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Text and Culture - an introduction to rhetoric 2 Elocutio

Text and Culture - an introduction to rhetoric 2 Elocutio. Magnus.ullen@kau.se. What is style?. "Style is the image of character." (Edward Gibbon). What is style?. "Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of style." (Jonathan Swift). Copia.

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Text and Culture - an introduction to rhetoric 2 Elocutio

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  1. Text and Culture - an introduction to rhetoric 2Elocutio Magnus.ullen@kau.se

  2. What is style? • "Style is the image of character."(Edward Gibbon)

  3. What is style? • "Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of style."(Jonathan Swift)

  4. Copia • Raymond Queneau, Exercises in Style (1940) • Matt Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story (2006)

  5. In good taste?

  6. Elocutio • Classical rhetoric recognizes three styles: plain, middle, and high. • The important thing was to match the style to the subject and the audience.

  7. The four pillars of good style • correctness (puritas) • clearness (perspicuitas) • appropriateness (aptum) • ornament (ornamentus)

  8. Tropes and schemes • Trope: The use of a word, phrase, or image in a way not intended by its normal signification. • Scheme: A change in standard word order or pattern. • Tropes and schemes are collectively known as figures of speech.

  9. Examples of tropes • “That boy was as pure and as innocent as the driven snow” – simile • “we are nothing but sheep being herded to the final slaughterhouse” – metaphor • “The first and perhaps only great mayor was Greek” – hyperbole (exaggeration)

  10. Examples of schemes • But why should I heed such a warning when a heartbeat is silent and a child lies dead? – rhetorical question • Now, I put that question to James Bone, and there's only silence. – apostrophe • It was a palace! – exclamatio

  11. Remember… • Figures of speech are a persuasive device. • Don’t just identify, ask what function they fulfill!

  12. I have a dream…. • Martin Luther King • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMXaTktUfA

  13. Tropes • Five score years ago [periphrasis] • as a great beacon /light of hope [simile/metaphor] • seared in the flames of withering injustice [metaphor] • the Negro [synechdoche/personification]

  14. Allegory – ”an extended metaphor” In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.[…] So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

  15. Schemes • One hundred years later, the life of the Negro […] • One hundred years later, the Negro lives […] • One hundred years later, the Negro is still […] [anaphora]

  16. Schemes & tropes • AnaphoraNow is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice [metaphors & antithesis]. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity [metaphor] to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick-sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood [metaphors & antithesis].

  17. Is style content? • One can translate the former passage into ”It’s time to end racial injustice now.” Does this translation do justice to the original? What is lost?

  18. We, Negro Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrims' pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring! That's exactly what we mean-- from every mountain side, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia --let it ring not only for the minorities of the United States, but for the disinherited of all the earth--may the Republican Party, under God, from every mountainside, LET FREEDOM RING! Archibald Carey's SpeechRepublican NationalConvention, 1952

  19. What is style? • "What's important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It's not what we say but how we say it that matters."(Federico Fellini)

  20. Homework for session 3 Read: • The Sample Analysis of Churchill’s speech (posted at Kurstorget) • Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address • Curie’s speech • Thatcher’s speech • The five wikipedia articles on the rhetorical parts (links in course outline).

  21. Homework for session 3 Analyze • Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (group 1-2), • Marie Curie’s On the Discovery of Radium (group 3-4) • Margaret Thatcher’s Remarks on becoming Prime Minister (group 5-6).

  22. Homework for session 3 Present: • A discussion of Inventio • A discussion of Dispositio • A discussion of Elocutio • Each group presents on Inventio & Elocutio, OR Dispositio and Elocutio! • 10-15 minutes per group.

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