Illeism


Illeism is the act of referring to oneself in the third person instead of first person. It is sometimes used in literature as a stylistic device. In real-life usage, illeism can reflect a number of different stylistic intentions or involuntary circumstances.

In literature

Early literature such as Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico or Xenophon's Anabasis, both ostensibly non-fictional accounts of wars led by their authors, used illeism to impart an air of objective impartiality, which included justifications of the author's actions. In this way personal bias is presented, albeit dishonestly, as objectivity.
In an essay, theologian Richard B. Hays challenged earlier findings that he disagrees with: "These were the findings of one Richard B. Hays, and the newer essay treats the earlier work and earlier author at arms' length."
Illeism may also be used to show idiocy, as with the character Mongo in Blazing Saddles, e.g. "Mongo like candy" and "Mongo only pawn in game of life", though it may also show innocent simplicity, as it does with Harry Potter's Dobby the Elf. The childlike Sesame Street Muppet character Elmo almost exclusively speaks in the third person.
In the Babylonian Talmud and related texts, illeism is used extensively, often taking the form of the speaker utilizing the expression hahu gavra when referring to himself.
Salman Rushdie used the device in his memoir Joseph Anton.

In everyday speech

In different contexts, illeism can be used to reinforce self-promotion, as used to sometimes comic effect by Bob Dole throughout his political career. This was particularly made notable during the United States presidential election of 1996 and lampooned broadly in popular media for years afterwards. Deepanjana Pal of Firstpost noted that speaking in the third person "is a classic technique used by generations of Bollywood scriptwriters to establish a character's aristocracy, power and gravitas".
On the other hand, third person self-referral can be associated with self-deprecation, irony, and not taking oneself too seriously, as well as with eccentricity in general. Psychological studies show that thinking and speaking of oneself in the third person increases wisdom and has a positive effect on one's mental state because an individual who does so is more intellectually humble, more capable of empathy and understanding the perspectives of others, and is able to distance themself emotionally from their problems.
Accordingly, in certain Eastern religions, like Hinduism, illeism is sometimes seen as a sign of enlightenment, since through it, an individual detaches their eternal self from their bodily form; in particular, Jnana yoga encourages its practitioners to refer to themselves in the third person. Known illeists of that sort include Swami Ramdas, Anandamayi Ma, and Mata Amritanandamayi.
A number of celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Alice Cooper, and Deanna Durbin, referred to themselves in the third person to distance their public persona from their actual self. Mary J. Blige, in her song "Family Affair", introduces herself in the third person.
Some parents use illeism because very young children may not yet understand that the pronouns "I" and "you" refer to different people based on context. Toddlers acquiring speech often refer to themselves in the third person before learning proper usage of the pronoun "I", and their speech evolves past using illeism once they develop a strong sense of self-recognition, often before age two.
In Japanese, children may refer to themselves by their name, girls in particular. Furthermore, Japanese women may refer to themselves by their name to appear cute or childish. This practice is associated with burikko, a Japanese term for women who put on an affect of cuteness.

Notable illeists

Real people

Politics and military

Books

  • Major Bagstock, the apoplectic retired Indian army officer in Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son, refers to himself solely as Joseph, Old Joe, Joey B, Bagstock, Josh, J.B., Anthony Bagstock, and other variants of his own name.
  • Captain Hook in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy : "'Better for Hook,' he cried, 'if he had had less ambition!' It was in his darkest hours only that he referred to himself in the third person."
  • Winnetou, a Native American character in the eponymous novel by Karl May.
  • Hercule Poirot, a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie, usually refers to himself in the third person.
  • Gollum in The Lord of the Rings spoke in an idiosyncratic manner, often referring to himself in the third person, and frequently talked to himself—"through having no one else to speak to", as Tolkien put it in The Hobbit.
  • Charlie Gordon in the acclaimed novel Flowers for Algernon speaks in third person in the "being outside one's body and watching things happen" manner in his flashbacks to his abusive and troubled childhood suffering from phenylketonuria.
  • Boday, a quirky female artist in Jack Chalker's Changewinds trilogy.
  • Y. T., a teenage girl in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
  • Bast the Wood Elf in The Council Wars series by John Ringo.
  • The healer and wisewoman Magda Digby in the Owen Archer series by Candace Robb.
  • Jaqen H'ghar, an assassin of the Faceless Men in the fantasy suite A Song of Ice and Fire, consistently refers to himself as well as frequently the person he is addressing in impersonal, third person form, and never by name.
  • Dobby the House-Elf in the Harry Potter series.
  • Ramona, the housekeeper and mentor in Silver Ravenwolf's Witches Chillers series.
  • The old man Nakata in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.
  • Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh books, films and television series frequently refers to himself in the third-person plural, e.g. "That's what Tiggers do best!"
  • At least in the book versions of Rumpole of the Bailey, protagonist Horace Rumpole sometimes narrates Rumpole's fate in the third person.
  • Herbert Stencil, a major character within Thomas Pynchon's novel V. refers to himself as Stencil and speaks in the third person.