Word Magic Advanced Rhetorical Writing Matt Barton
Dec 16, 2015
Word Magic
Advanced Rhetorical WritingMatt Barton
Rhetorical Questions
• What is the relationship between truth and language?
• Just how powerful is rhetoric?
• What are the moral obligations of rhetoric?
• Can wisdom be taught?
Classical Rhetoric
• Figures of Classical Rhetoric:– Pre-Socratics (Sophists & Aspasia)– Isocrates (436–338 BCE)– Plato (427-347 BCE)– Aristotle (384-322 BCE)– Cicero (106-43 BCE)– Quintilian (35-95 CE)
Western Rhetorical History
• Crucial Period: 500-300 BCE• Place: Greece: Athens and Syracuse
– Greece was leaving orality and embracing literacy.
– After 510 BCE, Athens became a (limited) democracy.
– After 467 BCE, Syracuse overthrew tyrant Hieron and became democratic.
• Corax and Tisias began formally studying rhetoric
For a Fee
• Foreign scholars called “Sophists” arrived in Athens and began teaching – Public Speaking– Power of Language– Social Origin of all Knowledge– Cultural Relativism
Kairos
• Sophists focus on immediate circumstances and expediency– Timing and contingency, or Kairos, is
everything– Communities must embrace, tolerate, and
benefit from cultural diversity
Gorgias (483-375 BCE)
• Born in Leontini in Sicily, birthplace of rhetoric.
• Famously said:– Nothing exists; – Even if something exists, nothing can be
known about it; and – Even if something could be known about
it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others.
Context
• The story of Helen:– Paris (Alexander) is asked to choose
among three goddesses: Hera (power), Athena (glory), and Aphrodite (love).
• Paris chooses Athena, who “gives” him Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world.
• Helen leaves with Paris for Troy, abandoning her husband (Menelaus, king of Sparta).
• As revenge, Menelaus teams up with his brother, Agamemnon (king of Mycenae) to storm the walls of Troy.
Helen
• Christopher Marlowe:– Was this the face that launch'd a
thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Encomium of Helen
• “Speech is a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works: it can stop fear and banish grief and create joy and nurture pity.”– Rhetoric produces effects and creates
emotions.
Word Magic
• “The power of the incantation is wont to beguile [the soul] and persuade it and alter it by witchcraft.”
• “The effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies.”– Rhetoric has a coercive power over us.
Oh, Gorgias!
• “I wished to write a speech which would be a praise of Helen and a diversion to myself.” – Rhetoric is not only a powerful tool, but
also a lot of fun!