Slavic Antithesis

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No! It’s Superman!

The Slavic Antithesis is used in South-Slavic epic poetry. Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, etc. It’s a fascinating literary stylistic device in which the author poses a question, gives a number of incorrect answers, and finally gives the correct answer. This increases the validity as well as the impact of the last answer.

An Example “Šta se bijeli u gori zelenoj? Al’ su snijezi, al’ su labudovi. Da su snjezi, već bi okopnili, Labudovi, već bi odletjeli. Nit’ su snjezi, nit su labudovi. Već šator age Hasanage”

“What is white on the green mountain? Is it the snows, is it the swans? If they were snows, they would have melted, If they were swans, they would have flown away. They are not snows, they are not swans. Rather, it’s the tent of Hasan.”

I would encourage all of you to incorporate the Slavic Antithesis in your own writing. It’s not used much in English writing but it would definitely add to the flavor of your thoughts.