Review by Choice Review
Through critical analysis of Socratic dialogue, Zappen (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) delineates the character of a dialogical rhetoric and in so doing joins other contemporary theorists who explore alternatives to persuasive and coercive models of rhetoric. Drawing particularly on Bakhtinian theory but also incorporating classical and rhetorical scholarship on Plato, the author argues that early Socratic dialogues exemplify a multivoiced, dialogical rhetoric that incorporates polyphony, hybridization, parody, and carnival as means of presenting and testing conflicting ideas. Specifically, the Laches, Protagoras, and Gorgias, when read with attention to both contextual and extratextual factors, provide an ongoing presentation and testing of conflicting Greek views of virtue, as embodied in a richly textured exchange of utterances among the interlocutors. In an epilogue to his Bakhtinian reading of the early Socrates, Zappen notes that dialogical rhetoric is especially prominent in times of cultural conflict, and he suggests that digital media may offer more opportunities for a dialogical testing of ideas than do print media. This book will particularly interest scholars of the classics and rhetoric and those who incorporate Bakhtinian theory in their work. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections. C. R. Haller York College, CUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
