Abstract
This chapter tackles the peculiar reception of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in post-revolutionary France. In his study of Ernst Havet’s rehabilitation of Aristotle’s rhetoric in 19th century France, Denis Thouard explains how Aristotelian texts were politicized in various ways. Victor Hugo echoed the sentiments of many in declaring a “war on rhetoric”, and in particular on Aristotle’s Rhetoric. It is argued that this was part of a levelling of discourse which was meant to inculcate truthfulness and eliminate power differentials tied to variations in the power to persuade: an ambitious program allied with the ideals of the French Revolution. Tracing the fate of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the theory of rhetoric from Romanticism to Positivism in French literary theory and culture in the long 19th century, Thouard localizes the reception of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in a wider cultural context.
