Recent theoretical and technological developments, including concepts of networking elaborated by Bruno Latour, enable composition studies to take an empiricist turn toward issues of identity. More specifically, these developments help the field more strongly connect the figure of the writing-subject to the experiences of actual writers. In this…

The study of bullshit, what the author calls "taurascatics", has been making a splash of late. It was Harry Frankfurt who tossed the stone: his essay "On Bullshit" came out in "Raritan" in 1986, hit the "New York Times" best-seller list as a book in 1995, and has been adopted, adapted, and criticized across the academy since. The ripples spread…

Identifying the specific complexities and historical context of post-Mao Chinese literary women's rhetoric, along with ways they have been misread, the author argues in general that Western feminist critics need to be cautious about applying their concepts to non-Western women's literature. (Contains 7 notes.)

Revisits the hemisphericity theory of the 1970s and the revised and less familiar accounts that emerged in the 1980s. Argues that neither the older nor the newer psychobiological accounts of mind support the Neoclassical/Romantic claims. Contends that these accounts are more congenial to an Aristotelian theory of mind and rhetoric. (RS)

Concludes that the Rogerian rhetoric of Richard Young, Alton Becker, and Kenneth Pike (as presented in their book "Rhetoric: Discovery and Change") shows its age by not being quite the epistemic rhetoric contemporary rhetoricians have come to require. Argues that the Rogerian insights can still provide a focus for a reformed rhetoric of…

Contextualizes the rhetorical archive and moves beyond composition to the traditions of civic discourse, classical rhetorical theory, and moral philosophy. Wonders what kind of archive of actual historical practices would enable rhetoricians to confirm or qualify the existence of a genuine tradition of civic discourse. (RS)

In this article, the author argues that Emerson repudiated the formalism of nineteenth century belletristic, mechanistic, reason-centered, American rhetoric influenced by Hugh Blair. Instead Emerson promoted a rhetoric with imagination at its center, which calls for civic duty. (Contains 33 notes.)

Places rhetoric of science in context with sociology, psychology, history, and philosophy of science. Generates a typology of concerns for rhetoric of science. Characterizes the central issues of the field. (RS)

Explains that epideictic rhetoric is one of identification and conformity in its effort to confirm and promote adherence to the commonly held values of a community with the goal of sustaining that community. Argues that students at all levels of literacy development need to be taught to appreciate epideictic rhetoric. (TB)

Describes an outreach writing class taught to people who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and, in that context, explores the art of therapeutic rhetoric. (TB)

States that fiction revels in specificity and historicizes problems of socialization, including literacy. Argues that the short story tells a narrative of arrested socialization that ends with characters who find their own speech inadequate and the new speech problematic. Asserts that short stories can provide forums for studies of literacy. (PRA)

Examines the simultaneous rise of rhetorical theory and continued decline of rhetorical education. Presents and discusses three definitions of "rhetoric." Argues for the historical prominence and continued relevance of the third definition: rhetoric as the study of speaking and writing well. (RS)

Explores the notion that genres not only help define and organize kinds of texts, they also help define and organize kinds of social actions. Investigates the role genre plays in the constitution of the contexts of texts, including the identities of those who write them and those who are represented within them. (NH)

Argues that Kenneth Burke's insights into hierarchy as a motive within language and his comedic and therapeutic heckling of the twin empires of capitalism and technology provide critical resources that are needed for the recovery of a democracy that is vital and inclusive yet still respects difference. (TB)

Looks at Robert Frost's "The Death of the Hired Man" as a "representative anecdote" for Frost's work, which, taken as a whole, shows readers how to lose themselves among the overlooked places and turnings, the topics and tropes, that make up Frost's rhetorical home, the place of everyday human talk and gossip. (TB)