Rhetoric's Questions, Reading and Interpretation (Early Modern Literature in History)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.28 (925 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 3319601571 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 112 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-04-20 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Peter Mack FBA is Professor of English at the University of Warwick. His books include: Renaissance Argument (1993), Elizabethan Rhetoric (2002), Reading and Rhetoric in Montaigne and Shakespeare (2010) and A History of Renaissance Rhetoric 1380-1620 (2011). He has been Director of the Warburg Institute, chair of the Society for Renaissance Studies, and editor of the journal Rhetorica.
Later chapters use rhetorical theory to bring out the implications of, and suggest possible answers to, the questions: about occasion and audience (chapter 2), structure and disposition (3), narrative (4), argument (5), further elements of content, such as descriptions, comparisons, proverbs and moral axioms, dialogue, and examples (6), and style (7). The investigation of rhetoric’s questions is interspersed with analyses of texts by Chaucer, Sidney, Shakespeare, Fielding and Rushdie, using the questions. Chapter eight describes ways of gathering material, formulating arguments and writing about the texts one reads. This book aims to help readers interpret, and reflect on, their reading more effectively. It presents doctrines of ancient and renaissance rhetoric (an education in how to write well) as questions or categories for interpreting one’s reading. The first chapter presents the questions. The text is intended for university students of literature, especially English literature, and rhetoric, and their teachers. . The conclusion considers the wider implications of taking a rhetorical approach to reading
It is an invaluable resource.” (Marjorie Curry Woods, Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor of English, The University of Texas at Austin, USA) “We are familiar today with the ways that rhetoric can help in the teaching of writing and speaking, but less familiar with its role in teaching how to read and listen. In this short, invaluable, and accessibly-written book, Professor Mack provides an overview of the major rhetorical writers; the strategies they adopted and recommended; and a wealth of examples from Chaucer to Salman Rushdie, to explain how rhetorical theory shapes the writing that we all read and so mediates how we access the world. It is hard to imagine any readers who will not learn a great deal from the author’s insights.” (Andrew Hadfield, Professor of English at University of Sussex, UK and Chair for Society