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

Not just similar root but the same!

I didn't come across this term when at school doing Higher English (Scotland) which involved a lot of text analysis but the term probably wasn't educationally trendy in these far off days even though we were familiar with the actual concept. Both DCs use it regularly in school, though, which is how I first came across it.

I also did Higher Latin and some Classical Greek and still enjoy being able to understand derivations (and therefore work out meanings) of English words which have Latin or Greek roots. It's such a shame most children nowadays don't get the chance to learn a bit about this at school.

I also read English Lit at Uni and have no recollection of this! Maybe I was at home hungover that day.....

It’s digraph not diagraph.😀

He was right in a way. It's a bit of a lazy technique. And an arrogant one in some ways.
I do love some judgemental bitchiness from critics though - the students find it SO much easier to remember.
As a technique it's really cliched now (see film noir!) but regardless, spotting the technique achieves very little. You need to explain the specific effect.
I am beyond surprised you've never come across it. We were taught it in Year 7 in 1990.

I’m an English teacher and teach children to identify/use pathetic fallacy from about Year 4-5.

Just to add: it isn’t the be all and end all, so really matter if people don’t remember it or children don’t always identify/explain/use it in their work. It’s just an example of one of the many devices they will identify/explain/use in their work. The teacher is just telling the child to use a variety of devices to create different impacts in their writing.

Thomas Hardy's novels use this technique frequently

It’s used in tv/ visual form a lot too. Think of adverts where the sun shines for clean washing etc and it’s dark and miserable when there’s a dirty floor.

It was a thing when I did gcse English in 1996.

I asked as obviously a dictionary will give me a meaning, I was wondering if it was a term still regularly used. From the answers it seems a Yes for the UK and a No for Australia. Don't think I've had any US responses. Thanks again everyone.Also I have studied Wuthering Heights and the term " pathetic fallacy" was never used. Ta all.

Of course the term wasn’t used in Wuthering Heights, the technique was!

When and where did you study WH. It's odd that it wasn't mentioned for that text, the setting and weather are key in many ways.
Of course, if you weren't doing close textual analysis on it, it's less likely you'd come across it.
It's been a standard term in Lit Crit for well over 100 years.

https://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/ruskinj/

Here is Ruskin first using it. ‘Fallacy’ is being used as a criticism.

Yep, I also learned this in GCSE English, 25 years ago.
Also, there’s always google when you don’t understand something…

OP didn't say she didn't understand it. She wondered whether it was widely taught.

Assuming your username is a reference to your DOB, we are the same age and I also studied English at A Level.

I have no recollection of this term either. So we either weren't taught it or have both managed to completely forget it!

Ive an English degree and have never heard the term though we did do the concept of course. So you aren't the only one OP!

I studied Wuthering Heights at A level and although the concept was discussed, of course, the term “pathetic fallacy” was not used or required.

She actually did say she didn’t understand it 🤣 she just used different words to say it

@marmia1234 I'm learning so many different new terms for things through dc that I very definitely was never taught. I had never heard of this until helping dc with secondary homework!

My date of birth is 10 years earlier. Was taught it. And do teach it. It's not an age thing.

I don't remember it and also have a degree in English Literature from one of the top universities (not Oxbridge but probably 3-5 in most of the lists then and now!) It was 25 years ago and I've forgotten a lot since then. And I didn't do English at A Level (long story) so maybe I missed a lot of this sort of stuff. But in any case it's useful to know with a ten year old...

learnt it for Junior Cert 🤷🏽‍♀️

I am amazed that it took until page 3 of a thread about ‘pathetic fallacy’ before Wuthering Heights was mentioned.

Shakey - Lear/Hamlet et al
Wuthering Heights

It is a tad modern as a term but it is a standard literary device.