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06/22/2012

Tina Skouen: Passion and Persuasion: John Dryden’s The Hind and the Panther

Passion and Persuasion John Dryden’s The Hind and the PantherTina Skouen:

Passion and Persuasion: John Dryden’s The Hind and the Panther

Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009

ISBN: 978-3-639-12490-3

The English poet-critic John Dryden (1631-1700) has traditionally been seen as a primary advocate of the Age of Reason.  Challenging the accepted view, this book argues that Dryden primarily responded not to the rhetorical ideals of the new science, but to the ideals deriving from the classical orator Quintilian.  Just like the Renaissance poet-rhetoricians, Dryden considered it his duty to teach, move and delight his audience.  A fervent supporter of the Stuart monarchy, Dryden was deeply involved in political and religious controversies. Through careful analysis of his longest and most controversial poem, The Hind

and the Panther (1687), the study brings to light how Dryden was using wordplay and sound effects for the sake of satirizing his opponents.  Offering fresh perspectives on Dryden's role as a public speaker, the author emphasizes his various attempts to move and persuade the reader.  While this book gives the first comprehensive overview of Dryden's theorizing on how to move the passions, it also shows how "the father of English criticism" put these theories into practice.

Read a review: Rhetorical Review 7:2,  June 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Note on texts and citations

Introduction

PART ONE

Passion and persuasion

1. A writer of ‘the age of reason’?

2. The art of poetry

3. “To write pathetically”: Dryden’s discourse on the passions

PART TWO

Captatio benevolentiae: Appeals to the audience

4. “Such wou’d I chuse for my judges”: The question of whom to address

5. “What I desire the reader should know concerning me’: The preface to The Hind and the Panther

6. “This mysterious writ”: The writer’s defence of his beast fable

PART THREE

Invention: The temperance topic

7. Monstrous passions

8. The Mind and the Panther

9. What ails the Panther? The pathology of passion

10. How to dress a spiritual wound

11. Appeals to the emotions: The forensic structure of Dryden’s fable

PART FOUR

Elocution: The body poetic

12. A real presence? The problem of poetic voice

13. A lively performance

14. “This is my body”: The Hind and the Panther interpret the Word

15. In search of sounding words: Dryden’s aural poetics

16. Snarling satire

17. Reading as re-articulation

Conclusion

Notes

Abbreviations

Bibliography

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