Greek Drama and the Invention of Rhetoric

This book challenges the standard view that formal rhetoric arose in response to the political and social environment of ancient Athens. Instead, it is argued, it was the theatre of Ancient Greece, first appearing around 500 BC that prompted the development of formalized rhetoric, which evolved soon thereafter. Indeed, ancient Athenian drama was inextricably bound to the city–state s development as a political entity, as well as to the birth of rhetoric. Ancient Greek dramatists used mythical conflicts as an opportunity for staging debates over issues of contemporary relevance, civic responsibility, war, and the role of the gods.

The author shows how the essential feature of dialogue in drama created a counterpoint an interplay between the actor making the speech and the character reacting to it on stage. This innovation spurred the development of other more sophisticated forms of argumentation, which ultimately formed the core of formalized rhetoric.

Preface

Part One: What Drama Does and How It Does It

1. Setting the Stage
2. Seeing is Believing
3. The Muse Takes a Holiday
4.  It s counterpoint, he countered, and pointed.
5. Illusion and Collusion
6. Reaction Time

Part Two: The Second Stage: The Invention of Rhetoric

7. Paradigm Shift Happens
8. Perhaps You Will Object
9. Putting the Accuser on Trial

Works Cited

David Sansone is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Illinois. A former editor of the journal Illinois Classical Studies, he has also served on the editorial boards of Classical Philology and Bryn Mawr Classical Review, and been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Philological Association. He is the author of Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport (1988), Plutarch: Lives of Aristeides and Cato (1989) and Ancient Greek Civilization (Wiley–Blackwell, 2009).

Every reader, both novice and expert, will learn a great deal from this insightful and refreshing study.   (Vorlagen und Nachrichten, 1 November 2014)

"The book is lively and readable, and should be read by everyone interested either in tragedy or in the origins of rhetoric."  (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 16 June 2013)  

Sansone considers a wide range of text and offers a valuable discussion of how many features of formal rhetoric may be traced back to drama and earlier literary genres.   (Anglo–Hellenic Review, 1 March 2013)

The book is elegantly and often wittily written, with a wide range of cultural reference, and can strongly be recommended to anyone interested in the drama of any period.   (Rogueclassicism, 26 February 2013)