Emerson and the History of Rhetoric

Roger Thompson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

176 Seiten

2017
Southern Illinois University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8093-3612-8 (ISBN)

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Much has been written about Ralph Waldo Emerson’s fundamental contributions to American literature and culture as an essayist, philosopher, lecturer, and poet. However, despite wide agreement among literary and rhetorical scholars on the need for further study of Emerson as a rhetorical theorist, not much has been published on the subject. Emerson and the History of Rhetoric fills this gap in our knowledge, reenvisioning Emerson’s work through his significant engagement with rhetorical theory throughout his career and providing a more profound understanding of Emerson’s influence on American ideology. Moving beyond dominant literary critical thinking about Emerson’s public speaking by discussing it in the context of rhetorical history, Thompson argues that for Emerson, rhetoric was both imaginative and nonsystematic. The book covers the influences of rhetoricians from a range of periods on Emerson’s model of rhetoric, including Plato, Augustine, Edmund Burke, and Hugh Blair. Thompson analyzes Emerson’s application of Plato’s search for transcendental truth and democratic access to the means of persuasion; the Ciceronian rhetoric of Edmund Burke, which Emerson conceived as the perfect balance between common and aristocratic speech; and Augustine’s idea of submission.

Drawing on Emerson’s manuscript notes, journal entries, and some of his rarely discussed essays and lectures as well as his more famous works, the author demonstrates not only Emerson’s relevance to rhetorical history but also rhetorical history’s relevance to Emerson and nineteenth-century American literature and culture. This book bridges the divide between literary and rhetorical studies, expanding our understanding of this iconic nineteenth-century man of letters.

Roger Thompson is an associate professor and the director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University. He is the coeditor of four books, including The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo: "De doctrina Christiana" and the Search for a Distinctly Christian Rhetoric. His essays on rhetoric and Emerson have been published in a number of journals and books. He is a member of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society advisory board.

Erscheinungsdatum	03.11.2017
Verlagsort	Carbondale
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	280 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Briefe / Präsentation / Rhetorik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Kommunikationswissenschaft
ISBN-10	0-8093-3612-X / 080933612X
ISBN-13	978-0-8093-3612-8 / 9780809336128
Zustand	Neuware