Points of Praxis

My Blog Reflects on Visual Rhetorical Theory and Disability Rhetoric and their Connections to Classical and Contemporary Rhetorical Theory

So, my Spring Break has been pretty crappy thus far. I cut, I suppose you could say, a close friend out of my life this week. Without getting into the "this is why she's wrong" discussion (and, yes, she's wrong), I am reflecting tonight on the role of text messaging, email, and myspace in our technological universe. An entire friendship ended via text messaging, email, and myspace. (Not my choice, fyi, I think such issues are best resolved via person-to-person contact--that would be the "mature" thing to do, imo. Seems immature to "break up" with someone in fewer than 160 characters. I would think 2 years of friendship earns someone a walk to their house or quick phone call. Not the "fuck you" text message and email. But, I guess I'm wrong...)

Still, I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode with the speed dial relationship barometer. I knew my friendship was in the toilet when I was surgically removed from her myspace life. Ahh, the rhetoric of the myspace friends list. We create these online "lives," so to speak, where we post up our favorite songs, pictures of our family and friends, silly quizzes that determine whether we're Rachel, Monica, or Chandler from Friends, and we post a list of our friends, specially our Top 8 friends. How do you know when it's time to delete your friends? And, I suppose your myspace life is over, in a way, when your strategically deleted from the Top 3 position.

I've never cut someone out of my life before--this is a first. But, exorcising someone from your life seems much more difficult than it might've in years past. There's the cell phone number, email address in the Address Book, the picture ID in the cell phone, the myspace friend list. I think I actually spent more time deleting her electronically from my life than she did trying to resolve the issue electronically.

It's not just, "I'm never going to talk to you, again." And, I suppose ending a friendship via technology isn't that far off since the relationship existed so much online. Like I said, I've never once cut a friend out of my life. I have friends that I don't correspond with as much as I would like to or should. That I'll admit. But, I've never referred to someone as an "ex" friend. Hell, my only ex- was my ex-husband. And, to have an ex-friend because someone didn't want to pick up the telephone or walk down to my house before assuming (erroneously) the worst--that's probably the hardest part. (Well, the name calling via email didn't help her case any either. Or, the "while you've been a loyal friend, you're still an enormous disappointment.") I think the adage that technology adds a "cold" or "distant" element to our interactions is very true. Perhaps, that's what bothers me the most. When I refused to discuss the matter further via text message and email, my friendship didn't even warrant a telephone call or walk 6 houses down. Technology is a cold mistress. And, I'd probably be sad if I weren't so freakin' pissed right now.

When do you know that it's time to "delete" a friend?

Myspace was my relationship barometer. It was the 'post-it note" of breakups.

posted by: rgregory at 01:46 | link | comments |

The Sound of a Miracle

As the dissertation train continues to roll on down the tracks, I just finished Annabel Stehli's 1991 book The Sound of a Miracle in which she chronicles her experiences raising her two daughters--one autistic and the other terminally ill.  The "sound of the miracle" to which Stehli's title refers to is the (controversial?) treatment of her autistic daughter in France for hearing and sensory sensitivities.  Dismissed at the time, sensory overload has become a more widely accepted as part of the autistic "experience" for many autistics.  By "retraining" her daughter's brain to accept a variety of sounds and pulsations, Stehli's daughter made a "recovery" (her word--not mine) from autism that is nothing short of "miraculous" (again, her word--not mine).

While I don't doubt her daughter's autism diagnosis and I can't really comment on the effectiveness of the treatment for sensory overload, what is most interesting to me is Stehli's experiences with the psychiatric community during the 1960's and 1970's when so little was known about autism.  Stehli's daughter was considered psychotic by social workers, dismissed by her biological father, and shunned by public and private school systems.  And, Stehli perhaps faced the worst of it--with the theory of the "refrigerator mother" being the most popular of the time--Stehli was often criticized and shunned by the very community she went to for assistance.   The book (albeit not perfect) illustrates quite convincingly the remarkable strides doctors, psychiatrists, and diagnosticians have made in regard to autism research.  Sensory overload is something I just accept as par for the course with autism.  I'm not constantly threatened by the fear of institutionalization and my hopes for my son are limitless compared to the expectations many made in regard to Steihl's daughter, who one doctor threatened would become Steihl's "pet."  While this book only follows the struggles of one mother and her two daughters during a time when autism was equated with schizophrenia, the book reiterates for me how lucky I am to have an autistic child today.

posted by: rgregory at 15:42 | link | comments |

Rhetoric of Autism Blogs

An interesting conversation is going on at Autismvox regarding the representation and privacy of autistic children in autism blogs written by their parents.  Ms. Clark, aka Autismdiva, comments that Kristina, the author of autismvox, often shares too many personal stories and personal images of Kristina's son, Charlie, on the blog.  Ms. Clark feels "uncomfortable with the way [Kristina] represent[s] Charlie’s speech on [the] blog, and I feel uncomfortable with all the photographs of him. I can’t imagine that he will like to look at your blog in the future. I think he will feel over-exposed. That’s just my opinion. I realize that you love Charlie, Kristina, I just think the world knows enough about him, way way too much about him.  I think autistics crave privacy more than NTs and that Charlie doesn’t have enough."

I disagree with Ms. Clark's criticisms, but as a scholar of rhetoric, I find the differences between Kristina's and Ms. Clark's blogs interesting--and I believe these differences offers an interesting opportunity to examine the different approaches to autism representation online.  Specifically, Ms. Clark's profile notes that she is an engineer in California while Kristina is a professor of Latin and Classical languages in New Jersey.  In Ms. Clark's blog, she often speaks of herself in the third person (as "Autism Diva") while Kristina often shares her and her son's experiences by making the connections between autism news and research to personal experiences.  Kristina, likewise, posts pictures of her son riding his bicycle and smiling triumphantly for the camera.

To be fair, I've been reading autismvox for sometime now (it was one of the first blogs I came across after Tobey's diagnosis that seemed positive and didn't construct autism as a fate worse than death like the Autism Society of America and Cure Autism Now often does), and I've only recently begun reading the autismdiva blog.  But, I theorize (and it's just a theory based on my own observations) that there are several notable differences between the representation of autism online between Kristina's blog and Ms. Clark's that might shed a little light on these different approaches to representation.

First, Kristina's background is in the Humanities, specifically languages and literature, where personal exposition is not only welcomed, but it's often encouraged.  I've heard numerous times from Disability scholars in the Humanities:  "The personal is political.  And, the political is personal."  Conversely, Ms. Clark's area of interest is engineering, a discipline that encourages writers to distance themselves from the text--for instance, engineering writers often avoid the first person in their discourses.  The author of the text needs to be unobtrusive and invisible, if possible.  I wonder if these different experiences with discourses and the position of the writer in the text might contribute to the differences in these blogs and the position or representation of the writer in them?

Also, it seems the two blogs have different rhetorical purposes that shape or influence the blogs' constructions.  While both blogs feature news stories on current issues in autism research and autism literature, Kristina's blog has a markedly different tone from Ms. Clark's, which is evident from the home pages of each.  The autismdiva blog's tone is much more confrontational and aggressive than autismvox.  As autismdiva notes in her profile, "Aut disce aut discede," one can either learn or leave.  Both blogs seek to encourage awareness on issues autism related, but they have entirely different tones and approaches to facilitate that awareness.  Likewise, each writer is positioned in different "places" in regard to autism--Kristina is the parent of an autistic child, and from what I gather, Ms. Clark is on the spectrum, herself.  This, of course, leads to different points of views, different perspectives, different purposes.

Why did I engage in this short rhetorical analysis here?  Because, I believe that both blogs function differently and contribute differently to the "dialogue" of autism.  Both serve valuable sources of information, but they approach the topic differently.  One isn't necessarily right and the other wrong.   I think they both have their rhetorical places in the conversation on autism.  I don't necessarily agree that the personal (both in regard to ourselves and our children) doesn't have a place in autism discourses.  I think these different points of view or rhetorical "positions" are important to the dialogue.  I'm reminded of Bakhtin's discussion of carnival here--various discourses function to construct the rhetorical whole.  Each "discourse" contributes to the construction of autism and one point of view or vantage point is no more relevant than other.  It's the contribution of each utterance that creates the speech act.

I also subscribe in some regard to my friend Kathleen's philosophy from the Walton's:  There's enough room at the table for all of us (and our different approaches/discourses).  We just need to pull up a chair and scoot on down.

posted by: rgregory at 15:51 | link | comments (2) |

Beddelheim and the Rhetoric of Blame

In Bruno Beddelheim's book The Empty Fortress (1967), Beddelheim, an Austrian Holocaust survivor with a PhD in art history, argues that autism is an emotional disturbance brought on by a mother's subconscious rejection of the child.  Beddelheim argues that because a child becomes autistic when a mother rejects him/her by not nurturing his/her subconscious self and actively engaging with the child.  Because the mother rejects the child, the child, in turn, rejects the world. 

Ridiculous, right?  In this day and age, with medical technology what it is and medical advances changing daily, we shudder to think about the poor, distraught mothers sick with grief for "causing" their children's emotional disturbances by subconsciously rejecting their children in the womb.  We now know that autism is a spectrum disorder that runs in genetically in families.  Sure, some people blame vaccines; others the toxins in our water and soul; others the diets we feed our children.  But, we've come much farther in psychology to realize that autistic children are not schizophrenics who reject the world in response to their mothers' emotional rejections.  Right?

No.  I'm still constantly answering questions, justifying my parenting skills, and reassuring people that Tobey is okay.  That his autism is not anyone's fault, and it's certainly not mine.   Tobey is Tobey.  He might do things a little differently, but he does them his own way.

Case in point:  Tobey still has issues with potty training.  Autistic children, by and large, focus so intensely on singular, isolated events that they often "tune" out the rest of the world.  It's why they are obsessed with spinning or shiny objects oftentimes.  Why they can memorize a scene from a movie or television show after a single viewing word-for-word.  Why they are often obsessed with moving parts in machines and motors.  And, it's also common for autistic children to become so focused on a single event, object, or scene that they lose focus on the rest of the world, including the urge to go to the bathroom.  Hence, Tobey (at 6) still has issues with potty training. 

I just accept that fact and know that, like everything else, Tobey will do it when he's ready.  Until then, I just clean him up and go about my day.  Besides, Tobey is the most wonderful, precious person I've ever known in my entire life (aside from Alex).  He's more caring and trusting than anyone I've ever known.  He loves unconditionally and completely.  He doesn't know how to lie and wouldn't know to do it if he was supposed to.  And, there are days that raising Tobey feels like a privilege--that some higher power believed me capable, generous, and loving enough to raise this little boy.  I'm truly honored that he's my child.

But, today.  Today...

My ex-husband, which some of you know well, doesn't see Tobey's potty training and behavioral issues as "just Tobey."  Instead, I'm babying him and Tobey's just too lazy to learn better.  After all, Tobey isn't "retarded."  Tobey's not "banging his head on the floor."  Tobey is just "lazy" and I'm "babying him."  If I really worked with him, "his behavioral issues would not be a problem."  If I weren't too concerned with my own school work, I'd take better care of him.  I'm not doing enough, not caring enough, not everything enough.  Apparently, autism is still the mother's fault.  And, in this case, Tobey's autism is my fault.

And, I suppose, I'm tired and I'm angry and I'm frustrated.  Because I get tired during the other 28 days out of the month that I'm having to clean up Tobey's accidents.  I get tired of having to clean up the bathroom when he does try to clean himself up and clogs the toilet.  I get tired having to run to the school because Tobey had an accident again and his extra clothes are already dirty again. 

I get tired of having to call out Tobey's name every 2 minutes to make sure he's still in the house because he's runaway before.  I get tired of never being able to open a window upstairs because Tobey will try to jump out.  I get tired of having to clean up closets and bookshelves because Tobey likes to pull the books off the shelf.  I get tired of having to keep the water off to the bathroom sinks because Tobey will construct his own swimming pool in the sink.  I get tired of never being able to take Alex to a movie because it just won't work w/ Tobey there.  I get tired of ARD meetings and autism blogs that tell me I'm not trying hard enough because Tobey's not on some micro-macro gluten, casein, lactose-free diet and that I'm poisoning my son.  I'm tired of working for what seems like days trying to get Tobey to pay attention enough to spell "C-A-T."  And, I'm tired of relatives complaining that Tobey won't eat their food because I don't make him--Tobey would rather starve.

But, right now, most of all, I'm mostly tired of ex-husbands and their new girlfriends both of whom know nothing about autism and see Tobey 3 days out of the month, telling me what I am and am not doing.  Or, what I should or should not be doing.

posted by: rgregory at 05:51 | link | comments (2) |

I was at a "party" the other night where a friend of mine commented on the necessity of MLK day: "You know that MLK Day is just a chance to keep black people happy. It's a gimme holiday to pacify them." I, then, proceeded to pick my jaw up off the floor because obviously this friend, first, forgot the significance of King's contributions to all humankind. King was for the equality of all human beings--not just "black people." He's honored because he died to insure that everyone can pursue their dreams, so that all of our children can grow up to fulfill their potential, and because of the unwaivering commitment he showed to his race and his nation. We should all be proud, regardless of race, to celebrate MLK Day and to be connected by mere association as "Americans" with MLK.

Second, I love his idea that "white people" had to just throw "black people" a bone, of sorts. "Here's a holiday for you. Now, be quiet." Because, there's not other reason to celebrate MLK Day. (See point 1.)

And, third, I'm disturbed by the lack of audience awareness going on here. Obviously this friend forgot who my boyfriend is and I would bet that he'd never had made such stupid comments if Marc were standing there, too.

So, I'm reminded here lately of this conversation in regard to the MLK Party thrown at Tarleton State University. I'm enormously disappointed in these students (two of whom Marc taught in Comp I and II) and with some of the responses published in the Empire Tribune. And, I've been thinking a lot about the party and response as it relates to Freud's theory of "psychological projection" as it relates to Foucault's theories on power and authority. Specifically, Freud's theory is that we tend to project our own negative characteristics and behaviors onto other groups of people, typically people who are not in positions of power within society. This is like the white welfare mom looking down and denigrating the Hispanic welfare mom. Both are in similar undesirable financial situations, both are typically scorned by the community at large, but the white welfare mom typically has more "power" than the Hispanic welfare mom because simply because the white mom is white. In regard to Foucault, Foucault argues in many of his books that humans strive for power and humans "obey" because of systems of power already in place. Systems reiterated by other systems. So forth and so on.

As it relates to my friend and these Tarleton students: all of them are in positions where they lack certain authority or power in society. My friend is a "$30,000 Millionaire" who works 40-50 hours a week doing a job that probably isn't something he dreamed about as a child. He lives in a modest community, drives a modest car, but by all standards would be considered "Middle Class." Therefore, my friend has no sizable position of authority in society because he doesn't earn an enormous sizable income--the tantamount marker of power in our society. But, he's white. And, as a white man, he has power afforded him by our society because of his race. He can walk through the grocery store he works in and clerks do not follow him waiting for him to shoplift. He can shop for a cell phone without the clerk asking directly, "Are you going to be able to pay for that?" He can pull over on the side of the road for a second to stretch his legs without a highway patrol officer pulling up behind him and asking to see some I.D. and to check him for weapons. He can live in a community without the Denton County Sheriff's Department knocking on his door searching for a meth lab because a "black and white couple" live there. So, yes, he can exert his authority by "giving black people" their one day a year.

These Tarleton students--not much different. Stephenville is really a rural community with few opportunities for economic or personal growth. They attend a school with a (practically) open admissions policy and a reputation for partying and rodeo. And, by looking at the pictures, they aren't too cute or thin. They are probably the "goober white hicks" that "city folk" mock as "ignorant rednecks who marry their cousins." They are twenty year-old kids, with $50 in their bank accounts, and a gas gauge on empty. For argument's sake, they have relatively little authority in our society. But, they can make fun of black people and black culture and call it "free speech." They can have a party and "represent" black people with their toy guns, bandannas, 40 oz. malt liquor wrapped in brown paper bags, fried chicken, bbq ribs, and Aunt Jemimah syrup and call it "innocent fun." Because, at least they are white. At least they have that position of authority upon which to position themselves.

And, it's the "power" aspect of this that seems to have gone overlooked to some critics in Stephenville and my "friend." Sure, black students can have a party where they play bad country music, wear overalls, drink Keystone Light beer, and smoke Virginia Slim cigarettes. But, because of the position of authority that exists in our society, there is imbalance of power. And, that is why it is offensive. Because people use these stereotypes and "markers of black culture" to justify bigotry, racism, and discrimination. And, by having such parties where "black people" are mocked and denigrated only reinforces such positions of authority and power.

Perhaps, it would have been more recognizably offensive if the students were dressed up in "black face"?

Perhaps, we could have a KKK party, complete with hangman's noose, white robes, and burning crosses?  (You think I'm joking--a friend actually suggested one of these would be "fun."  Seriously.)

Maybe a "Holocaust survivor" party where some dress up as Nazi soldiers and others as emaciated Jews? Maybe paint dark circles under our eyes? Draw in the outline of our rib cages to make us appear malnourished? Or, would that be crossing the line?

posted by: rgregory at 16:36 | link | comments |

I suppose because it's been one whirlwind event after another, I should post and say that "I passed my comps!!"  Yea!!  All the studying paid off.  Yes, students--study, study, study.  And, not at the last minute, mind you.

Now, where's my freakin' parade?

posted by: rgregory at 16:34 | link | comments |

Some good points to remember:

Daniel Chandler writes in The Basics: Semiotics, "From Plato to Levi-Strauss, the spoken word has held a privileged position in the Western worldview, being regarded as intimately involved in our sense of self and constituting a sign of truth and authenticity" (51).

Helmers and Hill discuss the scope and importance of studies in visual rhetoric and the "seemingly infinite range of possibilities for those who are interested in studying rhetorical transactions of all kinds" (21).

Saussure's theory of opposites--knowing what "it" is by what "it" isn't. Going back to semoitics, deletion is a syntagmatic (surface-level) transformation that shapes the constructed meaning of a sign, also.

images or visuals are not argument or persuasion; rather, the contexts in which images are placed make them persuasive, rhetoric, or argumentative. [Mitchell agrees w/ this statement in Picture Theory and Paul Messaris in Visual Literacy would argue that we've been trained to see images as visually persuasive or an argument]

"the visual brings to arguments another dimension entirely. It adds drama and force of a much greater order" (Hill and Helmers 59).

Barry argues that emotional responses are a priori to rational understanding. I'm thinking here of her discussion on page 18 of how we begin to respond emotionally to situations before we begin to *think* through them.

"Information that is expressed either in visual form or in a verbal form that promotes the construction of mental images is more likely to instantiate these emotions and to be given additional persuasive weight" (36).

images can even be used to prompt sustained, analytic thinking. Images, like verbal text, can be used to prompt an immediate, visceral response, to develop cognitive (though largely unconscious) connections over a sustained period of time, or to prompt conscious analytical thought" (Hill 37).

Eco writes that meaning is constructed through equivalence and inference: meaning is constructed by understanding what something is similar to (equivalence) or what it could be, specifically "If/Then" scenarios (inference). However, meaning or content is a cultural unit positioned within a system (31). Meaning isn't constructed devoid of contexts. Signs are dynamic and changing "objects" that motivates and are motivated by other signs. Abductive reasoning then is similar to the "snake eating its tail" metaphor that Barry describes in Chapter 2 on page 87. So, whereas inductive reasoning begins with the specific and formulates the rule based on the specific, abductive reasoning also includes the rule to formulate the specific (I hope this makes sense). It reminds me of Barry's discussion on visual perception and expectations. (We think we see an old woman in the picture. After knowing it's a from a book on the elderly, we know it's a picture of an old woman.) The specific creates the rule, but the rule also in turn creates the specific. Alright, so how does all of this relate back to Barry? I was reminded of Eco time and time again in her discussion on the various influences on perception--for example, the influences from our senses. Specifically, Barry writes that "visual, verbal and mental images, tied to our experience of and in the world, are nevertheless experientially related--whether they reflect the superficial appearance of the world or a mental images abstracted from it" (Barry 74). The ways in which we construct meaning or perceive the world isn't simply input-in, output-out. Or, "the eye is not a passive camera, so images are never merely replicas, but often reflect deep and significant processes in the psyche" (Barry 76). Just as Eco argued that we can't neglect the circular nature of "knowledge," we can't forget the role of the "observer" who doesn't just observe passively: "When the mind of the observer is ignored, the transcendent power of analogy is likewise nullified" (Barry 77). Eco echos (pun intended) Barry's point that perception occurs through multiple stimuli. Barry writes, "Meaningfulness was to be found in the reaction among the elements and in the relationship which formed a unified whole, not in the separate parts themselves" (Barry 44).

In Janis L. Edwards' article, she discusses the nation's collective memories of JFK, his assassination, and the accidental death of his son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., specifically, arguing that the coverage of John, Jr.'s death was mythically connected through collective memory to that of JFK's funeral and John, Jr.'s "salute." This photograph, of John, Jr. "saluting" his father funeral procession, became an iconic symbol of the contrasts between "innocent idealism with violent reality" (184).

However, what I find interesting are the ways in which such iconic images become part of the collective memories of viewers--viewers who never saw the "actual" event but only remember it through photographs and film footage. Daniel Chambers defines "iconic" as "a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it)" (229). In other words, the iconic image is one that seems to "realistically" reflect its referent; the image of John, Jr. saluting is iconic because it reflects accurately what happened in November 1963.

However, I believe that collective memories often create these iconic images. After all, how many "remember" seeing John, Jr. salute his father's funeral procession? Or, "remember" seeing the Challenger explode on January 28, 1986? And, while these memories seem ingrained in our collective consciousness, Marita Struken discusses in her book _Tangled Memories_ that collective memories are often forged. Often times, we "remember" the events like they happened, even though we never actually saw them with our own eyes at the moment they occurred. Looking at Edwards' discussion in light of Struken's, I would argue then that because these collective memories don't actually reflect "reality" or what we really saw, they become symbolic images--or images that "does not resemble the signified but which is arbitrary or purely conventional, so that the relationship must be learned" (243). In other words, I recognize the image of John, Jr. saluting because I've learned over the numerous occasions that I saw it on television that that's what it is. I never saw it happen myself--it's only a symbolic image for me. Not an iconic one. If some images are "symbolic" and others are "iconic" this leaves much more to discuss in regard to images and collective memories. How much of what we know and understand is really authentic? Seeing isn't necessarily knowing. Therefore, collective memories and symbolic images are falable, chaotic, and dynamic.

Foss's application of print rhetorical theories to visual artifacts. Specifically, Foss begins her discussion on the rhetorical tradition of priviledging linguistic artifacts over visual (303). Although Foss doesn't mention Plato, I was reminded of Plato's criticism of print texts over memory. Memory relies on linguistic "tricks" whereas print texts are essentially linguistic texts in a visual form. Print texts are visual rhetoric, in some regard.

Also, much of Foss's theory is based on classical rhetorical theories; she discusses how artifacts function as "metaphor, argument, enthymeme, ethos, evidence, narrative, and stasis" (308).  Foss also discusses two approaches to visual rhetorical criticism: inductive and deductive applications. Even Foss article, presented at the end of the book, is a deductive approach to visual rhetorical theory. The authors present their interpretations of various visual media and artifacts, and Foss presents a method for analyzing such artifacts (just like the method she discusses in her section on deductive applications).

I think Foss is giving scholars a "do-able" approach to visual rhetorical theory. But, I wonder if, as Foss notes, visual rhetoric is a "relevant, inclusive, and holistic [view] of contemporary symbol use" (313) and field of study that requires different, inclusive, non-linear rhetorical approaches, whether framing her discussion in a classical rhetorical tradition is the way to achieve this? To answer my own question, I would have to say that there has to be a place to begin. If visual rhetoric is still an emerging field that is often "bastardized" in more traditional English departments, then connecting visual rhetoric to the classical rhetorical tradition would help legitamize the field.

posted by: rgregory at 04:30 | link | comments |

posted by: rgregory at 02:28 | link | comments (3) |

Some ways to start our responses...

"A beginning is that which does not itself follow anything by causal necessity, but after which something naturally is or comes to be."  Aristotle, Poetics

"My way is to begin with the beginning." Lord Byron, Don Juan

"The speaker is not the biblical Adam, dealing only with virgin and still unnamed objects, giving them names for the first time." Bakhtin, Speech Genres

[The speaker] is not "after all, the first speaker, the one who disturbs the eternal silence of the universe." Bakhtin, Speech Genres

"Every beginning is a response to a prior beginning." Bakhtin

posted by: rgregory at 02:23 | link | comments (1) |

Genre and the New Rhetoric

Kenneth Bruffee, social construction and genre theory.

"knowledge is something that is socially constructed in response to communal needs, goals, and contexts."  "the composing process of texts traditionally regarded as containers of knowledge comes to be seen, far more dynamically, as part of the social process by which that knowledge, 'the world, reality, and facts' are made." Freedman and Medway, eds.

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"Genre as Social Action," Carolyn Miller

Criticisms of genre theory:  reductionism, rules, formalism, tiresome and useless taxonomies. 

"Genre" based on the action it is used to accomplish.  The social action.  Connections b/t genre and recurrent situations.  Represents typified rhetorical action.   Classification based on similarity of action.  Rhetorical analysis based on form (syntactics), substance (semantics), and rhetorical act discourse performs (pragmatics). [back to Kinneavy here]   Involves situation and motive and action.  [reminded of Burke here.  Miller also mentions these as Burke's terms here.]  Recognizable forms bound by internal dynamic (according to Jamieson and Campbell).  It's the fusion of all three within a rhetorical situation.  Not just the isolation of one. 

Relationship b/t situation and discourse.  [back to Bitzer here]

connections b/t genre theory and Aristotle:  deliberative, epideictic, forensic discourses.  Have elements common of each (exhortation and dissuasion, accusation and defense, and praise or blame).   Aims (expedience, justice, honor).  Appropriate forms (time, tense, proofs, style).  [connections to Kinneavy here also]

relevance to rhetorical practice.  social action occurs when intention meets effect.

"motives are found within or created by situations and that situations are perceived in terms of motives."

genre based in rhetorical practice, open structure, situated actions.

difference b/t Bitzer and Burke:  motive and exigence.  Motive based on human action.  Exigence based on reaction.

Genres based on recurrent rhetorical situations.   Distinguishes b/t fundamental and perceptual screen.   Exigence is a form of social knowledge.  Exigence is to have a social motive.  Motives--linguistic products. Trying not to create taxonomies.    Genre based in typified rhetorical action.   Combination of situation and social context--situation arises within a social context.   Genre is the convergence of private intentions and social exigencies.

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"Anyone for Tennis!" Anne Freadman

Relates the metaphor/simile/allegory of tennis to genre theory.  Learn the rules of genres, output is text.  However, just as in the game, players can plan what they are going to do, in the situation of the game, things might not go exactly according to plan.  Likewise in genres and speech acts.  Just because the rules are planned as typified social action, doesn't mean that the text will carry on exactly as planned.  "Recipes are a genre, but genres are not recipes."

Freadman connects genres to encyclopedias much like Eco does.

Learning discourse and genres much like apprenticeship.  Learning to write means being around writers.  Means practicing writing.  Means knowledge instructor helping students to learn through trial and error.   Genre acquisition can be socially empowering.

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"Systems of Genres and the Enactment of Social Intentions," Charles Bazerman

Genres are levers on complicated and dynamic machines that contribute to the consequential social motive sought. 

"A genre exists only in the recognitions and attributions of the users."  Genres don't exist in vacuum w/out social use.

"over a period of time, individuals perceive homologies in circumstances that encourage them to see these as occasions for similar kinds of utterances.  These typified utterances, often developing standardized formal features, appear as ready solutions to similar appearing problems.  Eventually the genres sediment into forms so expected that readers are surprised or even uncooperative if a standard perception of the situation is not met by an utterance of the expected form."

Can't always control audiences' reaction.  Part of social action.

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"Observing Genres in Action:  Towards a Research Methodology," Anthony Pare and Graham Smart

Regularities in textual features.  regularities in social roles.  regularities in composing process.  regularities in reading practices. 

"Genre and the Pragmatic Concept of Background Knowledge," Janet Giltrow

Background knowledge and experience w/ genres important to the construction of them.

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Genre Theory, John Swales

genre defined as "common communicative purposes" with purposes that in specific environments give rise to specific features.  Also important:  discourse community. 

genre based on 1. communicative events, 2. communicative purposes, 3. genres of prototypicality, 4. nomenclature, 5.

"Discourse communities are soicorhetorical networks that form in order to work towards sets of common goals."

"genres are the properties of the discourse communities." genre identity based on communicative purpose.

Features of discourse communities:  1. common public goals. 2. mechanisms of intercommunication. 3. participatory mechanisms for providing feedback and information. 4. one of more genres utilized by the group to further its public goals 5. specific lexicon. 6. members of expertise.

posted by: rgregory at 02:07 | link | comments |

Sonja Foss's Rhetorical Criticism

• Neo-Aristotelian Criticism:  Examine rhetorical triangle.  Relationship b/t speaker, listener, text, and context.  Examine canons:  invention (logos, ethos, pathos), arrangement, style, memory, delivery.

• Cluster criticism: to discover rhetor's worldview.  Based on Burke's works on symbolism.  typically unconscious or unaware by rhetor.  Identify key terms. Chart terms.  Discover patters. (rhetorical analysis of Autism Speaks based on cluster criticism)
  

• Fantasy-Theme criticism:  examine fantasies of small groups to show how they reflect the unconscious or unstated desires of the group.  Epistemological function to the symbols.  Reflect desires and create desires.  (disability rhetoric and film/rhetoric paper based on fantasy-theme criticism in a way)

• Feminist criticism:  "struggle to end sexist oppression and change existing power relations b/t women and men."  Criticism based on tenets of feminism--women subordinated by men. Women's experiences different than men's. Women's perspectives not incorporated into culture.

• Generic criticism:  examination of the features of a discourse to see "panoramically" how the discourse(s) reflect the social exigencies of the situation.  Similarities of rhetorical situations.  Similarities of rhetorical responses.  Similarities of situations, substantive/stylistic features, organization.  Examine social reality and relationship to rhetoric.  Examine how rhetorical acts influence each other and are shaped by prior rhetorics.  (rhetorical analysis of Reagan's and Clinton's apologies based on generic criticism)

• Ideological criticism:  based on "pattern or set of ideas, assumptions, beliefs, values, or interpretations of the world by which a culture or group operates." Ideology reflected in the artifacts of that group.  Hegemony--privileging of one ideology over others.  Based on domination.  Social control.  Need to identify the ideology.  Identify interests of those(rhetorical analysis of car magnets based on ideological (and feminist) criticism)

• Metaphoric criticism:  examination of metaphors to show how they constitute an argument.    metaphors as "system of associated commonplaces."  Contain points of view, assumptions, and evaluations. 
  

• Pentadic criticism:  examination of an artifact based on Burke's pentad, developed from his theory of dramatism.  For Burke, language constitutes action, not motion.  Motion is related to biological processes of sleeping, hunting, resting.  Action is conscious or symbolic.   Can examine the artifact as representative of a situation--scene, agent, agency, act, purpose.
  

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Not discussed by Foss--could also examine discourse based on Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, architectonics, chronotope.

Toulmin's theory of argumentation--claim, data, warrant, backing, rebuttal, and qualifier.

Or, while Foss mentions briefly, could examine artifact based on Bitzer's theory of rhetorical situation.

Or, Kinneavy's aims of discourse and modes of discourse--referential, persuasive, literary, expressive

posted by: rgregory at 22:48 | link | comments (7) |

Rudolph Arnheim, Visual Thinking

"visual perception is visual thinking."  Vision is selective.  Need and opportunities to select a target.

"Most noteworthy is the awesome complexity of the cognitive processes that must be performed in order to make adequate perception possible."

"To see an object in space means to see it in context."  "the sense of vision establishes the size, shape, location, color, brightness, and movement of an object.  To see the object means to tell its own properties from those imposed upon it by its setting and by the observer."

"If a visual item is extricated from its context it becomes a different object.  Similarly, complex situations arise in other areas of perception whenever "two and two" are put together, that is, when several items are seen as a unitary pattern."

Understand what it is by resemblance and contrasts.  (Reminiscent of Burke here.)  Resemblance and contrast never so simple as theories of association would make them seem.  "Perception shifts from similarity to distinction."

"To lift something out of its context means to neglect an important aspect of its nature."

"perception cannot be confined to what the eyes record of the outer world.  A perceptual act is never isolated:  it is only the most recent phase of a stream of innumerable similar acts, performed in the past and surviving in memory."  Part of dialogism.

influence of memory is powerful. "Distinguishing characteristics will also be preserved and exaggerated when they arouse reactions of awe, wonder, contempt, amusement, admiration."

2 important points for the psychology of recognition: 1. "what is recognized in daily life is not necessarily accepted in pictorial representation."  2. One must distinguish b/t a "percept that can be merely understoodseen as such."  Difference here b/t understanding what is shown and what is seen in reality.  Based on memory.

Memory contributes to mental imagery.

"many processes [...] are now known to occur below the threshold of awareness." "Sensory experience [...] is not necessarily conscious. Most certainly it is not consciously remembered."

Mental images not complete replicas.

posted by: rgregory at 23:31 | link | comments |

Kenneth Burke's A Grammar of Motives

"grammar"--system for understanding how humans use motive and are motivated by motives to act

Dramatism

• Act--What was done?
• Scene--Where and when was it done?
• Agent--Who did it?
• Agency--How was it done?
• Purpose--Why was it done?

Intersection of these elements--"Human Barnyard."  All of these overlap and intersect.  Emphasis on pragmatism. 

Dramatism:  A key metaphor as an account for motives such that language and thought are treated as modes of action. 

• Communication actions are motivated.
  
• Motives are the factors which give meaning to motion--actions arise from motives. 
  
• Systems of motives serve as terministic screens: they are linguistic products which provide patterns for interpreting life's activities.
• Why? Because of the logologic of man's symbolic resources
  • If order, then guilt; if guilt, then the need for redemption; but any such 'payment' is victimage, feeding back into the cycle.
  • If action, then drama, then conflict; if conflict then victimage, and feeding back.

• Why?  Because of the definition of man

Definition of human:  symbol using (making, misusing) animal who invented the negative (morals) and is separated from the natural condition by instrument of own making.  Humans are goaded by the spirit of order and hierarchy and are rotten w/ perfection.

(Bulleted list and definition of human from "Introduction to Kenneth Burke")

Intrinsic/extrinsic--know what something is by knowing what it is not.  Know what is something is intrinsically within (substance, core of it) by knowing what is extrinsically outside of it.  Burke refers to Locke's "substances" as an example (know the substance of ideas by knowing their outside, external features).  Intrinsic/Extrinsic contained w/in context.  Define or determine boundaries thru contextual reference.

Also, know what it is through "familial" "unambiguity." 

"All gods are 'substances,' and as such are names for motives or combinations of motives."

"The ambiguity of substance affords, as one might expect, a major resource of rhetoric."  (Reminded here of Richard's definition of rhetoric as the study of misunderstandings and their remedies.)

"Men seek for vocabularies that will be faithful reflections of reality.  To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality.  And any selection of reality must, in certain circumstances, function as a deflection of reality."

Reduction of the world into words.

Intersubjectivity replaces subjectivity and objectivity.

symbolic construction of social reality.

Booth might agree w/ this statement:  "At a time when the liars, the stupid, and the greedy seem too greatly in control of a society's policies, philosophies of materialistic reduction may bring us much solace in reminding us that the very nature of the materials out of which a civilization is constructed, or in which it is grounded, will not permit such perfection of lies, stupidity, and greed to prevail as some men might cause to prevail if they could have their way."

Universe is structure of ideas--interrelated by reason of their common grounding in the mind of God.

Money as substitute for God.  Money--not a mere agency.  But, motivation for act.

Dialectic of the Scapegoat.

Humanism--able to understand and cognition therefore have knowledge of universe however our knowledge is limited to the capacity of human understanding.

A Rhetoric of Motives

book centers on identification and persuasion. 

Burke--persuasion based on Identification.  More broad than rhetoric as just persuasion.  Audience centered. 

Identification and "Consubstantiality"

"A is not identical with his colleague, B. But insofar as their interests are joined, A is identified w/ B."

"Identification is [...] to confront the implications of division."  "Disease of cooperation:  war."

"Identification is compensatory to division."  "Pure identification there would be no strife."  "body of identifications."  Identification relies on the symbolic.  "Belonging" is rhetorical.

"autonomy of science" --similar to Vico's theories on perceived dominance of science.   Science to justify suffering.  Technology neutral-- however, humans deem it good or bad based on pragmatics and productivity--which in turn is used to justify morality.  cunning identification (politician).

Rhetoric as socializing and moralizing. rhetorical language is inducement to action. induce action in people. function of $ and religion--to move the masses.

Def of rhetoric:  "rhetoric is rooted in the essential function of language itself [...]:  the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols."

Rhetoric based on pragmatics and function. identification contributes to social cohesion.

2 main aspects of rhetoric:  "use of identification and its nature as addressed.  Since identification implies division, we found rhetoric involving us in matters of socialization and faction."

Use of rhetoric to gain advantage.  Q. rhetoric useful and a virtue.  Rhetoric pragmatic and moral.

Similar to Bakhtin's chronotope:  "an act of persuasion is affected by the character of the scene in which it takes place and of the agents to whom it is addressed."

"'persuasion' in turn involves communication by the signs of consubstantiality, the appeal of identification."

brings together ideology and identification. identification through symbolic (film as ultimate in symbolic imagery).

Beginning of human.  Economics make distinctions b/t classes. rhetoric serves to affirm identifications and divisions. back to economics again.  Symbolic (literature, art, film) means of reinforcing divisions and identification.

Mythic ground and context of situation:  "order to which images transcend sensory images." "mythic images would in turn transcend ideas." "moral and intellectual development" [similar to Vico's stages of human civilization and development]

posted by: rgregory at 17:21 | link | comments |

Genre Theory

• Bakhtin, "Speech Genres."  Genre as response to situation.  "utterance," "addressivity."
• Carolyn Miller, "Genre as Social Action"
• Anne Freadman, "Anyone for Tennis?"
• Aviva Freedman, "Situating 'Genre' and Situated Genres:  Understanding Student Writing from a Genre Perspective"
• Anis Bawarshi, Genre and the Invention of the Writer
• Clark  "Genre" in Concepts in Composition

Post-Process/Dialogic

• Plato, The Phaedrus
• Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination
• Lee-Ann Breuch, "Post-Process 'Pedagogy'"

posted by: rgregory at 00:45 | link | comments (3) |

From the 4C's CFP:

Representing Identities: The first emerging trend is the consideration of electronic media, the way they enhance, hinder, or silence a writer's identities and accomplishments.  The second trend is one of equity: who has (had) access to public space, public discourse, educational and workplace opportunities--and why...  What do we (teachers and students) do? Why do we do it? Why is it important?

I would probably have to examine these statements from the position of "accessibility"--in the sense of constraints based on economic, social, and political factors that can enhance, hinder, and silence writer's identities and accomplishments.  Considering experiences teaching for UB during the summer and my observations in working w/ lower income students and their writing abilities coming from places where accessibility is an issue. 

• Begin w/ Ong and discussion on from Orality and Literacy on using technology in the classroom w/out completely understanding the intended pedagogical purposes.

• David Bartholomae's "Inventing the University":  Member of university discourse community through appropriating discourse of that community.  Writer has to locate him or herself within an unfamiliar discourse community(ies).  Part of locating onself in that community in an electronic media is through discourse--inaccessibility to electronic technologies as means of writing and communication.  Difficulties in that area can lead to difficulties expressing self and establishing persona or ethos in regard to own writing.

• Ellen Barton's article "Interpreting the Discourses of Technology" in Cynthia Selfe and Susan Hilligoss's Literacy and Computers. dominant/anti-dominant discourses.

• Ann Hill Duin and Craig Hansen's article "Reading and Writing on Computer Networks as Social Construction and Social Interaction" in Cynthia Selfe and Susan Hilligoss's Computers and Literacy. social construction (concern for the community of writers and readers) and social interaction (concern for the individual interaction).  Social construction--build meaning thru ongoing process of communication, interpretation, and negotiation in larger context.  Dialogic nature of social construction. Readings reflect social constructive nature of reality.  Social interaction--exchange of ideas and interaction of individual w/ others for specific purpose. Communication is active, deliberate, ongoing, dialogic. Shapes larger social constructions.  Concerns raised in regard to distribution of power and accessibility.   LAN's promoted interaction and collaboration.  Students still recognized instructor as possessing power w/in the class.  Preserves social and political status quo.  Networks encouraged students to exchange ideas and collaborate.   Not quite as successful for Basic Writing students.

• Janis Forman's article "Literacy, Collaboration, and Technology:  New Connections and Challenges" in Cynthia Selfe and Susan Hilligoss's book notes the social, political, and economic differences amongst students that shaped their experiences w/ technology in the classroom.

How do I reconcile issues concerning accessibility and enable students to reflect their identities in the classroom?

• I try to avoid approaching composition instruction from a belletristic position, where "good," effective writing is something one can't "formally" teach and that only learn through reading "good" writing.   Such approaches seem to hinder personal identity by encouraging a style of writing that is typically representative of those of privilege and by assuming that those who "don't get it," never will.  Identity is pluralistic; therefore, I try to be dialogic in my instruction by applying different styles and approach to writing and instruction to meet the needs of individual students.
  

• Genre theory helps meet the goals of the first objective and post-process theory, the goals of the second.
  

• Incorporate technology into the classroom as a means of encouraging those disenfranchised students from further disenfrachisement.  Different writing styles necessary for asynchronous and synchronous discussion boards.  Also means not limiting students to only electronic media.  Variety of learning media available that allows students to work in media that fits w/ their needs.
  

posted by: rgregory at 23:24 | link | comments |

Renaissance and Enlightenment Scholars

Major influence w/ Renaissance and Enlightenment Rhetorical theory--Scientific Revolution

Scientific Revolution--Challenges to Aristotle's theory of the Earth as the center of the universe beginning, in theory, around 1536 when rumors of Copernicus' heliocentric model of the universe spread around Europe and 1543 with the first publication of Copernicus' theory.  Also during this time:

1536--Copernicus' theories began spreading around Europe
1543--Copernicus' theories published
1549--Ramus publishes Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian
1605--Bacon publishes The Advancement of Learning
1610--Galileo publishes theory on astronomical observations on Jupiter and Venus
1620--Bacon publishes Novum Organum
1637--Descartes publishes Discourse on Method
1671-1707--Newton publishes works on optics, gravity, and physics
1689--Locke publishes An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

*Deductive reasoning--to which Aristotle was associated w/--considered to flawed means for knowledge.  Instead, need new system to learn about the universe--inductive reasoning.  Previous theories passed down were wrong and people accepted as truth.  Need new theories to find "real" truth.  Truths that can only be observed by human senses are only trustworthy as legitimate.  Complete rejection of Aristotle in every possible way--astronomical, mathematical, physiological, logical, rhetorical.

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Ramus--Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian (1549).  Attacked Scholasticism.  Attacked classical scholars.  Advocated study in vernacular.  Removed invention, arrangement, and memory from Rhetoric and designated as within the realm of dialectic or logic.  Invention addressing probable knowledge within any sphere of knowledge.  Testing received wisdoms also.  Arrangement should follow format of syllogism. General to specific. Organize by structured division.  Tree diagrams.  Ramus method--simplifies information into smaller, teachable bits of information.  Universalities can then apply to any situation. Rhetoric reduced to simply style and delivery (and delivery wasn't that important since most texts were written).  Reduced trope to four--synecdoche, metonymy, irony, and metaphor. Decontexutalization of knowledge--dire consequences for rhetoric.

Quintilian's discussions on invention and arrangement were useless. Morality irrespective of rhetorical ability. Virtue belonged to dialectic, not rhetoric. Aristotle and Cicero make similar mistakes but Quintilian compiles all of their errors into single work. Q. claiming too much for rhetoric.  Rhetoric own art--not spread among many arts. Virtue can be apart of art, but art is not a moral virtue. Rhetoric loses epistemic function.

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Bacon--The Advancement of Learning (1605).  Novum Organum (1620).  Rejection of classical "truths" handed down in response to Scientific Revolution. Rejected Scholasticism. should use scientific method and logic for knowledge.  Rejected deductive reasoning and syllogism for inductive reasoning applying observation, experimentation, and classification to advance learning.  Does not subscribe to Ramist method based on syllogism or division of rhetoric from dialectic.  Warned against narrow empiricism--positivism.

Faculties of mind to base rhetorical theory:  reason, memory, imagination.  separate: appetite and will. reason--philosophy. memory--history. imagination--poesy. Skeptical of sense perceptions. Subjective--hence discussion of idols in Novum Organum. "Idols of Tribe"--humanity's perceptual limitations. man cannot be the measure of all things, contrary to Protagoras' claim. "Idols of Cave"--individual human's faulty perceptions. "Idols of Marketplace"--faulty perceptions of other's words and perceptions. "Idols of Theatre"--faulty perceptions of commonly-held knowledge.  Keen awareness of limitations of human knowledge. Rejection of syllogism. Advocate of perpiscuity. Apply reason to the imagination to move the will.

The Advancement of Learning. Invention--apply knowledge of what already known to situation at hand. How:  Common places of knowledge: 1. Colors of Good and Evil. 2. de augmentis (stock arguments, debate briefs). 3. formulae (stock phrases). 4. pointed speeches. Observe, converse, study.  In regard to rhetoric, rejected syllogism and inductive reasoning in favor of axioms.  Should use logic and sense perceptions but not necessarily "trust" them as "reality."

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Locke--An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. 1690. addresses the notion of language as a signifier of ideas. Specifically in Book III, Chapter IX of Locke’s essay, he argues that language is the means by which people “communicat[e] thoughts to others” (355). Locke also explores the role of language as a tool for “communicating by words either for civil or philosophical purposes” and the complexity and inadequacy of signifying abstract, intangible ideas through language (355).

According to Locke’s essay, “ideas” are “some immediate object of the mind, which it perceives and has before it […] thus determined, i.e. which the mind has in itself, and knows, and sees there, be determined without any change to that name, and that name determined to that precise idea” (Locke 13). In other words, ideas are the mental representations as acquired from the senses of entities (i.e. horses, milk) and notions (i.e. murder, sacrilege). Furthermore, language is only useful as long as it is mutually intelligible. Locke continues by exploring how, as an insufficient tool, language will often give-way to misunderstandings (703), and to circumvent these problems, it is the responsibility of individuals to speak and write as clearly as possible (355).

Ideas were separate from language; however, language was the means by which primary and secondary ideas were conveyed. Primary--general.  Secondary--culture bound. Ideas--identical.  Words--ambigious.  Rhetoric increases ambiguity.  Emphasis on perpescuity to remedy that.  Understanding and will.

Theory of Ideas--
Sensory Experience--> Reflection on that experience--> produces ideas--> mind holds together and makes connections and traces relationships b/t ideas--> Ideas united together by laws of association and by reason.  --> add pathetic appeals and you get *action.*

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Vico--On the Study Methods of Our Time. 1709. Rejection of Descartes’ “True Knowledge”: Descartes argues for “true knowledge” there can be no doubt—Human reason is capable of critiquing received wisdom but received wisdom should also be challenged by newly discovered universals and absolutes. However, because of this focus on universal and absolute truths, culture-bound knowledge was not considered significant or relevant. In other words, the only knowledge of use to human beings is that which can be proven absolutely through observation or experimentation.  Rhetoric better suited for human knowledge. knowledge cannot be separated from language. knowledge bound in human reason. humans limited to historical circumstances.  Concern for ethos. "Common Sense." matters of probability and belief. Imagination.

Vico’s Rejection of Cartesian Philosophy. Vico opposes in Opere this method of inquiry because there is no subject that is not grounded in some doubt. Specifically, human beings only assume that the foundations of mathematics and geometry are scientifically proven because they have been told to believe so; however, only God, as the creator of the universe, knows for certain the laws that govern it. Vico’s first axiom in The New Science reiterates this claim: “Because of the indefinite nature of the human mind, wherever it is lost in ignorance, man makes himself the measure of all things” (54) because “[w]hen men are ignorant of the natural causes producing things, and cannot even explain them by analogy with similar things, they attribute their own nature to them. The vulgar, for example, say the magnet loves the iron” (63).

Epistemic Importance of Imagination and Common Sense. Vico again privileges invention and imagination over scientific investigation in On the Study Methods of Our Time when he argues that “the invention of arguments is by nature prior to the judgment of their validity, so that, in teaching, that invention should be given priority over philosophical criticism” (14). Vico reiterates the importance of imagination and invention in The New Science when he writes, “Imagination is more robust in proportion as reasoning power is weak” (66).

Importance of Human Affairs and Subjects Concerned with Human Affairs. Vico also challenges Cartesian disregard for subjects such as ethics, politics, logic, history, and medicine, which are not considered subjects worthy of study they are matters of human affairs with multiple circumstances and relative casualty (Bizzell and Herzberg 711). From this, Vico’s asserts in The New Science that since all knowledge is based on an understanding of human epistemology, rhetoric and philosophy can provide the universal truths that empiricists seek: “To be useful to the human race, philosophy must raise and direct weak and fallen man, not rend his nature or abandon him in his corruption” (55) since “[p]hilosophy contemplates reason, whence comes knowledge of the true; philology observes the authority of human choice, whence comes consciousness of the certain” (56).

Pedagogical Implications of Cartesian Theory. Vico argues in On the Study Methods of Our Time that “the greatest drawback of our educational methods is that we pay an excessive amount of attention to the natural sciences and not enough to ethics” (33). Vico continues, “Our chief fault is that we disregard that part of ethics which treats of human character, of its dispositions, its passions, and of the manner of adjusting these factors to public life and eloquence” (On the Study Methods of Our Time 33). Vico argues that subjects such as ethics, rhetoric, and language are more useful to scholars: “Abstract, or general truths are eternal; concrete or specific ones change momentarily from truths to untruths” (On the Study Methods of Our Time 34-5).

Balance in Education. Vico recommends that studies should reflect a balance. Students should study both human affairs and scientific truths since understanding one helps students to understand the other. In other words, language has an epistemic function that facilitates a complexity of human understanding of concepts; such complexities of understanding lead to complexities in the social order.

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Campbell--Philosophy of Rhetoric. 1776. Psychological rhetoric. Ground rhetoric in human nature. Different faculties used for understanding different experiences. Involve the faculties in discourse. Forms of discourse. Emphasizes induction—use of faculties for direct observation. Invention no longer w/in realm of rhetoric. Instead, methodology and genius were necessary. Adapting message to audience’s faculties.

New rhetoric as counterpart of new logic. Scottish Common Sense Realism, communication grounded in philosophy consciously opposed to Scholasticism. Reality is not a rational construct revealed through syllogistic logic. Deductive logic can never discover the truth in science and ethics. Induction could. Allowed individuals to communicate w/ language to act on the audiences’ faculties, attempting to reproduce original experience. Knowledge—extralinguistic. Rhetoric becomes elaboration of what was already observed or discovered. Invention not about discovery but about managing discoveries already uncovered. Importance of eloquence. Managing discoveries requires knowing how to “enlighten,” “please,” “move,” and “influence.” Psychological effects of rhetoric. Rhetoric becomes study of how discourse achieves its effects. Rhetoric primarily concerned w/ emotion. No motives are possible w/out emotion. Sensation. Memory. Imagination. Book 2 concerned w/ usage. Reputable, national, present usage. (Context). Campbell’s concern w/ usage becomes central to American textbooks at the end of the 19th century. Book 2, chapter 5 also concerned w/ style—perspicuity, vivacity, elegance, animation, music. Shift from Aristotle’s concern for “truth” to concern w/ effects.

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Blair--Lectures on Rhetoric and Belle Lettres. 1783. Belle-tristic rhetoric. Emphasizes style. Reading inevitably leads to good writing. Metaphor important. Rhetoric study of all discourses. Deals only w/ stylistic principles—see literary works. Invention no longer part of rhetoric. Arrangement not really considered at all. Emphasis on written rather than oral discourse. 18th century rhetoric paradigm for 20th century composition studies. Persuasive discourses—appeals to emotions and will, as well—delegated to oral discourses. Writing courses concerned w/ reason and understanding, with little emotional content. Positivist in spirit and method.

While Campbell had the treatise on rhetoric, Blair provided the treatment of rhetoric until after the Civil War. Blair intended work to be practical guide, not theoretical text. Focuses on literary taste. Literary analysis. Effective writing learned through reading examples of effective writing. Rhetoric almost exclusively stylistic. Emphasis on written rather than oral. Important b/c he provided a model for using literature to teach writing. Effects of art on audience. Source of invention: genius. Importance of the sublime for discovering meaning. Poet does not create forms of reality—copies them.

Genius is key to invention. Rules and instruction cannot “inspire genius” but can direct and assist it.

“taste” “manners” “grace” “slovenly and incorrect” “of polishing style” “than of storing it with thought” “manly beauties of good writing” “distinguishing false ornament from true” “good sense and refined taste” “grandeur” “eloquence” “fancy”

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Whately--Elements of Rhetoric. 1828. Not necessarily compatible w/ Campbell and Blair. Attempt to return to Aristotelian deductive model in rhetoric. Wed an “adumbrated deductive logic” with an empirical epistemology (Berlin 29). New scheme of invention to suit the new psychological rhetoric. Foremost contribution is practical nature of work. Intended to be a guide for students at Oxford. Offers a two-part scheme for replacing inventio of discovery (removed from rhetoric by Campbell) w/ inventio of management of material appropriated elsewhere. Description of how composing process should be taught is most pervasive feature of his scheme in later writing textbooks. Assist students to find topic or subject for a theme. Should be engaging to the student and should focus on something student already knows about. Selected from students’ studies, from stimulating conversations w/ elders, or from everyday occurrences of interest. Discovery isn’t domain of instructor—style and correctness is and should be emphasized. Encourages revision of student work by student following feedback from instructor.

posted by: rgregory at 02:01 | link | comments |

Outline to a response on technology in comp classroom:

Of course, need to define "technology," first.  In Selfe and Hilligoss's Literacy and Computers, Ellen Barton discusses how technology is an instrument that enables writers to commence writing, such as pen, paper, book, pencil, computer program, keyboard, voice-recognition software...  Important distinction I believe b/c we typically only think of technology and composition as it relates to computers.  But...

Discussions of technology venture into accessibility--some Barton discusses in Literacy and Computers.  Dominant (popular media typically most vocal advocates), anti-dominant discourses (Rose and Lundsford to name two scholars interested in.)

In Irene Clark's book, electronic technology is very broad.  Word processing, invention software (like those Burns worked on), grammar tutorials, grammar and spell checkers (what so many often think of in regard to technology in the composition classroom), OWL's, hypertext, hypermedia, LAN (local area network) systems, WWW, course-management software (BB), student webpages, MOO's, and plagiarism detection websites and software.

Chris Anson points out and is noted in Clark's book that composition instructors often feel pressured to incorporate technology into their pedagogy without knowing why or how because of university pressures. 

What do I do:
Discussion Board and chat on BB--

Discussion board as a "brainstorming" or "pre-writing" on the subject of the papers.  Don't evaluate the writing--more for the experience of writing on topic than for writing academic prose. 

Chat--to discuss the readings once or twice a paper cycle (sometimes 2 or 3 times a semester) w/ everyone together in room.  Clark notes how synchronous learning environments like chat can take the focus off of the teacher to give the "right" answer and can encourage students to speak up.  Also, students seem more engaged b/c it's more "fun" it seems. 

Emig discussing in "Writing as a Mode of Learning" the difference b/t talking and writing and I think chat helps to bridge those gaps.  learning to communicate effectively and productively in a mode that might not be as familiar w/ students as academic "writing" but can...

posted by: rgregory at 18:18 | link | comments (2) |

Outline to a response on grammar pedagogical approach:

How do I approach grammar instruction in my class?  Considering the differing opinions on grammar instruction...  Hartwell's article, "Grammar, Grammars, and Teaching Grammar" addresses some of these different viewpoints.  Particular interest:  teaching grammar doesn't necessarily mean students' writing is more effective or doesn't have those very grammar issues in them.

So, I need to define "grammar," first, I suppose. Hartwell id's three "grammars":  formal patterns arranged that conveys meaning. formalization of those patterns.  linguistic etiquette. 

Irene Clark defines "grammar" in Concepts in Composition as the internalized systems of representation that correspond to language. and pedagogical grammar--appropriating that system that corresponds with language usage conventions. 

Mo