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COMM 15000: Theory and Practice of Oral Discourse.
Week 09: The rhetorical tradition after Greece.
© 2000 David E. Powers
I. Rhetorical tradition: overview
A. technical rhetoric
B. sophistic rhetoric
C. philosophic rhetoric
D. Roman rhetoric
E. Medieval rhetoric
F. Renaissance rhetoric
G. Enlightenment rhetoric
H. modern rhetoric
II. Roman rhetorical theory
A. overall, technical rhetoric
1. rules
2. regularization
3. unity
4. argument
5. speech
6. education
B. specific theorists / rhetors
1. Cicero (106-43 BCE)
i. De inventione
a. concentrates on invention
b. wisdom and eloquence
c. rhetoric is civis ratio
ii. De oratore
a. character of the orator
b. sources of persuasion
c. three duties of an orator
1) to prove
2) to delight
3) to stir
d. styles
1) plain
2) middle
3) grand
2. Quintilian (ca. 40-95 CE)
i. change from republic to empire
ii. rhetoric: knowledge of speaking well
iii. integration of education
iv. prepared rhetoric for movement away from democracy to tyranny
C. Roman rhetorical heritage: five canons of rhetoric
1. inventio
2. dispositio
3. elocutio
4. memoria
5. pronunciatio
III. Medieval rhetorical theory: Augustine (354-430)
A. Christian rhetoric and classical roots: technical tradition of Cicero
B. rhetoric concerned with interpretation
1. subordination of reasoning
2. contextual interpretation
C. universal appeal
IV. Renaissance rhetoric
A. Background
1. humanism
2. knowledge and change
3. free pursuit of knowledge
B. Practitioners / examples
1. Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)
i. stylistic rhetoric
ii. copia: abundance
2. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
i. epistemology and rhetoric
ii. structure of human knowledge
V. Enlightenment rhetoric
A. attacks on rhetoric
B. responses
1. elocutionary rhetoric (elocutionism)
i. Gilbert Austin (1753-1837):
a. Chironomia
b. description of gesture and delivery
ii. Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788)
a. connection of vocabulary to ideas
b. concentration on delivery
c. concern for morality
2. philosophic rhetoric: George Campbell (1719-1796)
i. different response from elocutionists
ii. faculty psychology
a. understanding
b. imagination
c. passions
d. will
iii. tradition of Aristotle
VI. Modern rhetoric
A. James Winans: rediscovery of rhetorical theory
B. Kenneth Burke: consubstantiality
C. Lloyd Bitzer: rhetorical situation: exigence
D. Michel Foucault: knowledge and power
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