Rhetoric from the Ruins of African Antiquity

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kermit E. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Studies ◽  
History Of Rhetoric ◽  
Comparative Rhetoric ◽  
Extensive Data ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Depth And Complexity ◽  
Exclusive Focus

Abstract Recent studies in comparative rhetoric have brought much needed attention to traditions of rhetoric in non-Western cultures, including many in Africa. Yet the exclusive focus on contemporary African cultures limits understanding of the history of rhetoric in Africa. Although extensive data on African antiquity is lacking, we know that early Nubian and Ethiopian cultures were highly civilized, socially and politically. Literacy in the ancient cities of Napata, Meroe, and Axum, and in the medieval city of Timbuktu suggests that black Africa was not exclusively oral and not without recourse to a means of recording its uses of language. This essay adds a historical dimension to comparative studies of rhetoric in Africa, showing the depth and complexity of this little known aspect of African civilizations.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Ben Prestel
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Urban Change ◽  
History Of Emotions ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective

The introduction shows that the historical parallels between cities in Europe and the Middle East during the nineteenth century are an underresearched topic in history, demonstrating that Eurocentric tendencies have led to a separation between historical studies on cities in these two regions. It shows how a comparison between Berlin and Cairo contributes to the study of potential parallels between cities in Europe and the Middle East. It is in this context that the history of emotions opens up a new perspective. While older comparative studies have focused on the origins of urban change, the introduction argues that a history of emotions shifts the focus towards the study of how contemporaries negotiated urban change. In this way, the history of emotions helps to overcome Eurocentric pitfalls and offers the possibility of a more global urban history, in which the histories of Berlin and Cairo begin to speak to each other.

Endre Sik, The History of Black Africa, Vol. I.

1966 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-302
Author(s):  
Paul McStallworth
Keyword(s):  
Black Africa ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals ERASMUS AND JUAN LUIS VIVES ON RHETORICAL DECORUM AND POLITICS

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
KAARLO HAVU
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical Theory ◽  
History Of Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical Situation ◽  
Internal Development ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of

Abstract The article analyses the emergence of decorum (appropriateness) as a central concept of rhetorical theory in the early sixteenth-century writings of Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives. In rhetorical theory, decorum shifted the emphasis from formulaic rules to their creative application in concrete cases. In doing so, it emphasized a close analysis of the rhetorical situation (above all the preferences of the audience) and underscored the persuasive possibilities of civil conversation as opposed to passionate, adversarial rhetoric. The article argues that the stress put on decorum in early sixteenth-century theory is not just an internal development in the history of rhetoric but linked to far wider questions concerning the role of rhetoric in religious and secular lives. Decorum appears as a solution both to the divisiveness of language in the context of the Reformation and dynastic warfare of the early sixteenth century and as an adaptation of the republican tradition of political rhetoric to a changed, monarchical context. Erasmus and Vives maintained that decorum not only suppressed destructive passions and discord, but that it was only through polite and civil rhetoric (or conversation) that a truly effective persuasion was possible in a vast array of contexts.

Exploring the boundaries of rhetoric

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 793-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard Bonet
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
The Self ◽  
History Of Rhetoric ◽  
Content Type ◽  
History Of ◽  
Practical Development ◽  
The Subject

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the boundaries of rhetoric have excluded important theoretical and practical subjects and how these subjects are recuperated and extended since the twentieth century. Its purpose is to foster the awareness on emerging new trends of rhetoric. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is based on an interpretation of the history of rhetoric and on the construction of a conceptual framework of the rhetoric of judgment, which is introduced in this paper. Findings – On the subject of the extension of rhetoric from public speeches to any kinds of persuasive situations, the paper emphasizes some stimulating relationships between the theory of communication and rhetoric. On the exclusion and recuperation of the subject of rhetorical arguments, it presents the changing relationships between rhetoric and dialectics and emphasizes the role of rhetoric in scientific research. On the introduction of rhetoric of judgment and meanings it creates a conceptual framework based on a re-examination of the concept of judgment and the phenomenological foundations of the interpretative methods of social sciences by Alfred Schutz, relating them to symbolic interactionism and theories of the self. Originality/value – The study on the changing boundaries of rhetoric and the introduction of the rhetoric of judgment offers a new view on the present theoretical and practical development of rhetoric, which opens new subjects of research and new fields of applications.

Creative communication of artistic systems M. Tsvetaeva and B. Pasternak

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Anastasia Valerievna Sebeleva
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
Priority Direction ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mutual Communication

This article proceeds from the fact that the problem of interaction and mutual influence is quite acute in literary studies. In this regard, the relevance of the research is due, firstly, to the correspondence to the priority direction of modern literary studies associated with the comparative analysis of the text, and secondly, to the need to disclose the deep theoretical and artistic content of creative communication of such artistic personalities of the XX century as M. Tsvetaeva and B. Pasternak, whose legacy still contains many lacunae. The methodological basis of the research is an integrated approach, including comparative-historical, historical-literary, comparative-typological, system-analytical and biographical methods, as well as the method of comparative studies, which allows to study literary analogies and connections of different national literatures, their refraction in the texts of the authors studied. Hermeneutics contributed to the mental comprehension of the analyzed texts, the mental processing of textual information. An important episode in the history of world poetry was the correspondence-dialogue of iconic poets for their time: M. Tsvetaeva and B. Pasternak. Correspondence is valuable not only because it shows us the life of poets in relation to time. The creative aspect of correspondence is very important. The rapprochement manifested in it and at the same time the repulsion was deeply creative and left deep traces in the legacy of all its participants. Poets, albeit to varying degrees, concentrated and passionately, sought to define for themselves the essence of life and poetry. In the course of the research, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that, firstly, the literary process is characterized by a systematic nature in which authors and their works are in certain relationships to each other. Secondly, the thirteen-year correspondence of M. Tsvetaeva with B. Pasternak was very significant for literature. Thanks to mutual communication, creative interaction, the poets created unique, emotionally deep works.

Power Lies in the Barrel of a Gun: Diplomacy Without Strategic Military Capability Is Futile

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 77-99
Author(s):  
Moorosi Leshoele
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Military Capability ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
Mineral Wealth ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pipe Dream

Abstract The United States of America invests heavily on their military capability and it is estimated that it spends, alone, approximately 40 per cent of what the whole world spends on military. Four of the other super powers that make up the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UN-SC) also spend a significant percentage of their national budgets on military. Chinweizu has for a long time argued that Africa needs a well-resourced African Standby Force (or the Black Africa League) that will protect the interests of the continent so as to prevent the history of Africans enslavement and colonialism repeating itself. This article seeks to analyse Africa’s investment on its military defense capability vis-à-vis the five permanent members of the UN-SC and North Korea, by critiquing two case studies of two of the continent’s economic giants – South Africa and Egypt. Realist and Sankofa perspectives are used as the prisms through which the article was researched. In line with Chinweizu’s observation, the article argues that without serious political will and dedication to building Africa’s nuclear weapons capability and ensuring that Africa is economically self-reliant, diplomatic engagements with the rest of the world as (un)equal partners will remain a pipe dream and the looting of Africa’s mineral wealth will continue unabated. It is clear that given the reality of the African Holocust if African countries fail to collectively defend themselves, Africa will continue to be a political football for the rest of the world.

Sons and Fathers in the Major Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis A. Sussman
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Private Schools ◽  
History Of Rhetoric ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Male Adolescents ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
History Of

Abstract: A major focus of the school themes in the collections of Roman declamations knowrn as controversiae (practice court cases) is the period of a young man's adolescence, and especially his relationship with his father during this period. In part this can be explained because teachers in the private schools of rhetoric selected themes that naturally appealed to their students——male adolescents in their mid and late teens. This focus is especially notable in the Major Declamations, and since they are the only full examples of controversiae,the phenomenon can most easily be explored in reference to this werk. In its nineteen declamations youths are generally portrayed sympathetically, in contrast to their fathers who are often cruel and harsh. Relations between the two are generally very strained. The themes were popular because they reflected the reality of growing up in a paternally dominated society where fathers had absolute power(even of life and death) over their sons. These declamations therefore had a cathartic effect and escapist value fer Roman teenaged boys,who could vent or explore in legitimate and acceptable ways their repressed, pent-up, and often hostile feelings toward their fathers. The declamations therefore provide an important resource, when used judiciously, for associating social history with the history of rhetoric.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document