DESPRE OAMENI ŞI STILURI

Author(s): Cristinel Munteanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 31/2014

Buffon is the author ot the most famous definition of style: Le style c’est l’homme même (Style is man himself). Referring to individual style as well, Nicolae Manolescu inverted this sentence, asserting that the statement Man is style (itself) is also valid in some situations. In this paper I aim at showing the extent at which the inverted formula can be applied to functional or collective styles, too. It seems that the way in which the great rhetors described the three types of style theorized in Antiquity (the plain, the middle and the grand), with reference to some human examples of excellent orators, offers us the proofs we were looking for.

Corrupt Governance: Self-defeating Anti-corruption Rhetoric and Initiatives in Russia

Author(s): Elena Pavlova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Resilience theory has been used to describe the ‘‘bounce back’’ effect—a system’s ability to recover to its normal state after a shock. While this usually applies to systems whose survival is seen in a positive light (such as democracy), this article emphasizes the other, darker side of this phenomenon. I demonstrate how anti-corruption discourse can support certain practices that actually contribute to the resilience of corruption. By comparing the anti-corruption discourses of the Russian government and its political opposition, this article shows the interdependence and mutual reinforcement of two practices: (I) the pervasive resolution of everyday problems by corrupt methods and (II) focusing on the corruption of particular actors as the main obstacle to the development of the country and society. The effect of this interdependence is ambivalent, as both practices challenge corruption and contribute to its resilience. In effect, this becomes amode of government and I link the concept of resilience with the literature on governmentality to better illuminate the endurance of corruption in Russia despite sincere (and even well-intended) anti-corruption campaigns. This model of rethinking the resilience of corrupt practices with the special focus on anti-corruption rhetoric can be applied to other countries where corruption serves as a pivot of the social and economic system, as it does in Russia.

MOŽE LI POLITIČKA RETORIKA BITI „PREUVJERLJIVA“ ? KOMBINACIJA POSLOVICE I HIPERBOLE U SLUČAJU ENGLESKE POSLOVICE HAVE THE CAKE AND EAT IT

Author(s): Andreas Musolff / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

Can the use of linguistic devices to achieve persuasion, such as metaphor, irony and hyperbole, ever be “too persuasive”, i.e., overshoot its rhetorical aim? More specifically, can the combination of such devices be “too much of a good thing” in that it commits speakers (and approving hearers) to actions that they were not part of their persuasion intentions? This paper investigates the semantic and pragmatic development of the Brexit-related applications of the metaphorical proverb, You cannot have your cake and eat it, during 2016–2019 in British public discourse. At the start of that period, the proverb’s reversal into the assertion “We can have our cake and eat it!” by the then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and other “Brexiteers” became a highly prominent endorsement of Brexit and its supposed benefits for the UK; it even temporarily set the agenda for the public perception of UK–EU negotiations. Over time it became an object of hyperbolic praise as well as derision and recently seems to have lost much of its persuasive force. The paper argues that the proverb’s new reversed application by Johnson was initially successful in reviving its metaphorical meaning and framing it in a hyperbolic rhetorical context but that it also pushed Brexit proponents to an “all-or-nothing” outcome of the conflict narrative, both vis-à-vis the EU and within the British political debate. Thus, rhetorical success can lead to argumentative (and political) commitments that may have been not foreseen by the speaker and may run counter to their persuasive interests.

A Country for Old Men: The Pitfalls of Conservative Political Analysis During Crises

Author(s): Anatoly Reshetnikov / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

I would like to start this reply to the latest forecast by the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) with a small literary digression. Besides its poetic beauty, Y. B. Yeats’ ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ became one of the poet’s most lauded works for managing to express his acute reflexivity about the problem of aging. Observing the world around him, Yeats’ character understood with astounding clarity that it no longer belonged to him. Moved by this realization, he decided to set off to a different realm, a metaphysical world of immortal culture and spirituality, poetically represented as Byzantium. This critical reflexivity about the fragility and finitude of one’s earthly life indeed secured Yeats a place among his fellow literary classics in ‘the artifice of eternity’.

Gender Politics and Radical Right Parties: An Examination of Women’s Substantive Representation in Slovakia

Author(s): Ekaterina R. Rashkova / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

On the crossroads between preserving a nationalist rhetoric and adding ways in which it can offer an alternative to mainstream politics, the Slovak Radical Right has transformed itself from having an unsteady presence in parliament over the last two decades to having two nationalist parties with a significant portion of seats. This article examines the radical right parties’ (RRPs’) gender rhetoric and parliamentary activity, and in comparison to other parties evaluates the substantive representation of women within these parties. The study covers the period from 2006 to 2016 and shows that while women are still significantly outnumbered in RRPs, they are more active on women’s issues than any of their counterparts. Moreover, their activity can be characterized as “positive representation,” as opposed to the usually assumed “negative representation” of women by RRPs.

KRIKŠČIONIŠKOJI RETORIKA XIX A. VIDURIO LIETUVIŲ LITERATŪROJE

Author(s): Irena Skurdenienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 13/2004

Religious and secular rhetoric differ in their intentions, aims and linguistic expression. Christian values, witnessed through cultural, psychological and social factors, were dominant in the middle of the 19th century in Lithuania. The rich religious literature of that period was subordinated to the practical needs of its addressee; its strongest emphasis was on education and didactics. Cultural values, particularly reflected in public discourse, were illustrated by the genre of the sermon. Preachers of that time, who were writing under the pressure of tsarist censorship, were restricted to certain themes, interpretations and means of expression. This genre was based on baroque principles: the authors depicted the temporality of life, the cult of death, and life after death. Those general tendencies are reflected in the sermons of R. Jasikevicius, officially accredited for use in churches. The preacher explains the principles of Christian life, emphasises the temporary nature of everyday life, and advocates asceticism and constant penitence. In the sermons of R. Jasikevicius we find a very strong cult of death: the author presents intimidating images of the Inferno and awakens emotions of fear rather than love in man’s relationship with God. As a preacher, Jasikevicius orients his thought towards transcendence, thus reminding us in his sermons of baroque religious literature. Stylistically, these sermons were adapted to peasant audiences. The religious discourse of the mid-nineteenth century vaguely reflects the active social position of the Church during these years troubled by the struggle for freedom.

Риторика и поэтика «Пушкинской речи» Ф. М. Достоевского

Author(s): Evgeniya Petrovna Litinskaya / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2021

The article examines the F. M. Dostoevsky’s Pushkin’s Speech in the context of modern studies of the way ancient heritage was reflected in the writer’s work. The analysis of the speech was carried out in the categories of rhetorical poetics. The author proves that the speech is structured according to the rules of epideictic eloquence, with a pronounced emotional component characteristic of Christian preaching. The author identifies established stylistic figures, the use of which is always justified: repetition, parallelism, gradation, amplification, polyphonic forms, period, allusion, irony. Rhetoric is translated into poetics. Pushkin’s characters (Aleko and Onegin, Tatiana, Pimen) become images with apparent features of both Christian culture and antiquity. Evangelical motifs and images, allusions to antiquity, concepts of Orthodox and ancient culture are integrated in a journalistic form. Christ and Pushkin are connected figuratively in poetics and rhetoric of the speech. Dostoevsky creates a portrait of the Russian poet, his image, and it is no accident that the “speech” is called an essay by its author.

Retoryka ekspresywnej egzemplifikacji w językach typologicznie odległych – na przykładzie wybranych wypowiedzi polskich oraz japońskich

Author(s): Jarosław A. Pietrow / Language(s): Polish Issue: 05/2021

A confrontative analysis of distant natural languages proves fully useful in terms of cognition when, as a result, formal differences in statement/utterance structures arising from typological dissimilarities, yet disclosing universal communication strategies, can be noticed. This refers also to the colloquial rhetoric, which is illustrated by this attempt at comparing the strategy of expressive exemplification combined with the mechanism of negation in Polish and Japanese. Usages of the Polish negative pronoun żaden (no, none) are compared here based on an extensive corpus of colloquial sentences to the corresponding Japanese exemplification structure based on the use of the form nanka, which, in turn, permits the observation of characteristic shifts in the hierarchy of the exponents of the former and the latter semantic function mentioned here. The synthetic nature of the Polish structure places the negation higher in the hierarchy, thus prevailing over the meaning of the exemplification, while in the Japanese language the analytical separation of both meanings places the exemplification and the negation at an equal level as part of the separately shaped thematic-rhematic segmentation of statements/utterances.

President Barack Obama’s Policy Choices in NATO Rhetoric

Author(s): Marta Rzepecka / Language(s): English Issue: 25/2019

This article uses Michael C. McGee’s concept of the ideograph to reflect Obama’s early foreign policy course regarding transatlantic relations. Specifically, the article draws on the ideograph “alliance” to demonstrate how the president redefined agents, acts, agencies, scenes, and purposes that fall within the rhetoric, thus informing how and why he changed US commitment to NATO. Analyzing Obama’s use of alliance serves to interpret his political choices as well as understand his ability to get the public to support them. By extension, a study of this nature offers a reading of the president’s perspective on US foreign policy and America’s global role.

Bliżej ludzi czy bliżej gwiazd? Prezydenci na Instagramie

Author(s): Agnieszka Kampka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02/2019

The author presents the results of an analysis of Instagram profiles of ten European presidents. Photos posted there have three persuasive goals: they build the image of a particular politician, image of the office of the president and strengthen the sense of community and national pride. The Presidents appear in several roles: a star, an ordinary person, a guardian of memory, a representative of the state and the nation, a host. The author analyzes the style of visual rhetoric and proves that Instagram can be an effective tool for building civic awareness.

Semantische Kämpfe im Kampf um die Wähler. Zur diskursiven Konstruktion rechtspopulistischer Deutungsmuster

Author(s): Izabela Kujawa / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2021

The struggle to establish certain patterns of interpretation in collective social knowledge is fought by means of semantics. Collective knowledge and at the same time certain meanings are linguistically constructed. In this respect, a “dispute about the matter” can be viewed as a “dispute about words”, that is, a semantic battle (Felder, 2006, S. 1). In this sense, power is exercised through semantics. The subject of this paper is the analysis of the right-wing patterns of interpretation in the political discourse of the 21st century, in fact polyphonic first-person narrators, an attempt at capturing its typical features and at reconstructing the right-wing political narrative on the nation/ Volk promoted by politicians during their meetings with voters.

U bram niebios. Oda (IV 30) Macieja Kazimierza Sarbiewskiego do Janusza Skumina Tyszkiewicza

Author(s): Wojciech Ryczek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4 (57)/2020

The main purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it presents the edition of a Latin ode written by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski SJ (1595–1640) dedicated to Janusz Skumin Tyszkiewicz (1572–1642), Voivode of Trakai, after the death of his beloved wife, Barbara née Naruszewicz (1580–1627). A new Polish translation of this text and a commentary are also provided. Secondly, the first part of the paper, or the invitation to close reading, aims at giving more detailed information about the rhetorical architecture of the ode, particularly its composition, arguments, and figures. Sarbiewski, regarded as the most brilliant imitator of Horatian lyrical discourse in early-modern Europe (“Christian Horace”), used the established schemes and formulas to create a Christian consolation based on reinventing the lyrical arguments. The persuasive power of his ode is strongly related to vivid, evocative, and meaningful images. The correlation between divine inspiration and poetic perfection allowed him to refashion the rhetorical patterns of epicedium. Sarbiewski wanted to demonstrate his ability to use various modes of linguistic expression. Thus, in the heart of his consolation there is a story about “the cracks” (rimae) in heaven’s gate and a poet who can take a short glimpse into “the heavenly city” (urbs caelestis). The consolation is to confirm the belief that, following departure, a deceased can live in the realm of eternal joy and happiness. Paradoxically, he or she can be happier there than during his or her earthly life. Despite its rhetorical refinement and poetical elaboration, it always serves the same purpose. Moreover, its realisation only becomes possible due to literary mediation. The poet appears to be the mediator between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The final verses of the poem bring a moral lesson best epitomized in a brief appeal “do not want more” (nec tu plura velis), addressed not only to Tyszkiewicz, but also to the poet himself and the readers.

За понятието ‘циркумстанция’ в Латинското средновековие. Циркумстанция и иновация

Author(s): Oleg Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2021

This article is dedicated to the topic of the circumstantiae. In my point of view, they are a specific rhetorical category, not just a physical ‘circumstance’. By analogy with Aristotle’s categories, the circumstantiae can be distinguished as ‘genera for the infinite meanings’ and are therefore more than a tool helping a particular rhetorical situation to be shaped. Thus, if we allow ourselves to consider them in the spirit of the philosophical categorical systematics, then the circumstantiae become independent signifiers in relation to the infinite number of specific times, places or agents, which set the framework for examining the particular rhetorical „case“.

Writing Animality in Yoko Tawada’s "Memoirs of a Polar Bear"

Author(s): Jamie Johnson / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Yoko Tawada, an author writing in both Japanese and German, is what critics call an exophonic writer, that is, a writer who uses a language other than one’s mother tongue for creative purposes. Writing from a foreign point of view is part of Tawada’s interest in acquiring perceptions of otherness both linguistically and culturally. We might apply Tawada’s exophonic writing when entering animal worlds by creating what Frederike Middelhoff terms ‘literary auto-zoographies’. Tawada’s novel Memoirs of a Polar Bear contains three generations of polar bear narratives: two circus performers and one zoo inhabitant. The text takes a postmodern metafictional approach to problems that arise in speaking for the animal other, a subject under much discussion in Animal Studies scholarship today. My article examines each of the three characters and their corresponding narrative modes. First, the grandmother polar bear writes a first-person autobiography of her life as a performer; in doing so, Tawada combines fiction and nonfiction to deconstruct the bear character’s identity thus resulting in what might be called a more authentic animal autobiography. Second, the article focuses on Tawada’s fascination with translation through the human-animal shared spaces between Tosca (the daughter of the unnamed grandmother polar bear character) and her human trainer. Lastly, the article examines the grandson, Knut, as an example of the current humanimal subject of ecopoetics with an emphasis on Knut as an environmental figure.

Animality and Textual Experimentalism in João Guimarães Rosa’s "My Uncle, the Jaguar"

Author(s): Ana Carolina Torquato / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

This article analyses how form and content are intertwined in the story My Uncle, the Jaguar (1961) by Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. In the first part, I use the fourteenth episode of Ulysses (1920), ‘Oxen of the Sun’, as an example of how language and form can convey ideas. The next section deals with Rosa’s efforts to create a character-narrator who seems to be on the verge of becoming-animal. The character’s transformation into a jaguar-like being is ambiguous, seeming to be both psychological and behavioural. In this sense, there is no evidence whether his metamorphosis is physical. However, the language of the narrative conveys his transformation, transcending him from Portuguese to Tupi-Guarani, to an animal snarling onomatopoeic language. To support my argument, I use a theoretical framework derived from Animal Studies and Anthropological Studies as a means of giving a better explanation of the variable cultural background concerning human-animal relationships.

Fictional Menageries: Writing Animals in the Early Twenty-First Century. A Review of Timothy C. Baker, "Writing Animals: Language, Suffering, and Animality in Twenty-First-Century Fiction." Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 242 pages

Author(s): Antonis Balasopoulos / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

RETORYKA W POLSCE PO 1989 ROKU. PRZEGLĄD KIERUNKÓW BADAŃ

Author(s): Anna Bendrat,Agnieszka Budzyńska-Daca,Agnieszka Kampka,Ewa Modrzejewska,Maria Załęska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2021

This paper is dedicated to the development of rhetoric in Poland after 1989 taking into account adaptation processes at two levels: communication practices and research reflection. The sociopolitical transformations have enabled an unrestricted development of rhetorical activities, which were impracticable in the former Eastern Bloc countries: advertising and marketing, political debates, civic engagement, academic freedom. The adaptation has taken place at the level of communication habits of citizens and rhetorical practices of rhetoric researchers themselves. The study adopts the descriptive methodology and focuses on several aspects: the process of internal differentiation of rhetorical studies, the influence of the American rhetorical criticism on the studies, the rhetorical perspective in linguistic research, media studies, and politics. The paper emphasises the cultural characteristics of Polish rhetorical studies, which draw inspiration from three main sources: 1) Old Polish oratory and its modern analyses from the perspective of literary studies; 2) analyses of the propaganda of the times of the Polish People’s Republic, including the media; 3) modern concepts from the areas of argumentation, rhetorical criticism, discourse analysis, and media studies. The overview shows that, after 1989, rhetorical studies can be described as a self-organising system created by dense intertextual relations, relationship networks, and institutional frameworks rather than as a compilation of sparse individual works.

«Что же она такое, ваша нарратология?» Разговор с проф. Валерием Тюпой

Author(s): Agnieszka Ścibior,Valery Tyupa / Language(s): Russian Issue: 170/2020

Valery Igorevich Tyupa (born in 1945) — one of the most outstanding Russian literary theorists and the most important narrative theorists in the world, author of over three hundred and ninety scientific publications in the field of literary theory, communication theory and discourse analysis, comparative studies, narratology, aesthetics, rhetoric, professor at the Russian State University of Humanities in Moscow (RGGU). In Tyupa’s scientific interests, two main problem areas are clearly outlined. The first concerns the aesthetics of literature, the second — narratology. The interview with the researcher was devoted to the latter. Tyupa explains what contemporary narratology is and why it is needed; he talks, among others, about the relationships between narratology and rhetoric, about the prospects for the development of comparative narratology, and about the project of creating historical narratology.

Müşâkele Sanatının Kavramsallaşma Sürecinde Fahreddin er-Râzî

Author(s): Mehdi Cengiz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 44/2021

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210), one of the 12th century thinkers, who is known for his works in the field of al-kalām (Islamic theology), philosophy and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), wrote a work called Nihāyat al-ījāz fī dirāyat al-iʿjāz on the ʿilm al belāgha (science of eloquence) consisting of the sciences of ʿilm al-bayān (the science of clarity of language), ʿilm al-maʿānī (the science of meanings) and ʿilm al-badīʿ (the science of ornamentation). al-Rāzī, who did not include the art of al-Mushākala (lexical simulation), which is defined as stating a word (lafẓ) by the form of another (word) in that book, used this art extensively in his tafsīr called Mefātīḥu'l-ġayb. However, since al-Mushākala was not yet termed in his time, he mentioned this art with different names. In fact, he did not explain while interpreting the verses and referred to another verse mentioned before. Since al-Rāzī’s thoughts about al-Mushākala could not be determined exactly and his statements were misunderstood, the subject of our study is the extraction of general rule from the small materials that al-Rāzī mentions about the art of al-Mushākala. In this direction, the conceptual framework of the art of al-Mushākala will be included in the introduction of the article. In the first part, the nature of the art of al-Mushākala according to al-Rāzī will be explained, and in the second part, it will be discussed whether this art is a metaphor or a reality for him.

Söz Sanatları Açısından Mütenebbî’nin Şiirlerine Genel Bir Bakış

Author(s): Adnan Arslan / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2021

One of the top names in classical Arabic poetry is undoubtedly Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad al-Mutanabbī (d. 354/966), one of the poets of the ‘Abbāsid period. The poet, who molded his philosophy of life in a concise manner with his very concise and interesting couplets, gained a considerable place in the oral culture of the Arabs. In order to understand the poet's place in classical Arabic poetry, it is enough to know that there are about a hundred commentaries on his poems. In this study, the characteristics that make al-Mutanabbī’s poems qualified have been examined. As it is seen, the most important factor that makes the poet stand out is his skillful use of rhetoric, which is considered the lifeblood of the literary style. The poet's similes and metaphors, which show his success in embodying the abstract, his eulogy practices, his exaggerated descriptions that push the limits of imagination, and his use of diagnostic art, which we find most successful, are examined through remarkable examples. The study was narrowed down to the prominent arts, with the thought that examining all of the rhetoric would not be within the scope of an article in Arabic language and rhetoric. The originality of the poet is based on the titles and selected examples. In the selected couplets, criticisms have been made in terms of form and content whenever necessary. As a result, the elements that ensure the poet's success in rhetoric are listed, unnecessary repetitions, excessive exaggerations, inconsistencies in the eulogy, words that scratch the ear, etc. angles were evaluated as negativities in terms of the quality of the poem.