Victor J. Vitanza
UTA, E5311 (& Huma5301):
Foundations of Rhetoric and Composition
Spring 2000/02


Articles & Chapters:


These are the 'Readings for Seminar' that I refer to in the syllabus. I expect you to read and study them along with the textbooks. I expect you to re/read and re/study the articles and books in the same manner that you would study, say, a poem or a painting or a philosophical text. You will find the Readings at the Copy Center in the University Center.

Unless otherwise stated, "*" means not necessary to read but highly recommended. In other words, Read It! So much for distinctions.

Berlin, James A. "Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories." College English 44 (1982): 765-777.

Booth, W. (K. Burke), "Kenneth Burke's Comedy: The Multiplication of Perspectives," in Critical Understanding: The Powers and Limits of Pluralism. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.

*Darnton, Robert. "What Is the History of the Book?" Reading in America. Ed. Cathy N. Davidson. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1989. 27-52.

DeMan, Paul. "Semiology and Rhetoric," in Allegories of Reading. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979. (pp.3-19)

Derrida, Jack. "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences." The Structuralist Controversy. Ed. Macksey and Denato. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1972. 247-72.

Ehninger, Douglas. "On Systems of Rhetoric." Philosophy and Rhetoric. I (1968): 131-44 (Originally in different form published as "On Rhetoric and Rhetorics" in Western Speech 31 [1967]: 242-49).

---. "II: A Synoptic View of Systems of Western Rhetoric." Quarterly Journal of Speech 61 (Dec. 1975): 448-53.

Enos, R. L. "The Epistemology of Gorgias's Rhetoric: A Re-examination." SSCJ 42 (Fall 1976): 35-51.

Florescu, V. "Rhetoric and its Rehabilitation in Contemporary Philosophy." Philosophy and Rhetoric 3 (1970): 193-224.

Fulkerson, Richard. "Four Philosophies of Composition." CCC 30 (December 1979): 343-48.

Geertz, Clifford. "Thick Description," in The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973.

Gorgias, "On Non-Being" or "On the Nonexistent or On Nature" (paraphrased by Sextus, Trans. Geo. Kennedy in The Older Sophists. Ed. Rosamond Kent Sprague. Columbia, South Carolina: U of SC P, 1972. 42-47.)

_____. "Encomium of Helen" (Trans. Geo. Kennedy [above]. 50-54.)

Grassi, E. "Rhetoric and Philosophy." Philosophy and Rhetoric 9 (1976): 200-16.

Hayles, N. Katherine. "Boundary Disputes: Homeostasis, Reflexivity, and the Foundations of Cybernetics." Configurations 2.3 (Fall 1994): 441-68.

Ijsseling, Samuel. Rhetoric and Philosophy in Conflict. An Historical Survey. (Nijhoff). (only at the library, reserve; not at UC)

Kennedy, George. "Some Reflections on Neomodernism." Rhetoric Review 6.2 (Spring 1988): 230-32.

Kinneavy, James. A Theory of Discourse. 1971. NY: Norton, 1980.

_____. "A Pluralistic Synthesis of Four Contemporary Models for Teaching Composition." Reinventing the Rhetorical Tradition. Ed Aviva Freedman and Ian Pringle. Conway, AK: L&S Books, 1980. 37-52.

Kott, Jan. "The Sexual Triangle." Partisian Review.

*Kristeva, Julia. "The Ethics of Linguistics." Desire in Language. Ed. Leon S. Roudiez. NY: Columbia UP, 1980. 23-35.

Lanham, R. "The Rhetorical Ideal of Life" in The Motives of Eloquence. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976.

---. "Terms Classified According to Divisions of Rhetoric," in Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Berkeley: U of CA. P, 1969.

Leff, Michael. "Serious Comedy: The Strange Case of Dr. Vitanza." Rhetoric Review 6.2 (Spring1988): 237-45.

*Lyne, John. "Rhetorics of Inquiry." Quarterly Journal of Speech 71 (1985): 65-73.

McKeon, R. "The Uses of Rhetoric in a Technological Age: Architechtonic Productive Arts," in The Prospects of Rhetoric. Ed. Bitzer and Black. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1971. (pp. 44-63)

*Nelson, John S. "Seven Rhetorics of Inquiry: A Provocation." The Rhetoric of the Human Scinces. Ed. John S. Nelson, Allan Megill, and Donald N. McCloskey. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1987.407-34.

Perelman, Ch. "Rhetoric." Encyclopedia Briticannica. 1985.

*Perkins, Terry M. "Isocrates and Plato: Relativism vs. Idealism." SSCJ 50 (1984): 49-66.

Popper, K. "Epistemology Without a Knowing Subject" and "Of Clouds and Clocks," in Objective Knowledge.

Poulakos, John. "Interpreting Sophistical Rhetoric: A Response to Schiappa," Philosophy and Rhetoric 23.3 (1990): 218-228.

_____. "Rhetoric, the Sophists, and the Possible." Communication Monographs 51 (1984): 215-26.

Schiappa, Edward. "History and Neo-Sophistic Criticism: A Reply to Poulakos." Philosophy and Rhetoric 23.4 (1990): 307-315.

_____. "Neo-Sophistic Rhetorical Criticism or the Historical Reconstruction of Sophistic Doctrines?" Philosophy and Rhetoric 23.3 (1990): 192-217.

_____. "Sophistic Rhetoric: Oasis or Mirage?" Rhetoric Review 10.1 (1991): 5-19.

Scott, Robert L. "Non-Discipline as a Remedy for Rhetoric: A Reply to Victor Vitanza." Rhetoric Review 6.2 (Spring 1988): 233-36.

---. "On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic." CSSJ 18 (1967): 9-17.

---. "On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic: Ten Years Later." CSSJ 28 (Winter 1976): 258-66.

---. "I. A Synoptic View of Systems of Western Rhetoric." QJS 61 (1975): 439-47.

Serres, Michel. "Platonic Dialogue." In Hermes. Ed. Josue V. Harari and David F. Bell. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1982.

*Vickers, Brian. "Territorial Disputes: Philosophy versus Rhetoric." in Rhetoric Revealed. Ed. Brian Vickers. Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1982.

Vitanza, Victor J. "Critical Sub/Versions of the History of Philosophical Rhetoric." Rhetoric Review 6.1(1987): 41-66.

_____. "The Sophists?" In Negation, Subjectivity, and The History of Rhetoric. Albany: SUNY, 1997. 27-56.

White, H. "Introduction: Tropology, Discourse, and the Modes of Human Consciousness"; "The Tropics of History: The Deep Structure of the NewScience"; "Foucault Decoded: Notes from Underground," in Tropics of Discoures: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1978.

Young, Richard. "Arts, Crafts, Gifts, and Knacks: Some Disharmonies in the New Rhetoric." Reinventing the Rhetorical Tradition. Ed Aviva Freedman and Ian Pringle. Conway, AK: L&S Books, 1980. 53-60.


More are forthcoming.


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