This article considers the extent to which medieval "mappaemundi" are an important precedent for literary cartographies in fiction for children. It connects the notion of embeddedness to Peta Mitchell's (2011) suggestion that "mappaemundi" refused to entertain the later, post-Enlightenment cartographic distinction between…

Suggests that the family metaphor that was dominant in the rhetoric of both the colonists and the British government contributed to extreme polarization of positions of the British government in London and the British subjects in the thirteen North American Atlantic colonies. (MH)

Catalogues all of the 18th-century works on rhetoric from a microfilm bibliography published by the Speech Association of America Committee on Microfilm. Includes notations concerning each item's location on the microfilm reels. (TB)

Explores the reliance of rhetoricians upon logic for the theoretical basis of argumentation in rhetoric. Summarizes the major changes suggested by Locke and Hume, and explores the impact of the new logic on rhetorical "topoi." (JMF)

Characterizes the extent to which--and the ways in which--Hugh Blair's "Sermons" are pathetic or emotional, in light of criticisms that maintain his work is passionless. Examines the closely related matter of Blair's moral philosophy, in which the passions play an important role as subject matter. (TB)

Reproduces portions of the first lecture given to the Philosophical Society of Aberdeen, Scotland--George Campbell's discussion of eloquence of 1758. Explains the importance of this document, asserting that it reveals the "belletristic" roots of Campbell's theory, and proves that his differentiation on the "ends" of speaking…

Argues for a reading of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" that undermines Joseph Duffy's reading of the novel as a commentary on shifting social class structures, and which bolsters Nancy Armstrong's reading as a commentary on female voice and the values of the domestic household. Interprets the novel in the light of 18th-century rhetorical…

Examines, rhetorically, the formal dynamics and internal action of an eighteenth-century political text by Edmund Burke, the "Letter to William Elliott, Esq." (1795). (SR)

Scholars and instructors of college writing may find that an examination of the literate sources behind Hugh Blair's bias for oral over written expression during the late 18th century gives perspective to their own teaching endeavors. The fact that there were many sources for Blair's own bias suggests that instead of the oral steadily giving way…

Examines eighteenth century Spain and the rhetorical thought of the Spanish "Illustracion," revealing the evolution of a modern theory of rhetoric which elevated expression at the expense of investigation and culminated in a literary, aesthetic, and belletristic conception of communication. (JMF)

Discusses how a genre like the essay could have originated in opposition to rhetoric and then nevertheless be taken over by it. Concentrates on four moments in the history of the essay: (1) its birth; (2) the English essay of the seventeenth century; (3) the classical form of "The Tatler" and "The Spectator"; and (4) the role…

Analyzes Fisher Ames' fiery speech of 1796 on the Jay Treaty. Demonstrates the influence of Scottish enlightenment thinkers (particularly in moral sense philosophy and faculty psychology) on Ames and his rhetoric. Demonstrates how Ames made a compelling case to shift the standard of political judgment from reason to passion. (SR)

Examines within Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" two representative orientations (reasons and experience) as indices of popular attitudes about the rhetorical arts during the eighteenth century. Argues that, as a satire on rhetorical pretensions and excess, this novel is an important document in the venerable battle between the…

Examines the 18th-century rhetorical convention of misogynist satire and how it shaped attitudes toward women speakers. Focuses not so much on the formal properties of the satire but on its convention and content as modes of insinuation. Surveys prominent journals, newspapers, magazines, and reviews of the period. (TB)

The expressionist theory of rhetoric, as presented in critical passages of selected eighteenth century texts, is examined in this essay. The introductory section of the essay discusses historical attitudes toward the relationship between grammar, logic, and rhetoric and points to the emergence and wide acceptance during the eighteenth century of…