Retorical Sincerity as a Key to the Problem of Miracle Representation in Literature

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of miracle representation in literature as a rhetorical issue, and for this purpose focuses on a special type of rhetoric – the rhetoric of sincerity (a concept known today both in world research, as in the works of Ernst van Alphen and Mieke Bal, and in Israeli research, such as in Menachem Brinker’s book on Brenner Ad ha-simta ha-tverianit). Sincerity is presented as an act of speech, a narrative function and the breaking of a taboo, and is finally defined as an exposure of the realization of personality. Therefore, sincerity reveals its proximity to myth, and myth is perceived as the most sincere form of speech. After distinctions are made between sincerity of expression and exposure, and between strong and weak sincerity, the conclusion is reached that strong, expressive sincerity is the only possible way to put into words the impossible language of miracles.