The article focuses on the problem of the influence of rhetorical genres of cultivating communication. This influence varies polemical and epideictic genres. The first affect the cultivation of horizontal social relations. Second on the - on the development of vertical ones. Epideictic kind of eloquence interpreted expanded. This takes into account those new genres, which could not have known Aristotle defined the function epideictic speeches as “praise or blame”. It is about propaganda, advertising, homiletics and didactics. At the same time the controversy is associated not only with the dialogic, but also with the monological texts. This raises the question about the role of literature in the cultivation of controversy. The material is mainly the history of Russian literature and language. The conclusion is that the excessive development of some sorts of eloquence at the expense of others can be counter-productive for the culture.

rhetoric: vertical and horizontal communication, epideictic eloquence, polemical genre