Rhetoric and Poetics

Rhetoric and Poetics in Antiquity
Jeffrey Walker
Description
This book offers a counter-traditional account of the history of both rhetoric and poetics. In reply to traditional rhetorical histories, which view "rhetoric" primarily as an art of practical civic oratory, the book argues in four extended essays that epideictic-poetic eloquence was central, even fundamental, to the rhetorical tradition in antiquity. In essence, Jeffrey Walker's study accomplishes what in the world of rhetoric studies amounts to a revolution: he demonstrates that in antiquity rhetoric and poetry could not be viewed separately. Reviews
"Rhetoric and Poetics in Antiquity is an excellent book...Walker has provided an important, original, and insightful rival view of the relationship between rhetoric and poetics. As with any innovative work, it may meet with initial resistance by some of the more traditional members of our discipline. I believe, however, that this work will be viewed immediately and especially over time as an important contribution. By its topic, it will attract those interested in literature and rhetoric. The clarity of the writing is a great strength, as is the organization and the overall development of the thesis. I benefit greatly from reading this work and...hope that my comments will induce our colleagues to read and thereby benefit from Walker's scholarship."--Rhetoric Review

"Walker engages two particularly contentious issues in the history of rhetoric, offering a novel reconstruction of rhetoric's origins and a revised account of the relationship between rhetoric and poetics in Classical Greece and Rome...[A] very ambitious and challenging book. Walker's revitalization of 'epideictic' should provoke greater scrutiny of the ancient understandings of that category. His blurring the traditional boundaries separating rhetoric from poetics is both innovative and cogent. The 'rhetorical poetics' he proposes will no doubt be profitably applied in the study of lyric forms from many cultures subsequent to that of archaic Greece."--Rhetorica
Product Details
416 pages; 1 halftone; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4;
ISBN13: 978-0-19-513035-5
ISBN10: 0-19-513035-9
About the Author(s)
Jeffrey Walker, Professor of English, Emory University