Caussin's Passion and the New History of Rhetoric

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-112
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Gross

Nicolaus Caussin's Eloquentia sacrae et humaneae parellela (1619) forges a distinctly modern history of rhetoric that ties discourse to culture. What were the conditions that made this new history of rhetoric possible? Marc Fumaroli has argued that political exigency in Cardinal Richelieu's France demanded a reconciliation of divergent religious and secular forms of eloquence that implicated, in turn, a newly "eclectic" history of rhetoric. But political exigency alone does not account for this nascent pluralism; we also need to look at the internal dynamics of rhetorical theory as it moved across literate cultures in Europe. With this goal in mind, I first demonstrate in this article how textbooks after the heady days of Protestant Reformation in Germany tried in vain to systematize the passions of art, friendship, and politics. Partially in response to this failure, I then argue, there emerged in France a new rhetoric sensitive to the historical contingency of passionate situations. My claim is not simply that rhetoric is bound to be temporal and situational, but more precisely that Caussin initiates historical rhetorics: the capacity to theorize how discourse is bound to culture in its plurality and historical contingency.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
KAARLO HAVU

Abstract The article analyses the emergence of decorum (appropriateness) as a central concept of rhetorical theory in the early sixteenth-century writings of Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives. In rhetorical theory, decorum shifted the emphasis from formulaic rules to their creative application in concrete cases. In doing so, it emphasized a close analysis of the rhetorical situation (above all the preferences of the audience) and underscored the persuasive possibilities of civil conversation as opposed to passionate, adversarial rhetoric. The article argues that the stress put on decorum in early sixteenth-century theory is not just an internal development in the history of rhetoric but linked to far wider questions concerning the role of rhetoric in religious and secular lives. Decorum appears as a solution both to the divisiveness of language in the context of the Reformation and dynastic warfare of the early sixteenth century and as an adaptation of the republican tradition of political rhetoric to a changed, monarchical context. Erasmus and Vives maintained that decorum not only suppressed destructive passions and discord, but that it was only through polite and civil rhetoric (or conversation) that a truly effective persuasion was possible in a vast array of contexts.


2021 ◽  
pp. 100-119
Author(s):  
Gesine Manuwald

This chapter provides an overview of Quintilian’s views on the categories of rhetoric (in relation to existing positions) as outlined in the second part of Book 2 and in Book 3. Concepts discussed include the definition, function, and character of rhetoric, comments on the history of rhetoric and rhetorical theory, the parts of rhetoric, the theory of status, as well as the different types of speeches and their characteristics. It can be shown that this part of the Institutio oratoria is an important source and illustrates how an educated and well-read professional rhetorician in the early Imperial period reacts to views expressed by predecessors, especially since Quintilian, as a true researcher, aims to offer a panorama of views from which both he and his readers can choose.


2008 ◽  
pp. 28-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Lund

The theory of rhetorical figures played an important part in certain periods of the history of rhetoric, but lately it has not been of particular interest to rhetorical criticism. Metaphors and rhetorical figures have been the object of literary studies. The modern rhetorical criticism has treated rhetorical figures as subordinate to argumentation. The article presents a recent rhetorical theory with a primary focus on rhetorical figures as well as on argumentation. This rhetorical theory is compared with parallel perspectives of modern theories on metaphors and the analytical perspectives are explored in a reading of a debate between the rapper Niarn and the author Hanne-Vibeke Holst. Keywords rhetorical figures, metaphors, style, argumentation, rhetorical criticism


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-401
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Shatin ◽  
I. V. Silantev

The article discusses the prerequisites for the creation of a neo-rhetorical theory of the Brussels school. The authors proceed from the premise that the doctrine created by Ch. Perelman was not a one-step act, but was the result of a change in the scientific and philosophical paradigm of the first half of the twentieth century. Despite the fact that persuasiveness as the main core of the theory of argumentation was not known to scientists, in their writings they actively promoted ideas related to the role of intuition in learning scientific truths, widely using analogy techniques and metaphors borrowed from natural languages. The main actor in the article is H. Poincaré, a famous physicist, one of the creators of the special theory of relativity, and a popularizer of science, who went down in history of its formation as an active fighter with logocentrism.


2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-66
Author(s):  
Claude La Charité

The literary tradition has preserved three Artes Rhetoricae written for the last of the Valois kings, who reigned in France under the name of Henry III from 1574 to 1589. These three texts are Jacques Davy Du Perron's Avant-discours de rhetorique, ou Traitté de l'eloquence, Jacques Amyot's Projet de l'eloquence royale, and Germain Forget's Rhetorique françoise faicte particulierement pour le roy Henry 3. All three very likely originated as academic speeches pronounced at the Louvre, in the presence of Henry III, in the final sessions of the Palace Academy during the summer of 1579. This article offers a re-reading of the three treatises in order to situate them in the history of rhetoric. It aims to show how each author collects and presents teachings of the principal rhetorical traditions. Thus, Du Perron, inspired mainly by Quintilian and Cicero, proposes a kind of abridged version of the rhetorical thought of Latin Antiquity. Amyot, for his part, puts forth a synthesis of ancient Greek rhetorical theory starting with Plutarch, Dyonisius of Halicarnassus and Demetrius of Phalerus. Germain Forget provides an account of Renaissance innovations, by adopting the nomenclature of Peter Ramus under the rubric of elocutio. The objective of this essay is to shed light on the complementary nature of the three treatises, as well as to suggest a probable order in which they were presented to the King, following a logical gradation from the most general to the most specific.


2021 ◽  
pp. 429-463
Author(s):  
Richard A. Katula ◽  
Cleve Wiese

Quintilian is alive and well in the United States of America. He has been a central figure in American rhetorical theory and/or practice since approximately 1730. With Aristotle and Cicero, Quintilian is one of the three figures comprising the ‘Classical School’ of rhetoric. His influence has sometimes been so foundational as to be easily overlooked. Often viewed as more of a synthesizer than an innovator in the history of rhetoric, Quintilian’s unique contribution to America is the comprehensive educational system laid out in his monumental Institutio Oratoria. This chapter traces Quintilian’s influence through the various periods of American education, showing it rising and falling with the particular needs of the times, but always remaining true to its emphasis on the holistic process of character development and its rejection of a rigid code of rules for writing and speaking. In the twenty-first century, Quintilian’s central idea in his Institutio holds true: that rhetorical training is a central aspect in the forming of minds for citizenship in a democracy such as the United States of America.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-73
Author(s):  
Paul R. Powers

The ideas of an “Islamic Reformation” and a “Muslim Luther” have been much discussed, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This “Reformation” rhetoric, however, displays little consistency, encompassing moderate, liberalizing trends as well as their putative opposite, Islamist “fundamentalism.” The rhetoric and the diverse phenomena to which it refers have provoked both enthusiastic endorsement and vigorous rejection. After briefly surveying the history of “Islamic Reformation” rhetoric, the present article argues for a four-part typology to account for most recent instances of such rhetoric. The analysis reveals that few who employ the terminology of an “Islamic Reformation” consider the specific details of its implicit analogy to the Protestant Reformation, but rather use this language to add emotional weight to various prescriptive agendas. However, some examples demonstrate the potential power of the analogy to illuminate important aspects of religious, social, and political change in the modern Islamic world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Alin Constantin Corfu

"A Short Modern History of Studying Sacrobosco’s De sphaera. The treatise generally known as De sphaera offered at the beginning of the 13th century a general image of the structure of the cosmos. In this paper I’m first trying to present a triple stake with which this treaty of Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195 - c. 1256). This effort is intended to draw a context upon the treaty on which I will present in the second part of this paper namely, a short modern history of studying this treaty starting from the beginning of the 20th century up to this day. The first stake consists in the well-known episode of translation of the XI-XII centuries in the Latin milieu of the Greek and Arabic treaties. The treatise De sphaera taking over, assimilating and comparing some of the new translations of the texts dedicated to astronomy. The second Consists in the fact that Sacrobosco`s work can be considered a response to a need of renewal of the curriculum dedicated to astronomy at the University of Paris. And the third consists in the novelty and the need to use the De sphaera treatise in the Parisian University’s curriculum of the 13th century. Keywords: astronomy, translation, university, 13th Century, Sacrobosco, Paris, curriculum"


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