Renaissance Figures of Speech

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/31/2011
EAN 9780521187053, ISBN10: 0521187052

Paperback, 320 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

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 authoritative 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.

Introduction
the figures in Renaissance theory and practice Sylvia Adamson, Gavin Alexander and Katrin Ettenhuber
1. Synonymia
or, in other words Sylvia Adamson
2. Compar or Parison
measure for measure Russ McDonald
3. Periodos
squaring the circle Janel Mueller
4. Puns
serious wordplay Sophie Read
5. Prosopopoeia
the speaking figure Gavin Alexander
6. Ekphrasis
painting in words Claire Preston
7. Hysteron proteron, or the preposterous Patricia Parker
8. Paradiastole
redescribing the vices as virtues Quentin Skinner
9. Syncrisis
the figure of contestation Ian Donaldson
10. Testimony
the artless proof R. W. Serjeantson
11. Hyperbole
exceeding similitude Katrin Ettenhuber
12. Metalepsis
the boundaries of metaphor Brian Cummings
13. The vices of style William Poole.