On EloquenceOn Eloquence questions the common assumption that eloquence is merely a subset of rhetoric, a means toward a rhetorical end. Denis Donoghue, an eminent and prolific critic of the English language, holds that this assumption is erroneous. While rhetoric is the use of language to persuade people to do one thing rather than another, Donoghue maintains that eloquence is gratuitous, ideally autonomous, in speech and writing an upsurge of creative vitality for its own sake. He offers many instances of eloquence in words, and suggests the forms our appreciation of them should take. Donoghue argues persuasively that eloquence matters, that we should indeed care about it. Because we should care about any instances of freedom, independence, creative force, sprezzatura, he says, especially when we liveperhaps this is increasingly the casein a culture of the same, featuring official attitudes, stereotypes of the officially enforced values, sedated language, a politics of pacification. A noteworthy addition to Donoghues long-term project to reclaim a disinterested appreciation of literature as literature, this volume is a wise and pleasurable meditation on eloquence, its unique ability to move or give pleasure, and its intrinsic value. |
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Page 2
... common. But we take pleasure in eloquence that is not merely or completely referential. In “The Convalescent,” a chapter of the third book of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra remains in his cave for seven days till he recovers from ...
... common. But we take pleasure in eloquence that is not merely or completely referential. In “The Convalescent,” a chapter of the third book of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra remains in his cave for seven days till he recovers from ...
Page 4
... common or garden word, trans- formed to eloquence in Arnold's “Where ignorant armies clash by night.” Context accounts for much in these instances from Arnold, Wordsworth, and the other writers, but when elo- quence arises, we recognize ...
... common or garden word, trans- formed to eloquence in Arnold's “Where ignorant armies clash by night.” Context accounts for much in these instances from Arnold, Wordsworth, and the other writers, but when elo- quence arises, we recognize ...
Page 5
... common life and local relations, even if it was limited to those practices. At least it kept itself free from the sophistications of Europe; it did not need to be eloquent so long as it was decent. George Chapman wrote in 1575: “I have ...
... common life and local relations, even if it was limited to those practices. At least it kept itself free from the sophistications of Europe; it did not need to be eloquent so long as it was decent. George Chapman wrote in 1575: “I have ...
Page 8
... common discourse . " " 10 In the essay “ Of National Characters ” he remarked with satisfaction a cooling of the passions in religious conviction : Not to insist upon the great difference between the present possessors of Britain , and ...
... common discourse . " " 10 In the essay “ Of National Characters ” he remarked with satisfaction a cooling of the passions in religious conviction : Not to insist upon the great difference between the present possessors of Britain , and ...
Page 10
... common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind, for want of English words, in which they might be expressed. But such perfection cannot be held. Changes must come, and with them corruption: from commerce; from the ...
... common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind, for want of English words, in which they might be expressed. But such perfection cannot be held. Changes must come, and with them corruption: from commerce; from the ...
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Adorno Aeneas agile with temporal Bartleby blue Browne's Cambridge catachresis chapter claim Collected Poems context culture Dante death Derrida Dido Donne English Language Essays expression eyes feeling Finnegans Wake Flaubert Geoffrey Hill gesture gives Guy Davenport Gweneth Hugh Kenner human Hydriotaphia Ibid imagination John John Donne Kenneth Burke King knock Lady Macbeth last line Latin literary Literature live Locke London Madame Bovary means mind modern night Ophelia Oxford passage passion phrase play pleasure poet poetry Professor Hogan prose quence quoted R. P. Blackmur reader reading reason rhetoric rhyme rhythm seems sense sentence Shakespeare silence song without words soul sounds speak speech stanza Stevens story style sweet syllable T. S. Eliot take the train talk temporal intervals things thought tion trans translation tree University Press verbal W. B. Yeats William Empson Woolf writing Yeats