Style, Mimesis and Literary Criticism in Rhetorical Education
An Approach Based on On style by Demetrius
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/1983-3636..21388Keywords:
Demetrius, On style, rhetoric, literary criticism, mimesisAbstract
On style (Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, 1st century BC) is a rhetorical handbook that analyzes the various stylistic features used in the composition of a speech. Therefore, it takes short and paradigmatic passages of various authors of the Greek literary tradition. The literary criticism comes from the evaluation of the form in relation to the content. But it is important to understand how, in this handbook, style is related to literary criticism and mimesis in the context of rhetorical education. And, for that purpose, I still refer to another rhetorical handbook: On types of style (Περὶ ἰδεῶν λόγου) by Hermogenes (end of the 2nd century or beginning of III AD). Despite its sharp differences, these works have in common the approach of “style” within the tasks of the orator, proposing guidelines and models so that he can be able to identify by himself what, how and where “to imitate”.
References
Textos antigos
ARISTOTLE; LONGINUS; DEMETRIUS. Poetics. Longinus: On the Sublime. Demetrius: On Style. Translated by Stephen Halliwell, W. Hamilton Fyfe, Doreen C. Innes, W. Rhys Roberts. Revised by Donald A. Russell. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press, 2005. (Loeb Classical Library 199).
DEMÉTRIO. Sobre o estilo. In: FREITAS, G. A. de. Sobre o estilo de Demétrio: um olhar crítico sobre a literatura grega (tradução e estudo introdutório do tratado). 2011. 177 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Estudos Clássicos) – Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 2011.
DÉMÉTRIOS. Du style. Texte établi et traduit par Pierre Chiron, avec introduction et notes. Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 1993.
CICERO. On invention. Best kind of orator. Topics. Translated by H. M. Hubbell. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949. (Loeb Classical Library 386).
CICÉRON. De l’orateur. Livre III. Texte établi par Henri Bornecque et traduit par Edmond Courbaud et Henri Bornecque. Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 1956.
HERMOGÈNE. Corpus rhetoricum. Texte établi et traduit par Michel Patillon. Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 2008; 2009; 2012; 2012; 2014. 5 v.
Textos modernos
CHIRON, P. Un rhéteur méconnu: Démétrios (Ps.- Démétrios de Phalère). Essai sur les mutations de la théorie du style à l’époque hellénistique. Paris : Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2001.
CLARK, D. L. Rhetoric in Greco-Roman education. 2. ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959.
CLASSEN, C. J. Rhetoric and literary criticism. Their nature and their functions in Antiquity. Mnemosyne, Leiden, v. XLVIII, p. 513-535, 1995. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852595X00275.
FREITAS, G. A. de. Crítica literária de Homero no tratado Sobre o estilo de Demétrio. 2016. 345 f. Tese (Doutorado em Literaturas Clássicas e Medievais) – Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 2016.
GRUBE, G. M. A. A Greek Critic: Demetrius On Style. Toronto. University of Toronto Press, 1961.
GRUBE, G. M. A. The Greek and Roman Critics. 7. ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1995.
INNES, D. C. Introduction. In: ARISTOTLE; LONGINUS; DEMETRIUS. Poetics. Longinus: On the Sublime. Demetrius: On Style. Translated by Stephen Halliwell, W. Hamilton Fyfe, Doreen C. Innes, W. Rhys Roberts. Revised by Donald A. Russell. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press, 2005. (Loeb Classical Library 199).
KENNEDY, G. A. A new history of classical rhetoric. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
KENNEDY, G. The art of persuasion in Greece. 6 ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974.
LAUSBERG, H. Elementos de retórica literaria. Versión española de M. M. Casero. Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1975.
MARROU, H.-I. Histoire de l’éducation dans l’Antiquité: Le Monde Grec. 7. ed. Paris : Seuil, 1981. (Colletion Points-Histoire, 56). t. 1.
PATILLON, M. La théorie du discours chez Hermongène le rhéteur. Essai sur la strutucture de la rhétorique ancienne. Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 1988.
PERNOT, L. La Rhétorique dans l’Antiquité. Paris : Librairie Génerale Française, 2000.
PERNOT, L. La rhétorique de l’éloge dans le monde greco-romain. Paris : Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1993.
RUSSELL, D. A. Figured speeches: “Dionysius,” Art of Rhetoric VIII-IX. In: WOOTEN, Cecil W. (ed.) The Orator in Ancient & Theory in Greece & Rome: Essays in Honour of George A. Kennedy. Leiden; Boston/Koln: Brill, 2001a. p. 156-168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004350984_016.
RUSSELL, D. Criticism in Antiquity. 2. ed. Eastbourne: Paperbacks, 2001b. (Bristol Classical).
SCHENKEVELD, D. M. Studies in Demetrius “On style”. Amsterdam: A. Hakkert, 1964.
SCHENKEVELD, D. M. The intended public of Demetrius’s On style: the place of the treatise in the hellenistic educacional system. Rhetorica, Leiden, v. XVIII, n. 1, p. 29-48, 2000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.2000.18.1.29.
