Rhetoric as practice of literary theory (on Derrida, de Man and Barthes)

The essay checks the thesis that modernity is not an age of rhetoric but an age of rhetoricality with three relevant texts by Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man and Roland Barthes. The thesis mentioned proves to be one-sided, since it may apply to the restricted elocutio-rhetorics of Derrida and de Man (and Paul Ric oe ur - as an excursus on the reception of emile Benveniste's late writings suggests), but not to Barthes. His return to rhetoric aims at the reconstruction of a comprehensive speech regime that should lead to a discourse linguistics still outstanding at the time, which Benveniste's later writings suggested.