Classical Rhetorical Analysis on Paul’s Character in His Speech at Miletus (Acts 20:18–35)

In his speech at Miletus (Acts 20:18–25), Paul talks about himself repeatedly. Such stress on the character of Paul inevitably raises some questions regarding the function of the emphasis. This article attempts to understand the function of the emphasis on the character of Paul in the Miletus speech. The method used to analyze the speech is the classical rhetorical method. Classical rhetoric follows the convention of ancient Greco-Roman rhetoric to examine how a speech persuades the audience to act according to what the speaker intends. In studying the Miletus speech, the writer will investigate several elements from classical rhetoric, such as the rhetorical invention, with particular discussion to ethos (character), pathos (emotion), and logos (the logic of the argumentation), the rhetorical species, the rhetorical arrangement, and the rhetorical effectiveness. The main argument of this article is that the emphasis on Paul’s character functions as the basis for the accountability of Paul’s ministry and the basis for his exhortation to the elders of the Ephesian church.

Syntactic Expression of Logical Topos in the Speeches of Russian Lawyers of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

In the article, we make an attempt to relate logical topoi, rhetorical figures, and syntactic constructions. The research is based on the court speeches of Russian lawyers of late 19th and early 20th century. This period is considered to be the Golden Age of the Russian lawyer eloquence, thus the speeches delivered at that time by famous Russian lawyers in jury trials are of particular interest for the analysis. The speeches were chosen at random as the focus was not on the orators’ individual style but on their general strategies of syntactic expression of topoi. Although topoi have been an indispensable part of rhetorical invention since Antiquity, there still exists a discrepancy in their interpretation. In different time periods, they were regarded as the source of arguments, as clichés and even as themes that can be modified depending on orator’s objectives. In the article, we focus on the approach, which involves trichotomic classification, which includes logical topoi that are connected with logical operations. The most common topoi in lawyers speeches are those of time and place and genus and species . Within the framework of our study, they are analyzed in terms of logical operations and set theory, as well as structural schemes of sentences which were further connected with respective rhetorical figures (their functions being described for each case). The structural schemes’ analysis we used follow the principles described in Russian Grammar (1980). In the final part of the article, the results of the study are summarized. Logical operations typical for the topoi of time and place and genus and species are provided along with the most common syntactic schemes of sentences and rhetorical figures. We believe that this approach to the analysis of topoi can be beneficial both in theoretical and practical perspective and can be common to analyze the logical basis of lawyers’ argumentation, the major component of their eloquence.

Point and shoot: Police media labor and technologies of surveillance in End of Watch

This article analyzes the 2012 found-footage buddy-cop film End of Watch. The author analyzes the film’s production, plot, para-textual materials, audience reviews, and audience-generated media to examine the film’s rhetorical strategies and cultural impact. The author shows how police media work inspired the film’s creation, influenced the film’s production, and shaped the film’s messages. End of Watch is a crucial test case for understanding how police collaborate with the entertainment industry to respond to public crises of police visuality. Police media labor shaped the creation, production, and performances of the film, helping create a media product branded simultaneously as a realistic look at police life and a positive correction to negative media representations of police officers. End of Watch breathes cinematic life into commonplace hegemonic tropes of police backlash rhetoric. This article argues that End of Watch uses surveillant narration to humanize police and dehumanize the subjects of police violence. It also demonstrates how End of Watch served as a source of rhetorical invention for pro-police publics who drew on images and tropes from the film to defend police in the face of the crises of police visibility that emerged in the years following the film’s release.

Re-defining gender as a heinous crime: A case study from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

In this article, we explore how the discourses around gender are evolving at the core of Brazilian politics. Our focus lies on the discourses at the public hearing on the bill 3.492/19, which aimed at including “gender ideology” on the list of heinous crimes. We aim to identify the deputies’ linguistic representation of social actors as pertaining to in- and outgroups. In addition, the article analyzes through Critical Discourse Analysis how the terminology gender is represented in this particular hearing. The analysis shows how some of the conservative parliamentarians give a clearly negative meaning to the term gender, by labeling it “gender ideology” and additionally connecting it with heinous crimes. We propose that the re-signification of “gender ideology,” from rhetorical invention to heinous crime, is not only an attempt to undermine scientific gender studies but also a way for conservative deputies to gain more political power.

“Fitter to Please the Court Than the School”: Courtly and Paideutic Rhetoric in Elizabethan Poetics

This paper argues that Elizabethan handbooks on poetics enact two coevolving traditions in the history of rhetoric and poetics: one sees poetry as a rhetorical art of stylistic invention, while the other sees it as an object of study, analysis, and ethical training. To show this, I examine George Puttenham's Art of English Poesy and contrast it with William Scott's recently discovered Model of Poesy. Puttenham demonstrates how poetic style works as a tool of rhetorical invention; Scott, on the other hand, treats poetics as a method of literary critical analysis. Scott's poetics, I argue, is derived from a “paideutic” tradition, the aims of which mirror those found in educational treatises that concern the hermeneutic training students received in English grammar schools. Puttenham, writing for courtiers, instead makes a case for poetics as a means of rhetorical adaptation at court—his handbook, in short, shows poetry to be a rhetorical and pragmatic art of verbal performance that exists outside the schoolroom.