Page 47 - Critical and Cultural Theory

LANGUAGE AND INTERPRETATION
linguist Roman Jakobson (1896-1982). 2 Jakobson believes that
poetic devices (both explicitly rhetorical ones, such as images and
tropes, and others, such as sound, rhyme and rhythm) constitute a
special kind of language rather than a superficial decoration of so-
called ordinary language: 'poeticalness is not a supplementation of
discourse with rhetorical adornment but a total re-evaluation of
the discourse and of all its components whatsoever' (Jakobson
1960: 377). Most importantly, the linguistic devices commonly
associated with poetry are shown to be very much at work in
everyday aspects of expression and signification: the 'poetic
function' features in all forms of discourse and 'is not just a
special set of "tricks" that poets perform' (Hawkes 1977: 81).
Rhetoric and ideology are inextricably intertwined. This is
because rhetorical language often serves eminently ideological
objectives, as shown by the collusion of rhetoric and politics in
ancient Greece and Rome, in the courtly circles of the Western
Renaissance and, of course, in contemporary societies, where a
party's agenda is often encapsulated in memorable snippets of
rhetoric. Classical theorists were eager to define the codes and
conventions of rhetoric very thoroughly, for a command of this
art was deemed essential to successful outcomes in the manipula-
tion of language, often for political purposes. This is borne out by
a number of influential textbooks produced by Greek and Roman
writers: Aristotle's Rhetoric', Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria',
Cicero's De Inventione; De Optimo Genere Oratorum and De
Oratore. The rules for oral and written composition prescribed by
Cicero comprised five processes: invention (the discovery of appro-
priate verbal material); arrangement (its cogent organization into a
structure); style (the formulation of the mode of delivery relevant
to the occasion); memory (the ability to store and recycle utter-
ances and images); delivery (the elaboration of complex techniques
for producing a successful rhetorical package).
A culture's understanding of rhetoric tends to mirror its
dominant ideology. Consider the following example. Renaissance
writers, keen on reviving the principles upheld by the Classics as
the fountainhead of civilization and enlightenment, were particu-
larly intrigued by the art of rhetoric and by the figure of the
orator as a skilful speaker and performer well-versed in a variety

2
1*" Jakobson's theories are discussed in Part I, Chapter 2, The Sign'.
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