The Rhetoric of Logic in John Gower's "Confessio Amantis" Book 7.
- Author/Editor
- Newman, Jonathan M.
- Title
- The Rhetoric of Logic in John Gower's "Confessio Amantis" Book 7.
- Published
- Newman, Jonathan M. "The Rhetoric of Logic in John Gower's 'Confessio Amantis' Book 7." Medievalia et Humanistica 38 (2012): 37-57.
- Review
- Book VII of the "Confessio Amantis" draws upon Brunetto Latini's "Li Livres dou Trésor" for its discussion of the divisions of knowledge, but whereas Latini organizes knowledge into theory, practice, and logic, Gower's division is theory, practice, and rhetoric. Newman's essay focuses upon this difference and argues that, for Gower, logic is subordinate to rhetoric because "logic has the same situatedness in human relations, and thus makes the same ethical claims on practitioners traditionally ascribed to rhetoric" (38). For Newman, Gower's view of logic is that it "is never simply an abstract intellectual activity or formal operation that produces stable meanings which exist independent of the discursive community in which it is practiced" (44). This approach to logic as inherently contextual, and not intrinsically truthful or "trewe and plein" (CA 7.1734) is especially problematic for Gower because logic's position as rhetorical is not necessarily apparent, which undermines its utility in legal, political, and theological arenas. As evidence, Newman analyzes several specific and subtle instances in the CA of syntactical ambiguity, especially passages employing double and triple negatives, that appear to undermine logic's authority. Newman's close readings are meticulous and provocative and rely upon subtle differences in the possible syntactical functions of specific words and constructions. In the final section of this essay, Newman suggests that Gower may have subordinated logic to rhetoric in order to "cast considerable doubt on the idea that logic might offer any more moral guidance than rhetoric" (51). Since logic is rhetorical, and therefore unstable, it may be one cause, he suggests somewhat speculatively, of the divisions in the Church Gower addresses in the CA (and elsewhere), including the schism. In support, Newman draws attention to parallels between the discussion of logic in Book 7 and the discussion of the schism in CA 1.1370-1374. [BWG. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.2]
- Date
- 2012
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Language and Word Studies