Exergasia (from the Greek εξ, ex, "out" and εργον, ergon, "work") is a form of parallelism where one idea is repeated and only the way it is stated is changed.Silva Rhetoricae (2006). Exergasia In Latin, exergasia is known as expolitio.Silva Rhetoricae (2006). Expolitio
History This device of parallelism was first identified by the twelfth-century Jewish scholars Abraham Ibn Ezra and Joseph Kimhi, who referred to it as "kefel 'inyan be-millot shonot" ("doubling of the thought with other words").Jewish Encyclopedia (2006). Parallelism in Hebrew Poetry The term was next identified by Christian Schoettgen, who wrote "De Exergasia Sacra" ("From sacred exergasia") in 1733.Giving & Sharing Online Library (2006). How to Enjoy the Bible The Bishop Robert Lowth identified specific types of parallelism and further defined the concept in the late eighteenth century.
Definition Exergasia is used to make a point or bring home a powerful idea. Repetition is a good way of making a point, but without the restatement of the idea it tends to become boring.Illinois Medieval Association (2006). The Order of the Texts in the Bodley 34 Manuscript: The Function of Repetition and Recall in a Manuscript Addressed to Nuns As such, it is used by many great writers and orators. Martin Luther King Jr., in his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, says:
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all God’s children.Margaret D. Zulick (2006). Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream
The idea of correcting injustice is repeated in all four lines to emphasize this idea.
Shakespeare also utilizes exergasia. In The Winter's Tale, the character Florizel says
I take thy hand, this hand As soft as dove's down, and as white as it, Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fanned snow that's bolted By th' northern blasts twice o'er (IV.iv.360-363).Armstrong Atlantic State University (2006). Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
Florizel calls the hand white in three different ways: comparing it to dove's down, an Ethiopian's tooth, and snow.
Music In the sense of music, the concept of exergasia (referred to as expolitio) is used to mean much the same thing as it does in literature. John Irving, in his 1998 book Mozart: The "Haydn" Quartets, calls expolitio "dwelling on the same topic and yet seeming to say something ever new" (Irving 67).Music Theory Online (2006). Review of John Irving, Mozart: The "Haydn" Quartets
References
Cuddon, J.A., ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 3rd ed. Penguin Books: New York, 1991. Irving, John. Mozart: The "Haydn" Quartets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 Wells, Stanley, ed. The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. 2nd ed. Clarendon Press: New York, 2005.