Der prix de morale der Akademie von Dijon für das Jahr 1750

The article reconsiders Rousseau’s famous Discours sur les sciences et les arts within the medial and institutional context of the prize question (prix de morale) proposed by the Academy of Dijon for the year 1750. To do so, it pays special attention to the contributions submitted by Rousseau’s (thirteen) competitors, which so far have hardly been analysed by historians of literature and philosophy. The paper also expands on the institutional and social structure of the Academy of Dijon as well as the particular profile of its morality prizes organized since 1743. In addition, the article situates the contest of 1750 in the broader context of the concours académique and outlines the evolution of the genre with its specific rhetorical traditions since the end of the seventeenth century. Thus, the crucial question, how the Academy of Dijon came to select Rousseau’s text, can be approached from a different angle. Finally, this perspective also sheds new light upon certain aspects of a major work in the history of philosophy - the Discours sur les sciences et les arts.

THE HYBRID RHETORICAL ETHOS

There are three main schools for the study of the ethos: the pragmatic-discursive; the symbolic interactionist, and the rhetorical one. This paper aims to give an encompassing and fuller perspective on the rhetorical ethos that can be useful to the contemporary uses of the persuasive communication, including media communication such as advertising or marketing communication. Primarily, it outlines the conceptual employments ethos has suffered by through different subjects. Subsequently, it briefly enumerates the major rhetorical traditions; lastly, it postulates the rhetoric ethos as a hybrid notion that includes both a projected and an intended dimension. We hope this distinction allows us to better will envisage the persuasive communication further than the forum/agora and its several digital uses in the 21th century.

Gendering Jesus the Jew

Gendering Jesus has been a matter of divergent interpretations, ranging from emphasis on typical features of masculine power to ‘unmanly’ character by ancient elite standards. This article explores anew Jesus’ Jewish masculinity. It revisits a recent study of the question what Jesus looked like, by mutually reconsidering ancient literary and rhetorical traditions of description, literary data about Jesus’ physical and social appearance, major aspects in the literary record about Jesus the Jew in comparison with Jewish tradition including the Dead Sea Scrolls, and recent findings in iconography. Jesus the Jew comes off as an unconventional challenger of male power at the time, whose appearance would neither have adhered to elite standards of physical and social apparel nor to late antique adaptations through the Romanization of Christian iconography.

“Since We Came out of This Ground”

Over time, Natives and settlers not only came to appreciate the political implications of treaties but also learned to manipulate each other’s legal concepts. Craig Yirush shows the Iroquois’ skill at sequentially deploying indigenous and English concepts during negotiations with delegates from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland in 1744. The Iroquois defended their claims to land in Maryland and Virginia by invoking their conquest of it and their long possession (prescription). Arguments from conquest and prescription, familiar in European colonial discourses, constituted part of the settlers’ case at the treaty negotiations. The Iroquois reworked these arguments to their own advantage, mixing them with appeals rooted in Native legal and rhetorical traditions. Switching between Native and English legal ideas was at once a mechanism for gaining advantages in negotiations, defending interests, outmaneuvering rivals, and enriching intermediaries.

The Ars versificaria of Gervase of Melkley

Gervase of Melkley, a younger contemporary of Geoffrey of Vinsauf, writes his De arte versificatoria et modo dictandi at the peak of a revisionary movement that places the discussions of figures and tropes inherited from classical and medieval grammatical and rhetorical traditions in new contexts, creating what we now call the Arts of Poetry and Prose. Gervase’s art draws upon the works of Matthew of Vendome, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and Bernardus Silvestris for its doctrine and its examples. But how often does Gervase refer to these writers? How does he use their arts in his art? When does he borrow from them? What doctrine and which examples does he borrow? Does he cite his references and, if so, what are his citation practices? This chapter surveys Gervase’s borrowings from the works of Matthew, Geoffrey, and Bernardus by way of a review of the Index nominum and Index scriptorium of Hans Jurgen Graebener’s modern edition of the De arte versificatoria. The review locates Gervase’s borrowings of doctrine and examples with greater precision, and corrects errors in the indices as needed. Charting the precise citation practices of Gervase clarifies the meaning of his hierarchy of the three writers, places his long supposed use of the Poetria nova in serious doubt, and reopens the question of his art’s date.

Studying the African American Narrative in English Composition Classes

This piece explores the history of rhetoric that can be placed in the context of contemporary college classrooms. Though US colleges explore and teach the fundamentals of rhetoric from a Greek perspective, this piece explains the oratory heritage of Africa, where rhetoric began (Diop, 2008; Hilliard, Williams, & Damali, 1987; Jackson II & Richardson, 2003; Semmes, 1992). Contemporary college classrooms can remediate their practices of teaching rhetoric by exploring it through the lens of Egyptian's ancient rhetorical traditions. African American (AA) students maintain their oral traditions through storytelling and contemporary religious rhetoric. Scholars presented in this piece will show that the oral rhetorical traditions of ancient Africa, African American spirituality, and AA linguistic patterns can help teachers of AA students in the contemporary classroom. It will also examine the narratives of critical race theory, social justice, and opportunity as they relate to students in educational settings.