ABSTRACT
Rhetoric, as it has been conceived of from classical times to the present, is habitually defined in two distinct ways: the first concerns what might be called its substance and the second its effects. In terms of its substance rhetoric is defined as a system of tropes, the list of names such as metaphor, metonymy, and so forth, which refer to a number of different modes of substitution of words within the linguistic system. In terms of its effects rhetoric is defined as the art of persuasion. This chapter presents historical rhetorics that depart from Bloom's 'diachronic rhetoric' to some degree since it will address the question of history and rhetoric more openly and directly than Harold Bloom's published essays have done until now. This is not meant as a critique of Bloom's suggestions or provisional statements concerning an expanded rhetoric.
