Genre and paradigm in the second book of de oratore

Abstract

Cicero's analysis of genre in Book II of De oratore is a subtle effort to balance and synthesize the conflicting theoretical positions of Isocrates and Aristotle. In the dialogue, Cicero relies on ironic eloquence to explain the nature of eloquence, and, through this merger of theory and practice, the rival conceptions of oratory as systematic art and synthetic practice coalesce. As Cicero presents it, the generic frame is only a convenient fiction incapable of representing the data of the art. Through his effort to understand competing theoretical systems, Cicero identifies an issue of abiding concern—the opposition between a perspective grounded in practice and a perspective oriented toward the abstract principles that define rhetoric as a coherent realm of experience.