Renaissance Figures of Speech

A collection of essays, each tackling a Renaissance figure of speech in literature.

Sylvia Adamson (Edited by), Gavin Alexander (Edited by), Katrin Ettenhuber (Edited by)

9780521866408, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 December 2007

320 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

'… meticulously edited … it shows how valuable a knowledge of rhetoric can be in understanding how literature used to be written, and read.' Brian Vickers, The Times Literary Supplement

The Renaissance saw a renewed and energetic engagement with classical rhetoric; recent years have seen a similar revival of interest in Renaissance rhetoric. As Renaissance critics recognised, figurative language is the key area of intersection between rhetoric and literature. This book is the first modern account of Renaissance rhetoric to focus solely on the figures of speech. It reflects a belief that the figures exemplify the larger concerns of rhetoric, and connect, directly or by analogy, to broader cultural and philosophical concerns within early modern society. Thirteen authoritative contributors have selected a rhetorical figure with a special currency in Renaissance writing and have used it as a key to one of the period's characteristic modes of perception, forms of argument, states of feeling or styles of reading.

Introduction: the figures in Renaissance theory and practice Sylvia Adamson, Gavin Alexander and Katrin Ettenhuber
1. Synonymia: or, in other words Sylvia Adamson
2. Compar or Parison: measure for measure Russ McDonald
3. Periodos: squaring the circle Janel Mueller
4. Puns: serious wordplay Sophie Read
5. Prosopopoeia: the speaking figure Gavin Alexander
6. Ekphrasis: painting in words Claire Preston
7. Hysteron proteron, or the preposterous Patricia Parker
8. Paradiastole: redescribing the vices as virtues Quentin Skinner
9. Syncrisis: the figure of contestation Ian Donaldson
10. Testimony: the artless proof R. W. Serjeantson
11. Hyperbole: exceeding similitude Katrin Ettenhuber
12. Metalepsis: the boundaries of metaphor Brian Cummings
13. The vices of style William Poole.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Linguistics [CF]