Persuasion and Rhetoric

✍ Scribed by Carlo Michelstaedter; Russell Scott Valentino; Cinzia Sartini Blum; David J. Depew

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 206
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This translation of Carlo Michelstaedter’s Persuasion and Rhetoric brings the powerful and original work of a seminal cultural figure to English-language readers for the first time. Ostensibly a commentary on Plato’s and Aristotle’s relation to the pre-Socratic philosophers, Michelstaedter’s deeply personal book is an extraordinary rhetorical feat that reflects the author’s struggle to make sense of modern life. This edition includes an introduction discussing his life and work, an extensive bibliography, notes to introduce each chapter, and critical notes illuminating the text.
Within hours of completing Persuasion and Rhetoric, his doctoral thesis, 23-year-old Michelstaedter shot himself to death. The text he left behind has proved to be one of the most trenchant and influential studies in modern rhetoric, a work that develops Nietzschean themes and anticipates the conclusions of, among others, Martin Heidegger. Publication of the book in English is an event of great magnitude for students of Italian philosophy, rhetoric, and literature as well as the culture of Mitteleuropa.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Preface
I. On Persuasion
I. Persuasion
II. The Illusion of Persuasion
III. The Way to Persuasion
II. On Rhetoric
I. Rhetoric
II. The Constitution of Rhetoric
III. Rhetoric in Life
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index