On Eloquence

by Denis Donoghue

On Eloquence questions the common assumption that eloquence is merely a subset of rhetoric, a means toward a rhetorical end. Denis Donoghue, an eminent and prolific critic of the English language, holds that this assumption is erroneous. While rhetoric is the use of language to persuade people to do one thing rather than another, Donoghue maintains that eloquence is “gratuitous, ideally autonomous, in speech and writing an upsurge of creative vitality for its own sake.” He offers many instances of eloquence in words, and suggests the forms our appreciation of them should take.

 

Donoghue argues persuasively that eloquence matters, that we should indeed care about it. “Because we should care about any instances of freedom, independence, creative force, sprezzatura,” he says, “especially when we live—perhaps this is increasingly the case—in a culture of the same, featuring official attitudes, stereotypes of the officially enforced values, sedated language, a politics of pacification.” A noteworthy addition to Donoghue’s long-term project to reclaim a disinterested appreciation of literature as literature, this volume is a wise and pleasurable meditation on eloquence, its unique ability to move or give pleasure, and its intrinsic value.

Genres: Writing

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2008

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book challenges readers to think of words differently: not merely to convey ideas but also to delight, to fancy, to entertain, to embellish and enrich phenomena.

Language can bear upon the earliest stages of cognition.

Language, as a medium, entails form and form suggests adornment.

Let not your words fall flat, merely transmitting the thing from the extrinsic world to the mind. Let the words, too, entertain, dance on the tongue, delight the ear, make life that much sweeter still.

Kudos to Denis Donoghue.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nature of eloquence and the need for it in our literature is beautifully presented in this evocative book. Donoghue quotes R. P. Blackmur describing eloquence as "those deep skills of imagination by which we get into words what, when it is there makes them memorable, and what, when it is gone, makes them empty". This is just one example of the eloquence explored in this fascinating excursion into the nature of literary language.