Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism

The Greeks had contributed to a large extent to this field of literature. It is they who laid the basis for the development of these literatures. Among them was the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle.

Aristotle himself forms a wide field of study. He has been the subject of various research paper writings since ages. His works have always provided a formula-like structure to the pieces of art and thus researchers have tried to find out the different interpretations of his texts so as to widen the field of study.

Since the study of his works and theories is important, it may be a case that students learning literature may need assignment help in order to deal with Aristotle.

In his Poetics, Aristotle defined poetry as a mode of imitation. This simply referred to the poetry being a fictional representation of human being’s thinking, feeling, acting and interacting, in a verbal medium.

Therefore, he focused his discussion on plot, character, thought and diction within the work. On the other hand, in his Rhetoric he defined rhetorical discourse as the art of “discovering all the available means of persuasion in any given case” and he focused his discussion on the devices and means that are used by an orator, in order to achieve the emotional and intellectual effects on an audience.

The statement that rhetoric is the type of discourse whose chief aim is to make the audience think, feel or act in a particular way, was concurred by the later rhetoricians. Overall, rhetoric can thus be described as the study of language in its practical uses focusing on the effects it has on people, like that of persuasion. It also focuses on the means to achieve such effects on the readers.

Based on the points and beliefs laid by Aristotle, later theorists analyzed the effective rhetorical discourse of having three components. Students must take a note of these components if they wish to get assignment help on the topic.

1. The first component is related to finding proofs and arguments, which is known as invention.
2. The second component is that of arranging all the found materials, which is known as disposition.

And the third component is style, which refers to the choice of words, rhythms and verbal patterns that will convey these materials in the most effective manner. This topic later on also included extensive classifications and analysis of figurative language.

Rhetoricians have also laid down various differences between the three main classes of oratory, each of which uses a characteristic device in order to achieve the distinctive type of persuasive effect:

1. Forensic-

This class is used to achieve the approval or condemnation for some person’s actions like that happening in a court case trial.

2. Deliberative-

This style has been most evidently seen in legislative assemblies and refers to the style adopted to persuade an audience to approve or disapprove of a matter of public policy and then to act accordingly.

3. Epideictic-

This term literally means display rhetoric and is used on appropriate, usually ceremonial occasions to enlarge upon the blame worthiness or praiseworthiness of a person or a group of persons. This in turn displays the orator’s own skills and talents in rising to the rhetorical demands of the occasion.

The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln is a prominent example of such an oratory. In fact, the ode is a poetic form that is used as an epideictic form as well. Panegyric, on the other hand, is the composition of public speech in praise of a person.

Figurative language was dealt at length in the classical and later traditional rhetoric. But later on, it was considered as only one element of style, and that too subordinated to the overall goal of persuasion. However, in the past century, the analysis of the types and functions of figurative language has been excerpted on a large scale, from this rhetoric context. Moreover, since then it has been made an independent and central concern not only by the critics of literature but also by the language theorists and philosophers.

From the word rhetoric came the concept of rhetorical criticism. In his verified Art of Poetry, the Roman poet Horace declared that the aim of a poet is either to delight a reader or to instruct him, and preferably, he must do both.

This view that made poetry a calculated means to achieve effects on its audience, breaks down the distinction given by Aristotle as to the concepts of imitative poetry and the rhetorical one.

Thereafter, the discussions on poetry expanded and absorbed the analytic terms that were earlier developed in traditional rhetoric. This represented the poem merely as an artistic means to achieve foreseen effects on readers.

In the early nineteenth century, the expressive theories of literature stood on a greater pedestal. These theories stated that a work is primarily the expression of temperament, feelings and mental powers of the author. Later on in the 1920s, objective theories of literature became prominent.

These theories stated that a work should be considered as an object itself, independent from the intentions of the writer and responses of the reader. Both these theories led to the diminishing of the rhetorical considerations in literary criticism.

Research paper writings have stated that after the 1950s, there was a revival in the middle of communication between the writer and the reader, which further led to the development of the rhetorical criticism.

This type of criticism focused on the literary work and also identified and analyzed those elements in literature which are present there in order to effect certain responses in a reader.

Several critics of the prose fiction and even of the narrative and non-narrative poems have laid emphasis on the author’s use of a variety of means including the voice, so that he or she may engage the interest of the reader and guide his imaginative and emotional responses.

After the 1960s, there emerged the concept of reader-response criticism that clearly spoke against the involvement of the writer in the literary work.

Therefore, this was all one needs to know about the term rhetoric and rhetorical criticism.