Approaching Cicero’s Contact and Communication Zones:

Stereotypes, Belittling, and Inverted Roles in Pro Cluentio

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Author : Hongxia Zhang

Page : 133-180

Abstract  

This article focuses on the rhetorical communication strategy of Cicero in one important course case, Pro Cluentio. After a short introduction where I briefly define the meaning of “contact zone”, “stereotype”, and the interaction model of the sociologist Erving Goffman as framework of my analysis, I proceed in two main sections, and in a comparative way. By contrasting the typical image of being a decent Roman man and Roman mother in Roman society with the anti-images constructed of the antagonists of Cicero’s defendant, Oppianicus the Elder and Sassia, I shall show the case strategy applied by our orator. Cicero’s portrayal of an anti-Roman man and an anti-Roman mother is carefully conducting by clashing stereotypes, belittling, and inverting roles, among others. Through a detailed examination of the framing strategy, I attempt to understand Cicero’s way of persuasion not as a one-directional act of top-down-communication but as a carefully designed anchoring of his constructed images in the already existing frames of experience and expectation of the audience. Exactly knowing these frames, Cicero targeted, framed, and eventually convinced the judges of the innocence of Cluentius. 

Key Words

Stereotypes, Rhetorical Strategy, Cicero, Frames and Framing, Audience-Targeting​