Renaissance Figures of Speech

by Edited by Sylvia Adamson , Gavin Alexander , Katrin Ettenhuber

• ISBN13: 9780521866408
• ISBN10: 0521866405
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Renaissance saw a renewed and energetic engagement with classical rhetoric; recent years have seen a similar revival of interest in Renaissance rhetoric. As Renaissance critics recognised, figurative language is the key area of intersection between rhetoric and literature. This book is the first modern account of Renaissance rhetoric to focus solely on the figures of speech. It reflects a belief that the figures exemplify the larger concerns of rhetoric, and connect, directly or by analogy, to broader cultural and philosophical concerns within early modern society. Thirteen distinguished contributors have selected a rhetorical figure with a special currency in Renaissance writing, and have used it as a key to one of the period's characteristic modes of perception, forms of argument, states of feeling, or styles of reading.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. ix
List of contributors	p. x
Preface	p. xiii
Note on spelling and references	p. xiv
Introduction: the figures in Renaissance theory and practice	p. 1
Synonymia: or, in other words	p. 17
Compar or parison: measure for measure	p. 39
Periodos: squaring the circle	p. 61
Puns: serious wordplay	p. 81
Prosopopoeia: the speaking figure	p. 97
Ekphrasis: painting in words	p. 115
Hysteron proteron: or the preposterous	p. 133
Paradiastole: redescribing the vices as virtues	p. 149
Syncrisis: the figure of contestation	p. 167
Testimony: the artless proof	p. 181
Hyperbole: exceeding similitude	p. 197
Metalepsis: the boundaries of metaphor	p. 217
The vices of style	p. 237
Notes	p. 252
Suggestions for further reading	p. 291
Index	p. 295
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