Pathetic Fallacy - is this a "thing"

[marmia1234]

My sons English report came home ( disclaimers: not in UK and I have a degree in English Literature)
In one section of the test they had to match a quote to its corresponding technique. For example - simile, imagery, metaphor, personification etc. One of those techniques was "pathetic fallacy" . I am flummoxed. Is this a normal thing I just missed somehow? Once he had a stab at which one was the "pathetic fallacy he was stuffed and only got 4 right out of 7 as was a bit discombobulated. Is this a common term in the UK or US
I have googled and it appears to be a version of personification.
Why is it pathetic?
Trying to add poll but seem to be unable.
YABU - everybody knows the term "Pathetic fallacy"
YANBU - WTF nobody has heard of that

Points 5 and 6 I would say are flat out wrong anyway.

To put it mildly.

Point 5 is so hilarious that I almost wish it was right.

Were they describing trump. 😁

I've taught my DC etymology since toddlerhood, as it's important to understand words' histories. :)
Just checked and my 12 year old knows what pathos means and that it comes from ancient Greek.

This has been great! I'm going to find another term soon and start another debate. Thanks again for all the responses. loving the ppp ( poor previous poster) putting in all the effort for the 6 points, and then just gets slammed " 5 and 6 " are wrong. Love an academic disagreement. Also props to the pp with a 12yo who knows etymology. I am going to start teaching mine now, just for fun!

😁

That wasn't my question. My question was:

But an English Literature teacher or lecturer should be familiar with the term, surely?

If you're going to engage me in a circular argument, at least read the comments you're replying to!

Edited: Hold on, was that the comment I wrote days ago, right at the start of this thread? In which case, quote that one!

Loving this thread... OP, I too am a British. Eng Lit graduate, UK university, but I spent a couple of years at schol in Australia as an 11, 12 year old, due to my dad's job.... we had some interesting homework exercises including one my mum remembers when we asked to fit the word 'pimp' into a sentence in a story which was about schoolchildren being not very nice to each other 🥺

There is nothing academic about those points and no possible debate, so it's not just about 'disagreement'. They're laughably wrong and ill-informed.

It’s right here in this particular quote thread. It’s what I’ve been replying to all along.

In a conversation, you reply to the last thing a person has said. Not something they said several days ago.

It's Okay - I'm only MLit. What do I know? 😂

What do you know? Apparently not very much.

Congratulations on your MLit

I did my GCSEs in about 1996/1997 and don't remember learning this then or before. I got an A* for both lit and lang, and I read a lot so I'm surprised I've never heard of it before!

I have been trying to get you to address my points which are that
a) a teacher who doesn’t use the term pathetic fallacy isn’t necessarily useless (as you originally posted)
b) you absolutely don’t need to use the term to see, appreciate and use the technique

You’ve attempted neither and seem more interested in making me obey your thread rules. Which, given your apparent rules-based approach to literary discussion, is no surprise, really.

5 was a joke, right?

Phallacy is the study of penises.
Fallacy is things being fake.
There is one theory that the words are related but I would guess fake penises would be phallacy fallacy 😂

I agree that "you absolutely don’t need to use the term to see, appreciate and use the technique". However, it really is a common, technical term in literature criticism; if you profess to have any experise in the field (as you would expect of a teacher of literature), you should be familiar with the term.

I would suggest, a teacher should probably make his/her pupils aware of it because it's a term that they would be likely to come across in their future study. And I would certainly expect a teacher to discuss the use of pathetic fallacy as a literary technique and whether it's appropriate and effective.

I would also think that a university lecturer/professor of literature would expect their undergraduate students to be familiar with the term (so they should have come across it in their A level courses)

I think the phallacy fallacy 😂is for a different MN topic, but I do not believe there’s any etymological debate about the origins of the two words. One is Greek and the other Latin, for a start.

I clicked on this link because I’m a Sandman fan!

A) I never said that a teacher who doesn't use the term is useless. I just implied they should know it. I stand by that.
B) I agree. Equally, I don't need to know that a chair is called a chair in order to sit on it.

This has been fun, but honestly, I just don't care as much about pathetic fallacy as you seem to think I do! I am glad I've been able to impart some wisdom regarding how to effectively conduct a conversation, though.

Same here, I'm from the land of GCE O levels (grade A) and GCE A level (B)
Never heard of the term. Well never too old to learn eh?