Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo)

Sandra M. Gustafson

ISBN 10: 0807848883 / ISBN 13: 9780807848883

Verlag: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000

Beschreibung

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers M-9780807848883-0

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo)
• Verlag: The University of North Carolina Press
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2000
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 0807848883
• ISBN-13: 9780807848883
• Einband: Paperback
• Auflage: New edition.
• Zustand: New
• Gewicht: 19 Unzen

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

Oratory emerged as the first major form of verbal art in early America because, as John Quincy Adams observed in 1805, "eloquence was POWER." In this book, Sandra Gustafson examines the multiple traditions of sacred, diplomatic, and political speech that flourished in British America and the early republic from colonization through 1800. She demonstrates that, in the American crucible of cultures, contact and conflict among Europeans, native Americans, and Africans gave particular significance and complexity to the uses of the spoken word.

Gustafson develops what she calls the performance semiotic of speech and text as a tool for comprehending the rich traditions of early American oratory. Embodied in the delivery of speeches, she argues, were complex projections of power and authenticity that were rooted in or challenged text-based claims of authority. Examining oratorical performances as varied as treaty negotiations between native and British Americans, the eloquence of evangelical women during the Great Awakening, and the founding fathers' debates over the Constitution, Gustafson explores how orators employed the shifting symbolism of speech and text to imbue their voices with power.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sandra M. Gustafson is associate professor of English at the University of Notre Dame.