Milton and the art of rhetoric
By: Daniel Shore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge [Englnad]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9781107021501
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Description: "Challenging the conventional view of John Milton as an iconoclast who spoke only to a 'fit audience through few', Daniel Shore argues that Milton was a far more pragmatic writer than previous scholarship has recognized. Summoning evidence from nearly all of his works - poetry and prose alike - Shore asserts that Milton distanced himself from the prescriptions of classical rhetoric to develop new means of persuasion suited to an age distrustful of traditional eloquence. Shore demonstrates that Milton's renunciation of agency, audience, purpose and effect in the prose tracts leads not to quietism or withdrawal, but rather to a reasserted investment in public debate. Shore reveals a writer who is committed to persuasion and yet profoundly critical of his own persuasive strategies. An innovative contribution to the field, this text will appeal to scholars of Milton, seventeenth-century literature, Renaissance literature and the history and theory of rhetoric"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.