Argues that the two principle modes of organizing rhetorical theories in histories of rhetoric (according to influence or systems) frequently mask or distort the particularity of rhetoric's history. Forwards an alternative critical history that privileges the notions of text, particularity, change, and criticism. (SR)

Argues that a 1992 report, "Active Prolific Female Scholars in Communication," is a thematic marker of a masculinist ideology. Offers a critical reading of the report and of the anonymous referees' reviews of the authors' original response essay critiquing the report, delineating the apparatuses that sustain and enable those ideological…

Offers a rhetorical/ideological reading of the 1993 article "How to Get Published" by James W. Chesebro. Argues that the essay is a disciplinary manifesto advancing particular values of professional community as well as of research, revealing militantly conventionalizing aspects of the disciplinary community. Argues that these work against, not…

Presents an overview of Michel Foucault's approach to the study of historical systems of thought, arguing that Foucault's view of historical criticism and language-in-use have much to offer rhetorical theory and criticism. Discusses the nature of discourse for Foucault and examines the characteristics of the fundamental discursive datum, the…