THE ORIGINS OF RHETORIC IN ANCIENT GREECE

Thomas Cole

ISBN 10: 0801840554 / ISBN 13: 9780801840555

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1991

About this Item

191p. A hardcover book in fine condition with a like dustjacket.

Seller Inventory # 176452

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE ORIGINS OF RHETORIC IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
• Publication Date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0801840554
• ISBN 13: 9780801840555
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Classical Studies

About this title

Synopsis

Is it fair to judge early Greek rhetoric by the standards of Plato and Aristotle? This text argues that it is not, and yet this is the path taken by current scholarship on the subject. Arguing against this view, this work sees early Greek rhetoric as largely unsystematic efforts to explore, more by means than by precept, all aspects of discourse. Replacing these early text by such treatises as the "Rhetoric" of Aristotle, Cole explains, can only be understood as part of a gradual process, as artistic prose came to be disseminated in written texts and so available in a form that, for the first time, be analyzed, evaluated and closely imitated.

Review

"[An] important and challenging book... Cole's re-seeing of the evidence is compelling and provocative. Certainly it willbe of great interest to serious students of rhetoric, Greek prose, indeed, of ancient literature." -- Classical World

"One of the most intelligent and illuminating books on early prose literature." -- Journal of Hellenic Studies

"Cole's book is a welcome addition to the field of classical rhetorical studies... It is a good example of erudite scholarship." -- Quarterly Journal of Speech

"Provocative... The evidence Cole assembles is as interesting as his thesis." -- Philosophy and Rhetoric