A couple of weeks ago in class, we were having a discussion in class that brought us to a discussion on the decline of rhetoric, which really peaked my interest. Sexson talked about the "Language of Chaos"and the ideas of the italian philosopher Giambattista Vico (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico for the briefing) Vico's major works proposed important theories around philosophy, philology, law and history, and, considering that those 
theories influenced some of the most highly exalted authors in history (his Scienza Nuovo - The New Science was used by James Joyce to write Finnegan's Wake, and his ideas were largely implored by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), I'm asking myself how it is that I haven't heard the name before in my 3 years of university. Well, a further inquiry into some of the ideas behind Scienza Nuovo revealed Vico to be as relevant to a class on literary criticism as Frye! It was his role as rhetorician, however, that i really wanted to delve into as it is was the most pertinent to our discussion that day- on the decline of literary expression and our modern day, pathetic, rhetorical fads. If you'll remember Sexson's reference to Vico in class, this was the guy who said "you cannot seperate poetry and history". He says that "the entire universe is in a constant state of decline since the beginning". The beginning, that is, when the gods were in charge and the world was in a pure state, which then fell- but not too drastically- to the heroes, and finally to men. Divine->Heroic-> Human. Vico marks each of these ages by the Trope or figurative language utilized in each. From the divine, biblical rhetoric of the gods to the "high filutant" (filutant, i'm assuming, to mean fanatical, excessive?) language of the epic heroes, to the language of men, the language of commerce, and now... Us. We are in a state of declination beyond lowly,mercantile language. We've digressed to the current age of jibberish...the language of "like, ___" "like, ___" "uhhhh" "i dunno".... "DUDE!" "Awesome" "sweeeeetnesss". This discussion in class sparked my attention because i've had a heightened awareness of these faddy discursive additives since i've come back to America 2 months ago (I'd like to add "Sooooo" to that list, it seems to be the way to begin any anecdote "Soooo, I was like, looking up Giambattista Vico on Wikipedia...."). After a year of speaking mostly spanish, and hardly any american interaction, I felt bombarded by this jargon when i got back, and I still am very aware of how awful it sounds now, though guilty of utilizing it myself. Every language has its coloquial, sort of dumbed-down phraseology. And this day in age it has become a language of chaos. It's jibberish! Vico said that language was like a "power-house of customs", a phenomena that reflects the beliefs, knowledge, abilities of it's people. Language and rhetoric reflect the transition from one stage to the next: from the divine, to the heroic, to the human. This is only one aspect of the theory being proposed by Vico in Scienza Nuovo. But since his time (late 17th early 18th century) we've definitely reached a more primitive state, in my opinion, rhetorically speaking.
theories influenced some of the most highly exalted authors in history (his Scienza Nuovo - The New Science was used by James Joyce to write Finnegan's Wake, and his ideas were largely implored by Samuel Taylor Coleridge), I'm asking myself how it is that I haven't heard the name before in my 3 years of university. Well, a further inquiry into some of the ideas behind Scienza Nuovo revealed Vico to be as relevant to a class on literary criticism as Frye! It was his role as rhetorician, however, that i really wanted to delve into as it is was the most pertinent to our discussion that day- on the decline of literary expression and our modern day, pathetic, rhetorical fads. If you'll remember Sexson's reference to Vico in class, this was the guy who said "you cannot seperate poetry and history". He says that "the entire universe is in a constant state of decline since the beginning". The beginning, that is, when the gods were in charge and the world was in a pure state, which then fell- but not too drastically- to the heroes, and finally to men. Divine->Heroic-> Human. Vico marks each of these ages by the Trope or figurative language utilized in each. From the divine, biblical rhetoric of the gods to the "high filutant" (filutant, i'm assuming, to mean fanatical, excessive?) language of the epic heroes, to the language of men, the language of commerce, and now... Us. We are in a state of declination beyond lowly,mercantile language. We've digressed to the current age of jibberish...the language of "like, ___" "like, ___" "uhhhh" "i dunno".... "DUDE!" "Awesome" "sweeeeetnesss". This discussion in class sparked my attention because i've had a heightened awareness of these faddy discursive additives since i've come back to America 2 months ago (I'd like to add "Sooooo" to that list, it seems to be the way to begin any anecdote "Soooo, I was like, looking up Giambattista Vico on Wikipedia...."). After a year of speaking mostly spanish, and hardly any american interaction, I felt bombarded by this jargon when i got back, and I still am very aware of how awful it sounds now, though guilty of utilizing it myself. Every language has its coloquial, sort of dumbed-down phraseology. And this day in age it has become a language of chaos. It's jibberish! Vico said that language was like a "power-house of customs", a phenomena that reflects the beliefs, knowledge, abilities of it's people. Language and rhetoric reflect the transition from one stage to the next: from the divine, to the heroic, to the human. This is only one aspect of the theory being proposed by Vico in Scienza Nuovo. But since his time (late 17th early 18th century) we've definitely reached a more primitive state, in my opinion, rhetorically speaking.