SPCM 201 1st Edition Lecture 18Current LectureThe Belletristic Movement & The Elocutionary Movement  After Petrus Ramus  Rhetoric’s “proper” roles are decimated: INVENTION  ORGANIZATION MEMORY …Had all been removed from the canons STYLE and DELIVEREY remained as the sole focus of the rhetorician  While some rhetorical scholars fought/ignored Ramus’ work, others embraced it as a new model  The New Model  The new model of rhetoric laid out by Ramus produced two separate but related movements in the centuries to follow Belletristic Movement- Focused on the perfection of STYLE Elocutionary Movement- Focused on the perfection of DELIVERY Belletristic Movement The study of belle letters (beautiful words/writing)  Focused on joining the study of classical rhetoric with modern “polite culture” to create a single cultural experience  Also included: history, poetry, drama Together, they hoped to create people of manners and refined TASTE  Hugh Blair (1718-1800 A.D.) Most famous and well-regarded scholar of belle letters in the movement  Influential across the globe  Certainly a friend of rhetoric Speech helps us say things with intelligence, wit  G Who Needs Belle Letters?These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. Blair has two audiences for his lecture(s): Those who wish to improve their public speaking skills  “Others may only wish to improve their taste with respect to writing and disclosure, and to acquire principles which will enable them to judge for themselves in that part of literature called Belle Letters.”  Therefore, rhetoric becomes a way to “polish” thoughts and present them to audiences in a tasteful way Criticism  Importantly, Blair believes he lives in a world with too much “polish” “More careful of polished style than of storing it with thought” Why study belle letters then? To be able to see through STYLE to he ideas “To distinguish…false ornament from true, in order to prevent our being carried away by that torrent of false and frivolous taste…” Therefore, rhetoric becomes about not just speaking but about CRITICISM  Warding off ignorance by judgments based in good taste What is The Value of Good Taste and Criticism? Refines us into better people “These polished arts have humanized mankind, softened the rude and calmed the boisterous.” Exercises our minds without fatigue  Occupies our leisure time in better ways than “pernicious passions”  The Dark Side of Taste However, there is a dark side to all this This refining of taste is often cast as part of a colonial process  In other words, White Europeans must refine the “savages” of the lands they conquer to make them better people a.k.a the “white man’s burden”  Also applies to class warfare within Europe itself  The “Irish’ for instance How Does One Acquire Good Taste? By imitating the naturally tasteful  The “most approved models”  Criticism then is often done by comparing “the copy with the original” “The application of reason and good sense to such productions of genius” The Elocutionary Movement  The study of the body as a means of conveying messages and emotions to audiences Begins in Europe but becomes very popular in the United States  Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788 A.D.) One of the best known instructors of elocution A former actor who begins to apply his trade in the world of rhetoric- Applies his theatre ways to rhetoric Bemoans the dire state of delivery in even the greatest orators of the day Why Study the Body? Especially after Descartes’ dualism? The body holds the ability to communicate  Language is not simply words, but “any way or method whatsoever, by which all that passes in the mind of one man may be manifested in the other” One person’s experience to another We overly rely upon “arbitrary symbols” like words and letters  We can give words to much attention  Meanwhile, others forms of language exist!  The Deaf Person example  Not acquired and language skills  Even though they cannot speak they “can make themselves understood by visible signs”  What Does Good Elocution Look Like? Two forms of elocution delivery  Tones: “sighs, murmuring, sobs, groans, shrieks, etc.” Gestures: the use of hands and positioning of the body  These are especially important for conveying EMOTION Words about emotion do not incite them in the audience  Only demonstrating the correct emotional state through “tones, looks, and gestures” can do this  So Why Don’t We Teach Elocution Anymore? We do in a sense… Still teach delivery in public speaking  Teach Non-Verbal Communication  However, Elocution’s biggest flaw was that it saw its new language as universal  “the language of the animal passions of amn at least, should be fixed, self-evident, and universally intelligible.” “They cannot be mistaken…it is not only understood by all the different nations of the world, without pain or study, but that