Outlaw Rhetoric

C. Mann Jenny

Description

A central feature of English Renaissance humanism was its reverence for classical Latin as the one true form of eloquent expression. Yet sixteenth-century writers increasingly came to believe that England needed an equally distinguished vernacular language to serve its burgeoning national community. Thus, one of the main cultural projects of Renaissance rhetoricians was that of producing a "common" vernacular eloquence, mindful of its classical origins yet self-consciously English in character. The process of vernacularization began during Henry VIII's reign and continued, with fits and starts, late into the seventeenth century. However, as Jenny C. Mann shows in Outlaw Rhetoric, this project was beset with problems and conflicts from the start.Outlaw Rhetoric examines the substantial and largely unexplored archive of vernacular rhetorical guides produced in England between 1500 and 1700. Writers of these guides drew on classical training as they translated Greek and Latin figures of speech into an everyday English that could serve the ends of literary and national invention. In the process, however, they confronted aspects of rhetoric that run counter to its civilizing impulse. For instance, Mann finds repeated references to Robin Hood, indicating an ongoing concern that vernacular rhetoric is "outlaw" to the classical tradition because it is common, popular, and ephemeral. As this book shows, however, such allusions hint at a growing acceptance of the nonclassical along with a new esteem for literary production that can be identified as native to England. Working across a range of genres, Mann demonstrates the effects of this tension between classical rhetoric and English outlawry in works by Spenser, Shakespeare, Sidney, Jonson, and Cavendish. In so doing she reveals the political stakes of the vernacular rhetorical project in the age of Shakespeare.

Sujets

• Semantics

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801464102
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

q OUTLAW RHETORIC

OUTLAW RHETORIC n F I G U R I N G V E R N ACU L A R E LOQU E N CE I N S H A K ESP E A R E ’ S E N G L A N D

J e n n y C . M a n n

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Cornell University Press gratefully acknowledges receipt of a grant from the Hull Memorial Publication Fund of Cornell University, which aided in the publication of this book.

Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the pub lisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2012 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Mann, Jenny C. ( Jenny Caroline), 1978–  Outlaw rhetoric : figuring vernacular eloquence in Shakespeare’s England / Jenny C. Mann.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801449659 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. English literature—Early modern, 1500–1700— History and criticism. 2. Eloquence in literature. 3. Figures of speech in literature. 4. National characteristics, English, in literature. 5. Rhetoric, Renaissance—England. 6. English language—Rhetoric— Handbooks, manuals, etc.—Early works to 1800. I. Title.  PR418.E45M36 2012  820.9'003—dc23 2011027248

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Cloth printing

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For Guy and the Manns

We have no way of defining, of policing, the boundaries that separate the name of one entity from the name of another; tropes are not just travelers, they tend to be smugglers and probably smugglers of stolen goods at that. What makes matters even worse is that there is no way of finding out whether they do so with criminal intent or not.

—Paul de Man, “The Epistemology of Metaphor”

q  Co nt e nt s

List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: A Tale of Robin Hood 1. Common Rhetoric: Planting Figures of Speech in the English Shire 2. The Trespasser: Displacing Virgilian Figures in Spenser’sFaerie Queene 3. The Insertour: Putting the Parenthesis in Sidney’sArcadia 4. The Changeling: Mingling Heroes and Hobgoblins in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream 5. The Figure of Exchange: Gender Exchange in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20 and Jonson’sEpicene 6. The MingleMangle: The Hodgepodge of Fancy and Philosophy in Cavendish’sBlazing World Conclusion: “Words Made Visible” and the Turn against Rhetoric

Appendix of English Rhetorical Manuals 219 Bibliography 223 Index 237

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q  I l lu s t r at i o n s

 1. Philip Sidney,The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia360v(1590), p.  2. Philip Sidney,The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia(1593), p. 171  3. Philip Sidney,The Countesse of Pembrokes ArcadiaA(1598), sig.  4. Thomas Blount,The Academy of Eloquence(1654), title page  5. William Shakespeare,PoemsB4(1640), sig.  6. Samuel Shaw,Words Made Visible(1679), p. 95

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