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Chiasme

French
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A rhetorical figure creating a cross-shaped symmetry by reversing the order of elements in two parallel phrases, following an ABBA pattern. A classical figure of balance and inversion.

Detailed Definition
The chiasme is a figure of symmetrical inversion, arranging two parallel phrases so that their elements cross in reverse order: if the first phrase has structure AB, the second has BA. This creates a visual and sonic X-shape that enacts reversal, paradox, or balance at the level of form itself. Racine and Hugo are masters of the chiasme in French verse, using it to crystallize oppositions and paradoxes. The device reflects the classical love of symmetry while simultaneously undermining it through inversion, making it ideal for expressing the contradictions and reversals central to tragic and lyric poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Chiasmus appears in Hugo's "L'homme est en bas, en haut est la lumière," where the inversion of subject and predicate positions creates a formal cross that mirrors the theological antithesis between earthly humanity and divine light; Racine creates a psychological chiasmus in "Je l'aimais inconstant, qu'aurais-je fait fidèle?" where the relationship between love and constancy is inverted between the two clauses, capturing the paradox of desire that increases with frustration; A student learning chiasmus might practice with the structure "La vie fait les poètes, les poètes font la vie," noticing how the inversion suggests a mutual creative relationship that simple parallel structure could not capture; Malherbe's poetry frequently uses chiasmus to create formal symmetry at the level of the alexandrin, distributing noun-adjective pairs in AB BA order to create a visual and sonic balance that embodies his classical aesthetic of order; In rhetoric, the chiasmus is distinguished from simple repetition by its inversion: where anaphora repeats the same structure, chiasmus crosses it, creating a figure that is simultaneously familiar, through shared elements, and surprising, through their reversal; The most famous French chiasmus may be from Corneille: "Je suis maître de moi comme de l'univers," where the parallel structure "maître de moi / maître de l'univers" implicitly crosses the private and political spheres of mastery.
Additional Notes
Chiasme creates memorable rhetorical symmetry through inversion, often reinforcing contrast, irony, or conceptual closure. French classical rhetoric prized such formal elegance, though modern poets may use chiasmus more disruptively. Students should identify the structural crossing rather than merely thematic opposition. Compare with antithèse, which contrasts without necessarily reversing order. Chiasmus can organise whole poems as well as individual lines, making it useful for both close reading and larger structural analysis.
Also Known As
Inverted parallelism
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