The Rhetoric of Free Speech in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
The Rhetoric of Free Speech in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
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The early Middle Ages is not a period traditionally associated with free speech. It is still widely held that free speech declined towards the end of Antiquity, disappearing completely at the beginning of the Middle Ages, and only re-emerging in the Renaissance, when people finally learned to think and speak for themselves again. Challenging this tenacious image, Irene van Renswoude reveals that there was room for political criticism and dissent in this period, as long as critics employed the right rhetoric and adhered to scripted roles. This study of the rhetoric of free speech from c.200 to c.900 AD explores the cultural rules and rhetorical performances that shaped practices of delivering criticism from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, examining the rhetorical strategies of letters and narratives in the late antique and early medieval men, and a few women, who ventured to speak the truth to the powerful.
- Studies the rhetoric of controversial dissidents, outsiders and truth-tellers, with contemporary political resonance
- Presents rhetoric as a cultural performance in ways which do not require familiarity with technical vocabulary
- Studies patterns of continuity and change over several centuries, to appeal also to non-specialists who are interested in the history of ideas and the historical development of political concepts
Product details
June 2021Paperback
9781108725477
289 pages
230 × 151 × 16 mm
0.44kg
Available
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I:
- 1. The steadfast martyr
- 2. Hilary of Poitiers
- 3. The detached philosopher
- 4. Ambrose of Milan
- 5. The silent ascetic
- Part II:
- 6. The frank holy man
- 7. Gregory of Tours
- 8. The wise adviser
- 9. Agobard of Lyon
- 10. Pope Gregory
- Epilogue.
