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The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric

Erik Gunderson, University of Toronto
July 2009
Available
Hardback
9780521860543

    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.

    • Highly readable, written with the student and non-specialist firmly in mind
    • New and comprehensive overview of rhetorical theory and practice in Classical antiquity from an international team of experts
    • Examines ancient rhetoric in the context of its social and cultural environment

    Product details

    October 2012
    Adobe eBook Reader
    9781139798211
    0 pages
    0kg
    This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

    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.
      Contributors
    • Erik Gunderson, Nancy Worman, Robert Wardy, Malcolm Heath, Catherine Steel, James Porter, Joy Connolly, Jon Hesk, Victoria Wohl, John Dugan, David Rosenbloom, William Batstone, Simon Goldhill, Todd Penner, Caroline Vander Stichele, Peter Mack, John Henderson

    • Editor
    • Erik Gunderson , University of Toronto

      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).