This article explores what we can learn about truth and meaning from fiction, through a reading of George Orwell's (Eric Blair's) dystopic novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949) in the light of philosopher Stanley Cavell's notion of "lived skepticism." The article suggests that we can conceive of the novel as portraying…

This paper undertakes, through the prism of linguistic (stylistic) analysis, a reading of the ideological discourse in Festus Iyayi's novels- "Violence, The Contract", and "Heroes", with the broad aim of establishing the nexus between literature and ideology, through the instrumentation of language, for societal transformation.…

This article offers a critique of the notion of "capacity building" in educational theory. Are the intentions behind the latter enterprise as benign and altruistic as they first appear? How is the term "capacity building" to be understood? The article presents a radical and daring alternative for re-invigorating educational…

This article states that in order to exercise citizenship with responsibility, language teachers need to popularize a discourse for criticism in which students and teachers transcend tacit knowledge and common sense due to meta-cognition and argumentation and reach systematic knowledge and procedures posed by experts in the different disciplines.…

Discusses the evolution of Burke's conception of form and explains how he combines form, substance, idea, and audience appeal into a single critical principle. Argues that his theory is important because it provides a rationale for combining language, idea, and appeal. (JMF)

This article is a response to Robin Barrow's John Wilson Memorial Lecture "On the duty of not taking offence". The present article takes issue with some of Barrow's claims and explores further the implications for moral education of some current views on the giving and taking of offence. Accounts are offered both of "inherent offensiveness" (an…

Offers suggestions for using Marxist interpretations of dialectics to begin clarifying the act of rhetorical criticism. Considers three basic interpretations of the dialectic coexisting in the writings of contemporary Marxists: dialectics as a mode of thought, of description, and of discourse. (JMF)

Examines Kenneth Burke's and Friedrich Nietzsche's similar understanding of the hortatory nature of language-using, weighed against their radically differing conceptions of the negative, which allows a distinction between two genres of dramatism, and illustrates contrasting orientations toward symbolic activity in general. (SR)

Assesses American and French feminist theory. Considers several novels that reflect in varying ways their authors' ambivalence about appropriating the dominant (male) discourse and about what alternatives to this discourse may exist. (CMG)

The relevance of postmodernism for formulating educational policy is discussed, emphasizing the postmodern critique of computerization. Postmodernists suggest that the computer in education may not be as productive as was originally thought because it will bring to fruition the theories of modernism that separate truth from context. (JL)

The author briefly surveys some of the claims made about the presumed nature of film as language and some of the problems that arise. He considers the views of two influential schools of film criticism: the Russian formalists (Pudovkin and Eisenstein) and the British semiologist (Peter Wollen). (Author/SJL)

Discusses Kenneth Burke's ideas regarding the rhetoric of form as a productive way to begin to conceptualize and analyze the rhetoric of form. Traces human forming from the level of tacit symbolic "fixing" through systematic "knowing" to the manipulating of technical forms for the purpose of evoking response. (JMF)

Defines the terms "rhetorical discourse" and "knowledge" and explains the inherent relationship between the two concepts. Outlines some of the more important tenets for a systematic theory of rhetorical epistemology. (PD)

Points out that the functions of rhetoric in the classroom--synthesis, discovery, arrangement, persuasion, and memory--provide a starting point and a perspective from which to examine the epistemic claims of rhetoric. (PD)

Criticizes the computer modelling experiments conducted by Sokolik and Smith (1992), which involved the learning of French gender attribution using connectionist architecture. The article argues that the experiments greatly oversimplified the complexity of gender learning, in that they were designed in such a way that knowledge that must be…