9780195063622 / Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies 1st Edition
by Oxford University Press; 1st edition (September 5, 1991) (Author)
This pathbreaking study integrates the histories of rhetoric, literacy, and literary aesthetics up to the time of Augustine, focusing on Western concepts of rhetoric as dissembling and of language as deceptive that Swearingen argues have received curiously prominent emphasis in Western aesthetics and language theory. Swearingen reverses the traditional focus on rhetoric as an oral agonistic genre and examines it instead as a paradigm for literate discourse. She proposes that rhetoric and literacy have in the West disseminated the interrelated notions that through learning rhetoric individuals can learn to manipulate language and others; that language is an unreliable, manipulable, and contingent vehicle of thought, meaning, and communication; and that literature is a body of pretty lies and beguiling fictions. In a bold concluding chapter Swearingen aligns her thesis concerning early Western literacy and rhetoric with contemporary critical and rhetorical theory; with feminist studies in language, psychology, and culture; and with studies of literacy in multi- and cross-cultural settings.
Specification: Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies 1st Edition 9780195063622
Weight
1.23 lbs
Dimensions
5.88 × 1.22 × 8.56 in
User Reviews
0.0out of 5
★★★★★
0
★★★★★
0
★★★★★
0
★★★★★
0
★★★★★
0
Write a review
There are no reviews yet.
Be the first to review “Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies 1st Edition 9780195063622” Cancel reply
![CEN Exam Secrets Study Guide – CEN Review Book for the Certified Emergency Nurse Exam, Full-Length Practice Test, Step-by-Step Review Video Tutorials: [3rd Edition] (Mometrix Test Preparation) ISBN-13: 9781516713103](https://www.adobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/51l6giDMxjL-300x300.jpg)
There are no reviews yet.