Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Part I Life and works
- Part II Critical fortunes
- Part III Contexts
- Chapter 10 America
- Chapter 11 Anglicanism
- Chapter 12 Anthropology
- Chapter 13 Authorship
- Chapter 14 Biography
- Chapter 15 Book trade
- Chapter 16 Clubs
- Chapter 17 Conversation
- Chapter 18 Dictionaries
- Chapter 19 Domestic life
- Chapter 20 Education
- Chapter 21 Empire
- Chapter 22 Essays
- Chapter 23 Fiction
- Chapter 24 History
- Chapter 25 Journalism
- Chapter 26 Law
- Chapter 27 Literary criticism
- Chapter 28 London
- Chapter 29 Medicine
- Chapter 30 Mental health
- Chapter 31 Money
- Chapter 32 Nationalism
- Chapter 33 Philosophy
- Chapter 34 Poetry
- Chapter 35 Politics
- Chapter 36 Scholarship
- Chapter 37 Science and technology
- Chapter 38 Scotland
- Chapter 39 Sermons
- Chapter 40 Shakespeare
- Chapter 41 Slavery and abolition
- Chapter 42 Social hierarchy
- Chapter 43 Theatre
- Chapter 44 Travel
- Chapter 45 Visual arts
- Chapter 46 War
- Chapter 47 Women writers
- Further reading
- Index
- References
Chapter 17 - Conversation
from Part III - Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Part I Life and works
- Part II Critical fortunes
- Part III Contexts
- Chapter 10 America
- Chapter 11 Anglicanism
- Chapter 12 Anthropology
- Chapter 13 Authorship
- Chapter 14 Biography
- Chapter 15 Book trade
- Chapter 16 Clubs
- Chapter 17 Conversation
- Chapter 18 Dictionaries
- Chapter 19 Domestic life
- Chapter 20 Education
- Chapter 21 Empire
- Chapter 22 Essays
- Chapter 23 Fiction
- Chapter 24 History
- Chapter 25 Journalism
- Chapter 26 Law
- Chapter 27 Literary criticism
- Chapter 28 London
- Chapter 29 Medicine
- Chapter 30 Mental health
- Chapter 31 Money
- Chapter 32 Nationalism
- Chapter 33 Philosophy
- Chapter 34 Poetry
- Chapter 35 Politics
- Chapter 36 Scholarship
- Chapter 37 Science and technology
- Chapter 38 Scotland
- Chapter 39 Sermons
- Chapter 40 Shakespeare
- Chapter 41 Slavery and abolition
- Chapter 42 Social hierarchy
- Chapter 43 Theatre
- Chapter 44 Travel
- Chapter 45 Visual arts
- Chapter 46 War
- Chapter 47 Women writers
- Further reading
- Index
- References
Summary
Conversa′tion. n.s. [conversatio, Latin.]
1. Familiar discourse; chat; easy talk: opposed to a formal conference.
What I mentioned some time ago in conversation, was not a new thought, just then started by accident or occasion. Swift.
It may not greatly surprise us that Johnson became famous in his own time for extraordinary conversational powers. His formidable reputation as a talker still survives, even among people who have read scarcely a word that he wrote. But to his contemporaries it must have seemed a strange and paradoxical thing. In the West the eighteenth century placed a greater emphasis than any age before or since on the art of conversation. Johnson flouted many of the rules, and yet he was widely recognized as an outstanding exponent of the game. To see what lay behind this contradiction, we need to look a little into the theory and practice of what the Dictionary calls “familiar discourse.”
Backgrounds
The body of ideas that went into this activity came to full expression in the Renaissance. As that label suggests, however, the humanist scholars of the period found much of their raw material in the classical world. Thus, to take a single influential case out of hundreds, Cicero had written in the first book of his late moral treatise De Officiis (“On Obligations”) about the requirements for good conversation in familiar situations: he also distinguished between its needs and the qualities demanded of an orator in courts and senates. In the sixteenth century the topic became a central feature of courtesy literature, notably in Baldassare Castiglione’s Courtier (1528), a work translated into English more than once during Johnson’s lifetime.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Samuel Johnson in Context , pp. 151 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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