Theory Flashcards
What are the two ways that we can understand the term ‘rhetoric’?
- rhetoric might be understood in terms of ‘rhetoricity’ - property of a type of language allied to/ identical with the literary
- rhetoric might also be considered as the art of persuasive speech (practical art)
How did Aristotle define ‘a really distinguished style’ in the Poetics?
“a really distinguished style varies ordinary diction through the employment of unusual words”
What did Aristotle mean by the term ‘unusual’ in the Poetics when he identified that the use of unusual words is a component of ‘a really distinguished style’?
“strange words and metaphor and lengthened words and everything that goes beyond ordinary diction”
If, says Aristotle, someone was to write only in unusual words ie. “strange words and metaphor and lengthened words and everything that goes beyond ordinary diction” - what would be the result?
“a riddle or a barbarism”
What origin does the word ‘barbarism’ have and what significance does this hold?
the word ‘barbarism’ comes from ‘babbler’ or ‘barbarous’ - links an experience of strangeness to not understanding
What is the implication of limiting barbarism?
only so much foreignness is acceptable
What kind of language is connected to barbarism?
rude or unpolished language
Which two theorists and their texts can be put in discussion on the topic of rhetoric?
Erasmus, Copia vs. Paul de Man, The Resistance to Theory
What did rhetoric mean to Erasmus?
Erasmus himself - world of courtly politics, rhetoric was a social performance and was in social/ political contexts - supposed to have impressive variety, intention was not to make a successful act of communication
What was copia?
Copia - a style of abundance in rhetoric
What function did copia have?
means of avoiding tautologia (repetition of a word or phrase)
What is the relationship of form and content in copia?
whatever aspects of the form shift - the meaning of the content is maintained (even though he introduces ‘possible figures, tropes and schemes of rhetoric’)
What are the three aspects of the trivium as De Man sees it?
Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic
What does grammar serve in De Man’s trivium?
logic
How is logic defined in De Man’s theory?
Logic = the rigour of linguistic discourse - it allows access to the phenomenal world (ie. the world and its objective reality)
Where does the ‘literary’ sit in De Man’s trivium?
the ‘literary’ foregrounds the rhetoric aspect of the trivium over grammar/ logic
Where do speech and tropes fit in the trivium?
they straddle the borderlines between grammar and rhetoric
True or false - in De Man’s view literature works by logic
False - “literature is not a transparent message”, “the grammatical decoding of a text leaves a reside of indetermination”
What are the two purposes of literature as defined by Sir Philip Sidney in An Apologie for poetrie?
‘to teach and delight’
What kinds of images did Philip Sidney use in order to convey people ‘at their best and worst’?
through ‘notable images of virtues, vices’
Did Philip Sidney aim for novelistic realism?
No, even though his ‘Arcadia’ was an inspiration for the modern novel
In what writing, by what author in what year, is apostrophe described as a ‘turning’?
Abraham Fraunce, The Arcadian Rhetoric (1588)
In Abraham Fraunce’s The Arcadian Rhetoric (1588) - list the types of turning that a character can do
- to men
- sometimes from men to gods
- poetic invocations
- sometimes to a dumb and senseless creature
- sometimes brute beasts
We might say that In Abraham Fraunce’s view of Apostrophe as ‘turning’ in The Arcadian Rhetoric (1588) might not account for when an apostrophe is used at the beginning of a text. Why would this not hold up?
To Fraunce, an apostrophe used at the beginning of a poem is still a turn because the poem has turned away from what is expected of the beginning of a poem
Does George Puttenham see apostrophe as more of an exterior or interior focused feature in The arte of English poesie (1589)?
He defines it as very much an ‘addressee focused’ form of speech
Who has a different view about apostrophe than the one expressed by George Puttenham in The arte of English poesie (1589)?
Jonathan Culler - who believed that apostrophe can be basically something interior and introspective
What line in Puttenham’s The arte of English poesie (1589) evidences his view that apostrophe is primarily an addressee focused form of speech?
“we do suddenly fly out and either speak or exclaim at some other person or thing”
What kind of motion does chiasmus create? and why?
- creates a rocking motion, there is a movement and then stasis as the structure wraps back around
How could chiasmus/ antimetabole be done solely for decorative or ornamental purposes in Greek/ Latin?
Because word order did not matter for sense
In English, why might chiasmus be used?
used as a psychological or philosophical turn
Why can chiasmus sound contrite?
intellectual form but can actually lack substance
Who describes aposiopesis as ‘the figure of silence’?
George Puttenham, in The arte of English poesie (1589)
What are the four reasons that Puttenham gives for the use of aposiopesis?
“we were ashamed, or afraide to speake it out. It is also sometimes done by way of threatning,
and to shew a moderation of anger”
What did Henry Peacham write in 1593?
The Garden of Eloquence
What are the four feelings that Peacham believes aposiopesis can convey?
feare, anger, sorrow, bashfulnesse
In which year did Francis Bacon write Francis Bacon, Of Regiment of Health?
1595
What attitude towards pleasure does Francis Bacon exhibit in Of Regiment of Health?
pleasure in balance and not letting it tip into vice/ over-indulgence
What does Bacon believe that please can do for the mind?
encourages pleasure as a means of raising the mind, encouraging contemplation and thoughtfulness
Who wrote the Spectator magazine (1712)?
Joseph Addison
How does Joseph Addison speak of the imagination in the Spectator 1712?
“the Imagination can fancy to it self Things more Great, Strange, or Beautiful, than the Eye ever saw”
Which kind of audience did Joseph Addison target the Spectator towards?
aimed at readers in public spaces, to take advantage of the leisure time in order to be mindful of their thought processes etc.
Why does Joseph Addison suggest that sight is the “most perfect and most delightful” of the senses in “The Pleasures of the Imagination” in the Spectator edition of 1719?
it allows us to absorb the pictures that manifest in the imagination - the imagination can then hold onto and manipulate these images
How does Joseph Addison believe we experience something beautiful?
Beauty is not experienced as something rational, but something we are struck by
What type of pleasure does Addison encourage his readers to engage in?
the pleasures that are made possible through poetry etc.
What kind of balance of pleasure does Addison want readers to understand and abide by?
encourages looking to pleasure as a means of gently exercising the mental faculties, without over-indulging in sensual delights that might descend into vice or folly
Which other essay did Addison mention in “The Pleasures of the Imagination”? what does he draw from it?
Bacon’s essay on Health, and draws from him to suggest the benefits of pleasures
What famous article did Samuel Johnson write in The Rambler (1750-1752)?
On Fiction
Samuel Johnson’s ‘On Fiction’ praised realism for two things, what were they?
- praises realism against previous literature that merely employed repeated imagery that had the safety of the status as literary trope
- emphasises that realism has the benefit of a much more relevant and therefore more effective didacticism
Who wrote Loacoon and when?
Lessing in 1766
What is the name for the moment that Lessing discusses occurring in the visual arts when they try to depict tragedy?
the ‘pregnant moment’
What is the ‘pregnant moment’ according to Lessing?
when depicting tragedy, the visual arts need to depict the moment just before, in order to get a sense of that narrative
Why does Lessing support the paragone regarding ekphrasis?
argues that because painting is a spatial art, and literature is a temporal or narrative art, they are philosophically separate
What argument does Krieger pose that would counter Lessing’s support of the paragone?
poetry is actually able to recreate spatial stasis and the illusion of organised simultaneity
What argument does Fowler pose that would counter Lessing’s support of the paragone?
one traces their eyes around visual art and accumulates allusions in much the way that reading works
In Giorgio Agamben’s (2000) work Notes on Gesture, how does he discuss art, gesture, and meaning?
“Even the Mona Lisa, even Las Meninas could be seen not as immovable and eternal forms, but as fragments of a gesture or as stills of a lost film wherein only they would regain their true meaning.”
(ie. images can only achieve their true meaning when they are liberated back into movement through gestures etc.)
In Classical and Renaissance treatises, what figures were encouraged when writing ekphrasis and why? Note how this reflects a different understanding of ekphrasis than how we typically think of it
enargeia and hypotyposis to produce highly vivid descriptions - ekphrasis was about trying to recreate a moving scene, as if it were really occurring
What effect was ekphrasis supposed to have for readers in Classical and Renaissance periods?
readers were supposed to be able to ‘see’ the thing/ scene described, and the energia would let them feel emotions too
