Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured

by Susan C. Jarratt

This book is a critically informed challenge to the traditional histories of rhetoric and to the current emphasis on Aristotle and Plato as the most significant classical voices in rhetoric. In it, Susan C. Jarratt argues that the first sophists—a diverse group of traveling intellectuals in the fifth century B.C.—should be given a more prominent place in the study of rhetoric and composition. Rereading the ancient sophists, she creates a new lens through which to see contemporary social issues, including the orality/literacy debate, feminist writing, deconstruction, and writing pedagogy.

The sophists’ pleasure in the play of language, their focus on historical contin-gency, and the centrality of their teaching for democratic practice were sufficiently threatening to their successors Plato and Aristotle that both sought to bury the sophists under philosophical theories of language. The censure of Plato and Aris-totle set a pattern for historical views of the sophists for centuries. Following Hegel and Nietzsche, Jarratt breaks the pattern, finding in the sophists a more progressive charter for teachers and scholars of reading and writing, as well as for those in the adjacent disciplines of literary criticism and theory, education, speech communication, and ancient history.

In tracing the historical interpretations of sophistic rhetoric, Jarratt suggests that the sophists themselves provide the outlines of an alternative to history-writing as the discovery and recounting of a set of stable facts. She sees sophistic use of narrative in argument as a challenge to a simple division between orality and literacy, current discussions of which virtually ignore the sophists. Outlining similarities between écriture féminine and sophistic style, Jarratt shows that contemporary feminisms have more in common with sophists than just a style; they share a rhetorical basis for deployment of theory in political action. In her final chapter, Jarratt takes issue with accounts of sophistic pedagogy focusing on technique and the development of the individual. She argues that, despite its employment by powerful demagogues, sophistic pedagogy offers a resource for today’s teachers interested in encouraging minority voices of resistance through language study as the practice of democracy.

Genres: Philosophy, Read For School, Classics, Academic

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Susan Jarratt's interests are ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric and contemporary rhetoric and writing in universities and public contexts. She is at work on a book about the significance of space and the imperial relationship in ancient Greco-Roman rhetoric.

She served as UC Irvine campus writing coordinator from 2001-07 and in that capacity has done collaborative research on bilingual writers and undergraduate writing across the curriculum.

Reviews

[Laura Perlichek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this for my Major Texts in Rhetoric class.

I have to admit I am only two chapters in thus far (albeit it is a four-chapter book).
What I find confusing was that my professor explained the fact that this was a Feminist point of view of the Sophistic tradition. However, the only indicator I have come across for it as such is about one paragraph around the end of chapter one that talks about Feminist rhetorical theory. It seemed random and I have yet to see any more. Granted, I know Chapter Three specifically deals with Feminism. But if this was the "thesis" of the text, shouldn't we get more frequent and more prominent Feminist voice? Perhaps I am missing something.
That being said, it still is a text that (very wonderfully) argues for cultural merit of the Sophists which is intriguing in and of it self. Damn Plato and Aristotle have certainly stolen the spotlight for Western rhetoric for centuries.

This is definitely an academic text, not for mass audiences. Six weeks in a graduate rhetoric course does not seem sufficient to dissect and understand all of what Jarrett is trying to convey (sometimes re-reading helps).

Chapter two is MUCH easier and more importantly, extremely intriguing! Can't wait to see what the second half of this book entails.

Something something Feminist theory?

[Kendra Richards Ohmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class, so it wasn't exactly a riveting, entertaining read. But it put classical rhetoric in an interesting light, and looked at it in some new ways. If you're interested in rhetoric and its history at all, you'll find this interesting.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the progression of Jarratt's thoughts is logical, the discussion leaves a lot to be desired. Overall, the discussion is limited, and the ways she brings in the feminist argument are a little weak.

As far as the secondary sources in the text, despite her extensive list of Works Cited, they're a bit limited. Not only does she only address a limited number of pre-socratic sophistic texts, her selections in some ways undermine her argument. If she's trying to bring the fifth century sophists to the level of Plato and Aristotle, using something Plato wrote as a support for that argument isn't the best choice. She also only glosses over or gives slight mention to texts that would be much better supporters of her argument (e.g. Isocrates' Antidosis).

The argument she makes for how a reinterpretation of classical rhetoric will give new insights to current rhetoric and composition are reasonable. However, choosing to focus on the current theories in terms of a feminist perspective feels less like she's making an argument and more like she is a feminist who felt the need to bring something about gender into her work.