Rhetoric: Readings in French Literature

By Michael Hawcroft

Book Overview

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, whether spoken or written. In the first chapter of Rhetoric: Readings in French Literature, Michael Hawcroft sets out its principles comprehensively and lucidly, providing an easily-consulted outline of key terms and a wide range of illustrative examples. Subsequent chapters explore rhetoric at work in different genres, via close reading of texts which range from the drama of Moli re, Racine, and Beckett; Montaigne, S vign , and Gide on the self; the prose fiction of Laclos, Zola, and Sarraute; poetry by D'Aubign , Baudelaire, and C saire; and the oratory of de Gaulle and Yourcenar. Rhetorical analysis uncovers subtleties and complexities in texts which emerge as exciting dramas of communication. This is at once a handbook of rhetoric and a guide to its application to French texts from the sixteenth century to the present.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198159846
• ISBN13: 9780198159841
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.8"