
Exemplum
The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy
John D. Lyons(Author)
Princeton University Press
Will be published approx. on 14. July 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
332 pages
978-0-691-60268-4 (ISBN)
Description
Examples, crucial links between discourse and society's view of reality, have until now been largely neglected in literary criticism. In the first book-length study of the rhetoric of example, John Lyons situates this figure by comparing it with more frequently studied tropes such as metaphor and synecdoche, discusses meanings of the terms example and exemplum, and proposes a set of descriptive concepts for the study of example in early modern literature. Tracing its paradoxical nature back to Aristotle's Rhetoric, Lyons shows how exemplary rhetoric is caught between often competing aims of persuasive general statement and accurate representation. In French and Italian texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this dual task was rendered still more challenging by a transition to new sources of examples as the age of discovery brought increased emphasis on observation. The writers of this period were aware of a crisis in exemplary rhetoric, a situation in which serious questions were raised about how authors and audience would find a common ground in interpreting representative instances.
Lyons's focus on the strategy of example leads to new readings of six major writers--Machiavelli, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Pascal, Descartes, and Marie de Lafayette. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Lyons's focus on the strategy of example leads to new readings of six major writers--Machiavelli, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Pascal, Descartes, and Marie de Lafayette. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
626 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-60268-4 (9780691602684)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2014
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€56.99
Available for download
Person
John D. Lyons
Content
*FrontMatter, pg. i*CONTENTS, pg. vii*PREFACE, pg. ix*ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, pg. xiii*INTRODUCTION, pg. 3*CHAPTER I. Machiavelli: Example and Origin, pg. 35*CHAPTER II. The Heptameron and Unlearning from Example, pg. 72*CHAPTER III. Montaigne and the Economy of Example, pg. 118*CHAPTER IV. Descartes and Pascal: Self-Centered Examples, pg. 154*CHAPTER V. Marie de Lafayette: From Image to Act, pg. 196*CONCLUSION, pg. 237*NOTES, pg. 241*BIBLIOGRAPHY, pg. 289*INDEX, pg. 313