The rhetoric of rank in early modern drama from 1590 to 1642
dc.contributor | Ainsworth, David | |
dc.contributor | Kaufman, Lucy | |
dc.contributor | McElroy, Tricia | |
dc.contributor | Smith, Cassie | |
dc.contributor.advisor | Dowd, Michelle | |
dc.contributor.author | Smith, Matthew Burdick | |
dc.contributor.other | University of Alabama Tuscaloosa | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-07-07T14:36:41Z | |
dc.date.available | 2021-07-07T14:36:41Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2021 | |
dc.description | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | My dissertation, “The Rhetoric of Rank in Early Modern Drama from 1590 to 1642,”argues that early modern dramatic works pull from rhetorical theory to shape social status in a period that underwent significant social transformations. Arguing that dramatists use early modern rhetorical manuals to respond to historically specific social tensions, I explore how dramatists use rhetorical figures to comment on social tensions between ranks, define the social role of emergent social roles, and define social values. While I explore the relationship between early modern drama and rhetorical manuals, I situate my analysis alongside the work of social historians to provide a historically situated account. I argue that rhetorical theory plays a central, though underexamined, role in the formation of those emergent social roles—like merchant or factor—and that dramatists dramatize the process of social (trans)formation through rhetorical figures. Furthermore, social formation itself is a process with often contradictory priorities and perspectives, and I show that dramatists use the semantic flexibility of rhetorical figures to support a range of attitudes that are sympathetic, tolerant, or even hostile towards social change, illustrating that social change is not the inevitable product of historical contexts but a process structured in part by rhetoric. My dissertation traces how rhetoric is used to cultivate civic values among ranks with competing interests, a process rife with social tensions that the drama lays bare. | en_US |
dc.format.extent | 232 p. | |
dc.format.medium | electronic | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.identifier.other | u0015_0000001_0003765 | |
dc.identifier.other | Smith_alatus_0004D_14430 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/7844 | |
dc.language | English | |
dc.language.iso | en_US | |
dc.publisher | University of Alabama Libraries | |
dc.relation.hasversion | born digital | |
dc.relation.ispartof | The University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations | |
dc.relation.ispartof | The University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections | |
dc.rights | All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated. | en_US |
dc.subject | English literature | |
dc.title | The rhetoric of rank in early modern drama from 1590 to 1642 | en_US |
dc.type | thesis | |
dc.type | text | |
etdms.degree.department | University of Alabama. Department of English | |
etdms.degree.discipline | English | |
etdms.degree.grantor | The University of Alabama | |
etdms.degree.level | doctoral | |
etdms.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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