Representation of Rhetorical Presence in Virginia Woolf’s “Madame de Sévigné”

Abstract

This paper seeks to represent rhetorical presence in “Madame de Sévigné”, an essay by Virginia Woolf that reviews Sévigné’s collection of letters. In general, Woolf ’s essays that appraise an author and her/his work are organised into several sections that correspond to the traditional rhetorical levels of inventio, dispositio and elocutio. e synergy of arguments and fi gures that are found at each of these levels are fi rst-order eff ects which can create rhetorical presence, defi ned as a strategy that relies on the selection of certain elements and how they are presented to the audience. Presence of this kind involves a second-order eff ect which transmits the persuasive and expressive value of the essay if several conditions pertaining to the values of the audience and Woolf ’s expertise in writing are attained. “Madame de Sévigné” is persuasive in that it tries to increase readers’ admiration towards the letter writer and thus aff ects the readers in a positive way. is admiration is achieved by means of Woolf ’s specifi c use of language, which amplifi es Sévigné’s fi gure and grants expressive prominence to the text