Back نادرة (حكاية) Arabic Anekdot Azerbaijani آنئکدوت AZB Anècdota Catalan Anecdot Welsh Anekdote Danish Anekdote German Ανέκδοτο Greek Anekdoto Esperanto Anécdota Spanish
An anecdote[1][2] is "a story with a point",[3] such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait.[4]
Anecdotes may be real or fictional;[5] the anecdotal digression is a common feature of literary works[6] and even oral anecdotes typically involve subtle exaggeration and dramatic shape designed to entertain the listener.[7] An anecdote is always presented as the recounting of a real incident involving actual people and usually in an identifiable place. In the words of Jürgen Hein, they exhibit "a special realism" and "a claimed historical dimension".[8] Robbins notes the usefulness of the scientific community in not defining anecdotes. She observes that anecdote transmission follows patterns similar to epidemic models and that anecdotes serve as compression algorithms for complex social and economic information.[9]
- ^ Cuddon, J. A. (1992). Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory Third Ed. London: Penguin Books. p. 42.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary's definition of an anecdote
- ^ Epstein 1989, pp. xix
- ^ Epstein, Lawrence (1989). A Treasury of Jewish Anecdotes. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. pp. xix. ISBN 9780876688908.
- ^ Kennedy, X. J. (2005). Handbook of Literary Terms, Third Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. p. 8.
- ^ Cuddon 1992, p. 42
- ^ Hein, Jürgen (1981). "Die Anekdote". Formen der Literatur in Einzeldarstellungen. By Knörrich, Otto. Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner. p. 15.
- ^ Hein 1981, p. 15
- ^ Robbins, Hollis. "Anecdotal Value in the Age of AI". Anecdotal Value. Substack. Retrieved 16 December 2024.