Rhetorical Affect in Early Modern Writing

Emotive language is now best understood by combining the analytic techniques of classical rhetoric with current linguistic practices. With or without prompting, the 'passions' of Renaissance culture can stir contrary feelings in today's readers, which are enlisted to validate a range of theorised responses. This book will mediate between critics, readers, the author and the original audience, using the 'New Rhetoric' to open fresh perspectives on writers as diverse as Christopher Marlowe, Lucy Hutchinson and Margaret Cavendish.

ROBERT COCKCROFT was born into a textile family and is particularly interested in the structure and texture of language, aesthetic and persuasive. As co-author of Persuading People (1992), he now seeks to combine 'New Rhetorical' linguistic insights with traditional perspectives, in an innovative treatment of Renaissance texts and their modern critics.