Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse

1985 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-75
Author(s):  
Susan Miller
Keyword(s):  
1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Brenda Deen Schildgen

Abstract: Like the Church Fathers before him, Petrarch was forced to defend secular learning against its detractors, and his defenses draw on many of the same arguments that Augustine and Jerome had used. In these defenses he blends classical rhetoric and Christian values, and his procedures also follow the traditions of classical rhetoric, relying on the epistolary form and utilizing the Ciceronian manner of debating all topics from opposite standpoints. Perhaps, however, because his indecisiveness complemented the classical rhetorical premise that many issues present many possible resolutions, Petrarch also rejects secular learning in some of his writings. His arguments are therefore conclusive only within their unique rhetorical situations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-376
Author(s):  
Mike Duncan

Current histories of rhetoric neglect the early Christian period (ca. 30–430 CE) in several crucial ways–Augustine is overemphasized and made to serve as a summary of Christian thought rather than an endpoint, the texts of church fathers before 300 CE are neglected or lumped together, and the texts of the New Testament are left unexamined. An alternative outline of early Christian rhetoric is offered, explored through the angles of political self-invention, doctrinal ghostwriting, apologetics, and fractured sermonization. Early Christianity was not a monolithic religion that eventually made peace with classical rhetoric, but as a rhetorical force in its own right, and comprised of more factions early on than just the apostolic church.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-431
Author(s):  
Jean FranÇois Poisson-Gueffier

The first book of medieval Latin beast epic, Ysengrimus, relates imaginary trials. In the episodes of the stolen ham and the fishing, the characters, Ysengrin and Renart, imagine that they would convene an ecclesiastic assembly, a synod, and that they would plead their case. Their plead reverses right and wrong (translatio criminis), invents speeches to denigrate each other (sermocinatio), and seems to take the form of large digressions. These speeches, which have been considered as “interminable” and “wordy” by J. Mann and É. Charbonnier, can be reassessed through classical rhetoric. This paper aims to demonstrate that, in spite of the extent of these speeches' apparent rambling, we can extricate some rhetorical structures (constitutiones) from the judicial oratory. This is the first point of a speech that also uses prolixity as an “art of being right.”


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-174
Author(s):  
Eugenia Houvenaghel

The Mexican diplomat Alfonso Reyes (1889––1959) was notable in the cultural panorama of Spanish America in the first half of the 20th century for his acquaintance with classical rhetoric, a discipline rarely studied at that time in that part of the world. This article distinguishes four aspects of rhetoric throughout Reyes' oeuvre: (i) a vulgar sense, (ii) an erudite sense, (iii) classical theories, (iv) and modern applications. In his early work, Reyes uses rhetoric in a pejorative and vulgar sense. Around the year 1940, Reyes starts to show a lively interest in rhetoric, opts definitively for an erudite sense of the term, and initiates the study of the classical art of persuasion. In his third phase, Reyes gains deeper knowledge of rhetoric, lectures on the subject, and explains his favorite orators andtheorists. Finally,his use of rhetoric reveals a commitment to the reality of Spanish America. Reyes' rhetoric is an "actualised" and "Americanised" version that shows the possibilities of the classical art of persuasion in Spanish American society.


1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Schlesinger

Use of the word multimedia is discussed in terms of cultural history, English grammar, classical rhetoric, communication technology, and recent articles by audiovisualists. Against this background, adjectival usage is seen as traditional, and nominative usage is shown to be justified by precedent and specialist practice, although not yet widely conven- tional. The following definitions are offered for general acceptance: multimedia (adjective)—involving several media; referring to any mixture of communication media, including mediated lectures, TV, film, drama, collages, and slide/tape programs multimedia (noun)—multiple-projection presentations reinforced by sound, and methods or equipment used to make such presentations; a method of communication which uses multi-image techniques combining static and moving projections with live or reproduced sound.


Rhetorik ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun F. Ort

AbstractIn acknowledgement of both the intellectual aspirations and the poetical style of Friedrich Schiller’s Aesthetic Education, the following article will re-interpret a passage in the 22nd letter that can be designated as a ›Poetics in nuce‹. Initially, it will be pointed out that Schiller’s theory of human perception as well as his semiotic model focus on the problem of commerce between matter and mind or sign and meaning. Subsequently, it will be shown that the terms Form and Stoff establish a connection between anthropology and poetics by shaping both theories according to the model of metabolism, which is a common metaphor employed to describe the res / verba relation in classical rhetoric. Consequently, I will demonstrate that the epistemological discourse in the letters 24 to 27, in stressing the senses of sight and hearing, leads to a theory of aesthetic communication that integrates rhetorical techniques of creating appearance (»Schein«) by adapting these strategies to the requirements of written communication in print cultures.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfram Groddeck

It is safe to claim that characters and tropes do not 'actually' exist and that they are only 'invented' in the reading of a text, shaped by the gaze of the reader. The rhetorical analysis of the text is therefore tantamount to a self-analysis of the reader. For in talking about rhetoric, a reflection on reading as such also emerges unawares. Reading selects, expands, shifts, and replaces the meanings of the texts; it distorts the meaning it presupposes. Reading proceeds according to laws similar to those described by classical rhetoric for the production of a speech. Therefore, a more sustained talk about rhetoric, along selected texts, will eventually lead to a stylistics of reading. The book is therefore both a textbook on rhetoric and an introduction to the method of rhetorical reading. Using numerous literary examples, rhetorical tropes and figures as well as the history and systematics of rhetoric are presented in a clear and entertaining manner.


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