Muckelbauer – The Future of Invention
Muckelbauer – The Future of Invention Chapter One – “The Problem of Change” Muckelbauer situates his book around one premise: the supposedly distinct scholarly approaches of humanism/postmodernism, foundationalism/anti-foundationalism, universalism/relativism have all hinge on a dialectical notion of change. This means that if change is dialectical, every “new” reading academics perform is merely a negation of an existing reading. . . not an addition/accretion. ... Read More
Cicero – De Oratore – Book I
Cicero – De Oratore Book I: The question of ‘When does rhetoric operate at it’s “highest” is directly engaged by C. at the beginning of this dialogue – He is writing a treatise on oratory and rhetoric at a time of intense political strife just before the dawn of Empire. C. notes that it is interesting that despite the fact that rhetoric is by classical definition a public art, there is little proof of remarkable orators through the ages . . . this is in contradistinction... Read More
Ettlich – Theories of Invention in Late 19th Century American Rhetoric
Ettlich, Ernest Earl. “Theories of Invention in Late Nineteenth Century American Rhetoric.” Western Speech Journal 30 (1966): 233-241. E. notes that the topic of rhetorical invention has long been problematic/contested. E. observes that Ramus’ revision of the liberal arts curriculum during the 1500s was the most serious challenge to rhetorical invention (classically conceived) before the 19th century. Ramus assumed that invention and arrangement belonged... Read More
Berlin – The Transformation of Invention in 19th Century American Rhetoric
Berlin, James A. “The Transformation of Invention in Nineteenth Century American Rhetoric.” Southern Speech Communication Journal 46 (1981): 292-304. 11 In this piece Berlin traces how the disappearance of invention as discovery occurred in the 19th century because of the “supremacy” of Campbell, Blair, and Whately in rhetorical theories of the 18th century. In these three thinkers he identifies ideas that were compatible with American philosophies. These... Read More
Rhetorica ad Herennium
Pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herenium (paginations are from the Harry Caplan/Harvard UP edition 1964). The text dates from sometime in the 90s BCE. The piece is one of the first to explain a Latin system of style; further, it was also responsible for the codification of argument into a standard format consisting of exordium (like the ‘hook’ – this section of the argument grabs the writers attention and connects them to a specific topic), narration (author succinctly... Read More
