The Rhetoric of Empire

The Rhetoric of Empire PDF Author: David Spurr
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822313175
Category : American prose literature
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
The white man's burden, darkest Africa, the seduction of the primitive: such phrases were widespread in the language Western empires used to talk about their colonial enterprises. How this language itself served imperial purposes--and how it survives today in writing about the Third World--are the subject of David Spurr's book, a revealing account of the rhetorical strategies that have defined Western thinking about the non-Western world.Despite historical differences among British, French, and American versions of colonialism, their rhetoric had much in common. The Rhetoric of Empire identifies these shared features--images, figures of speech, and characteristic lines of argument--and explores them in a wide variety of sources. A former correspondent for the United Press International, the author is equally at home with journalism or critical theory, travel writing or official documents, and his discussion is remarkably comprehensive. Ranging from T. E. Lawrence and Isak Dineson to Hemingway and Naipaul, from Time and the New Yorker to the National Geographic and Le Monde, from journalists such as Didion and Sontag to colonial administrators such as Frederick Lugard and Albert Sarraut, this analysis suggests the degree to which certain rhetorical tactics penetrate the popular as well as official colonial and postcolonial discourse.Finally, Spurr considers the question: Can the language itself--and with it, Western forms of interpretation--be freed of the exercise of colonial power? This ambitious book is an answer of sorts. By exposing the rhetoric of empire, Spurr begins to loosen its hold over discourse about--and between--different cultures.

The Rhetoric of Empire

The Rhetoric of Empire PDF Author: David Spurr
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822313175
Category : American prose literature
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book

Book Description
The white man's burden, darkest Africa, the seduction of the primitive: such phrases were widespread in the language Western empires used to talk about their colonial enterprises. How this language itself served imperial purposes--and how it survives today in writing about the Third World--are the subject of David Spurr's book, a revealing account of the rhetorical strategies that have defined Western thinking about the non-Western world.Despite historical differences among British, French, and American versions of colonialism, their rhetoric had much in common. The Rhetoric of Empire identifies these shared features--images, figures of speech, and characteristic lines of argument--and explores them in a wide variety of sources. A former correspondent for the United Press International, the author is equally at home with journalism or critical theory, travel writing or official documents, and his discussion is remarkably comprehensive. Ranging from T. E. Lawrence and Isak Dineson to Hemingway and Naipaul, from Time and the New Yorker to the National Geographic and Le Monde, from journalists such as Didion and Sontag to colonial administrators such as Frederick Lugard and Albert Sarraut, this analysis suggests the degree to which certain rhetorical tactics penetrate the popular as well as official colonial and postcolonial discourse.Finally, Spurr considers the question: Can the language itself--and with it, Western forms of interpretation--be freed of the exercise of colonial power? This ambitious book is an answer of sorts. By exposing the rhetoric of empire, Spurr begins to loosen its hold over discourse about--and between--different cultures.

Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire

Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire PDF Author: Averil Cameron
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520915503
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Many reasons can be given for the rise of Christianity in late antiquity and its flourishing in the medieval world. In asking how Christianity succeeded in becoming the dominant ideology in the unpromising circumstances of the Roman Empire, Averil Cameron turns to the development of Christian discourse over the first to sixth centuries A.D., investigating the discourse's essential characteristics, its effects on existing forms of communication, and its eventual preeminence. Scholars of late antiquity and general readers interested in this crucial historical period will be intrigued by her exploration of these influential changes in modes of communication. The emphasis that Christians placed on language—writing, talking, and preaching—made possible the formation of a powerful and indeed a totalizing discourse, argues the author. Christian discourse was sufficiently flexible to be used as a public and political instrument, yet at the same time to be used to express private feelings and emotion. Embracing the two opposing poles of logic and mystery, it contributed powerfully to the gradual acceptance of Christianity and the faith's transformation from the enthusiasm of a small sect to an institutionalized world religion.

The Rhetoric of Empire

The Rhetoric of Empire PDF Author: Marilyn Blatt Young
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674434882
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description


From Republic to Empire

From Republic to Empire PDF Author: John Pollini
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806188162
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Political image-making—especially from the Age of Augustus, when the Roman Republic evolved into a system capable of governing a vast, culturally diverse empire—is the focus of this masterful study of Roman culture. Distinguished art historian and classical archaeologist John Pollini explores how various artistic and ideological symbols of religion and power, based on Roman Republican values and traditions, were taken over or refashioned to convey new ideological content in the constantly changing political world of imperial Rome. Religion, civic life, and politics went hand in hand and formed the very fabric of ancient Roman society. Visual rhetoric was a most effective way to communicate and commemorate the ideals, virtues, and political programs of the leaders of the Roman State in an empire where few people could read and many different languages were spoken. Public memorialization could keep Roman leaders and their achievements before the eyes of the populace, in Rome and in cities under Roman sway. A leader’s success demonstrated that he had the favor of the gods—a form of legitimation crucial for sustaining the Roman Principate, or government by a “First Citizen.” Pollini examines works and traditions ranging from coins to statues and reliefs. He considers the realistic tradition of sculptural portraiture and the ways Roman leaders from the late Republic through the Imperial period were represented in relation to the divine. In comparing visual and verbal expression, he likens sculptural imagery to the structure, syntax, and diction of the Latin language and to ancient rhetorical figures of speech. Throughout the book, Pollini’s vast knowledge of ancient history, religion, literature, and politics extends his analysis far beyond visual culture to every aspect of ancient Roman civilization, including the empire’s ultimate conversion to Christianity. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of the relationship between artistic developments and political change in ancient Rome.

Arguing about Empire

Arguing about Empire PDF Author: Martin Thomas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198749198
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Arguing about Empire explores key imperial debates between Britain and France from the age of high imperialism to the post-war era of decolonisation, uncovering the part played by imperial rhetoric - its racial underpinnings, its ethical presumptions, and the world-views it enshrined

Empire of Eloquence

Empire of Eloquence PDF Author: Stuart M. McManus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110890498X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
An exploration of the culture of public speaking in the Iberian world, which places the classical rhetorical tradition within the context of Iberian global expansion in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Rhetorics of Empire

Rhetorics of Empire PDF Author: Richard Toye
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781526120489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Stirring language and appeals to collective action were integral to the battles fought to defend empires and to destroy them. These wars of words used rhetoric to make their case. That rhetoric is the subject of this collection of essays exploring the arguments fought over empire in a wide variety of geographic, political, social and cultural contexts. Why did imperialist language remain so pervasive in Britain, France and elsewhere throughout much of the twentieth century? What rhetorical devices did political leaders, administrators, investors and lobbyists use to justify colonial domination before domestic and foreign audiences? How far did their colonial opponents mobilize a different rhetoric of rights and freedoms to challenge them? These questions are at the heart of this collection. Essays range from Theodore Roosevelt's articulation of American imperialism in the early 1900s to the rhetorical battles surrounding European decolonization in the late twentieth century.

Anglo-European Science and the Rhetoric of Empire

Anglo-European Science and the Rhetoric of Empire PDF Author: Paul C. Winther
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739112748
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
A fascinating and intricately woven tale of opium trade, evangelism, scientific discovery and political intrigue, Anglo-European Science and the Rhetoric of Empire: Malaria, Opium and British Rule in India 1756-1895 documents the contribution of a medical misconception to the preservation of British Rule in India. British authorities, desperate to shield the India-China Opium Trade from the escalating criticism of Christian evangelists and missionaries, endorsed the claim that opium prevented and cured malaria. This scientific validation of a vital source of revenue helped decimate the anti-opiumist movement, allowing the Indian government to vastly expand poppy cultivation in the name of both economic prosperity and public health. In this thoroughly researched and immensely readable history, author Paul Winther provides a revealing look at the complex and often unexpected negotiations that enable scientific authority to legitimize political and economic gain.

Transient Apostle

Transient Apostle PDF Author: Timothy Luckritz Marquis
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300187149
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
DIVIn a significant reevaluation of Paul’s place in the early Christian story, Timothy Luckritz Marquis explores the theme of travel in the apostle’s correspondence and shows how Paul was a product of the material forces of his day./div

The Power of the Word

The Power of the Word PDF Author: Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Publisher:
ISBN: 0800638344
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
What kind of power does scripture exercise? In The Power of the Word Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, the premier scholar of feminist biblical interpretation and early Christian history, explores this difficult hermeneutical question. Because Christian scriptures were formulated in the context of Roman imperial power, they have functioned-and still do so-in the service of empire, legitimating colonialist expansion, racist exploitation, and heterosexist discrimination. Schussler Fiorenza calls for a critical feminist decolonizing reading, capable of identifying both the destructive powers of empire and the radical democratic visions of justice and well being that are inscribed in the scriptural text. The Power of the Word makes a timely contribution not only to traditional fields such as Pauline and Apocalypse studies, but also to the developing intersection of feminist and postcolonial biblical studies and the study of empire. Book jacket.