The Power of Rhetoric

The Power of Rhetoric is a study in applied poetics which treats condensed metaphor, extended metaphor, symbolization and other features of Victor Hugo's style. A bilingual presentation of poems never before translated into English follows the mono- graph. The centennial of Hugo's death (l885) and the two-hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution have generated a renewed interest in Hugo both in Europe and in America. The Power of Rhetoric draws on modern literary theory (structuralism, pragmatics, semiotics, and deconstructionism) to relate both the well-known poems (such as «Tristesse d'Olympio» and «Réponse à un acte d'accusation) and lesser known poems (such as »A.M. le D. de ***« and »On loge à la nuit«) to today's reader.