108 RHETORICA per una struttura non lineare, col ricorso sia a vere e proprie digressioni—ma decisive nella struttura complessiva del racconto—, sia alflash-forward, «che rappresenta le storie ancora non accadute rispetto all'esordio stesso» (p. 275). Infine, Yelocutio fa individuare le numeróse figure utilizzate da Tarantino, per il quale «i moment! verbali hanno la precedenza su quelli d'azione» (p. 244), mentre Yactio (Yautoritá dell'oratore), viene invocata per mostrare un'altra caratteristica típica del cinema di Tarantino, «la tendenza a riservarsi dei ruoli che considera imprescindibilmente interpretabili solo da se stesso» (p. 281). I saggi contenuti nel volume riescono—anche grazie alia loro alterita— a mostrare la vitalitá della retorica perfino in ambiti, come il cinema, cosi distanti dalla sua vocazione originaria. Perché, come osserva il curatore: «né le sue esclusioni né le sue redenzioni hanno impedito la pratica sui generis del pensiero-linguaggio retorico; il che, forse, é segno dell'imprescindibile attitudine umana alia persuasione, presentata o accolta come il momento del ragionevole, costituito dalla mescolanza di passione e intelligenza, che pre­ cede l'azione conseguente alie scelte volontarie dell'uomo stesso, compresa quella della ragione scientifica» (p. 7). Francesca Piazza Universitd di Palermo Sarah Spence, Figuratively Speaking: Rhetoric and Culture from Quin­ tilian to the Twin Towers (London: Duckworth, 2007). 144 pp. ISBN 978-0-7156-3513-1 Sarah Spence's most recent book, Figuratively Speaking, claims that figu­ rative language constitutes the chief way in which language discovers possi­ bilities for ethical action in "western culture" (p. 10). Although the book does not quite fulfill the ambitious goal of proving this claim, it illuminates the dis­ tinctive power in certain figures that make changes in emphasis and cultural meaning observable. The book argues that repetition, for example, has mi­ grated in modern times from "superficial ornamentation to deep structural principle ... It has progressed from a figure of speech to a figure of thought" (p. 19). Though sheer repetition can be deadening or coercive (Spence cites the Fox network on p. 35), repetition with a difference can change the angle at which to interpret an event. The fall of the Twin Towers dramatizes this point. Only after a plane hit the second tower did observers interpret the first crash as an attack. The strike on the first tower was difficult to categorize; the second validated an interpretation. This shift, along with the ironv of injunctions not to "look back" after the attack, initiates the study's inquiry. The book claims that the most salient figures for its study require one to "look back" (p. 33) from Quintilian's empire to Cicero's Republic, from the late Middle Ages' use of material figures to Augustine's privileging of the non-material, and to look forward from amplification in the late medieval Reviews 109 and eaily modem periods to chiasmus in Milton s and Montaigne's writings. Montaigne, foi example, iediiects attention from page to its marginal glosses and from book to writer, creating a shifting interplay between self and book. He asserts, "Everyone recognizes me in my hook, and my book in me" (quoted p. 119). Spence's argument focuses on figures that make change evident: "hesitation and correction" in ancient Rome, "dwelling on a point" in the medieval period, "chiasm in early modern writing," and repetition in modern television, hooks, and film (p. 16). Figuratively Speaking argues through many examples that figures move thought, undercutting anv strong distinction between figures of thought and figures of speech. She observes that for Quintilian figures of speech are closely related to figures of thought. Quintilian writes, "the same things are often put in different wavs and the sense remains unaltered though the words are changed, while a figure of thought mav include several figures of speech. For the former lies in the conception, the latter in the expression of our thought. The two are frequently combined, however ... It is ... generally agreed by the majority7 of authors that there are two classes of figure, namely figures ofthought, that is of the mind, feeling or conceptions, since all these terms are used, and figures of speech, that is of words, diction, expression, language or style" (Institutio Oratorio 9.1...