The fate of eloquence in the age of Hume
By: Adam Potkay.
Series: Rhetoric and society; Rhetoric & society.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Ithaca
Language: eng
Number of pages: 253
Subjects: Hume, David, 1711-1776; English literature -- History and criticism; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; English language -- 18th century -- Rhetoric; Manners and customs in literature; Courtesy in literature; Virtue in literature; Eloquence; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
Description: This engaging and insightful book explores the fate of eloquence in a period during which it both denoted a living oratorical art and served as a major factor in political thought. Seeing Hume's philosophy as a key to the literature of the mid-eighteenth century, Adam Potkay compares the status of eloquence in Hume's Essays and Natural History of Religion to its status in novels by Sterne, poems by Pope and Gray, and Macpherson's Poems of Ossian.

Potkay explains the sense of urgency that the concept of eloquence evoked among eighteenth-century British readers, for whom it recalled Demosthenes exhorting Athenian citizens to oppose tyranny. Revived by Hume and many other writers, the concept of eloquence resonated deeply for an audience who perceived its own political community as being in danger of disintegration. Potkay also shows how, beginning in the realm of literature, the fashion of polite style began to eclipse that of political eloquence.

An ethos suitable both to the family circle and to a public sphere that included women, "politeness" entailed a sublimation of passions, a "feminine" modesty as opposed to "masculine" display, and a style that sought rather to placate or stabilize than to influence the course of events.

For Potkay, the tension between the ideals of ancient eloquence and of modern politeness defined literary and political discourses alike between 1726 and 1770: although politeness eventually gained ascendancy, eloquence was never silenced.
Notes: Based on the author's thesis (Rutgers University).
Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-245) and index.