Rhetoric and Semiotics: A Parallel Study of Alfonso Vagnoni (1568-1640) and Henry Peacham (1547-1634)
| Autor: | Hsi-chiang LIN, 林熙強 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 98 This dissertation is a parallel study of two target texts: Pixue (The Science of Comparison, 1633) by Italian Jesuit Alfonso Vagnoni (1568-1640) and The Garden of Eloquence (2nd ed., 1593) by English parson Henry Peacham (1547- 1634). These two Renaissance rhetorical works will be thoroughly and scientifically analyzed according to two contemporary rhetorical treatises: A General Rhetoric (1981) by Group µ and The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation (1969) by Chaïm Perelman (1912-1984). In his Introduction to Pixue, Vagnoni illustrates ten kinds of comparison in the form of religious maxims; and in the second edition of The Garden of Eloquence, based on Renaissance Figurist tradition Peacham arranges 165 figures under two main categories: trope and scheme. As Group µ concisely notes in “Poetics and Rhetoric,” the Introduction to A General Rhetoric, that ancient rhetoricians have a “mania for naming” and these endless nomenclatures have been the evident sign of rhetoric’s decline. This phenomenon indicates the discredit of ancient rhetoric by modern stylisticians. In Group µ’s sense, rhetoric merits the name of science—rhetoric appears as a science within the scope of structuralism and semiotics—that is why they rethink rhetoric in structural terms and formulate a new classification of metaboles. Accordingly, the kernel structures of this dissertation are—on the one part, to contrast Peacham’s figures with the rhetorical devices that Vagnoni uses in composing maxims; on the other part, through four rhetorical operations sorted out by Group µ, to analyze four metaboles (Metaplasms, Metataxes, Metasememes, and Metalogisms) presented in Vagnoni and Peacham. Perelman’s theory of argumentation is applied to reinforce the analyses of metaboles outside Group µ’s classification. There are five chapters thus developed according to the afore-mentioned framework. Chapter 1: Introduction—From the Visible to the Invisible. This introductory part deals with the Renaissance rhetorical tradition inherited by the two target texts, and the historical positivism of this synchronic approach is established via the review of Western rhetorical history. Next, the core of Vagnoni’s treatment—a comparison serves to clarify the hidden and dark principles of one thing by availing oneself of the evident and clear principles of another thing—triggers the following discussions. Chapter 2: Metasememes in Vagnoni. By means of structural analyses, this chapter deals with the nucleus of a rhetorical comparison, that is, how and why the “adduced term” (the visible) can be used to clarify the “solicited term” (the invisible). In the structural linguistic sense, this rhetorical question relates to the alternation of expressions and contents of lexemes, consequently it must also be taken as a semiotic question. Chapter 3: Metataxes in Vagnoni and Peacham. According to Vagnoni, comparisons may be explicit or implicit, indirect or direct, simple or complex; these six kinds of comparison, in Peacham’s classification, belong to the category of trope. The other four kinds, i.e., explained or not explained, paired and antithetic or not paired and integrated into a single entity, obviously, move from the field of semantics to that of syntax; in other words, they belong to the category of scheme, or, in Group µ’s terminology, Metataxes. This chapter thus deals with manifold Metataxes presented in Vagnoni and Peacham, through scrutiny into sundry deviations from rhetorical degree zero. Chapter 4: Metalogisms in Vagnoni and Peacham. Group µ places the afore-mentioned first three metaboles in the division of grammaticals (code), that is to say, they develop from the relationship between grammar and rhetoric. This chapter deals with Metalogisms, which is placed in the division of logicals (referent) by Group µ, and develops from the relationship between rhetoric and logic. Motaboles that cannot be included under Group µ’s classification—mainly those which correlate with the judgment of value or involve with emotions—Perelman’s theory of argumentation is applied here to supplement the interpretation. Chapter 5: Conclusion. Can rhetorical operations achieve positive effect in religious value judgment? Besides conducting a review of Group µ’s theory of general rhetoric and tackling the question by unraveling the connections among rhetoric, argumentation, and preaching, this concluding chapter finally regards the visible and the invisible from a new perspective. |
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