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Article: On eloquence and purpose.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Christianity and Literature
- Article date:
- September 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Conference on Christianity and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On Eloquence. By Denis Donoghue. New Haven: Yale University Press 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-12541-2. Pp. 199. $27.50.
Eloquence upon eloquence. How can one argue against it? Yet that is my task in this review: to honor this eloquent defense of eloquence by Denis Donoghue, recipient of the lifetime achievement award by the Conference on Christianity & Literature in 1991, and yet to question it closely, perhaps even sharply. But why? Well, there's a whole theory of literature (and criticism and education) at stake in what one says about eloquence, and the theory of literature behind this thoroughly enjoyable florilegium of eloquence is, I suspect, wrong.
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