Composition: History & Theory: 1950 - 1959
Revival of Rhetoric
Description
In Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985 (1987), James Berlin claims that the fifties saw a “revival of rhetoric” across disciplines. Berlin links this revival to a concurrent revival in Aristotelian humanism at the University of Chicago. Two of the first essays advocating a classical view of rhetoric in the composition classroom were written by University of Chicago professors. They stressed the importance of invention over logic. In 1954, Henry W. Sams wrote an article identifying the fields of research in rhetoric: “practical research in communications using quantitative procedures; studies of international relations; studies of mass media; and, finally, studies of rhetorical theory” (116). This list seems quite relevant today. Another scholar, J.E. Congleton, wrote a brief historical survey of rhetoric and put rhetoricians into two camps: “those concerned with truth and those concerned with effectiveness” (117). He preferred a concern for truth over effectiveness, which we might interpret as a preference for composition rhetorics based on process rather than the current-traditional concern for mechanics.
Date of Upload
3/14/09