ONOMASTIC CREATIVITY IN THE LEMONY SNICKET BOOKS

Daniel Handler’s Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events is filled with sarcasm, condescension, parody, and smart allusions. The rhetorical devices used in this series of novels includes the following:

Acronyming: VFD: Verbal Fridge Dialogue, Village of Fowl Devotees,

Alliteration: Briny Beach, Caligary Carnival, Curdled Cave, Daedalus Dock

Count Olaf’s Disguises: Al Funcoot, Staphano, Captain Sham, Foreman Flacutono, Coach Genghis, Gunther, Detective Dupin, Mattathias, Surgeon Flacutono

Ersatz Elevator, Ersatz Rope, Ersatz Guardian, Ersatz Imaginings

Gothic and Death References: Grim River, Hotel Denouement, Memento Mori, Mortmain Mountains, Salmonella Cafe

Puns: Operating Theatres

Don and Alleen Nilsen “Humor Across the Academic Disciplines” PowerPoints:

https://www.public.asu.edu/~dnilsen/