Epanadiplosis is a type of figure of speech where the same word is repeated at the end of one sentence and at the beginning of the sentence before it. This is the opposite of anadiplosis. It helps create a musical or rhythmic feel, which can be used to highlight important ideas or add humor. Epanadiplosis can also be used to stress a word, phrase, or concept.

In storytelling, epanadiplosis is sometimes called "narrative epanadiplosis." It happens when a scene or theme from the beginning of a story is repeated at the end. This repetition shows that the story is complete or connected to itself.

Nature and limits of the figure

Epanadiplosis is a type of repetition that affects the order of words in a sentence. According to César Chesneau Dumarsais, this figure occurs "when two related sentences begin and end with the same word." Henri Suhamy also describes it as a repetition that happens between two sentences.

An example of epanadiplosis can be found in the writing of Tacitus. More specifically, epanadiplosis involves repeating a word or phrase at the end of a sentence that was used at the beginning of the same sentence. This figure focuses on the structure of sentences, unlike narrative epanadiplosis, which affects the entire text. Epanadiplosis is the opposite of anadiplosis, and Patrick Bacry explains it as follows:

An example from François de Malherbe shows this technique. Jean-Jacques Robrieux notes that epanadiplosis is similar to chiasmus, as seen in a line by Victor Hugo, where the word "rien" is repeated at the start and end of a sentence.

Nicole Ricalens-Pourchot describes epanadiplosis as the use of two sentences next to each other, separated by a comma or semicolon. Georges Molinié calls this a "microstructural figure" because it only affects the beginning and end of a sentence, influencing both how it is spoken and written. This figure is rare.

Epanadiplosis is sometimes confused with epanalepsis, which repeats the same word or phrase within a single sentence. However, these figures, along with anadiplosis, are often used together, as seen in a passage from Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinocéros.

Epanadiplosis is also used with epistrophe, where repeated words or phrases create a melodic and stylistic effect. In this technique, words that start a sentence are repeated at the end of the next sentence, creating a pattern of repetition.

Narrative epanadiplosis, also called "anaplodiplosis," is a figure of speech where a story or novel ends with a situation similar to the one at the beginning. This technique, which comes from Greek words meaning "explanation" and "double," helps a story "come full circle." At the end of a novel or film, readers or viewers may see a situation that mirrors the beginning, giving the story depth. This cyclical ending is common in short stories.

This technique is similar to "mise en abyme," a literary method often used in books and movies, especially in fantasy stories. It helps make a story feel complete and creates a sense of repetition, like the return of seasons or generations. For an author, this may show that events in the middle of the story are not as important as the beginning and end. It may also be a way to make the story feel more balanced and organized.

Stylistic use

In visual rhetoric, epanadiplosis can be used for humorous effects or to grab attention. The repeating pattern creates the feeling of a paradox or a complete saying, such as in Hobbes' example: "Man is a wolf to man." Here, the first idea is repeated at the end. In logic and rhetoric, this technique is often used in logical arguments. César Chesneau Dumarsais, in his book Traité des tropes, explains epanadiplosis as a figure where two connected statements begin and end with the same word, as seen in examples like:

Epanadiplosis can sometimes resemble tautology, or the repetition of the same idea. Bernard Dupriez notes that its purpose is often to emphasize or repeat a point, as in examples like:

Some cases of epanadiplosis occur naturally in everyday speech, without special effort. A final effect may be parallelism. Georges Molinié and Michèle Aquien explain that epanadiplosis often connects two statements in the same sentence, creating repetition through a parallel structure. They give an example from La Bruyère:

In this example, the two parts after the verb "appears" are structured in a way that starts and ends with the same word ("the prince"). This example also includes an antimetabole, where the order of words is reversed in the second part ("adore le prince").

Genres covered

Epanadiplosis is a common feature in poems, where the first and last lines are the same. In Les Regrets, Joachim du Bellay uses a palindromic epanadiplosis, meaning the poem reads the same forwards and backwards.

Guillaume Apollinaire uses epanadiplosis in his poem to show the cycle of seasons clearly, ending the poem with the same image it begins with:

"The meadow is poisonous but pretty in autumn. The cows grazing there slowly poison themselves. The colic colored of the ring and lilac. Your eyes are like that flower. Violet like their halo and like this autumn. And my life for your eyes is slowly poisoned. Schoolchildren come clattering in, dressed in hiccups and playing the harmonica. They pick the colchicums that are like mothers. Daughters of their daughters and the color of your eyelids. Fluttering like flowers in the mad wind. The herdsman sings softly. While slow and mooing, the cows abandon forever this great meadow ill-flowered by autumn."

In Émile Zola’s novel Germinal, the beginning and ending form an epanadiplosis. The same character walks alone along the same road. On the first page, he arrives in a mining area on a cold night: "A single idea occupied the empty head of a worker without work and lodging, the hope that the cold would be less intense after daybreak." On the last page, he leaves Montsou in the sunshine, still hopeful: "Penetrated by this hope, Étienne slows his walk, his eyes lost to the right and the left, in the gaiety of the new season."

Many novels use epanadiplosis, including Paul et Virginie by Bernadin de Saint-Pierre (1788), Le Chiendent by Raymond Queneau (1933), Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939), The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1988), The Wood Demon by Anton Chekhov (1889), The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco (1950), and The Dark Tower by Stephen King (1982–2004).

In Primo Levi’s stories and essays (La tregua, I sommersi e i salvati), epanadiplosis is used to show the author’s belief that "What has been can happen again," meaning the past can repeat itself.

In P.R.O.F.S., a film begins with a student asking, "What is epanadiplosis?" The answer appears at the end, when a character says, "That’s epanadiplosis," standing next to a horse. Most of Patrick Schulmann’s films use epanadiplosis.

Other examples include:
– Forrest Gump begins and ends with a feather twirling in the wind.
– La Vie d’Adèle starts with the heroine leaving home as a teenager and ends with her leaving an exhibition as an adult, walking the same way.
– Ma place au soleil begins and ends with a cyclist riding through Paris.
– In the music video for Lean On by Major Lazer, the first and last scenes show the same rose window on a palace ceiling.
– Roman Polanski’s films, like The Fearless Vampire Killers and The Pianist, use epanadiplosis to connect scenes.
– Alien Covenant begins and ends with the same music by Wagner.
– 1917 starts and ends with the same character resting against a tree, 24 hours apart.
– The Middle series begins with a plane flying over Indiana and ends with the same plane appearing in the final scene.
– Knives Out begins and ends with a mug showing the words "My house, my rules, my coffee."
– In Topaze by Marcel Pagnol, the film starts with a teacher helping a student spell "moutons" and ends with the same phrase appearing in a note about their plans.

For Anne Quesemand, epanadiplosis is used in nursery rhymes for musical effects, as in Alouette.

In the L'incal series by Moebius and Jodorowsky, the story begins and ends with the hero John Difool falling into the well of Suicide Alley.