4.0374 'Topics' Bibliographies (3/64)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 8 Aug 90 16:37:59 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0374. Wednesday, 8 Aug 1990.
(1) Date: Tue, 07 Aug 90 22:33:25 EDT (14 lines)
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Topos bibliography
(2) Date: Wed, 08 Aug 90 10:57:58 EDT (28 lines)
From: "Marjorie (Jorie) Woods" <A014@UORVM>
Subject: topics
(3) Date: Tue, 7 Aug 90 20:23:52 PDT (22 lines)
From: gwp@hss.caltech.edu (G. W. Pigman III)
Subject: Re: 4.0368 'Topics' in Rhetoric
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 90 22:33:25 EDT
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Topos bibliography
If Monica Paolini reads German, she might wish to look at Walter Veit,
"Toposforschung" in DVLG 37 (1963), 120-163. My own German is almost
non-existent; I read Viet's article with the help of a student. It's
possible it may address some of the issues she is concerned with. I too
recommend George Kennedy's books. She might also wish to join the
International Society for the History of Rhetoric (address to be found,
I think, in any issue of _Rhetorica_ (if not, e-mail to me before Aug.
31 and I'll find it!)
Germaine Warkentin (WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------34----
Date: Wed, 08 Aug 90 10:57:58 EDT
From: "Marjorie (Jorie) Woods" <A014@UORVM>
Subject: topics
Re Monica Paolini's request for work on the topics: my husband just
forwarded your latest posting to me and I'm not sure of the context in
which you asked for the information, so these suggestions may not be as
helpful as I hope. The renaissance manuals you are looking at probably
draw on Cicero's De inventione, a work widely read throughout the Middle
Ages and Renaissance and still useful but almost completely ignored.
(Cicero criticizes it himself in De oratore, calling it "rudis," and
unfortunately we've taken him at his word.) There is to my knowledge (I
work on how medieval students were taught poetic composition according
to rhetorical principles) no history of the topics such as you seek.
There is now some work being done in composition studies in the United
States on the topics. An essay by Frank D'Angelo in *Classical Rhetoric
and Modern Discourse* on the development of the topics does compare
ancient lists of topics with more modern groupings of them. Some of his
argument is questionable (especially his use of Julian Jaynes [sp?]
work on the bi-cameral mind), and I don't agree with his unspoken
evolutionary assumptions about the more sophisticated use of topics now,
but his is the *only* treatment that I know of that covers the western
tradition, even cursorily. Please let me know if you would like page
numbers etc. of D'Angelo's article (the editors of the book of essays in
which his appears are Robert Connors, Lisa Ede, and Andrea Lunsford; the
book is at home and I don't have the rest of the information here. I
can also give you the Kennedy and Stump references if they're not
forthcoming from other sources.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------33----
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 90 20:23:52 PDT
From: gwp@hss.caltech.edu (G. W. Pigman III)
Subject: Re: 4.0368 'Topics' in Rhetoric
While hunting around unsucessfully for something I remember reading on
topoi a few years ago, I came up with the following books, none of
which I've read. Caveat lector.
Niels Jorgen Green-Pedersen, *The tradition of the topics in the
Middle Ages* (Munich, 1984).
Eugene Thionville, *De la theorie des lieux communs dans les Topiques
d'Aristote et des principales modifications qu'elle a subies
jusqu'a nos jours* (Paris, 1983).
Peter von Moos, *Geschichte als Topik : das rhetorische Exemplum von
der Antike zur Neuzeit und die historiae im "Policraticus"
Johannes von Salisbury* (Hildesheim, 1988).
Von Moos's *Consolatio* is an exhaustive study which I found very
valuable, so I'd try him first, even though the title suggests a focus
different from the one you're after.