The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric

by Erik Gunderson (Editor)

Overview

Rhetoric thoroughly infused the world and literature of Graeco-Roman antiquity. This Companion provides a comprehensive overview of rhetorical theory and practice in that world, from Homer to early Christianity, accessible to students and non-specialists, whether within classics or from other periods and disciplines. Its basic premise is that rhetoric is less a discrete object to be grasped and mastered than a hotly contested set of practices that include disputes over the very definition of rhetoric itself. Standard treatments of ancient oratory tend to take it too much in its own terms and to isolate it unduly from other social and cultural concerns. This volume provides an overview of the shape and scope of the problems while also identifying core themes and propositions: for example, persuasion, virtue, and public life are virtual constants. But they mix and mingle differently, and the contents designated by each of these terms can also shift.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781139801331
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/09/2009
Series:	Cambridge Companions to Literature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Erik Gunderson is Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Staging Masculinity: The Rhetoric of Performance in the Roman World (2000); Declamation, Paternity and Roman Identity: Authority and the Rhetorical Self (2003); and Nox Philologiae: The Fantasy of the Roman Library (2008).

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction Erik Gunderson; Part I. An Archaeology of Rhetoric: 1. Fighting words: status, stature, and verbal contest in Archaic poetry Nancy Worman; 2. The philosophy of rhetoric and the rhetoric of philosophy Robert Wardy; 3. Codifications of rhetoric Malcolm Heath; Part II. The Field of Language: 4. Divisions of speech Catherine Steel; 5. Rhetoric, aesthetics, and the voice James Porter; 6. The rhetoric of rhetorical theory Erik Gunderson; 7. The politics of rhetorical education Joy Connolly; Part III. The Practice of Rhetoric: 8. Types of oratory Jon Hesk; 9. Rhetoric of the Athenian citizen Victoria Wohl; 10. Rhetoric and the Roman Republic John Dugan; 11. Staging rhetoric in Athens David Rosenbloom; 12. The drama of rhetoric at Rome William Batstone; 13. Rhetoric and the Second Sophistic Simon Goldhill; Part IV. Epilogues: 14. Rhetorical practice and performance in early Christianity Todd Penner and Caroline Vander Stichele; 15. Rediscoveries of Classical rhetoric Peter Mack; 16. The runaround: a volume retrospect on ancient rhetorics John Henderson; Appendix 1. Rhetorical terms; Appendix 2. Authors and prominent individuals; References; Index of passages; Index of subjects.