Inhaltszusammenfassung

The article presents an analysis of the essay „Of the lame“ („Des Boyteux“, III, 11), written by Michel de Montaigne, illustrating paradoxically the logic of evidence by producing immediate validity for the reader. This way the rhetoric repeats and creates effects that readers knew at the time from the contemporaneous discussions about magic and their ideas about making someone believe in something. Therefore, Montaigne also uses different examples of ‚magic‘ not to present magic but to make ...The article presents an analysis of the essay „Of the lame“ („Des Boyteux“, III, 11), written by Michel de Montaigne, illustrating paradoxically the logic of evidence by producing immediate validity for the reader. This way the rhetoric repeats and creates effects that readers knew at the time from the contemporaneous discussions about magic and their ideas about making someone believe in something. Therefore, Montaigne also uses different examples of ‚magic‘ not to present magic but to make its mechanisms, arguments and effects plausible. His essay imitates and illustrates what magic produces as effects. By considering treaties of the early modern time, which define illusion as a demonic effect, Montaigne’s essay presents a negotiation of arguments of the demonology. Treating this idea ironically one becomes aware of the mechanisms of making belief in illusions.» weiterlesen» einklappen

Autoren

Klassifikation

DFG Fachgebiet:
Literaturwissenschaft

DDC Sachgruppe:
Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft