HLHshakespeare'srhetoric

--In its broadest sense, rhetoric concerns both the practice and study of effective communication in literature and in social discourse. (See Jospeh Petraglia-Bahri's essay "Brief Overview of Rhetoric".)

--Until well into the 19th century, rhetoric was a fundamental area of academic study and a direct influence on the compositional styles of poets, playwrights, and novelists. Thus, an understanding of rhetoric can enrich our understanding of literary works--particularly the works of Shakespeare.

--Shakespeare's literary career coincided with the emergence of early modern English (in contrast to the Middle English of Chaucer, for instance) as a significant expressive tool. Not until the late 16th century had English replaced Latin as the primary medium for poetry.

--Of the five stages of rhetorical composition (invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory), style was of chief importance to the poet or dramatist.   As Vickers argues, rhetoric as a literary discipline is "properly concerned with the details of language and expressiveness" (85).

--Although hundreds of rhetorical devices have been identified over the centuries, "for most critical purposes a central corpus of about the 40 most frequently used figures is adequate" (86).   [For our purposes, 26 terms will suffice.] These devices are conventionally divided into tropes and figures: tropes involving a change in the meaning of words (e.g., metaphor, irony), figures involving a change in the shape or structure of language (e.g., tricolon, anaphora)--though, in fact, meaning and shape are closely (if not inextricably) related.

--On page 86, Vickers begins his review by identifying tropes that most of us are probably already familiar with: metaphor, simile, allegory, irony, hyperbole, litotes, metonymy. (Follow the links to check your memory of the definitions of these terms.) Starting on the next page, he illustrates Shakespeare's use of several figures of speech. Note, in particular, the following terms:
anaphora
epiphora (an alternative--and easier-to-remember--term for epistrophe)
chiasmus (Greek for the letter "X"--same as antimetabole)
epizeuxis
polyptoton
apostrophe

--Following are just a few additional terms that are worth knowing as we begin our study of King Lear: the three primary rhetorical proofs (according to Aristotle): ethos, pathos, and logos; the classical concept of kairos; and the structures that we've already mentioned in class: hypotaxis, parataxis, polysyndeton, asyndeton, and tricolon.

--On page 90, in response to those who argue that the figures are merely "sterile patterns with no imaginative function," Vickers argues that the purpose of figures is "to convey feeling": "not only re-create feeling in the character or action portrayed but therefore directly affect the feeling of the reader or playgoer." Citing numerous Renaissance rhetoricians (some of whom Shakespeare himself was most likely familiar with), Vickers concludes that "figures of rhetoric . . . are channels for feeling, pockets of energy, powerful amd flexible according to the mind using them" (91).

--In the rest of the article, Vickers briefly examines the development of Shakespeare's stylistic method, manner, and range by contrasting passages from the earlier and the later plays.   "In his use of rhetoric as in other ways," Vickers points out, "Shakespeare developed from stiffness to flexibility. He does not move away from rhetoric; rather he absorbs it into the tissue of living dramatic speech until it re-creates thought and feeling with a freshness which conceals its art." (91)

--In other words, as Shakespeare matured as a writer, he achieved and displayed (and here's your final term) sprezzatura--the art of appearing natural. As Vickers observes at the end of his article, "The early poetry displays its rhetoric stiffly, the mature style absorbs it" (98).

* "Shakespeare's Use of Rhetoric," by Brian Vickers, appears in A New Companion to Shakespeare Studies, edited by K. Muir and S. Schoenbaum (Cambridge, 1971: 83-98).

RHETORICAL TERMS** FOR STUDENTS IN ENGLISH 2100H:

allegory - example
anaphora - example
apostrophe - example
asyndeton - example
chiasmus - example
epiphora - example
epizeuxis - example
ethos - example
figures - example
hyperbole - example
hypotaxis - example
irony - example
kairos - example
litotes - example
logos - example
metaphor - example
metonymy - example
parataxis - example
pathos - example
polyptoton - example
polysyndeton - example
simile - example
sprezzatura - example
style - example
tricolon - example
trope - example

** The definitions (which are also accompanied by examples) in this list are all linked to the AASU site, Glossary of Rhetorical Terms. Most of the examples (which are also accompanied by definitions) are linked to the Silva Rhetoricae site at Brigham Young University. In a few cases you'll find some disagreements regarding the definitions. Don't let that bother you: quibbles over the meanings of terms go back at least 2,500 years.    When in doubt, attend to the Armstrong site.

English 2100H is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
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