Formen und Funktionen von Polemik in den Briefen Augustins: Versuch einer Klassifikation

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-198465
  • Due to the conventions of late-antique epistolary politeness, it is not always easy to identify polemical passages in Augustine’s correspondence. The present contribution attempts to discern and classify some recurrent techniques and strategies that are characteristic of letters the addressee of which is him- or herself the target of Augustine’s polemics, i. e. in which polemical rhetoric is blended with diplomacy. After describing some more formal techniques, such as polemical hermeneutics and Refraintechnik, I turn to the rhetorical, i. e.Due to the conventions of late-antique epistolary politeness, it is not always easy to identify polemical passages in Augustine’s correspondence. The present contribution attempts to discern and classify some recurrent techniques and strategies that are characteristic of letters the addressee of which is him- or herself the target of Augustine’s polemics, i. e. in which polemical rhetoric is blended with diplomacy. After describing some more formal techniques, such as polemical hermeneutics and Refraintechnik, I turn to the rhetorical, i. e. persuasive, functions of polemics in Augustine’s anti-pagan, anti-Donatist and anti-Pelagian letters, using the basic distinction between direct polemics (polemics against the addressee in person) and indirect polemics (polemics against the addressee’s group or friends) as a starting point. Another relevant distinction, taken into account throughout, is whether a polemical letter is primarily designed to impress the immediate addressee or to have an effect on the wider readership that Augustine had to reckon with as soon as a letter was dispatched.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Christian Tornau
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-198465
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Philosophische Fakultät (Histor., philolog., Kultur- und geograph. Wissensch.) / Institut für klassische Philologie
Language:German
Parent Title (German):Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum
Parent Title (English):Journal of Ancient Christianity
ISSN:1612-961X
ISSN:0949-9571
Year of Completion:2018
Volume:22
Issue:1
First Page:5
Last Page:49
Source:Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity (2018) 22:1, 5-49. https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2018-0012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/zac-2018-0012
Dewey Decimal Classification:1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 18 Antike, mittelalterliche und östliche Philosophie / 180 Antike, mittelalterliche und östliche Philosophie
2 Religion / 27 Geschichte des Christentums / 270 Geschichte des Christentums, Kirchengeschichte
8 Literatur / 87 Lateinische, italische Literaturen / 876 Lateinische Briefe
Tag:Refraintechnik
Donatism; Pelagianism; direct and indirect polemics; paganism; pathos; polemical hermeneutics; rhetoric
Release Date:2022/03/17
Date of first Publication:2018/06/02
Note:
Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht