Rhetoric and the Discourses of Power in Court Culture

David Knechtges is professor of Chinese literature and Eugene Vance is professor of French and Italian studies, both at the University of Washington. Other contributors are Robert Borgen (University of California, Davis), Steven D. Carter (University of California, Irvine), Robert Joe Cutter (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paul Dutton (Simon Fraser University), Ronald Egan (University of California, Santa Barbara), Stephen Owen (Harvard University), Arjo Vanderjagt (University of Groningen), Kuo-ying Wang (National Taiwan University), Scott Waugh (University of California, Los Angeles), and Pauline Yu (University of California, Los Angeles).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction by David R. KnechtgesPart I. Rhetoric of Persuasion1. The Rhetoric of Imperial Abdication and Accession in a Third-Century Chinese Court: The Case of Cao Pi's Accession as Emperor of the Wei Dynasty by David R. Knechtges2. The Court, Politics, and Rhetoric in England, 1310-1330 by Scott L. WaughPart II. Rhetoric of Taste3. Poems for the Emperor: Imperial Tastes in the Early Ninth Century by Pauline Wu4. Claiming the Past for the Present: Ichijo Kaneyoshi and Tales of Ise by Steven D. Carter5. The Emperor and the Ink Plum: Tracing a Lost Connection between Literati and Huizong's Court by Ronald EganPart III. Rhetoric of Communication6. Personal Crisis and Communication in the Life of Cao Zhi by Robert Joe Cutter7. Keeping Secrets in a Dark Age by Paul Edward Dutton8. The Politics of Classical Chinese in the Early Japanese Court by Robert BorgenPart IV. Rhetoric of Gender9. One Sight: The Han shu Biography of Lady Li by Stephen Owen10. Poetry of Palace Plaint of the Tang: Its Potential and Limitations by Kuo-ying WangPart V. Rhetoric of Natural Nobility11. Dante in God's Court: The Paradise at the End of the Road by Eugene Vance12. Practicing Nobility in Fifteenth-Century Burgundian Courtly Culture: Ideology and Politics by Arjo VanderjagtIndex

"Rhetoric and the Discourses of Power in Court Culture represents a significant achievement. All the essays contained in the volume are lucid and generally jargon-free. Students and scholars of rhetoric and related fields will find it engaging, thought-provoking, and rewarding."