Emotive language is now best understood by combining the analytic techniques of classical rhetoric with current linguistic practices. With or without prompting, the 'passions' of Renaissance culture can stir contrary feelings in today's readers, which are enlisted to validate a range of theorised responses. This book will mediate between critics, readers, the author and the original audience, using the 'New Rhetoric' to open fresh perspectives on writers as diverse as Christopher Marlowe, Lucy Hutchinson and Margaret Cavendish.

Autorentext

ROBERT COCKCROFT was born into a textile family and is particularly interested in the structure and texture of language, aesthetic and persuasive. As co-author of Persuading People (1992), he now seeks to combine 'New Rhetorical' linguistic insights with traditional perspectives, in an innovative treatment of Renaissance texts and their modern critics.

Zusammenfassung
This book challenges the way in which current critical orthodoxy tend to invite the emotional assent of readers more on the basis of admirable principles, than on conclusive textual evidence. The affective use of language by critics such as Greenblatt, Jardine, Eagleton and Greer, in furtherance of their argument, recalls the Aristotelian concepts of ethos and pathos, and conveys the stance of the writer by stimulating the reader's emotion. Affectivity is as much a feature of writing about Renaissance texts today, as it was of the texts themselves. To what extent do contemporary critical agendas distort of overlook the complexity of emotion in works by writers such as Marlowe, Milton and Lucy Hutchinson? This book aims to provide new reading strategies, applying schema theory, deixis and other linguistic models, both to original texts and to modern criticism, whilst drawing on the Renaissance's own complex and problematic understanding of pathos.

Inhalt

Preface PART I: INTRODUCTION: RECONSIDERED PASSIONS From Perception to Persuasion Why 'Reconsidered Passion'? Emotion, now- and then Introducing the New Rhetoric Empowering the Reader? A 'Double Analysis' - with a difference PART II: SABLE CLOUDS AND SILVER LININGS A Pathetic Muddle? Ideas of Pathos from Plato to Milton The Applications of Pathos Milton's A Masque : the Progression of Pathos PART III; OLD PASSIONS, NEW PURPOSES; RHETORIC RHETORICISED Reconsidering: how and why? Baldwin and Marlowe: Talent and the Spotlight Hutchinson and Cavendish: Writer and Audience Shakespeare: About the Bard's Business Milton: Perspectives on Power PART IV; GOING TO EXTREMES The Extremes of Love and Hate Passionate to a Purpose PART V: ADJUSTING THE MIRRORS The Emotional Laser Marlowe and Baldwin: Designs on the Audience Hutchinson and Cavendish: Rival Reflections Shakespeare: Back to the Audience? Paradise Lost : Engaging the Reader A Case in Point: Wyatt and Gascoigne Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Index