Ethos Versus Persona
- 1 July 1988
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Written Communication
- Vol. 5 (3) , 251-276
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088388005003001
Abstract
This essay examines self-portrayal in fictional and nonfictional written discourse. The essay focuses on various treatments of self-representation in rhetorical and literary critical theory in an effort to overcome the conceptual and terminological confusion that has arisen across time and disciplinary specialties in the discussion of self-portrayal. The essay argues that two common terms for describing self-representation—ethos and persona—are often conflated but that there are good historical and conceptual grounds for maintaining a distinction between them. Such a distinction refines our critical vocabulary for analyzing the multidimensional nature of self-representation in writing.Keywords
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