Political Eloquence Research Articles

La prensa escrita en manuales de retórica del siglo XIX: deslindes genéricos e ideologías lingüísticas

El desarrollo de la prensa impone que las retóricas del ámbito hispánico, que se multiplican en el siglo XIX destinadas a la educación secundaria pero que constituyen también obras de consulta para la elaboración de discursos públicos orales y escritos, incluyan el tratamiento de los géneros periodísticos. Inicialmente se los integra a la elocuencia política, la prosa didáctica o los textos históricos, ya que no se los puede apreciar en su especificidad, y esta perspectiva se continúa en numerosos tratados posteriores producidos, incluso, a comienzos del siglo XX. Sin embargo, a mediados del XIX, Vicente Fidel López avanza en la reflexión al abordar los tipos de publicaciones –diarios y revistas- y los rasgos de los géneros más destacados que por ellas circulan. Con posterioridad a su obra, diversos tratadistas, sensibles a la importancia adquirida por la prensa industrial y el desarrollo del periodismo de información, amplían el abanico de las secciones que registran y proponen caracterizaciones rápidas de algunas de ellas. En este artículo analizaré esas etapas atendiendo a las ideologías lingüísticas que movilizan, no solo las referidas a la función social de la prensa sino también a los géneros que incluyen en los tratados. Sostendré que el dispositivo normativo retórico, si bien ha servido para pensar la escritura periodística, constituye un obstáculo en la medida en que no considera la práctica efectiva de las redacciones y la importancia que adquiere la figura del lector. A estos aspectos atenderán, en cambio, los manuales de periodismo que se publican desde la última década del siglo XIX.

Первое русское риторическое руководство по политическому красноречию (О книге М. Н. Попова «Политическое красноречие. Что нужно для оратора»)

The book “Political eloquence. What a speaker needs” by M. N. Popov is analyzed. The book is considered as the first Russian rhetorical guide to political speech. The appearance of Popov’s work is associated with the birth of parliamentary and - more broadly - political rhetoric in Russia in the early 20 th century. Particular attention is paid to the format of the publication - public, popular rhetorical guidance - and its content in terms of the author’s ideas about the emerging parliamentary communication. A portrait of a reader is recreated: this is a person who does not have a systematic education, but has experience in pronouncing non-institutional speeches at rallies and gatherings. The structure of the book in the aspect of traditional rhetorical guides is analyzed. Attention is drawn both to the deviations from the traditional canons of compiling a textbook on rhetoric, and to the continuity of the latter. Particular attention is paid to M. N. Popov’s usage of psychological approach in explaining the problems of interaction between the speaker and the audience. It is concluded that M. N. Popov’s book reflects largely idealistic views about oral public speech in Parliament, but at the same time anticipates many traits of domestic parliamentary communication. Analyzed work is of scientific interest as a source of study of the history of Russian rhetoric reflecting the rhetorical ideal of the Russian public political speech.

The Artistry of Civil Life: Deliberative Rhetoric and Political Pedagogy in the Work of Nicolaus Vernulaeus (1583–1649)*

Attempting to re-invigorate classical deliberative oratory, the Leuven professor of rhetoric Nicolaus Vernulaeus developed a new kind of political eloquence adapted to the needs of counsellors and diplomats working in the service of a monarch. In the present article we shall highlight his largely forgotten contribution to late humanist rhetorical theory and practice. We shall try to show that his rhetorical programme was based on a cogent, pointedly rhetorical view of political life. By analyzing the student orations which were composed under his guidance and subsequently published by him, we shall furthermore try to demonstrate that his training programme was consistent and practical, some striking discrepancies between theory and practice notwithstanding.

Andrés Laguna: a great medical humanist (1499-1559).

Andrés Laguna, a Spanish humanist physician of the 16th century, occupies an important position in the history of medicine. An illustrious and brilliant mind, pioneer of anatomy and urology, Laguna proved to be a true pacifist and humanitarian with his knowledge standards and his political eloquence. He deserves to be remembered today as the perfect example of the Renaissance men, a true Homo Universalis.

« Retail the coda » : le retour au sonnet dans l’œuvre récente de Geoffrey Hill

Up until Tenebrae, the sonnet had been given a prominent place in Geoffrey Hill’s work. Relying on a slightly modernised form harking back to the Renaissance, Hill used it as a vehicle for metaphysical questioning on the nature of poetry, violence or religion. In more recent volumes, however, the form seemed to have disappeared, only to survive in a palimpsestic way. Surprisingly, Hill’s last two collections feature a return to the sonnet, with its twin themes of amorous discourse and political eloquence. Though for the most part shunning rhyme and rigid stanzaic format, the sonnets retain syllabic lines and a dialectical structure typical of the genre. The flexible placing of the volta, the use of a coda, as well as some of the thematics following on from The Orchards of Syon, point to Milton as Hill’s main influence, as well as to Coleridge and Wordsworth, as practitioners of the political sonnet. Moreover, the appearance of the autobiographical lyric ‘I’ in these sonnets as in recent collections points to the persistence of a Romantic ethos, of which the poet had been suspicious in his early writing. The sonnet, with a fresh autobiographical ‘I’ and a renewed political dimension, thus re-anchors Hill in a Romantic tradition.

Moralizing metaphors: Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff on parliamentary oratory

SUMMARY It is commonly assumed that real political eloquence can only exist under a free and popular government. But in monarchies, public oratory has had little effect on decision-making processes and therefore seems to have degenerated into an ideological affirmation of princely rule and is judged a negligible phenomenon. But recent research has shown that political power is much more than the taking of collectively binding decisions. It also has a symbolic dimension that is related to the performative representation of the commonwealth's socio-political order. To assess political eloquence in monarchies, the article focuses on the parliamentary oratory of Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, the only German-speaking practitioner of political oratory in the seventeenth century to have published some of his orations in book form. Analysing the speeches shows Seckendorff as an erudite and experienced political thinker. A deep understanding of both the reality and theory of the Ständestaat found expression in the most prominent feature of his oratorical practice: his ingenuity to find or create new metaphors depicting the relationship between ruler and subjects. Seckendorff crafted political metaphors to expose the moral foundations of a good commonwealth and to exert moral pressure on his audience. His oratory was about ‘moral education’. Seckendorff himself, however, overlooked the fact that the very ceremoniousness of his speeches carried a performative force that shaped and reshaped the socio-political order of the commonwealth.

A natureza do discurso verdadeiro a partir de uma abordagem convergente em Platão e Isócrates

The present article tries to identify philosophical similar aspects in the investigation around the nature of the true knowledge through the criticism to the rhetorical sophistry in the texts of the speech “Against the Sophists ”, of Isocrates, and of dialog “ Phedro”, of Plato, articulating his perspectives so to find similar points in theirs respective examinations about what is understood like true knowledge, from the criticism that both thinkers do to the sophists who specialized in the development of the political eloquence as well as to who contented himself with writing manuals of rhetoric (technai).