Sunday, July 24, 2011

Why Read the Classics Post #3: Rhetorical Devices

The definition of rhetoric is the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively. Therefore an author uses rhetorical devices to help create a better literary effect on readers. Much like the other essay I read "Good Reader and Good Writers" one rhetorical devices used in this essay that I noticed right away was tautology, repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence. I think this is a common rhetoric device used in informative essays. The repetition I kept noticing in "Why Read the Classics" was something can be discovered everytime you read or re-read a classic. There are many definitions Calvino mentioned that contained this repetition. "4. A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading", "5. A classic is a book which even when we read it for the first time gives the sense of rereading something we have read before" , and "6. A classic is a book which has never exhausted all it has to day to its readers". All those definitions Calvino provided to his readers suggest reading and rereading yet familiar, give a sense of something new waiting to be discovered. Although I am sure there are more rhetorical devices, I must wrap up this blog.

Bibliography! :
Calvino, Italo. "Why Read the Classics." The Uses of Literature. New York: Vintage Books, 1999

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