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oa ‘Een taal die door de hand des beuls met een brande toorts verdiende beantwoord te worden’
De ars retorica in dienst van de revolutie of De Post van den Neder-Rhijn verdedigd
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Internationale Neerlandistiek, Volume 56, Issue 1, Feb 2018, p. 57 - 78
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- 01 Feb 2018
Abstract
The Dutch press at the end of the 18th century played a crucial role in the political changes in the Netherlands. At that time, the society was divided into two oppositional groups, namely the patriots and the orangists. Their leaders made use of numerous journals to present their vision about the future of the state. One of those journals, called De Politieke Kruyer (1782-1787), combined the idea of freedom with detailed plans, which consisted of several changes in the relation between the government and the society. One of the key term of the articles written by Jan Hespe, the editor of the journal, was the freedom of the press. Hespe criticized the censorship of the Orange House and used therefore many rhetorical devices and figures, based on the classical rules of Quintilians ars retorica. In my article, I analyse how Hespes texts relate to the ars retorica; what kind of rhetorical devices the editor of De Politieke Kruyer used to attract his readers and to convince them to his vision of the free Dutch Republic.