The Elocutionists


Book Description

Emerging in the 1850s, elocutionists recited poetry or drama with music to create a new type of performance. The genre--dominated by women--achieved remarkable popularity. Yet the elocutionists and their art fell into total obscurity during the twentieth century. Marian Wilson Kimber restores elocution with music to its rightful place in performance history. Gazing through the lenses of gender and genre, Wilson Kimber argues that these female artists transgressed the previous boundaries between private and public domains. Their performances advocated for female agency while also contributing to a new social construction of gender. Elocutionists, proud purveyors of wholesome entertainment, pointedly contrasted their "acceptable" feminine attributes against those of morally suspect actresses. As Wilson Kimber shows, their influence far outlived their heyday. Women, the primary composers of melodramatic compositions, did nothing less than create a tradition that helped shape the history of American music.







Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times


Book Description

Since its original publication by UNC Press in 1980, this book has provided thousands of students with a concise introduction and guide to the history of the classical tradition in rhetoric, the ancient but ever vital art of persuasion. Now, George Kennedy offers a thoroughly revised and updated edition of Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition. From its development in ancient Greece and Rome, through its continuation and adaptation in Europe and America through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to its enduring significance in the twentieth century, he traces the theory and practice of classical rhetoric through history. At each stage of the way, he demonstrates how new societies modified classical rhetoric to fit their needs. For this edition, Kennedy has updated the text and the bibliography to incorporate new scholarship; added sections relating to women orators and rhetoricians throughout history; and enlarged the discussion of rhetoric in America, Germany, and Spain. He has also included more information about historical and intellectual contexts to assist the reader in understanding the tradition of classical rhetoric.







The Modern Elocutionist (Classic Reprint)


Book Description

Excerpt from The Modern Elocutionist Lately it has been suggested to me on all sides, by the Principals of Schools, Pupils, and friends in Trinity College, that it would be desirable to compile a new Elocutionist. At first I was unwilling so to do, on account of the number of books of like nature - some of them very capital volumes - already before the public but at length I determined to undertake the task, with the object in view of bringing together more modern, or less-known, selections, eminently suitable for the desired purpose. This task I have endeavoured to accomplish, avoiding those recita tions which, however beautiful many of them undoubtedly are, yet have become so hackneyed as to be wearisome, owing to constant repetition that repetition not being in all cases pleasing to the ear nor intelligible to the understanding. How I have accomplished my object I leave my readers to decide. A very hearty word of thanks is more than due to those authors and publishers. Who have so generously and willingly placed their works at my disposal, and without whose kind co-operation many of the following pages could not have been inserted. Elsewhere, throughout the book, my obligations to them severally are acknowledged in detail. I have been most anxious to avoid violation of copyright in my selections, and have used my utmost endeavours to ascertain the various possessors of the rights appertaining thereto. Should there, however, be any unconscious infringement, I desire to express my deep regret, and trust that such an error may be kindly overlooked and forgiven. A double Index will be found - one in the early part of the volume, comprising the selections generally, another at the conclusion, containing the names of the authors alphabetically arranged. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.