Composition: History & Theory: 1980 - 1989
James Berlin’s Rhetoric and Reality. SIUP, 1987
Description
Chapter by Chapter Summary
Ch 1: An Overview. Introduces the book by stating assumptions and purposes and outlining the governing taxonomy.
Ch 2: The Nineteenth -Century Background. Establishes the dominance of writing instruction in 19th-century colleges and the displacement by literature in the 20th century. Explains the political position of composition in English departments in relation to literature.
Ch 3: The Growth of the Discipline: 1900-1920. Tells the story of the beginning of NCTE in 1911 as an activist organization in relation to MLA. Classifies the dominant rhetorics of the period as they correspond to the governing taxonomy: (1) current-traditional (the objective rhetoric of meritocracy), (2) liberal culture (the subjective belletristic rhetoric), and (3) public discourse (the transactional rhetoric of the progressive movement). Notes the sociohistorical issues at play both in education (graduate rhetoric and undergraduate writing instruction) and in the broader culture (the efficiency movement and WWI).
Ch 4: The Influence of Progressive Education: 1920-1940. Traces the rise of various subjective and transactional rhetorics under the umbrella of the progressive education movement and its ambiguous link to John Dewey’s work. Synthesizes innovations of the period--placement tests, ability grouping, readers, writing labs, research papers, honors programs, creative writing courses--and situates some of them in relation to the sociohistorical concerns of the last chapter. Maintains that most programs adopted progressive (usually “scientific”) aspects compatible with their current-traditional programs.
Ch 5: The Communications Emphasis: 1940-1960. Gives a brief overview of the general education movement and a more detailed description of one of its spinoffs, the communications course, one of the precursors of which was a military course designed to train soldiers to detect propaganda. Highlights major communications programs (Iowa, Denver) and links the communications course to the genesis of CCCC in 1949. Argues for the role of New Criticism as a politically safe (from collectivist notions), stabilizing force in Eng Depts, which led to more emphasis on belletristic rhetoric and the demise of communications courses. Demonstrates two other influences on composition studies: linguistics and classical rhetoric.
Ch 6: The Renaissance of Rhetoric: 1960-1975. Contextualizes the beginning of composition-studies-as-we-know-it in the framework of Cold War politics, Sputnik, the sudden availability of federal money for education (NDEA), and the (boomers) increase in college enrollment. Federal money led to a reunion of MLA and NCTE, and graduate programs in rhetoric began to take hold [now there are 75]. Describes the emerging scholarship in the field--Bruner, Kitzhaber, Booth, Kinneavy, and more.
Ch 7: Major Rhetorical Approaches: 1960-1975. Classifies scholarship into the governing taxonomy. Subclassifies transactional rhetoric as classical, cognitive, or epistemic, and privileges epistemic.
Ch 8: Conclusion and Postscript on the Present: Classifies the eighties scene in composition studies and projects epistemic rhetoric as the wave of the future.
Author
Mara Holt
Date of Upload
4/18/11