Could it be that primary rhetoric--the doing of rhetoric--flourishes in
a democratic culture, but secondary rhetoric--the study of it--is
something else again, more subject to the various winds of disciplinary
paradigms? Certainly rhetoric is studied extensively in Canada, but not
often _as_ rhetoric in a collected sense. Political scientists study
deliberative rhetoric, law profs study forensic, etc. As for the how-to
side of rhetoric, it is scattered among English departments
(composition, often remedial and despised), public relations,journalism,
etc.
So my quick take would be that the lack of a discipline of rhetoric does
not necessarily mark Canada as anti-democratic or even anti-rhetorical.
[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> Hi Cathy,
>
> You asked whether Textual Studies in Canada got covered in U.S. indexes.
> In fact, we've been accepted by both the MLA and CCCC. However, for the
> MLA we had to wait a few years, ostensibly to ensure that we were
> "keepers"?
>
> However, the fact remains that the Canadian situation in rhetoric/tech
> writing is difficult.
>
> This leads me to an issue that I may have raised on this list recently,
> but I'm not sure. In any case, I'd like some feedback in preparation for
> the Atlanta roundtable. (For those of you that will be there, forgive me
> for telegraphing my punch!)
>
> In the history of rhetoric, it's a truism that rhetoric flourishes in a
> free society but languishes in an autocratic culture. If this is true,
> why has rhetoric had such a tough slog in Canada in the 20th C.? Does
> the anti-rhetorical bent in post-secondary education in Canada reflect
> something about a latent (to some not too hidden) resistance to free
> thought and expression in Canada?
>
> Is the resistance to rhetoric in 20th-C. Canada rooted in an
> English-Canadian colonial mind? Given the English lit. curriculum through
> most of the century, this is probably not a trick question.
>
> Any thoughts on this? Any personal experience? Russ's comments on the
> difference between a writer and a Writer sheds some light here. Since a
> Writer is born, not made, need we bother with the writer? Whence would
> such an attitude arise?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Henry
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Henry A. Hubert, Ph.D.
> Office of the Dean of Arts
>
> University College of the Cariboo | Phone: 250-828-5236
> P.O. Box 3010 | FAX: 250-371-5510
> Kamloops, B. C. | E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> V2C 5N3
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Doug Brent
Co-ordinator, Undergraduate Program in Communications Studies
Associate Dean, Academic Programs and Faculty Affairs
Faculty of General Studies, University of Calgary
(403) 220-5458
Fax: (403) 282-6716
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent
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