Neo-Quintilian paradigm of modern youth media

Abstract

The subject of this research is the transformation of classical ancient rhetoric in modern media, namely of such a mandatory part of the classical presentation of speech according to Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, as rebuttal to an opponent's argument. The article employs posts of the authors of various blogs on the entertainment portals and their interaction with users’ commentaries. Response to an objection was an important element of the canon of presentation of speech in antiquity: by doing so, the speaker demonstrated a confident command of the topic, and at the same time, that the topic is objectionable and requires argumentation. The reduction of competitive eloquence turned this part of the canon into a ritual weakened its ties with the actual speech practice. In modernity, we can observe the return of rebuttal to an opponent's arguments as an independent genre – the author in his publications counts on rebuttal and prepares in advance. The novelty of this research consists in the fact that the Neo-Quintilian paradigm of modern youth media is analyzed for the first time. The main conclusions lies in revelation of transformation and deformation of the classical canon: being the so-called cultural constant, the classical canon of ancient rhetoric is conveyed to modern users through interaction with accepted patterns. The modern young audience perceives the canon indirectly, through approved or criticized examples of eloquence, eliciting rfagments thereof – thus, the semantic connection of argument and rebuttal is one of the versions of the deformed, but recognizable canon.