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…

The nature and scope of eighteenth century rhetoric were defined by three dominant taxonomies of knowledge. In the oldest taxonomy, which clung to the liberal arts tradition, rhetoric was seen as a means of achieving social dominance, and its distinctive characteristic was the exercise of control through persuasion. Treatises representing this…

This volume attempts to view the literature of the United States as part of the literature of the English-speaking people and as a part of world literature. Biographies of writers, summaries of plots, and footnoting have been minimized to devote the maximum attention to an examination of the literature itself. The book consists of studies of the…

Antebellum slave narratives can be valuable literary materials in four different kinds of literature courses. In a survey of American literature, slave narratives serve as records of the attitudes and activities of early Americans, as examples of travel literature, and as examples of late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century adventure…

One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Victor Brombert, Martin Turnell, Erich Auerbach, Jean Prevost, Raymond Giraud, Irving Howe, Judd D. Hubert, Leon Blum, Jean Starobinski, Jean-Pierre Richard, and Simone de Beauvoir--all dealing with the biography and…

This article describes the complementary portraits of post-revolutionary America painted by two French writers, Brissot and Chastellux. (Text is in French.) (DB)

Chronicles the successive changes in the image of the American woman, as portrayed by French writers from the eighteenth century to the present. (Text is in French.) (DB)

This article attempts to separate fact from fancy in a new portrayal of the American Indian of the past. (Text is in French.) (DB)

Argues that in order to understand the contemporary state of black literature, history, and protest, we must study the developments which occurred between 1789 and 1930 in the writing of black autobiographies; the central theme which runs through these autobiographies is the demand for the recognition of black manhood. (Author/JM)

Investigates whether novelistic prose can be dated by considering marked stylistic changes that occurred over the past 240 years. Finds a positive correlation between publication date and stylistic markers of sentence length, word length, rare punctuation, and word shortening or informality. Argues that this process can form the basis for new…

The extraordinary nursery library produced by Jane Johnson (circa 1742-1747), entirely in the private domain with no thought of publication, holds pride of place in the Lilly Library's collection of early children's books at the University of Indiana, USA. It has already been celebrated in an exhibition and international conference held at the…

Texts from a variety of genres (letter, narrative, biography, film scenario, and dialogue) and a variety of French authors of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries are provided as examples of discourse with the common theme of passion and as sources for the study of the semiotics of passion. (MSE)

The aim of this thesis is to examine the mainstream of American women's poetry in order to establish the existence of a women's tradition. The eight chapters of the dissertation are divided into the following subjects: Anne Bradstreet and the Puritan foundations of the tradition; the women poets before Dickinson and the themes of their poetry;…

Expands upon Paul Verniere's (1973) article by extending the question of sources to include not only the maps that Prevost probably consulted, but also the various books which might have inspired the novelist. (Text is in French.) (Author/DB)

Introduces a large, long-term project on the professional practice of eighteenth-century studies in America that seeks to contribute not only to the study of the period specialty but also to that emerging scholarly activity known as "professionalism." (EL)