This week's reading assignment was quite beneficial, especially chapter 9 in Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. Because the field of rhetoric is concerned not only with persuasion and language as a whole, the presentation and arrangement is, as Aristotle argued, the second most important part of rhetoric.
While arrangement is common knowledge, it is truly underrepresented. When an argument or issue is not presented correctly, it becomes inefficient, which destroys the element of being able to persuade and inform an audience on a given issue. It was also interesting to read about how writing is broken into four parts: the introduction, narration, proof and conclusion.
Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students also notes that the arrangement is necessary to show the importance of an issue, show how the issue affects the audience, how the issue affects everyone, and now the issue affects the general good of the community, which are all incredibly important aspects to consider when making an argument or taking a stance on an issue. Overall, this segment of the weekly writing was beneficial, because it highlighted the most important and essential keys to arranging a piece of writing correctly.
The Rhetorical Tradition segments were also interesting, as they highlighted more Renaissance and humanist educated writers during this time period. I enjoyed reading specifically about the aristocratic, French lifestyle, as well as the salon society lifestyle. This lifestyle was most interesting to me, because it seems as if the philosophical mindset of those partaking in this culture were more susceptible to allowing women to have a voice and part within society, as well.
I would like to learn more about the salon society time period, as well as how these new cultural practices were altering writing in its entirety. This time period seems to have been very crucial in the shaping of society, both culturally and in the world of writing and rhetoric.
I also found the salon society time period to be particularly interesting. Though it seemed to play an essential part in the development of rhetoric, it emphasized the state of leisure of the aristocracy, which gave me the impression that rhetoric was seen as sort of a recreational, albeit witty parlor trick to be engaged in by the elite. This is such a contrast from the scholastic air of classical rhetoric, that I think it would be extremely interesting to delve more into the time period and its effects.
ReplyDeleteI felt like this class period helped to really address some profound questions about the affect that the salon society had on the world of rhetoric during the Renaissance time period as well as in later eras. I thought it was interesting to learn more about how writing was becoming even more important as well, versus relying solely on oral speeches. The salon society also seemed to emphasize equal participation in conversation for both men and women, which was a giant stride in the higher acceptance of women in society, during this time period.
ReplyDeleteMy views on the salon society and the rhetoric centered around it were that of much surprise. It was very uplifting to see rhetoric as more of a form of amusement and entertainment compared to the typical strict straightforward arguing seen in other periods. I also found it enlightening that the salon was the setting in which women, like Madeleine de Scudery, were rising up in their positions. Even though she still had to use her brother's name to pen her works, she found it of utmost importance to be verbally well read.
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