Juan Gallego Benot | How did rhetorical invention in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation shape a conflicting idea of Modernity?

Juan Gallego Benot | How did rhetorical invention in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation shape a conflicting idea of Modernity? An analysis of the discursive construction of a new European society | University of Groningen | Supervisors: Prof. P. Valdivia, Prof. T. Albaladejo Mayordomo & dr. A. Godioli | Duration: 1 December 2020 – 30 November 2024

By analysing the rhetorical devices and structures of different textual sources from the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, this project aims to understand the importance of Rhetoric in developing a sense of Modernity in Europe. This comparative analysis will try to answer some of the following questions: Is it possible to trace a Rhetoric, which is an expression aiming to persuade others, that is specific of the Reformation and of the Counter-Reformation? Were texts produced during these two revolutions inside the Church not only a matter of the so-called “content”, but more importantly, a matter of ways in which these texts were designed to be communicated and spread? Would we get a different picture of the political structures shaping Europe if we analysed those events by focusing on their modes of expression?