Rhetoric

ISBN-13: 9780415314367 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 198 str.

Jenni Richards

Opis

The term rhetoric describes the effective use of language, usually to persuade or influence. Frequently set up in opposition to truth or plain speech, it has attracted much critical debate from ancient philosophy to current literary theory.

Examining both the practice and theory of this controversial concept, Jennifer Richards looks at:

• historical and contemporary definitions of the term rhetoric
• uses of rhetoric in literature, by authors such as William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley and James Joyce
• classical traditions of rhetoric, as seen in the work of Plato, Aristotle and Cicero
• the rebirth of rhetoric in the Renaissance and its return to the contemporary academy through Composition and Literature courses
• the current position and way forward for rhetoric in literary and critical theory, as envisaged by critics such as Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida and Kenneth Burke.

This insightful volume offers an honest and accessible account of this debatable yet unavoidable term, making this book invaluable reading for students of literature, philosophy and cultural studies.

Recenzje

'As important for scholars for its originality, as for students who will welcome its lucidity in dealing with complex ideas – a successful example of fresh, academic rhetoric in its own right.' - R. S. White, Parergon

Spis treści

Introduction: What is Rhetoric?  Part 1: The Classical Art  Beginnings  Plato’s Attack.  Aristotle’s Rhetoric  The Roman Art  Cicero: Rejecting Theory  Part 2: Rhetoric Renewed  Renaissance to Enlightenment  Literature and Rhetoric  ‘Rhetorical Didactics’: Post-Enlightenment.  Part 3: Rhetoric to Rhetoricality  I.A. Richards: The Art Renewed  The Death of Rhetoric  Post-Structuralist Rhetoric  Jacques Derrida  Paul de Man  Rhetoric Extended  Kenneth Burke  Glossary of Rhetorical Terms Bibliography

O autorze

Jennifer Richards is Reader in English at the University of Newcastle. She is the author of Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2003). She has edited several collections of essays, including, with Alison Thorne, Rhetoric, Women and Politics in Early Modern England (Routledge, 2006).