G. P. Mohrmann

Lincoln at Cooper Union: A rhetorical analysis of the text

Seeking the presidential nomination, Lincoln attempts to ingratiate himself with a Republican audience, and after an extensive attack upon Douglas, he creates a mock debate with the South and appeals for Republican unity. Each section features controlled argument, builds in intensity, and rests upon an association between Republican and the founding fathers, Lincoln using arrangement, argument, and style to associate self and party with the fathers and to dissociate self and party from his chief rivals.

An essay on fantasy theme criticism

Fantasy theme criticism extrapolates from fantasy chains in the small group, but Freudian theory is fundamental in Bales’ description of the chaining, and the phenomenon necessarily is transactional; in addition, Bales is not a true proponent of dramatism. Critics ignore or distort these features in their analyses. Moreover, they usually argue in circular fashion, assuming that they have isolated compelling social reality when they have described a dramatistic construct. These difficulties call the approach into question and demand a more serious argument from proponents.

Lincoln at cooper union: A rationale for neo‐classical criticism

Genre theory can serve as a corrective to certain defects in “neo‐Aristotelian” rhetorical criticism. Analysis of the theory and practice of neo‐Aristotelian critics reveals the lack of adequate standards for rhetorical evaluation. This deficiency is directly correlated with their neglect of the classical conception of oratorical genres. Using our critique of Lincolns Cooper Union Address as an example, we argue that reference to oratorical genres can provide a more precise focus for criticism.

The language of nature and elocutionary theory

FEW developments in the rhetorical tradition have been so dramatic as the spread of elocution in England and the United States between 1750 and 1850; yet today the elocutionary movement is regarded as hardly more than a shallow response to pedogogical expediency. A variety of forces that supported the movement are cited in historical surveys, but the elocutionists seem to have been intellectually dormant. They appear to have plunged blindly onward, so engrossed in teaching delivery and in writing textbooks that they paid little heed to the thought of their age. The evidence has not suggested that they anchored their contributions in an intellectually respectable position. This paper presents evidence indicating that a philosophical justification for elocutionary theory had widespread currency during the eighteenth century. Included are a survey of typical assessments of the elocutionary movement, a sketch of elocutionary rationale, and a consideration of parallel doctrines within Scottish common sense philosophy. An examination of that philosophy and attendant developments in aesthetic and rhetorical theory will help clarify the intellectual posture of the elocutionary theorists and will additionally illuminate the momentum achieved by the movement in England and the United States. A negative reaction to oratory emerges in most studies as the prime cause of

The civile conversation: Communication in the renaissance

Stephano Guazzos The Civile Conversation was a dominant contribution to the literature of manners in the Renaissance. The work, however, was far more than a Courtesybook. Guazzos treatise helps explain the rhetorical influence in Renaissance thought and the relationship of that influence to humanism. A study of the rhetorical inheritance shows that Guazzo owed a substantial debt to classical theory and pedagogy, but it reveals also an extension of communication study to all aspects of life. A consideration of the humanistic impulse indicates that this extension emerges from a conception of man as communicator, a conception that expands upon some traditional notions concerning rhetoric and humanism in the Renaissance.