Puns, or paronomasia, have been used in literature for thousands of years and can be used for comic relief, hiding jokes or insults, or as part of a creative language strategy. Shakespeare famously used puns in his plays, but not everyone appreciates them. However, puns continue to be used by great authors, including Vladimir Nabokov and James Joyce, to add deeper levels of meaning to their work.
Punning is a popular form of pun in which one word is replaced by a similar word for humorous effect. The role of puns in literature dates back thousands of years and includes many ancient and modern languages. Some people loathe puns, which are often described as “the lowest form of humor.” Despite this, many great authors have used puns in literature, including Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce. They can be used for comic relief, as a way to hide a joke or insult, or as part of a larger creative language use strategy.
Puns are recorded in the earliest forms of written language, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and the cuneiform script of ancient Sumer. This suggests that punning is indeed a very old art form. Puns in literature are sometimes called paronomasia, the ancient Greek word meaning “play on words.” A misunderstanding involves a word with two separate meanings, such as “honey,” which can be a food item or a pet name. If a pun involves an exchange of misunderstandings between two characters, it is called asteismus.
One of the most famous users of puns in literature was Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, he has the dying Mercutio say, “Tomorrow … you will find me a serious man.” Richard III’s famous quote, “Now is the winter of our discontent,” continues, “Summer made glorious by this York sun.” This is a triple pun, or compound pun, as the “sun” is the son of the Duke of York, whose emblem was a sunburst. By one count, Shakespeare employed thousands of puns in his plays and poems.
Not everyone was amused. In a book about Shakespeare, the influential 18th-century scholar and writer Samuel Johnson complained about the Bard’s frequent use of puns. Another critic of puns in literature was the 17th century poet laureate John Dryden, who may have been the first to call puns “the lowest form of wit.” Even the American writer Ambrose Bierce, known for his pungent wit, admitted that “wise men stoop” to make puns, while “fools aspire” to them.
However, the use of puns in literature is widespread and includes some of the best lyricists in the English language. Vladimir Nabokov, a master of both Russian and English literature, often used puns and other puns, imbuing his work with deeper levels of textual meaning. This type of literary deception was employed by later writers such as Thomas Pynchon and Alan Moore. Like Nabokov, James Joyce liked to create new words by breaking down or combining existing words and playing with their construction, or etymology. Joyce referred to this practice as “destroying etyms”.
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