Las columnas de Arturo Pérez-Reverte entre descortesía y virtud

Impoliteness is a prevailing feature in Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s columns. Against all odds, it has a big argumentative effectiveness, since it allows the locutor to show an image of himself which is virtuous, that is a sincere, credible and, for this reason, persuasive. After all, as Aristotle states in his Rhetoric, persuasion depends on locutor’s ability to project an attractive ethos (self-image). Among the qualities that guarantees this attraction, the Stagirite includes the virtue, i.e. the speaker’s ability to tell frankly his/her opinions and ideas. In Pérez-Reverte’s columns, the realization of this quality is exactly what determines a frankness bordering sometimes on impoliteness. However, since it is a manifestation of the Aristotelian virtue, this impoliteness, occasionally attenuated by the use of politeness, is not dangerous, because it works as an effective argumentative strategy. The aim of this paper is thus to demonstrate the virtuous and persuasive nature of Pérez-Reverte’s impoliteness through an analysis of the linguistic and discursive expedients which characterize it.