scholarly journals And You Will Be Amazed: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Greek Magical Papyri

2020 ◽  
Vol 21-22 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Radcliffe G. Edmonds
Keyword(s):  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Traditional Authority ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Dominant Strategies ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractAn analysis of the rhetorical strategies used in the so-called Greek Magical Papyri to bolster the authority of the authors provides insight into the authors of these texts and their intended audiences. This article reviews the scholarship on the identity of the composers of the Greek Magical Papyri and explores the rhetorical strategies used in the texts to create authority, before comparing the dominant strategies in the Greek Magical Papyri with similar ones in other kinds of recipe collections, specifically alchemical and medical texts. The authors of the recipes in the Greek Magical Papyri make little use of the traditional authority of the temples but instead justify their claims of superiority with reference to the amazing efficacy of the procedures they describe. The direct, second person address in formulas such as “and you will be amazed” suggests that the intended audience was imagined not as potential clients who need to be convinced of the author’s expertise, but rather as potential practitioners interested in impressing their own clients.

scholarly journals Between me, my younger self and the whole world: letters to one's younger self as epistolary genre

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-39
Author(s):  
Iryna Alyeksyeyeva
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Intrapersonal Communication ◽  
To Come ◽  
Imperative Mood ◽  
True Values ◽  
Insight Into

The research treats letters to one’s younger (usually teen) self posted on the Internet as epistolary genre marked with peculiar linguistic and pragmatic features. Though the letters to one’s self imply intrapersonal communication, i.e. the sender is identical to the addressee, it is not how the sender perceives the situation, which is revealed by the use of pronouns (I for the sender and you for the younger self). However, these two may merge and then we appears to refer to the author’s younger and current selves. Another feature of the letters is roles assumed by the addressors. They may occur as a mentor to their rebellious and anxious younger self, which correlates with the purpose of the letter – giving advice. Alternatively, the authors may position themselves as omniscient fortune-tellers who step in in times of trouble to offer support to their teen self by telling what is there to come. Each of the two roles and purposes correlates with specific language means. The mentor role turns the letter into a lesson where the Imperative Mood prevails. The role of a fortune-teller transforms the letter into an autobiographical sketch told in a bizarre way: the author shifts past events into the future with the help of deictic markers (e.g., today, this) and tenses (e.g., future tenses or their synonyms such as constructions to be about to and to be going to). The letters to one’s younger self that contain an autobiographical component provide the researcher with an insight into the process of identity construction, since they show how one endows identity with continuity and bridge the divide between one’s teen and adult selves. In addition, the letters meant as advice deliver the culture specific idea of what ‘a good life’ is: they are written to guide their actual intended audience, i.e. Internet (teen) users, in modern society and inform them of true values and right choices.

The Great War and Dulac’s First Films

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tami Williams
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Great War ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Strong Belief ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
French Film ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Film Producer ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter focuses on Dulac's wartime activism and literary writings, as well as the debut of her film career—from her first activities as a film producer for Pathé (La Lumière du coeur, 1916) to her first directorial efforts (Soeurs ennemies to Le Bonheur des autres, 1917–18)—and evaluates the historical significance of her incursion into and negotiated course within the French film industry as a female artist and entrepreneur. A close examination of archival sources documenting Dulac's early professional activities provides insight into her humanist egalitarianism, universalism, and her strong belief in the emancipatory potential of art, as well as her early rhetorical strategies.

Contra Academicos as autobiography: a critique of the historiography on Augustine's first extant dialogue

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-264
Author(s):  
Stuart Squires
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
As If

AbstractContra Academicos is not one of Augustine's masterpieces and, as such, modern scholarship has largely ignored this text in favour of examining Augustine's more mature works. Scholars do, however, attempt to use it as a way of interpreting Augustine's psychological state of mind at the time of his conversion because this is his first extant text. I argue that this attempt at reading Contra Academicos as autobiography is dangerous because Augustine was deliberately offering a self-representation to a pagan-philosophical audience and, therefore, scholars should not attempt to interpret this dialogue as if it offered neutral insight into Augustine's state of mind around 386. This article will first review the history of the scholarship which has attempted to read Contra Academicos as autobiography to prove that Augustine was only a Neoplatonist at the time of his conversion, or to disprove this theory. In either case, the authors of both positions have relied on Contra Academicos to support their claims. Then, I will make three arguments why reading Contra Academicos as autobiography is dubious. First, I will argue that the literary genre of the dialogue shows that Augustine's intended audience was for pagan-philosophers. Second, I will argue that the dedication of the text shows that Augustine's audience is a pagan-philosophical audience. Augustine's dedicatee plays a larger role in this text than do most dedicatees of texts in late antiquity. Third, I will show that the specific content demonstrates that Augustine's text was focused on a pagan-philosophical audience. Augustine never quotes scripture but goes to great pains to demonstrate his knowledge of Vergil and Cicero.

On interaction in herbals from Middle English to Early Modern English

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martti Mäkinen
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Middle English ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Person ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
The Middle Ages

The focus of this article is on interaction in Middle English and Early Modern English herbals. In the Middle Ages, herbals were mainly instructive aids for producing medicines of the plants described in the text. Later, in the Early Modern English period, the herbal genre split into two, retaining the genre called herbals and giving birth to systematic botanical texts. The interaction established in texts can be studied through the use of pronouns (involvement markers) and the use of imperatives. This study shows that the strategies employed in the Middle English period are very different from the strategies in the Early Modern English period: the use of second-person pronouns and imperatives prevails in the Middle English period, whereas the use of first-person pronouns was preferred in the Early Modern English period. In addition to this, another division, irrespective of the time of writing, is observed in the material: the first group includes handbooks and practical herbals, and the other group learned and empirical herbals. Factors which explain these differences in interaction strategies are the purposes for writing and the education of the intended audience.

scholarly journals Medicinal Mercury in Early Modern Portuguese Records: Recipes and Methods from Eighteenth-Century Medical Guidebooks

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1017-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Walker
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Eastern Hemisphere ◽  
Asian Medicine ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract This chapter will present and explicate rare information regarding circumstances and techniques for the application of medicinal mercury in the Portuguese medical context during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through the use of Portuguese medical texts (including translated excerpts), the chapter will provide insight into how early modern Portuguese practitioners processed and employed mercury to treat various ailments. Of interest, too, will be that these remedies were developed at several disparate locations throughout the Portuguese imperial world (China, India, Angola, Brazil, and Portugal), and often drew upon, and blended, indigenous medical substances from the region where each remedy originated. Regarding the use of mercury in South Asian medicine, medical scholars have noted that, from the sixteenth century onwards, much of the intra-Asian (and global) mercury trade was conducted through Portuguese merchants and agents. This work asserts that Portuguese merchants and shippers had unique access both to mercury at the commodity’s main sources in Spain and Peru (Almadén and Huancavelica, respectively), but also to established, developed colonial trade routes throughout the eastern hemisphere. Most of the information presented here is excerpted from two little-known eighteenth-century Portuguese primary sources: a Jesuit compilation medical and apothecary guide in manuscript, and a published physician’s treatise regarding fevers and other illnesses encountered during a posting of nearly a decade in Angola.

On the development of the Romance demonstrative systems

Diachronica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Stavinschi
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Genetic Relation ◽  
Recurrent Patterns ◽  
Insight Into

The paper provides a structured account of the evolution of the Romance pronominal/adnominal demonstrative systems, using both the analysis of medieval corpora and recent fieldwork. It identifies the mechanisms involved, building on a detailed analysis of the textual and extra-textual usage of demonstratives, which gives new insight into the nature of deixis and anaphora. The evidence shows that the genetic relation between deictics and anaphorics is not unidirectional: not only can anaphors originate from deictics, the reverse can also be shown to hold true, with pure anaphorics appearing to be a viable source for second-person deictics. The main driving force in the process is subjectification, which conditions the development at every stage. The evolution follows predictable pathways and turns out to be cyclic: three main recurrent patterns are clearly identifiable for all the varieties investigated.

scholarly journals Buyer Perceptions of Foliage Trade Shows: Implications for Marketing

1991 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-79
Author(s):  
John J. Haydu ◽  
Alan W. Meerow ◽  
Gina Sitaras
Keyword(s):  
Retail Trade ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Trade Show ◽  
Important Target ◽  
Trade Sector ◽  
Trade Shows ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Question Survey

Abstract A ten question survey was mailed to all registered buyers of the 1988 Foliage Expo trade show in Hallandale, Florida to seek their opinions on the performance of the show, to better understand the buyer profile, and gain insight into the effectiveness of these shows as marketing tools. Based on the results of this survey, it appears that an important target group, namely the retail trade sector, were not being drawn in sufficient numbers to this particular trade show. These findings indicate that sponsors may not have clearly identified the intended audience, determined unambiguously the preferences of this audience, nor effectively advertised and promoted the trade exhibition.

scholarly journals Gangrene or Cancer? Sixteenth-Century Medical Texts and the Decay of the Body of the Church in Jean Calvin’s Exegesis of 2 Timothy 2:17

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Lindsay J. Starkey
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Effects ◽  
The People ◽  
Timothy 2 ◽  
Biblical Commentaries ◽  
The Church ◽  
Insight Into

In 2 Timothy 2:17, Paul compared the effects of false teachings on the Church to a disease. Rejecting previous translations that identified this disease as cancer, Jean Calvin (1509–64) insisted that it must be gangrene in his 1548 commentary on this epistle, citing and discussing medical texts to justify his translation. This article places his commentary in the context of these medical texts. The causes, courses, and treatments his contemporaries associated with gangrene provide insight into Calvin’s idea of the people likely to spread false teachings and of how they should be treated: because, for him, the experience of gangrene reflected the real effects of false teachings on the Church. This manuscript argues that consulting other areas of sixteenth-century knowledge, such as medicine, was a part of Calvin’s exegetical practice. It also suggests that modern scholars need to take these other areas of knowledge into account when analyzing sixteenth-century biblical commentaries. Dans 2 Timothée 2:17, Paul compara les effets des faux enseignements sur l’Église à une maladie. Ayant rejeté les traductions précédentes qui identifiaient cette maladie comme cancer, Jean Calvin (1509–1564), dans son commentaire de cette épître en 1548, soutint qu’il devait s’agir de la gangrène et il justifia cette traduction en citant et discutant des sources médicales. Cet article situe ce commentaire dans le contexte de ces textes médicaux. Les causes, les symptômes et les traitements associés à la gangrène, portent un discours sur ceux qui, selon Calvin, propageraient les faux enseignements, ainsi que sur la façon dont on doit les traiter. Pour Calvin, en effet, la réalité de de la gangrène reflète, dans l’expérience, les effets des faux enseignements sur l’Église. Cette étude examine de la pratique exégétique de Calvin, qui consulte d’autres domaines de la connaissance, comme la médecine, pour lire les textes. Aussi il propose que les savants modernes doivent prendre en compte ces autres domaines pour analyser les commentaires bibliques du XVIe siècle.

scholarly journals Precise Punishment: Why Precise Punitive Damage Requests Result in Higher Awards Than Round Requests

2021 ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Michael Conklin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Civil Defense ◽  
Punitive Damage ◽  
Basketball Player ◽  
Juror Decision Making ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Defense Attorneys ◽  
Used Car ◽  
Insight Into

Imagine a setting where someone asks two people what the temperature is outside. The first person says it is 80 °F, while the second person says it is 78.7 °F. Research regarding precise versus round cognitive anchoring suggests that the second person is more likely to be believed. This is because it is human nature to assume that if someone gives a precise answer, he must have good reason for doing so. This principle remains constant in a variety of settings, including used car negotiations, eBay transactions, and estimating the field goal percentage of a basketball player. This Article reports the results of a first-of-its-kind study involving over 600 participants designed to measure if this same principle applies to punitive damage requests from plaintiffs’ attorneys. In other words, can a plaintiff’s attorney increase the punitive damages awarded simply by requesting $497,000 instead of $500,000. The stark differences produced from such a subtle and costless change provide a valuable strategy for plaintiffs’ attorneys, a cautionary warning for civil defense attorneys, and constructive insight into the subjective nature of juror decision-making.

The Social Setting of Wisdom Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 336-352
Author(s):  
Mark Sneed
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Original Audience ◽  
Insight Into

The question of the social setting of the biblical Wisdom Literature is an interesting one in that this type of literature seeks to exclude its social background as much as possible. Wisdom Literature, by its very nature, ostensibly portrays itself as universal in its appeal. The social setting of the biblical Wisdom Literature is introduced in this chapter, in order to provide insight into how a range of social facets impinge on their interpretation. Attention focuses on the Israelite scribal context for this literature and the location of its authors/original audience in the retainer social class. Other social variables treated are power, age, gender, and status of both the intended audience and its authors.

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