In a recent post, Henry suggests that Doug Brent presents an either/or
proposition, asking about generic writing courses or WID: "I have to
decide which view to put my shoulder behind." Henry asks, "Why not both?"
and goes on to site Bazerman, who writes that "[t]he attempt to
reestablish rhetoric as the queen of the sciences may perhaps be an
exciting temptation for those of us who have lived at the fringes of the
academy, but they do little to advance our cause. What will advance
rhetoric and hold back the threat of unwarrantedly hegemonic discourse is
not polemic but detailed knowledge which people can incorporate into
their daily literate interactions. We will be valued as we provide value."
What interests me about Doug's initial post, and about the debate
generally, is how easily the contemporary academic discipline
of rhetoric becomes treated as merely a marginal player. Doug states
at the outset, for example, that "traditionally (since the Sophists) it
has been assumed that there is a 'general' art of rhetoric that
belongs to no particular discipline and can be taught as such."
The alternative "school" of thought, the one associated with WID
programs, similarly characterizes the study of rhetoric as
primarily a threshold discipline, one that provides convenient
entry into a cohort of master disciplines. I'm left troubled by
the implied assumption that rhetoric and composition courses do
not provide their _own_ contexts. The argument that "to be in a
'context,' a language learning environment has to be in the context
of a developed discourse on something," should not be proffered as
a rationale for subordinating the study of rhetoric and composition
_as a legitimate discipline of study_?
Surely we can design courses and programs of study that involve
both rhetorical theory _and_ practical discourse analysis of other
disciplines?
Yours rhetorically,
Will
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