An Argumentative Reading of Selected Pre-Islamic Elegies

Abstract

Abstract

This study entitled “An argumentative reading of selected pre-islamic Elegies”, seeks to apply Perelman and Tyteca’s argumentative approach to selected Pre–Islamic elegies in order to uncover the power of style in argumentation since style is essential in framing the arguments and foregrounding their emotional effect. The study aims to show how applicable the approach is to elegies that incorporate a message and multiple persuasive and/or convincing arguments the poet–persuader intends to deliver in aesthetic styles consolidating the arguments emotionally and rationally. Based on the concept of loss and the fallacy of ignorance, elegies share almost the same arguments so that the poetic persona may lament the cherished dead and express deep sorrows over the enormous affliction through a discourse of sadness, regret, yearning, and veneration. The study concluded that elegies proved  feasible in constructing persuasive and/or convincing arguments lamenting the dead’s sovereignty, and honor.

Keywords: Argumentation, Perelman, Elegy, Pre–Islamic era, poetry