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The ever-widening application of conversational style created a conversational Enlightenment
The Conversational Enlightenment traces the spread of the concept of conversation during the Enlightenment, including the project of politeness, the fine arts, philosophy and public opinion. The book narrates this triumph of conversational style and thought partly as a succession to the oratorical rhetoric that characterised the Renaissance and partly as the victory of the only mode of speech that recognised women as women, and not as imitation men. It also rewrites Jürgen Habermas' history of the public sphere as the history of rational conversation.
David Randall is Director of Research at the National Association of Scholars.
List of contents
Introduction
1 The Society and Culture of Conversation
2 The Oratorical Arts
3 The Conversational Arts
4 The Philosophy of Conversation
5 Public Opinion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the author
David Randall is Director of Research at the National Association of Scholars. His publications include
Credibility in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Military News (2008) and
English Military News Pamphlets, 1513-1637 (2011).
Summary
The Conversational Enlightenment traces the spread of the concept of conversation during the Enlightenment, including the project of politeness, the fine arts, philosophy and public opinion.
