Rhetoric Society Quarterly Sep 1998

The rhetoric of embodiment

Michael Mendelson Iowa State University

Abstract

T his paper deals with the embodiment in Cicero's De Oratore of a particular rhetorical method. The method is referred to by the Romans as controversia and by the Sophists before them as antilogic and involves the conduct of argument by placing two or more opposing claims in juxtaposition. I will argue that instead of discussing controversia in a formal manner, by abstracting its general nature and detailing its logical parts (diaeresis), Cicero chooses to dramatize controversia in order to transcend abstract principles and allow his students direct access to argument in action. In a word, Cicero chooses to perform the subject, and in so doing to give substance or body to theory and pedagogy. In the process, he also pursues his own most cherished philosophical objective, which is to bring res and verba, the thing and the word into synthesis. I will further suggest that the rhetoric of embodiment which Cicero develops in De Oratore is replete with interesting pedagogical implications. Like much of Cicero's published work, De Oratore was intended to serve as a model for imitation by others (see Axer 59). In this case, the text models both a particular set of rhetorical principles and a distinctive pedagogical stance for teaching them. I am particularly interested in what the pedagogy of De Oratore has to say to us today about an appropriate approach to the teaching of argumentation.' But before I begin with Cicero, De Oratore, antilogic, controversia, and the rhetoric of embodiment, I would go back even further in history, from Rome to the eastern Mediterranean, from the eloquence of Cicero to the arguments of Odysseus, that other man famous for dealing with contention (Odyssey 1.2). You will recall that when Odysseus leaves Calypso after seven years as a captive on her paradisal island, he sails away on a log raft which breaks up in a large storm sent by Poseidon. When it looks as though he is doomed to drown, he laments that all he has accomplished on his way home will perish with him. Would that I had died on the fields of Troy, he cries, where all my deeds would have been noted, praised, and preserved (5.306-12). What Odysseus is concerned with here is his kleos: his fame, honor, stature, renown, that standard heroic obsession that one's reputation will ring out under heaven (8.74f; cf. Thalmann 60-69). Instead of a life of adventure marked by kleos, however, Odysseus in Book V is faced with death at sea, a death unmarked and lonely (5.312). What is notable for us in this episode is that kleos appears only to exist in the reports on one's life; i.e. it requires discourse to give it substance, enough substance to transcend the event itself. Consequently, when Odysseus arrives on land and is taken by Nausikaa to the Phaiakian court, he acts the part of a poet as well as a hero (11.68-69) by recounting his adventures and in the process giving form to his kleos. Discursive enactment, therefore, becomes the only way in which the unforgettable experi-

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
1998-09-01
DOI
10.1080/02773949809391129
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument body and rhetoric
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (78) · 4 in this index

  1. Aristotle (1984)
    The Complete Works
  2. Axer Jerzy . “Cicero's Court Speeches: The Spoken Text Versus the Published Text” . Edited by: Homer and Leff…
  3. Beale Walter (1996)
    The Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition
  4. Berrill Deborah P. (1996)
    Perspectives on Written Argument
  5. 10.1525/9780520347762
     ↗
Show all 78 →
  1. Brent Douglas . “Rogerian Rhetoric: Ethical Growth Through Alternative Forms of Argumentation” . Edited by: E…
  2. Buckley Michael (1971)
    Motion and Motion's God: Thematic Variations in Aristotle, Cicero, Newton, and Hegel
  3. _____ (1970)
    “Philosophic Method in Cicero”
    The Journal of the History of Philosophy  ↗
  4. Burke Kenneth (1984)
    Permanence and Change
  5. Carter Michael (1997)
    Paper presented at the Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition
  6. Cicero (1971)
    Brutus and Orator
  7. _____ (1967)
    De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum
  8. _____ (1949)
    De Inventione
  9. _____ (1967)
    De Natura Deorum Academica
  10. _____ (1968)
    De Officiis
  11. _____ (1988)
    De Oratore (2 vols) and De Fato
  12. _____ (1970)
    De Re Publica
  13. _____ (1966)
    Tusculan Disputations
  14. 10.7312/clar92654
     ↗
  15. Conley Thomas M. (1990)
    Rhetoric in the European Tradition
  16. Covino William A. (1988)
    The Art of Wondering: A Revisionist Return to the History of Rhetoric
  17. Crosswhite James (1996)
    The Rhetoric of Reason: Writing and the Attractions of Argument
  18. 10.1093/oso/9780198242345.001.0001
     ↗
  19. Douglas A. E. (1957)
    “A Ciceronian Contribution to Rhetorical Theory”
    Eranos
  20. Emmel Barbara (1996)
    Argument Revisited; Argument Redefined
  21. Fantham (1988)
    Varietas and Satietas; De oratore 3.96–103 and the limits of ornatus.
    Rhetorica
  22. _____ (1984)
    “Studies in Cicero's Opera Rhetorica” Ed. Robert N. Gaines
    Central States Speech Journal
  23. Gage John T. (1984)
    Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modem Discourse
  24. Gaines Robert . “Cicero's Response to the Philosophers in De oratore ” . Edited by: Horner and Leff . 43 – 56 .
  25. Guthrie W. K. C. (1969)
    A History of Greek Philosophy
  26. Harlan Patricia (1991)
    Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age
  27. Homer (1990)
    The Odyssey
  28. Horner Winifred Bryan (1995)
    Rhetoric and Pedagogy: Its History, Philosophy and Practice
  29. Hunt H. A. (1954)
    The Humanism of Cicero
  30. Jarratt Susan C. “Feminism and Composition: The Case for Conflict” . Edited by: Harkin and Schilb . 105 – 23 .
  31. Kerferd G. B. (1981)
    The Sophistic Movement
  32. Kimball Bruce A. (1995)
    Orators and Philosophers: A History of the Idea of Liberal Education.
  33. Lakov George (1980)
    Metaphors We Live By
  34. 10.2307/357535
     ↗
  35. _____ . “Other Voices Different Parties: Feminist Responses to Argument” . Edited by: Berrill . 257 – 67 .
  36. Leff Michael (1989)
    The Legacy of Kenneth Burke
  37. _____ (1990)
    “Decorum and Rhetorical Interpretation: The Latin Humanistic Tradition and Contemporary C…
    Vichiana: Rassegna di Studi Classici
  38. _____ (1986)
    “Genre and Paradigm in the Second Book of De Oratore”
    Southern Speech Communication Journal
  39. _____
    Argument and Critical Practices: Proceedings of the 5th SCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation
  40. 10.1163/9789004663855_012
     ↗
  41. Leeman A. D. (1985)
    De Oratore Libre III: Kommentar
  42. Long A. A. (1974)
    Hellenistic Philosophy
  43. Margolis Joseph (1991)
    The Truth about Relativism
  44. Marrou H. I. (1956)
    A History of Education in Antiquity
  45. May James (1986)
    Trials of Eloquence: The Eloquence of Ciceronian Ethos
  46. McComiskey (1994)
    Sophistic rhetoric and philosophy: A selective bibliography of scholarship in E…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  47. McKeon Richard . 1950 . “Introduction” to Marcus Tullus Cicero: ‘Brutus ’ ‘On the Nature of the Gods ’ ‘On Di…
  48. Mendelson Michael (1998)
    Argument in a Time of Change: Definitions, Frameworks, and Critiques
  49. 10.1177/002205749717900103
     ↗
  50. _____
    Proceedings of the ISSA Conference on Argumentation
  51. Mendelson (1989)
    The Rhetorical Case: Its Roman Precedent and the Current Debate
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  52. Nussbaum Martha C. (1997)
    Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education
  53. Oakley Frances (1992)
    Community of Learning: The American College and the Liberal Arts Tradition
  54. O'Keefe Daniel (1977)
    “Two Conceptions of Argument”
    Journal of the American Forensic Association
  55. Perelman Chaim (1969)
    The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation
  56. Perelman Chaim (1982)
    The Realm of Rhetoric
  57. Quintilian (1989)
    Institutio Oratoria
  58. Plato (1963)
    Collected Dialogues
  59. Schaeffer John D. (1990)
    ’Sensus Communis’: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism in Vico
  60. Schiappa Edward (1992)
    Protagoras and Rhetoric: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric
  61. Sloane Thomas O. (1985)
    Donne, Milton, and the End of the Humanist Tradition
  62. _____ (1997)
    On the Contrary: The Protocol of Traditional Rhetoric
  63. 10.2307/378000
     ↗
  64. Solmsen Fredrich (1975)
    Intellectual Experiments of the Greek Enlightenment
  65. Sprague Rosamund Kent (1972)
    The Older Sophists: A Complete Translation in Several Hands of the Fragments in ‘Die Frag…
  66. Sullivan (1989)
    Attitudes toward imitation: Classical culture and the modern temper
    Rhetoric Review
  67. Tannen Deborah (1998)
    The Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue
  68. Thalmann William G. (1992)
    ‘The Odyssey’: an Epic of Return
  69. Todorov Tzvetan (1977)
    Theories of the Symbol
  70. Versenyi Lazslo (1963)
    Socratic Humanism
  71. Wilkins Augustus S. (1979)
    Introduction and Notes to M. Tulli Ciceronis De Oratore.’
  72. Wood Neal (1988)
    Cicero's Social and Political Thought
  73. Woods Marjorie Curry . “Teaching the Tropes in the Middle Ages: The Theory of Metaphoric Transference in the …
CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric Nov 2020
    Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Thomas Hobbes ↗
    Arthur E. Walzer
    classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument disability studies book reviews editorial matter
  2. Rhetorica Mar 2014
    The Genuine Teachers of This Art by Jeffrey Walker ↗
    Kathleen Lamp
    classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument
  3. Rhetorica Jun 1998
    Persuasion: Greek Rhetoric in Action ed. by Ian Worthington ↗
    John Poulakos
    classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument literacy studies public rhetoric editorial matter
  4. Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jun 1997
    Speaking of rhetoric: A conversation with James Kinneavy ↗
    Fredric G. Gale; Michael W. Kleine
    classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2024
    The Radical Role of Student Writing in Composition ↗
    Jessica Masterson
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing professional writing grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing