Rhetorical Action and Constitutive Politics

Abstract

This chapter is a historical reconstruction and theoretical explication of the idea of rhetorical action. I trace rhetorical action from its first emergence in the poets, founders, and orators of antiquity through its reconceptualization and domestication in the works of the Greek philosophers and the Roman rhetoricians. Finally, I trace its modern reemergence in the theatrical and poetic rhetoric of the early modern period. The overarching argument is that the idea of rhetorical action—especially in its relationship to new foundations—is a singularly powerful tool by which leaders of exceptional virtue and magnanimity can command the voluntary allegiance of the many, not by engaging in dialogue but by the fact of their virtue.