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Dr. Katherine Heenan
English 472
Spring 2007
January 16, 2007
INTRODUCTION TO RHETORIC AS A TOPIC OF STUDY
Communication is an astonishing achievement. Coming to understand others or the world by
means of signs or symbols, words or gestures seems a most improbable feat, and
misunderstanding a far more likely outcome. Yet, it is apparent that communication happens all
the time. This is to me a source of wonder. The field of rhetoric provides an especially satisfying
account of communicative processes and possibilities. As a mode of inquiry, rhetoric is
expansive in scope, supple enough to be applied in the study of various media and multiple
contexts of interaction. As an art, rhetoric is manifest in settings ranging from the professional to
the political, personal to public. As a theory, it cannot break with the "real world," being
especially sensitive to the manifold contingencies constraining human choice and outcomes.
But rhetorical inquiry is practical and critical as well as theoretical. It discovers techniques for
the production of discourse and formulates methods of critical analysis. Much of rhetoric is
driven by pragmatic and pedagogical impulses. It aims not only to assess how communication is
used but also to suggest ways it might be improved. The study and teaching of rhetoric has a
long, rich, and valuable history. Any given rhetorical system gives insights into the social,
political, and literary culture of its age. But the history of rhetoric also reveals the understandings
of past ages on questions that still confront us today. The study of this history can enrich
contemporary pedagogy and invigorate contemporary theory and criticism.
1. What are we going to study?
The history of Rhetoric as a topic consists of more than 2,500 years of communication practice,
theorizing as to how that practice works, and teaching as to how to best produce it.
In other words, a body of literature about MODELS, PRACTICE, and THEORIES.
The study of MODELS—
speakers, speeches, and written discourse—is generally done in courses perhaps titled "history
of [X type of] public address,"
The study of PRACTICE—
communication production--takes place in public speaking, oral interpretation, interpersonal,
small group, listening, and writing courses.
This course focuses on the study of Rhetorical THEORY—
by examining the historical personages, literature, and social circumstances which produced our
understandings of how communication operates. This study includes interest in learning about
to how to transfer theory into practice through models: approaches to pedagogy.
Communication Theory examines these questions from a social scientific point of view.
Rhetorical Theory examines these questions from a humanistic point of view.
2.
How may we define the topic?
What is rhetoric? Currently it is one of the most overused and mis-understood words in our
political and cultural vocabulary. Over the course of 3000 there have been numerous definitions
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and applications for the term "Rhetoric”; some of which are not so positive. For example, from
the American political or legal systems, or in the media, you may have heard someone say, "I
want more than rhetoric," or "That's just a lot of rhetoric." These comments imply that rhetoric is
empty, merely words without substance or content. This negative interpretation of rhetoric is not
entirely new. In fact, Plato and many of the early Greek philosophers would probably agree with
those who use the word "rhetoric" in this way.
Let's note four main approaches, the details and significance of which we will examine in
greater detail throughout the course.
—Rhetoric is the art of discovering all the available means of persuasion in any given case
(Aristotle)
—"Wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric, and wherever there is rhetoric, there is
meaning." (Bryant)
NEW SLIDE
—Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language…. . . . Rhetoric is communication that attempts
to coordinate social action. For this reason, rhetorical communication is explicitly pragmatic. Its
goal is to influence human choices on specific matters that require immediate attention.
(Hauser)
—"Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication." (Andrea Lunsford)
3) Let's summarize that which Rhetoric is probably not.
(Imagine 3 circles: widest is Communication, with Persuasion and Rhetoric inside, overlapping)
It's probably not equivalent to "communication": that is generally treated as a more broad term.
It's probably not equivalent to "persuasion": that is often treated as a more narrow term. While
all persuasion is communication and all rhetoric is communication there is certainly
communication which is neither persuasive nor rhetorical and there may be rhetoric which is not
persuasive. The key thing to remember here: various theorists size these circles differently. The
majority view tends to equate rhetoric and persuasion.
4) Although it has sometimes been treated as such, Rhetoric is not western civilization's key
devil term.
You may hear that
—it is empty talk
—it is the ornamental use of overly fancy words
—it is the linguistic substitute for action not taken
—it is the substitution of irrationality for reason
—it primarily involves appearances rather than reality
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—it is primarily unethical
We do not treat Rhetoric as any of these negatives. I will try to show you over the course of the
term that these explanations are wrong. At the end of the course, you may decide that one or
more of them were right. At various points in the 3000 years, Rhetoric has suffered from one or
more of these deficiencies--but given the scope of history we do not throw out the good merely
due to periods of blame (we don't toss science due to Hiroshima; we don't dismiss all visual arts
due to some pornography).
So, perhaps Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg (2001) said it best:
Rhetoric has a number of overlapping meanings: the practice of oratory; the study of the
strategies of effective oratory; the use of language, written or spoken, to inform or
persuade; the study of the persuasive effects of language; the study of the relation between
language and knowledge; the classification and use of tropes and figures; and, of course, the
use of empty promises and half-truths as a form of propaganda. Nor does this list exhaust the
definitions that might be given. Rhetoric is a complex discipline with a long history: It is less
helpful to try to define it once and for all than to look at the many
definitions it has accumulated over the years and to attempt to understand how each arose and
how each still inhabits and shapes the field.