The Methodical Memory: Invention in Current-Traditional Rhetoric

By Sharon Crowley

In this first sustained critique of current-traditional rhetorical theory, Sharon Crowley uses a postmodern, deconstructive reading to examine the historical development of current-traditional rhetoric. She identifies it (as well as the British new rhetoric from which it developed) as a philosophy of language use, not a rhetorical theory, and she argues that its use as such has led to a misrepresentation of invention.

Crowley contends that current-traditional rhetoric continues to prosper because a considerable number of college composition teachers--graduate students, part-time instructors, and teachers of literature--are not involved in the development of the curriculum they are asked to teach. As a result, important voices, necessary to create any true representation of the composition teaching experience, are denied access to the scholarly conversations evaluating the soundness of this approach.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809316153
• ISBN13: 9780809316151
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"