AHSS 2030 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Cooperative Principle, Fide, Pathos

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Legendry and the Rhetoric of Truth
Most legend scholars hold that legend has some relation to belief; more specifically,
that legends involve a debate about a belief
that legend is concerned with matters of truth
First and foremost, a legend makes a claim about the truth of an event
It has long been noted that legendry possesses what has been called its own
elief laguage. This is the laguage of traditio-a common fund of knowledge
that fors the elief oaular ith hih ouiatios are onstructed
ad hih are eeted together ith the appropriate liguisti odig
agets
Without recourse to this belief language of agents, objects, forces, and signs, a
proposition or narrative may be misinterpreted or totally misunderstood
o A Europea, for eaple, ould likel reogize a perso ith a horse’s
hoof as the devil. A North American might miss this identification
Paul Grie’s ooperatie priiple for oa fide ouiatio is ased o four ais,
one of which is the Maxim of Quality: say only what you believe to be true
Truth, in other words, is to be assumed unless something serves to signal
otherwise
Legends, however, make what are perceived to be extraordinary claims
o Because legendary narratives tend, regardless of their subject matter, to
make such claims, they require the deployment of a rhetoric to allay
doubts and foil challenges.
There are two claims that a legend can make regarding its truth
The first is for the truth of the account as it is given.
second claim that somebut not all legends make
o Some legends make claims that go beyond the facts
o The facts themselves call for further interpretation
o Ie. A narrator told of a wealthy man who had a telephone installed in the
mausoleum where he planned to be entombed, because he felt that he
would come back to life. He promised to call his wife when he did.
Several years later they found that his wife died of a sudden heart attack
after she picked up the phone. When they checked the mausoleum, they
found the receiver off the hook
This legend presents a set of facts but asks the listeners to make
the following inferences as well: that the man came back to life
and called his wife; she was so shocked to hear his voice that she
died.
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion
But if the leged’s rhetori of truth is leared, it is ot epliitl taught. There are
o auals for its istrutio or shools dediated to its pratie. It is a folk or
eraular rhetori
Ethos (credibility), pathos (emotions), logos (information)
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Ethos
The authority of the source
o The authority of a source depends, to some extent, upon the social
position of the narrator and/or the reputed source of the narrative.
o how the narrator and source are presented can be embodied in the
discourse itself (entechnic), or it may stand outside the discourse
(atechnic)
o The authority of the source may rest less on social status than on
attributes of character. The character of the source, and the physiological
and psychological state of the source, often becomes critical in producing
a credible account
Risk to the Narrator
o The more risk a narrator takes in telling a tale, the more likely the story
would be perceived as true
Distancing
o Distaig refers to the degrees of separatio etee a arrator ad
the presumed source of the narrative
o Georgina Smith classifies narrative in terms of such distances. They are
either
iorporated that is, eorates
sei-iorporated aouts of eets attahed to a relatie,
aed fried, or loal harater
detahed arratives told without attribution of sources and
the person or persons to whom the events purportedly
happened).10
o Because distancing relates to the position of the narrator with respect to
the events recounted, distancing is included in the category of ethos
o Distancing directly relates to the authority of the narrator
o The more unambiguous the source of a narrative, the more believable
the narrative is likely to be. Likewise, the closer the connection of a
narrator to his or her source, the more credible the account is likely to be
o The first-person memorate is likely to be the most suasive type of
account, for the narrator claims to report something he or she has
experienced. The narrator takes full responsibility for the
account.11 There is no basis for suggesting that story elements have been
misapprehended or corrupted in a chain of transmission. To question
suh a arratie ould e to hallege the arrator’s judget,
truthfulness, and perhaps even sanity
o More distanced accounts are generally less credible. Distances, however,
are relative. Accounts from family members and close friends are more
distant than a first-person narrative, but they are not so distant as an
account from a person with whom the narrator has no social connection:
a friend of a friend, or some otherwise unnamed or unspecified source
Judgment
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