Reading DeMan reading rhetoric

Paul de Man's conception of rhetoric is misguided. Based on his reading of Nietzsche, de Man argues that the historical and philosophical articulations of rhetoric suggest that persuasion exists as a derivative of trope. In this essay, I provide a rereading of Nietzsche's early conceptions of rhetoric that critiques de Man's separation of trope and Persuasion. Through this rereading, I argue that Nietzsche's understanding of rhetoric parallels earlier historical articulations of rhetoric, which rely on a fusion of trope and persuasion as a means of the social production of knowledge. The essay concludes by arguing that Nietzsche's sense of perspectivism coincides with this social sense of rhetoric, and that de Man's separation of trope and persuasion becomes untenable when rhetoric is reconsidered within the thematic of Nietzsche's perspectivism.