La potenza dello stile. Note a partire dal Perì Hermeneias di Demetrio

Abstract

This contribution investigates the notion of style starting from Demetrius’ Perì Hermeneias, assuming that it is not only a rhetorical category, but also an epistemological and metaphysical one. Starting from the distinction between a typological (stylistic) style and an event-based (stylological) style, the article proposes a stylematic reconstruction of Demetrius’ treatise, tracing in the notion of style a specific dynamic between form and event, between compositional synthesis and expressive excess. Firstly, the relationship between the intimate parts of a discourse (kola) and their relationship with thought (dianoia) will be analysed, focusing on the dualism between noesis and dianoesis, and proposing the thesis of a noetic realism. Subsequently, the four characters of Demetrius’ style (simple, magnificent, refined, potent) will be studied, and it will be noted how the notion of potency, divided between dynamis and deinotes, configures a second-order synthesis in the stylistic composition of the kola. The conclusion will assert a fundamental ontological pluralism within the treatise’s notion of style.