Loading...
Continuity in Peirce's Lesson in Elocution: A Performance-based Approach
Fischer, Iris Smith
Fischer, Iris Smith
Abstract
Peirce's "Lesson in Elocution" (written ca. 1892) provides insight into his ideas on continuity and community through his knowledge of performance cultures such as theatre, elocution, rhetoric, and declamation. This unpublished manuscript constitutes the extant part of an application Peirce drafted to the Episcopal Church's General Theological Seminary for the position of elocution instructor. Continuing Henry C. Johnson, Jr.'s account (published in Transactions [2006] vol. 42, no. 4) of the Lesson as evidence of Peirce's religious practices, this article explores the Lesson as demonstration of his performance knowledge and experience. What would Peirce have brought as philosopher and scientist to the teaching of elocution? Conversely, what did his performance knowledge bring to his work on continuity and community? Outlining significant differences between Peirce's semiotic approach and that of the Seminary's then-current instructor, Francis Thayer Russell, the article argues, employing selected performance theory concepts, that performance often operates in semiosis itself, as Peirce defined it.
Description
Date
2023-09-17
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Charles S. Peirce Society
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Henry C. Johnson Jr., Charles Peirce, Francis Thayer Russell, Book of Common Prayer, Law of Mind, Performance Theory
Citation
“Continuity in Peirce’s Lecture in Elocution: A Performance-based Approach.” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy (2023) vol. 59, no. 2: 190-218.