 aporia (ancient greek: : "impasse, difficulty of passing, lack of resources, puzzlement") denotes in philosophy a philosophical puzzle or state of puzzlement and in rhetoric a rhetorically useful expression of doubt. ==definitions== definitions of the term aporia have varied throughout history. the oxford english dictionary includes two forms of the word: the adjective, âaporeticâ which it defines as âto be at a loss,â âimpassable,â and âinclined to doubt, or to raise objectionsâ; and the noun form âaporia,â which it defines as the âstate of the aporeticâ and âa perplexity or difficulty.â the dictionary entry also includes two early textual uses, which both refer to the termâs rhetorical (rather than philosophical) usage. in george puttenhamâs the arte of english poesie (1589) aporia is âthe doubtful, [so] called...because often we will seem to caste perils, and make doubts of things when by a plaine manner of speech we might affirm or deny [them].â in another reference from 1657, j. smithâs mystical rhetoric, the term becomes âa figure whereby the speaker sheweth that he doubteth, either where to begin for the multitude of matters, or what to do or say in some strange or ambiguous thingâ (oed). herbert weir smyth's greek grammar (1956) also focuses on the rhetorical usage by defining aporia as âan artifice by which a speaker feigns doubts as to where he shall begin or end or what he shall do or sayâ (674). more modern sources, perhaps because they come after the advent of post-structuralism, have chosen to omit the rhetorical usage of the term. in william harmonâs a handbook to literature, for example, aporia is identified as âa difficulty, impasse, or point of doubt and indecisionâ while also noting that critics such as derrida have employed the term to âindicate a point of undecidability, which locates the site at which the text most obviously undermines its own rhetorical structure, dismantles, or deconstructs itselfâ (39).wolfreys in his essay "trauma, testimony, and criticism" characterizes trauma as aporia, a wound with unending trail. valiur rahaman in his book interpretations: essays in literary theory  (2011) explained aporia as a creative force in both the artist and his art. it is, for him, an edgeless edge of the text or a work of art. ==etymology== the separation of aporia into its two morphemes a- and poros (âwithoutâ and âpassageâ) reveals the wordâs rich etymological background as well as its connection to platonic mythology. sarah kofman asserts that these two components are crucial to a fuller understanding of the word, which has been historically translated and understood somewhat reductively: âtranslators, who usually escape their perplexity by translating poros as âexpediencyâ 
Figures_of_speech Psychological_states Rhetoric