Persuasion, Rhetoric and Roman Poetry

This book challenges the traditional view of the relationship between rhetorical theory and Roman poetry by examining the cultural relevance of the intellectual divide between the two disciplines. It highlights the significance of studying rhetorical sources and select responses in Roman poetry to understand classical poetry as artless language and the role of rhetoric in the construction of post-classical cultures.

Format: Hardback
Length: 294 pages
Publication date: 22 August 2019
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Previous studies on the relationship between rhetorical theory and Roman poetry have often taken the form of lists enumerating elements of style and arrangement that poets are said to have borrowed from rhetorical critics. This book delves into and ultimately challenges this entrenched theoretical model and the very notion of rhetorical influence on which this paradigm is built. By tracing key moments in the poetic and rhetorical traditions, within the context of which the problematic relationship of difference and similarity between rhetorical and poetic discourse is discussed, the book emphasizes the cultural relevance of this intellectual divide in Roman literary culture. The study of rhetorical sources, such as Cicero, Seneca the Elder, and Quintilian, as well as select responses in Roman poetry, sheds light on long-standing scholarly assumptions about classical poetry as artless language and about the role of rhetoric in the construction of the decline of post-classical cultures.

Weight: 580g
Dimension: 234 x 160 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781107104242