A rhetorical figure in which an absent, dead, or inanimate entity is given a speaking voice. Personhood bestowed for the sake of vivid address. Prosopopoeia does not merely animate like simple personification does; it makes the thing speak.

From Greek prosōpopoiia, “the making of a face/person,” from prosōpon “face, person” + poiein “to make.” A mask becomes a mouth; literature turns absence into presence by giving it a tongue.