Jenny C. Mann
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780691219226
- eISBN:
- 9780691219233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691219226.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter begins by investigating the complicated virtue of softness and softening in the classical and early modern language arts. Having established the “drawing” force of verbal eloquence, ...
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This chapter begins by investigating the complicated virtue of softness and softening in the classical and early modern language arts. Having established the “drawing” force of verbal eloquence, which places makers and audiences in thrall to desire and to language, the chapter specifies the dissolute texture of that thralldom. It follows how the complex gendering of the Orphic figure shapes conceptions of verbal persuasion and literary transmission in early modern England. Through Ovid's revaluing of softening as poetic force, this chapter also reveals how normative sex/gender configurations fail to account for the gender or the desires of the Orphic poet. Ultimately, it examines the elaboration of a “soft” poetics in Marlowe's English translation of Ovid's Amores (ca. 1599), which presents softness as the very ground of poetic invention. The chapter then suggests that the early modern discourse of poetic softness is a queer discourse of sexuality without or, perhaps, in excess of gender.Less
This chapter begins by investigating the complicated virtue of softness and softening in the classical and early modern language arts. Having established the “drawing” force of verbal eloquence, which places makers and audiences in thrall to desire and to language, the chapter specifies the dissolute texture of that thralldom. It follows how the complex gendering of the Orphic figure shapes conceptions of verbal persuasion and literary transmission in early modern England. Through Ovid's revaluing of softening as poetic force, this chapter also reveals how normative sex/gender configurations fail to account for the gender or the desires of the Orphic poet. Ultimately, it examines the elaboration of a “soft” poetics in Marlowe's English translation of Ovid's Amores (ca. 1599), which presents softness as the very ground of poetic invention. The chapter then suggests that the early modern discourse of poetic softness is a queer discourse of sexuality without or, perhaps, in excess of gender.
James M. May
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780807817599
- eISBN:
- 9781469616322
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469616322.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
By its very nature, the art of oratory involves character. Verbal persuasion entails the presentation of a persona by the speaker that affects an audience for good or ill. This book explores the role ...
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By its very nature, the art of oratory involves character. Verbal persuasion entails the presentation of a persona by the speaker that affects an audience for good or ill. This book explores the role and extent of Cicero's use of ethos and demonstrates its persuasive effect. The book discusses the importance of ethos, not just in classical rhetorical theory but also in the social, political, and judicial milieu of ancient Rome, and then applies his insights to the oratory of Cicero. Ciceronian ethos was a complex blend of Roman tradition, Cicero's own personality, and selected features of Greek and Roman oratory. More than any other ancient literary genre, oratory dealt with constantly changing circumstances, with a wide variety of rhetorical challenges. An orator's success or failure, as well as the artistic quality of his orations, was largely the direct result of responses to these circumstances and challenges. Acutely aware of his audience and its cultural heritage and steeped in the rhetorical traditions of his predecessors, Cicero employed rhetorical ethos with uncanny success. The book analyzes individual speeches from four different periods of Cicero's career, tracing changes in the way Cicero depicted character, both his own and others', as a source of persuasion—changes intimately connected with the vicissitudes of Cicero's career and personal life. It shows that ethos played a major role in almost every Ciceronian speech, that Cicero's audiences were conditioned by common beliefs about character, and finally, that Cicero's rhetorical ethos became a major source for persuasion in his oratory.Less
By its very nature, the art of oratory involves character. Verbal persuasion entails the presentation of a persona by the speaker that affects an audience for good or ill. This book explores the role and extent of Cicero's use of ethos and demonstrates its persuasive effect. The book discusses the importance of ethos, not just in classical rhetorical theory but also in the social, political, and judicial milieu of ancient Rome, and then applies his insights to the oratory of Cicero. Ciceronian ethos was a complex blend of Roman tradition, Cicero's own personality, and selected features of Greek and Roman oratory. More than any other ancient literary genre, oratory dealt with constantly changing circumstances, with a wide variety of rhetorical challenges. An orator's success or failure, as well as the artistic quality of his orations, was largely the direct result of responses to these circumstances and challenges. Acutely aware of his audience and its cultural heritage and steeped in the rhetorical traditions of his predecessors, Cicero employed rhetorical ethos with uncanny success. The book analyzes individual speeches from four different periods of Cicero's career, tracing changes in the way Cicero depicted character, both his own and others', as a source of persuasion—changes intimately connected with the vicissitudes of Cicero's career and personal life. It shows that ethos played a major role in almost every Ciceronian speech, that Cicero's audiences were conditioned by common beliefs about character, and finally, that Cicero's rhetorical ethos became a major source for persuasion in his oratory.
