Rhetoric: Readings in French Literature

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, whether spoken or written. The first chapter of this book sets out its principles comprehensively and lucidly, with a wide range of illustrative examples. Subsequent chapters explore rhetoric at work in different genres, via close reading of texts which range from the drama of Racine and Beckett; Montaigne, Svign and Gide on the self; Zola and Sarraute's prose fiction; poetry by D'Aubign, Baudelaire, and Csaire; and the oratory of de Gaulle and Yourcenar. This is both a rhetorical handbook and an illustration of critical practice.