Dear Class,
I think we have reached sort of a historical benchmark in our study of rhetoric in that if we think back to the Sophists, rhetoric was largely a tool for use in formal debate and by only a select few. Now, in looking at rhetoric in the Renaissance period, we can see that the use of rhetoric has pervades a wide variety of social arenas and is available as a tool to anyone who is literate (as discussed in Herrick). This transition did not happen overnight---it has been brewing in each of the time periods we have looked at so far. But, I think for the first time, we are seeing a concerted (and effective) effort by the rhetoricians of the day to make rhetoric grow in an effort to build community.
Thus, I see rhetoric as having a larger role in human development and interaction during this period, and as being more accessible through increased emphasis in academic studies (as indicated in Herrick). And I see a concentrated effort by the humanists in ensuring that rhetoric is interpreted and taught correctly through a contextual approach (also a point of Herrick’s). From this investment, rhetoric became not only a tool for academic speculation but also a key to practical living (as Herrick indicates) bringing a point to the transition of rhetoric from academic, to religious, to influencing daily life.
Thus, through this integration and recognition of rhetoric into both the academic and the societal, I see a contrast to Euro-Christian rhetoric, which was largely a tool of seclusion and separation (e.g., prayer, mediation, etc.), to something more social (like letter writing). So, for me, for the first time instead of thinking of rhetoric as a way to divide and separate (a tension that I think was present in the secular vs. Christian in the Medieval period we looked at last week), I am seeing rhetoric as a tool for unity and as a means to building community. I am seeing a transition from the virtues of rhetoric (like knowledge) to something practical (societal betterment). I think these are improvements that Isocrates, Plato, and Cicero would have valued.
Cris
I like the points that you make about building community. Rhetoric was absolutely used as a way to maintain and form relationships in a time when people lived great distances from each other. The focus seems to be shifting to education of the masses and seems to begin the movement that ends the church's abilty to control and abuse the people. It is something that the first rhetors would surely have approved of.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about how we're going to begin looking back and using classical and medieval in different ways through the Renaissance and humanists. It's all a matter of context and power, who is doing the writing and for what reasons.
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