Rhetoric, Animals, and Language from Aesop to Erasmus

FAIN: FB-57597-14

Debra Hawhee
Penn State (University Park, PA 16802-1503)

This study seeks to bring rhetorical studies--especially the history of rhetoric--into the vibrant and ongoing scholarly conversations about animals. Indeed, it aspires to show how a humanities-based inquiry into animal-human relations remains incomplete without a rhetorical perspective. Adopting Jeffrey Walker's definition of rhetoric as "the art of producing a rhetor," this study accounts for the curious roles animals play in language theories and language education. The monograph follows the lifespan of ancient rhetorical exercises known as the progymnasmata in which animals featured prominently thanks to the place of fable at the beginning of the sequence. The study's span, along with the range of material it consults, helps to reveal the importance of rhetoric for establishing and sustaining assumptions about human-animal relations. The book also shows the importance of nonhuman animals to the development and teaching of rhetoric's less-than-rational side.

Associated Products

Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation (Book)
Title: Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation
Author: Debra Hawee
Abstract: We tend to think of rhetoric as a solely human art. After all, only humans can use language artfully to make a point, the very definition of rhetoric. Yet when you look at ancient and early modern treatises on rhetoric, what you find is surprising: they’re crawling with animals. With Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw, Debra Hawhee explores this unexpected aspect of early thinking about rhetoric, going on from there to examine the enduring presence of nonhuman animals in rhetorical theory and education. In doing so, she not only offers a counter-history of rhetoric but also brings rhetorical studies into dialogue with animal studies, one of the most vibrant areas of interest in humanities today. By removing humanity and human reason from the center of our study of argument, Hawhee frees up space to study and emphasize other crucial components of communication, like energy, bodies, and sensation. Drawing on thinkers from Aristotle to Erasmus, Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw tells a new story of the discipline’s history and development, one animated by the energy, force, liveliness, and diversity of our relationships with our “partners in feeling,” other animals.
Year: 2017
Publisher: Chiag: University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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