Exemplum : The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy / John D. Lyons

Lyons, John D.

ISBN 10: 0691067821 / ISBN 13: 9780691067827

Published by Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1989

About this Item

Fine cloth copy in a near-fine, very slightly edge-dulled dust wrapper. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 317 pages : illustrations. Notes; Bibliography: p. 289-311. Contents; Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER I. Machiavelli: Example and Origin -- CHAPTER II. The Heptameron and Unlearning from Example -- CHAPTER III. Montaigne and the Economy of Example -- CHAPTER IV. Descartes and Pascal: Self-Centered Examples -- CHAPTER V. Marie de Lafayette: From Image to Act -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX. Subjects; Machiavelli, Niccolò 1469-1527 Technique. Machiavelli, Niccolò 1469-1527. Montaigne, Michel de 1533-1592. Pascal, Blaise 1623-1662. French literature ; 16th century History and criticism. French literature ; 17th century History and criticism. French literature. Literary Studies, general. Literary Studies. Rhetoric History. Technique. 1 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 425954

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Exemplum : The Rhetoric of Example in Early Modern France and Italy / John D. Lyons
• Publisher: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691067821
• ISBN 13: 9780691067827
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 1 kilogram

About this title

Synopsis

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.

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About the Author

John D. Lyons is Commonwealth Professor of French at the University of Virginia, and Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He is the author of eight books on French literature, including French Literature: A Very Short Introduction (2010) and The Phantom of Chance: From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature (2011).