Rhetorical Byron: An interpretation of his historical tragedies

This thesis shows that Lord Byron's history plays in particular may be works of fiction, but they may also be viewed as rhetorical discourses because they can be seen as direct responses to the complex social and political issues emerging from both the Industrial and French Revolutions. This claim was demonstrated by using a contemporary concept of rhetoric, Lloyd Bitzer's "The Rhetorical Situation." The major findings of this study were that Lord Byron was a rhetorician because his plays reflected a specific rhetorical situation, yet he also failed as a rhetorician because of his selection of an abstract, idealized audience and abstract issues. Because the problem he was addressing remains relevant today, a study of Lord Byron's dramas-as-discourse is an important addition to the study of literature-as-rhetoric.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

1997

Author dc:creator

• Bertolino, Vicki Maxine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Evan Blythin

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/12

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-1011