Description
Book SynopsisGoing beyond traditional rhetoric, this volume is concerned with the possibility of using the figure of chiasmus to model a broad array of phenomena, from human relations to artistic creation. In the process, it provides the first book-length study not of chiasmus, the rhetorical figure, but of chiastic thought.
Trade Review “This book makes a timely, original, and significant contribution to the study of rhetoric and culture. More specifically, this collection offers a sophisticated and wide-ranging analysis of chiasmus as a crucially important (but hitherto neglected) figure of speech and thought.” · Michael MacDonald, University of Waterloo
“This is a great collection of texts written in the Rhetoric Culture paradigm covering historical as well as cultural diversity, each approaching the topic of chiastic thought and action in its individual style, which will attract readers from a variety of disciplines and possibly provide a new and fruitful concept for academic thought and discussion.” · Christian Meyer, Martin Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Table of Contents Introduction
Anthony Paul and Boris Wiseman
PART I: THE PATHOS OF CHIASMUS
Chapter 1. From stasis to ek-stasis: four types of chiasmus
Anthony Paul
Chapter 2. What is a Chiasmus? Or, Why the Abyss Stares Back
Robert Hariman
Chapter 3. Chiasmus and Metaphor
Ivo Strecker
PART II: EPISTEMOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON CHIASMUS
Chapter 4. Chiasm in Merleau-Ponty, metaphor or concept?
Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel
Chapter 5. Chiasmi figuring difference
Stephen Tyler
Chapter 6. Forking: Rhetoric χ Rhetoric
Phillipe-Joseph Salazar
PART III: SENSUOUS EXPERIENCE MEDIATED BY CHIASMUS
Chapter 7. Chiasm in suspense in psychoanalysis
Alain Vanier
Chapter 8. Quotidian Chiasmus in Montaigne
Phillip John Usher
Chapter 9. 'Travestis, Michês' and Chiasmus
Ben Bollig
PART IV: CHIASTIC STRUCTURES IN RITUAL AND MYTHO-POETIC TEXTS
Chapter 10. Parallelism and Chiasmus in Ritual Oration
Douglas Lewis
Chapter 11. Chiasmus, mythical creation and H.C. Andersen’s The Shadow followed by a “Response” from Lucien Scubla
Boris Wiseman
Bibliography
Index
