1. An Overview of Rhetoric. Rhetoric and Persuasion.Defining
Rhetoric.Rhetorical Discourse.Social Functions of the Art of
Rhetoric.
2. The Origins and Early History of Rhetoric. The Rise of
Rhetoric in Ancient Greece.The Sophists.Two Influential
Sophists.Aspasia's Role in Athenian Rhetoric.
3. Plato vs. the Sophists: Rhetoric on Trial. Plato's
Gorgias: Rhetoric on Trial.Rhetoric in Plato's
Phaedrus: A True Art?
4. Aristotle on Rhetoric. Aristotle's Definitions of
Rhetoric.Three Rhetorical Settings.The Artistic Proofs.The Topoi or
Lines of Argument.Aristotle on Style.
5. Rhetoric at Rome. Roman Society and the Place of
Rhetoric.The Rhetorical Theory of Cicero.Quintilian.Longinus: On
the Sublime.Rhetoric in the Later Roman Empire.
6. Rhetoric in Christian Europe. Rhetoric, Tension, and
Fragmentation.Rhetoric and the Medieval Curriculum.Rhetoric in the
Early Middle Ages: Augustine, Capella, and Boethius.St.
Augustine.Martianus Capella.Boethius.Three Rhetorical Arts in the
Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.The Art of Preaching.The Art of
Letter Writing.The Art of Poetry.
7. Rhetoric in the Renaissance. Features of Renaissance
Rhetoric.Lorenzo Valla: Retrieving the Rhetorical Tradition.Women
and Renaissance Rhetoric.Italian Humanism: A Catalyst for
Rhetoric's Expansion.Rhetoric as Personal and Political
Influence.Humanism, Rhetoric, and the Study of Classical
Texts.Petrarch and the Origins of Italian Humanism.Pico della
Mirandola and the Magic of Language.Juan Luis Vives.Rhetoric and
the Vita Activa. Madame de ScuderyThe Turn toward Dialectic:
Rhetoric and Its Critics.Renaissance Rhetorics in Britain.
8. Enlightenment Rhetorics. Vico on Rhetoric and Human
Thought.British Rhetorics in the Eighteenth Century.The
Elocutionary Movement.The Scottish SchoolRichard Whately's
Classical Rhetoric.
9. Contemporary Rhetoric I: Argument, Audiences, and
Advocacy. Argumentation and Rational Discourse.Perelman and
Olbrechts-Tyteca: A New Rhetoric.Stephen Toulmin and the Uses of
Argument.Argumentation and Scientific Inquiry.Deirdre McCloskey and
the Rhetoric of Economics.Clifford Geertz and Rhetoric in
Anthropology.Michael Billig and the Rhetoric of Social
Psychology.John Campbell on the Rhetoric of Charles
Darwin.Criticisms of the Rhetoric of Science
10. Contemporary Rhetoric II: As Equipment for Living.
Rhetoric in Its Social Context: The Dramatic and Situational
Views.Kenneth Burke and Rhetoric as Symbolic Action.Lloyd Bitzer
and Rhetoric as Situational.Rhetoric as Narration.Mikhail Bakhtin
and the Polyphonic Novel.Wayne Booth and the Rhetoric of
Fiction.Jurgen Habermas and the Conditions of Rational
Discourse
11. Contemporary Rhetoric III: Texts, Power, and
Alternatives. Postmodernism.Michael Foucault: Discourse,
Knowledge, and Power.Jacques Derrida: Texts, Meanings, and
Deconstruction.Richard Weaver: Rhetoric and the Preservation of
Culture.Feminism and Rhetoric: Critique and Reform in
Rhetoric.George Kennedy and Comparative Rhetoric. All chapters
conclude with "Conclusion," "Questions for Review," "Questions for
Discussion" and "Terms."
The History and Theory of Rhetoric offers an accessible discussion of the history of rhetorical studies in the Western tradition, from ancient Greece to contemporary American and European theorists. By tracing the historical progression of rhetoric from the Greek Sophists of the 5th Century B.C. to contemporary studies-such as the rhetoric of science and feminist rhetoric-this concise yet comprehensive text helps students better understand what rhetoric is and what unites differing rhetorical theories throughout history.
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