Classical Rhetoric and Poetics
The theory of persuasion and of literature in antiquity — the rhetorical systems of Greece and Rome and the ancient criticism of poetry, together with the metrical forms of classical verse.
Definition
The study of ancient theories of rhetoric and of literature, together with the metrical systems of classical Greek and Latin verse.
Scope
This area covers ancient rhetorical theory from the sophists through Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian; ancient literary criticism and poetics, centered on Aristotle's Poetics and later critics; and classical metrics and prosody, the formal systems of Greek and Latin verse. It treats how the ancients theorized effective speech and good literature and the formal conventions of their poetry.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- How did the ancients theorize persuasion and the art of rhetoric?
- What were the ancient theories of poetry and literary value?
- How do the metrical systems of Greek and Latin verse work?
- How did rhetorical and poetic theory shape literary practice?
Key theories
- The rhetorical system
- The classical analysis of oratory into kinds, parts, and the canons of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery, traced by George Kennedy from the sophists to late antiquity.
- Aristotelian poetics
- Aristotle's theory of poetry as mimesis, centered on tragedy, plot, and catharsis, which became the foundational text of Western literary criticism.
History
Rhetoric was systematized in fifth- and fourth-century Greece and codified by Aristotle, then developed in Rome by Cicero and Quintilian into the core of ancient education. Literary criticism grew alongside it, with Aristotle's Poetics, the treatise On the Sublime, and the works of Hellenistic and Roman critics. Both fields, together with the analysis of meter, were transmitted to later European thought.
Debates
- Rhetoric, ethics, and truth
- From Plato's attack on the sophists onward, thinkers have debated whether rhetoric is a morally neutral or even dangerous art of persuasion or a legitimate and necessary civic skill.
Key figures
- George Kennedy
- Donald Russell
- Stephen Halliwell
- Martin Litchfield West
Related topics
Seminal works
- kennedy1994
- halliwell1986
- russell1981
Frequently asked questions
- What are the five canons of rhetoric?
- The classical canons are invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery, the five divisions of the orator's task in the ancient rhetorical system.
- Why is Aristotle's Poetics important?
- Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest surviving systematic theory of literature, and its analysis of tragedy, plot, and mimesis shaped Western literary criticism for over two millennia.