BIZZELL, Patricia and JARRATT, Susan

Summer 2004, pages 19 - 26

Rhetorical Traditions, Pluralized Canons, Relevant History, and Other Disputed Terms: A Report from the History of Rhetoric Discussion Groups at the ARS Conference

ABSTRACT: Among the thirty or so historians gathered to discuss the question of "rhetorical tradition" at the inaugural Alliance of Rhetoric Societies meeting, there was virtual agreement that the concept of a single tradition would not stand without critique, interrogation, and pluralization. The two groups took somewhat different paths outward from the notion of a unified tradition, one spending more time elaborating a range of historiographical models and the other dwelling on questions of value and purpose in the enterprise of writing and teaching histories of rhetoric. They reached agreement in discussions of inventive approaches to curriculum development and the need for a proliferation of scholarly projects and resources.