The genres of rhetorical speeches in Greek and Roman antiquity /

The "International Studies in the History of Rhetoric" series, published by Brill since 2009, is sponsored by the International Society for the History of Rhetoric under the general editorship of Laurent Pernot (Univ. of Strasbourg, France) and Craig Kallendorf (Texas A&M). Whereas students of genre usually approach their study through conventional and contemporary forms of literature and writing that are discipline specific, ultimately those genres, literary or otherwise, originate in broader categories relevant to occasions, audiences, and purposes that students of rhetoric recognize as the genera causarum, the deliberative, judicial, and epideictic branches of oratory. Although these genres are well known to students of the classical rhetorical tradition and contemporary histories of the art, previous studies of rhetorical genres have focused on ancient poetry rather than ancient speeches. Pepe's study, a reworking of her dissertation, addresses this deficiency. Brill identifies the book's audience as "advanced students of Greek and Latin rhetoric, literature, philosophy, historiography, as well as all those interested in history of rhetoric and classical reception." This reviewer would not disagree; however valuable, the work is inaccessible to novices. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. A. P. Church Dickinson State University