Lesson 4: The Rhetoric

How a text Works

Poetics
When a literary work is created
COCKCROFT BOOK
Lesson 9, 10 developing rhetoric, poetics, very important in exam.
Poetics rhetoric
Share a technique, related to language
Ars- skill, ability, capability- skills to be developed
Politics, discourse, you are good at if you study rhetoric.
Rhetoric gives you tools.
Norm and procedures for elaborating correctly oral and written texts.
Political propaganda, adds, has rhetorical devices.
Expressivity is achieved in non-literary or lit texts
Expressive text if you know rhetoric poetics
Rhetoric
Aims in saying good words, is opposed to saying the truth. We concentrate in using
good language, not saying the truth, which is the role of philosophy.
Origin:
Syracuse, 5th century
Lawsuits, eloquence is important for persuading.
Beautiful words, presents itself like interesting- eloquence
Corax of Syracuse wrote a critique of rhetoric
Tisiax is the same as Corax?
Corax wrote it
Tisiax spread it to Greece
Origin of rhetoric
Art and exercise of eloquence in public, persuading in courts and assemblies.
Science of speaking, art of persuasive discourse, shows force of language.
Art word comes from art technique
Capacity of achieving persuasion- Aristotle
Quintilian- science for working and caring the faculty of speaking. Not everybody is
speaking well, they have less success in life.
Rhetoric The daughter of democracy. Rhetoric is imp, they use to convince when they
want to take power.
Pythagoras
Man is the measure of all things, not gods
Sophists
Truth is universal everlasting,
Real family system, idea of justice live forever or not?
The truth is just what persuades us. What the most people thing is considered as the
truth nowadays.
Rhetoric taken to extreme, you must be very good to persuade.
Verisimilitude is more important than the truth.
Jack the ripper story, the one story that looks the most Vero simile
Plato-
Not fond of rhetoric, he criticised it a lot. Just for persuading people.
Aristotle said maybe it teaches the truth at some point.
Gorgias, Dialogs de Plato:
Keys of eloquence: - Oratory- art of public speaking, oratorical style in texts.
- Logic: reasoning conducted or assessed by strict principles
of validity (things that are always true)
If I am a human being I am mortal.
DIALECTIC- reach a conclusion through debate, discussion,
dialog.
If a text has the tree it has rhetoric.
Plato and the Rhetoric
Paella, tabasco
A good text must content good ideas but if I start to use rhetoric, too highly rhetorical
text, you spoil it, you no longer know if it is true or not what they say. The content is the
important one, ideas.
E.g. adds- it sells a good product, or just they say so?
Or possibly spread bad ideas through rhetoric.
Truth can be reached only by means of philosophy.
Aristotle recovered rhetoric
Maybe is not a discipline for reaching truth, he is interested in how rhetoric is used to
persuade. Speaker, qualities of the speaker, audience, the message.
Journalist persuading people. Politicians, adds.
Politics- democracy
Publicity- XX century on- consumption society
Why is advertising different from Classical Rhetoric?
Economic interest, linguistic economy, space, time is expensive, diverse reality,
different (radio, printed, tv, cinema)
Multiple semiotic systems: verbal language (voice, lyrics), image, design, music.
1.Conjectural text:
Advertising texts are conjectural texts- dont know if it true or not.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo says it -it is true, not really.
3. Fawn/praise the receiver, the addressee of the advert.
4.Use of amplification: exaggerating the good aspects of the product.
Ono adds
Audi add- precision
Leroy Merlin- conjectural text, amplificatio
Colgate conjectural text
Sidra el Gaitero- not know if its famous all over the world, praises the addressee
because she looks happy the girl.
Concision, precision
Redundancy repeat the content repeatedly.
Redundancy and ellipsis.
YES, WE CAN Obama- 2008, repeats we can, yes, we can do it, to change things.
Podemos en Espaa.
Political part new part.
The Poetics
Study of verbal Works which are fictional, imaginary, discourses/ aesthetics, aesthetic
texts.
Theory of literature- is in charge of poetics
Poiei- greek means creation, lit is a way of creating things
Poet is like a small god giving life to fictitious texts, new words, meanings, that can
have effect on our reality.
When is it poetic text?
Meaning, new meanings for words,
Artistic discourse, lit, can create models of reality by the means of imitation. We take
facts of imitation from reality, nature. Creation of models of reality, don Quixote.
Poetics today:
Lit today is not so prescriptive as modern poetics. (16, 17, 18 century lit creators had to
follow literary indication)
Theory of literature (our concept of literature informs us when studying literature, it is
not prescriptive, we not follow it today this idea)
It is impossible to reduce literature and limit it with norms, because literature is so vast
today.
But we need to know the notions and methods useful for analysing literary texts.
A priory theory of literature- t created before a writer writes literary work. Poetics by
Aristteles, Lope de Vega El arte Nuevo de hacer comedias.
A posteriory- t\ after Edgar Allan Poe The Philosophy of composition, explains how
he wrote Raven, a poem, SEE.
EXPLICIT Poetics
Poetry manifestos
Dadaism
Metapoem or metaliterature- novel, about novels
Implicit poetics - Edgar Allan Poes book

Jaime Jill de Bidelmas poem