Iceberg Theory
What is the bond between Ernest Hemingway and an iceberg?
The Iceberg Theory (sometimes known as the "theory of omission") is a style of writing coined by American writer Ernest Hemingway.
As a young journalist, Hemingway had to focus his newspaper reports on immediate events, with very little context or interpretation.
When he became a writer of short stories, he retained this minimalistic style, focusing on surface elements without explicitly discussing underlying themes. Hemingway believed the deeper meaning of a story should not be evident on the surface, but should shine through implicitly.
Critics such as Jackson Benson claim that the Iceberg Theory, along with Hemingway's distinctive clarity of style, functioned to distance himself from the characters he created.
In 1923, Hemingway conceived of the idea of a new theory of writing after finishing his short story "Out of Season". In "A Moveable Feast", his posthumously published memoirs about his years as a young writer in Paris, he explains: "I omitted the real end [of "Out of Season"] which was that the old man hanged himself. This was omitted on my new theory that you could omit anything ... and the omitted part would strengthen the story." In chapter sixteen of "Death in the Afternoon" he compares his theory about writing to an iceberg.
Hemingway's biographer Carlos Baker believed that as a writer of short stories Hemingway learned "how to get the most from the least, how to prune language and avoid waste motion, how to multiply intensities, and how to tell nothing but the truth in a way that allowed for telling more than the truth."
“IF A WRITER OF PROSE KNOWS ENOUGH OF WHAT HE IS WRITING ABOUT HE MAY OMIT THINGS THAT HE KNOWS AND THE READER, IF THE WRITER IS WRITING TRULY ENOUGH, WILL HAVE A FEELING OF THOSE THINGS AS STRONGLY AS THOUGH THE WRITER HAD STATED THEM. THE DIGNITY OF MOVEMENT OF AN ICE-BERG IS DUE TO ONLY ONE-EIGHTH OF IT BEING ABOVE WATER. A WRITER WHO OMITS THINGS BECAUSE HE DOES NOT KNOW THEM ONLY MAKES HOLLOW PLACES IN HIS WRITING.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Запоминаем:
(just) the tip of the iceberg - (идиома) верхушка айсберга, т.е. только малая часть проблемы
The Iceberg Theory - "теория айсберга" ("теория подтекста")
omission - пропуск, опущение
to coin - придумывать
posthumously - посмертно
