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Article: Rhetoric: Readings in French Literature.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- April 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Modern Humanities Research Association. 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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Rhetoric: Readings in French Literature. By MICHAEL HAWCROFT. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999. 268 pp. 40 [pounds sterling] (paperbound 16.99 [pounds sterling]).
Michael Hawcroft's thoroughly thought-through handbook starts with a necessary ground-clearing, as 'rhetoric' has come to mean almost anything people dislike about others' presentation of arguments. Rhetoric is famously, or infamously, an art of persuasion, of intellectual and emotional seduction; many resist its spiel. For Hawcroft a working knowledge of its practices and terminology is an indispensable tool of literary criticism. It had very practical beginnings, in the litigation surrounding ...