Argumentation is fundamentally exhortative: arguments can be understood as invitations to emulate the lives of those who make the arguments. The human exemplar of an argument's substance, e.g. Jesus Christ as exemplar of Christianity, is the paradigm for this theory in which the arguer's identity is seen both as equal in importance to and…

A brief reading of "Desire under the Elms" by Eugene O'Neill illustrates how a conventional Oedipal reading of the playscript opens up spaces within the text for deconstructive free-play. In this case, a tension is identified and foregrounded between this conventional application of the Oedipal complex and Freud's interpretation of the…

This study was designed to analyze and apply the dramatistic criticism methods of rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke to the evaluation of both specialized and general curricula. The study consisted of four phases: interpretation and summation of Burke's work, translation of Burke's vocabulary into an appropriate form, application and refinement of…

This paper offers a critical approach to television viewing that considers the literary and rhetorical impact of television programing. The methodology described is composed of three stages of criticism that are designed to examine and describe television drama: (1) the descriptive stage, in which the critic examines the plot, characters,…

There are many similarities between Robert Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" and Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" that are seldom noted by literary critics. Both works were begun for the amusement of specific children, both employ a strange subterranean journey as a central device, and both are works of nonsense…

Suggestions are offered in this paper for adapting C. S. Lewis's poems for oral interpretation. A discussion of Lewis's lifelong correspondence with his friend Arthur Greeves provides insights into Lewis's perceptions of his own writing. Eighty poems selected from Lewis's "Poems" as appropriate for oral interpretation are classified…

Objectivity in style description is desirable, but three elements of any literary work make objectivity difficult: subject matter, context, and audience. Keeping aware of these subjective factors can help in achieving a measure of objective description. Two methods of stylistic analysis can be conducive to objectivity: propositional reduction and…

During the past decade, debators have become more flexible in their affirmative analysis of the resolution. One case approach that an affirmative team may adopt is the utilities or no-needs need case in which they argue for the elimination of the status quo because it is unnecessary or restrictive or both. This paper examines: (1) the four…

Four twentieth century playwrights--Pirandello, Giraudoux, O'Neill, and Albee--differed in their solutions to the human dilemma and in their philosophic apprehensions of human dilemma, but all four showed interest in the basic concerns of all humanity: body and soul, appearance and reality, the real and the ideal. Albee, the only one of the four…

The literary critic should be both a good detective and a naive observer in finding out what is going on in a literary work and passing on that knowledge to those wishing to use it in furthering their reading pleasure. Rather than formulating value judgments about a piece of literature, critics must use their experiences to illuminate important…

The emergence in Chicano poetry of the language experiments and folk wisdom of the oral traditions of barrio cuentos, corridos, dichos, and actos reveals that this literature is neither fleeting nor novel. Jose Montoya's "Resonant Valley" exemplifies the Chicano's preservation of ancient wisdom and practice in new formal experiments and…

Argues that traditional bridges between the literary culture and publishing culture have increasingly weakened in past decade. The publishing culture has become like that of big business, marked by effort to standardize product, distribution, and consumer, and the advent of bookstore chains has put into practice the mass-merchandising system.…

This paper discusses the mixing of theories that make up the theoretical framework the researcher uses to apply the systematic method of narrative analysis called the Listening Guide (L. Brown and others, 1991). The Listening Guide, a voice-centered relational method was developed to uncover how girls and women talk about themselves through their…

Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative action has held much promise for critical theory and its examination of the structure of society. This theory, however, has been accused by some as being limited in regard to other forms of discourse, especially fictional, mythical, and religious texts. Habermas has argued that literature (i.e., fictive…

The literature on diversity in higher education spans a broad range of issues. However, while broad in range, contemporary scholarship on diversity in higher education often suffers from a view of diversity that is ahistorical and acontextual. Through a critique of a study by Wolf-Wendel, Toma, and Morphew (2001), aims to demonstrate how…