Anthypophora is when you ask a question and then immediately
answer it, or raise an objection and then resolve it. In De Doctrina Christiana St. Augustine states that “the speaker ought
to be especially careful to give assistance to those who cannot ask [their
questions]” (Book IV, Paragraph 25]. The reason for this is because when giving
a speech it is inappropriate for the audience to ask questions, so the speaker
must take care of that for them.
In his “Sermon 211 for Lent” he points this out by saying
this is his time to speak and their time to listen in silence. As such he
raises many objections/questions and then resolves them. Among them are
- Paragraph 2: Perhaps we think darkness is like being shut in prison.
- Paragraph 3: Perhaps you want to forgive your brother, but he won’t accept it.
- Paragraph 6: There are many here, one example is “Am I going to say ‘go…beg pardon of him?’ no.”
 | ||
| An unanswered question could leave someone feeling left out |
By raising these issues and then answering them he is doing
his audience a favor. He is following his own rule for addressing large crowds.
The effect is to ensure that everyone is learning, for if someone is stuck and
cannot get past an issue, that person will not be able to follow along as the
speaker continues for he will have a bad taste in his mouth and will sour at
the speech being given. This would be a lament for the speaker. For his desire
is to teach, and if he is turning them off by not answering their questions
then they cannot learn what he is there to teach them.
Great post! Im not sure if this was the direction you were moving towards, but I think the anthypophora also gave him a more personal connection with the crowd that he was addressing.
ReplyDeleteI addressed in my post, from a slightly different angle, the questions and anthypophora that Augustine uses in paragraph 6 that you mentioned. I think that it is really interesting that not only does he answer his own questions here, but he tries to bring the hearer into the speech, writing out a possible dialogue that the listener could have in that situation. Check out my post for more on that.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought Augustine was being haughty when he said, "I'm talking, so you all have to listen quietly," but now I realize that he was doing them a favor by explaining why he was going to use anthypophora. I hadn't thought that this technique could be such an effective teaching tool!
ReplyDelete