On EloquenceYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 208 pages On Eloquence questions the common assumption that eloquence is merely a subset of rhetoric, a means toward a rhetorical end. Denis Donoghue, an eminent and prolific critic of the English language, holds that this assumption is erroneous. While rhetoric is the use of language to persuade people to do one thing rather than another, Donoghue maintains that eloquence is gratuitous, ideally autonomous, in speech and writing an upsurge of creative vitality for its own sake. He offers many instances of eloquence in words, and suggests the forms our appreciation of them should take. Donoghue argues persuasively that eloquence matters, that we should indeed care about it. Because we should care about any instances of freedom, independence, creative force, sprezzatura, he says, especially when we liveperhaps this is increasingly the casein a culture of the same, featuring official attitudes, stereotypes of the officially enforced values, sedated language, a politics of pacification. A noteworthy addition to Donoghues long-term project to reclaim a disinterested appreciation of literature as literature, this volume is a wise and pleasurable meditation on eloquence, its unique ability to move or give pleasure, and its intrinsic value. |
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Page 2
... hold in common. But we take pleasure in eloquence that is not merely or completely referential. In “The Convalescent,” a chapter of the third book of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra remains in his cave for seven days till he ...
... hold in common. But we take pleasure in eloquence that is not merely or completely referential. In “The Convalescent,” a chapter of the third book of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra remains in his cave for seven days till he ...
Page 4
... little bearing on the develop- ment of the vernacular.6 But two attitudes were available on the question. One: you could hold that English, a homespun thing, was poor but honest, a serviceable language for use / Taking Notes.
... little bearing on the develop- ment of the vernacular.6 But two attitudes were available on the question. One: you could hold that English, a homespun thing, was poor but honest, a serviceable language for use / Taking Notes.
Page 5
... hold that as long as the language was content with its rural honesty, it could have no access to the new knowledges of science, medicine, mathematics, geography, philosophy, and theology brought forward by the Renaissance. The cru- cial ...
... hold that as long as the language was content with its rural honesty, it could have no access to the new knowledges of science, medicine, mathematics, geography, philosophy, and theology brought forward by the Renaissance. The cru- cial ...
Page 6
... hold a society together in peace, making up for the divisiveness of religion. (For much the same reason in the United States after the Civil War, it was crucial to appeal beyond the conflicts of North and South to the sentiment of “the ...
... hold a society together in peace, making up for the divisiveness of religion. (For much the same reason in the United States after the Civil War, it was crucial to appeal beyond the conflicts of North and South to the sentiment of “the ...
Page 19
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