Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2013

<i>Parrēsia</i>, Foucault, and the Classical Rhetorical Tradition

Arthur E. Walzer University of Minnesota

Abstract

In his last seminars, Michel Foucault analyzed parrēsia (frank speech) in classical Greece and Rome, a subject also addressed by classical rhetoricians. Foucault regards parrēsia as an idealized modality of truth telling—unartful, sincere, courageous speech that tells an unwelcome truth to power. Aligning rhetoric with flattery, Foucault excludes rhetorical parrēsia from his history of thought. This essay offers an alternative analysis of parrēsia from the perspective of classical rhetoric. Drawing especially on the comprehensive description in the Rhetorica Ad Herennium, this essay identifies within the classical tradition a feigned parrēsia as well as a sincere one and a rhetorically artful parrēsia as well as the unartful, bold one that Foucault favors. Furthermore, the essay traces a genealogy that highlights changes in the practice of parrēsia as the term is conceptualized in the context of friendship, at which point parrēsia takes on an unmistakably rhetorical character.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2013-01-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2012.740130
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical theory

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (10)

  1. Ballif (2024)
    The Living from the Dead: Disaffirming Biopolitics
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. Ure (2023)
    Michel Foucault’s Rhetorical Practice: The 1961 Preface to …
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  3. Vivian (2021)
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  4. (2020)
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  5. Miller (2020)
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  1. Chaput et al. (2019)
    Rhetorical Hegemony: Transactional Ontologies and the Reinvention of Material I…
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  2. Posselt (2019)
    Rhetorizing Philosophy: Toward a “Double Reading” of Philosophical Texts
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  3. Osorio (2017)
    Embodying Truth: Sylvia Rivera’s Delivery of<i>Parrhesia</i>at the 1973 Christo…
    Rhetoric Review
  4. Jarratt (2014)
    Untimely Historiography? Foucault’s “Greco-Latin Trip”
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Gehrke et al. (2013)
    Forum on Arthur Walzer's “<i>Parrēsia</i>, Foucault, and the Classical Rhetoric…
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Cites in this index (3)

  1. Gilbert (2012)
    <i>In Dubiis Libertas</i>: A Diogenic Attitude for a Politics of Distrust
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Henderson (2007)
    The “Parrhesiastic Game”: Textual Self-Justification in Spiritual Narratives of…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Muckelbauer (2000)
    On Reading Differently: Through Foucault's Resistance
    College English
Also cites 18 works outside this index ↓
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CrossRef global citation count: 32 View in citation network →

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