Rhétorique et littérature en Europe de la fin du Moyen Âge au XVIIe siècle

During the Renaissance and at the beginning of the early modern times, with the origin of philology and the advent of a new knowledge linked to the development of print and the discovery of the New World, the art of dialectic, in the traditional Aristotelian sense, changes and finds new applications.

The creation of a public arena for discussions is linked to the development of the rhetorical resources as an appropriation of a history and a language inside a specific community of some authors with their own cultural and social characteristics. Meanwhile they don’t stop to insert their own works in the continuity or in the remains of the Antiquity.Because of the great events shaping the whole European history from the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, rhetoric is not separated from religion: every rhetorical practice is based upon the representation of the truth, the evaluation of the principles and the profession of faith.

Dominique de Courcelles is a research director at the French Center for scientific research (CNRS), UMR 5037 CERPHI