Examines within Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" two representative orientations (reasons and experience) as indices of popular attitudes about the rhetorical arts during the eighteenth century. Argues that, as a satire on rhetorical pretensions and excess, this novel is an important document in the venerable battle between the…

Examines the 18th-century rhetorical convention of misogynist satire and how it shaped attitudes toward women speakers. Focuses not so much on the formal properties of the satire but on its convention and content as modes of insinuation. Surveys prominent journals, newspapers, magazines, and reviews of the period. (TB)