. The types included metaphor, multiple metaphors used at once, simultaneous meanings in a single word through context, ideas that don't agree but reveal an author's complicated mindset, when an author discovers their idea while writing, statements that say nothing forcing readers to interpret, and opposite words exposing an author's internal division. The book was highly influential in literary criticism and helped establish the New Criticism school of thought.

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Ronald Dalida
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1K views1 page

7 Types of Ambiguity - For Merge

This document provides an overview and summary of William Empson's influential 1930 book "Seven Types of Ambiguity". The book introduced a new style of literary criticism called New Criticism and analyzed seven types of ambiguities Empson found in poetry. The types included metaphor, multiple metaphors used at once, simultaneous meanings in a single word through context, ideas that don't agree but reveal an author's complicated mindset, when an author discovers their idea while writing, statements that say nothing forcing readers to interpret, and opposite words exposing an author's internal division. The book was highly influential in literary criticism and helped establish the New Criticism school of thought.

Uploaded by

Ronald Dalida
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to Stylistics: TEXTUALISM

Seven Types of Ambiguity


Is a work of literary criticism by William Empson which was first published in 1930. It was
one of the most influential critical works of the 20th century and was a key foundation work in the
formation of the New Criticism school. The book is organized around seven types of ambiguity that
Empson finds in the poetry he criticises. The second edition (revised) was published by Chatto &
Windus, London, 1947, and there was another revised edition in 1953. The first printing in America
was by New Directions in 1947.
Seven Types of Ambiguity ushered in New Criticism in the United States. The book is a guide to a
style of literary criticism practiced by Empson. An ambiguity is represented as a puzzle to Empson.
We have ambiguity when "alternative views might be taken without sheer misreading." Empson
reads poetry as an exploration of conflicts within the author.

SEVEN TYPES
1. The first type of ambiguity is the metaphor, that is, when two things are said to be alike
which have different properties. This concept is similar to that of metaphysical conceit.
2. Two or more meanings are resolved into one. Empson characterizes this as using two
different metaphors at once.
3. Two ideas that are connected through context can be given in one word simultaneously.
4. Two or more meanings that do not agree but combine to make clear a complicated state of
mind in the author.
5. When the author discovers his idea in the act of writing. Empson describes a simile that lies
halfway between two statements made by the author.
6. When a statement says nothing and the readers are forced to invent a statement of their
own, most likely in conflict with that of the author.
7. Two words that within context are opposites that expose a fundamental division in the
author's mind.

ENG 119 FactSheet #3 | MALALUAN and TAGALA CNSC-CE August 11, 2016

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