The position of authors of fiction in relation to critical discussion of their work is an unsettled one. While recognized as having knowledge and expertise regarding their texts, they are typically regarded as unreliable sources when it comes to critical analysis, and as partial witnesses whose personal association with the text is liable to…

Considers the quest for meaning to be the primary function of the rhetorical critic--meaning that goes from the text outward and that is interpreted by the reader. (RB)

The six articles in this collection explore the following topics relating to rhetoric: the distinction between the truth value and the exchange value of a message and between the signifier and the signified in a message; the rhetoric of silence in modern fiction; the way in which readers are influenced not only by what writers say but by how they…

One component of a new theory of rhetoric based on the principles of tagmemic linguistics is a discovery procedure for solving ill-defined problems. To be useful in rhetoric, the procedure must be applicable to widely differing kinds of problematic data. Its range of application, however, has only begun to be explored. Particularly important to…

The purpose of this second book of 21 self-contained essays is the same as that of the first volume published in 1972: to bring together the scholarly theory and current research regarding oral interpretation. One third of the essays are centered on literature itself: prose fiction, poetry, and the drama. These essays discuss topics such as point…

Discusses examples of two types of rhetoric employed by characters in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man": the "old" formal rhetoric and the "new" spontaneous rhetoric. (GW)

One of the biggest complaints shared by writing teachers is that students lack a sense of self. Writing handbooks and teachers are full of advice and exercises pointed at assisting students in finding their voice, their persona as writers. One method that may assist writing students in finding that voice would introduce students to spy fiction.…

Explores the varieties of writing instruction and rhetoric available to women of the early national period in the United States, specifically as manifested in works of didactic fiction. Analyzes Hannah Webster Foster's 1797 novel "The Boarding School" to understand the educational sources available to early American women. (HB)

Developing a theme drawn from speculative writing of the nineteenth century--that technology, like biological species, undergoes a process of evolution--this paper explores the thesis that if technology divides from its human creators and perfects itself until it gains the capacity for self replication, it cannot return to its creator. Using…

A COMPANION VOLUME TO THE COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, "ON TEACHING LITERATURE" (TE 000 393), THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY IS DESIGNED PRIMARILY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE TEACHER OF ENGLISH IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL. IN NINE SECTIONS, EACH BY A DIFFERENT AUTHOR, IT DESCRIBES AND SUMMARIZES THE CONTENTS OF WHAT THE WRITERS HAVE JUDGED TO BE THE MOST VALUABLE AND…