No [One] Way to Treat a Text: Donaldson and the Criticism of Engagement

Two large topics of necessary interest to all those concerned with the critical legacy of E. Talbot Donaldson are patristics and patriarchy. Hanning argues that the link between these two topics is Donaldson's dedication to (or embrace of) what Hanning calls a criticism of engagement and that an important part of Donaldson's critical practice was what Robert Payne has defined as "the true Aristotelian appeal from ethos, the rhetor's calculated representation of his own character as a part of his material for persuasion," that is, the way in which an orator includes within his (or, pace Payne and Aristotle, her) persuasive speeches a construction of self, a persona, designed to stimulate in the audience trust of the speaker.