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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... Words / 44 chapter 4 Like Something Almost Being Said / 70 chapter 5 To Make an End / 100 chapter 6 Blind Mouths / 122 chapter 7 For and Against / 143 Notes / 177 Index / 191 vii Taking Notes Eloquence is simply the end of art, and.
... Words / 44 chapter 4 Like Something Almost Being Said / 70 chapter 5 To Make an End / 100 chapter 6 Blind Mouths / 122 chapter 7 For and Against / 143 Notes / 177 Index / 191 vii Taking Notes Eloquence is simply the end of art, and.
Page 2
... words and sounds. Are not words and sounds rainbows and illusive bridges between things which are eternally apart? But all sounds make us forget this; how lovely it is that we forget. . . . Are not words and sounds given to things so ...
... words and sounds. Are not words and sounds rainbows and illusive bridges between things which are eternally apart? But all sounds make us forget this; how lovely it is that we forget. . . . Are not words and sounds given to things so ...
Page 3
... words or other expressive means . It is a gift to be enjoyed in appreciation and practice . The main attribute of eloquence is gratuitousness : its place in the world is to be without place or function , its mode is to be intrinsic ...
... words or other expressive means . It is a gift to be enjoyed in appreciation and practice . The main attribute of eloquence is gratuitousness : its place in the world is to be without place or function , its mode is to be intrinsic ...
Page 5
... words, many of them new, among which one could choose. After the publication of Tyndale's New Testament in 1526 (re ... words or from for- eign words and more useful for new needs: these words would seem awkward for a time, but they ...
... words, many of them new, among which one could choose. After the publication of Tyndale's New Testament in 1526 (re ... words or from for- eign words and more useful for new needs: these words would seem awkward for a time, but they ...
Page 10
... words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote. Johnson thought that English had reached its best form of itself ...
... words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote. Johnson thought that English had reached its best form of itself ...
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