On Apostrophe by Cate Mahoney

2019-12-04T15:47:05-05:00

On Apostrophe by Cate Mahoney O Wisdom, grant me the ability to share information with my Princeton Writes peers about the figure of speech “apostrophe.” O Courage, put a steady hand on my back to let the breath in and keep my fingers a-typing. That, my fine friends, with its telltale invocations, was an example of apostrophe. Did you find it slightly embarrassing? Well, the literary critic Jonathan Culler thinks it probably was, as apostrophe now seems archaic because of its performative aspect. It was originally used by the ancients when stories were heard aurally and always had a waiting [...]