Rhetoric Reclaimed

by Atwill, Janet M.

• ISBN13: 9780801476051
• ISBN10: 0801476054
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Thoroughly embedded in postmodern theory, this book offers a critique of traditional conceptions of the liberal arts, exploring the challenges posed by cultural diversity to the aims and methods of a humanist education. Janet M. Atwill investigates a neglected tradition of rhetoric, exemplified by Protagoras and Isocorates, and preserved in Aristotle'sRhetoric. This tradition was rooted in the ancient sophistic and platonic conceptions oftechnecirc;, or productive knowledge, that appears both in literary texts from the seventh century B.C.E. and in medical and technical treatises from the fifth century B.C.E. Atwill examines these traditions, together with sophistic and platonic conceptions, and considers the commentaries on Aristotle'sRhetoricby E. M. Cope and William S. J. Grimaldi, where the concepts oftechnecirc;and productive knowledge disappear in the modern opposition between theory and practice. Since models of knowledge are closely tied to models of subjectivity, Atwill's examination of technecirc; also explores the role of political, economic, and educational institutions in standardizing a specific model for subjectivity. She argues that the liberal arts traditions largely eclipsed the social and political functions of rhetoric, transforming it from an art of disrupting and reinventing lines of power to a discipline of producing a normative subject, defined by virtue but modeled on a specific gender and class type.

Author Biography

Janet M. Atwill is Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Note on Texts	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Rhetoric, Humanism, and the Liberal Arts	p. 4
The Institution of Humanism	p. 7
Paradoxes of the Humanist Paradigm	p. 21
Rhetoric and Humanism	p. 29
Technē and the Transformation of Limits	p. 47
Gods and Goddesses of Art	p. 49
Power, Cunning Intelligence, and Time	p. 52
Arts of Resistance and Transformation	p. 60
Arts of Invention and Intervention	p. 70
Technē/ology, Science, and Ancient Medicine	p. 71
The Interstices of Nature, Spontaneity, and Chance	p. 83
Technē and the Fuzzy Art of Invention	p. 98
Prometheus and the Boundaries of Art	p. 101
Hesiod's Prometheus Narratives	p. 103
Technē and the Standardization of Value	p. 107
Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound	p. 111
Plato and the Boundaries of Art	p. 120
Philosophers versus Rhetors	p. 122
Protagoras's Prometheus Narrative	p. 149
Marking the Boundaries of Fate	p. 155
Aristotle and the Boundaries of the Good Life	p. 162
Theoretical, Practical, and Productive Knowledge	p. 164
Eudaimonia and Subjectivity as Private Property	p. 176
Technē and Philosophy according to Isocrates and Aristotle	p. 185
Aristotle's Rhetoric and the Theory/Practice Binary	p. 190
Theory/Practice and Productive Knowledge	p. 192
Edward M. Cope and Rhetoric as Practical Knowledge	p. 196
William Grimaldi and Rhetoric as Theoretical Knowledge	p. 202
Arts of Virtue and Democracy	p. 207
Arts of Intervention versus Sciences of Representation	p. 207
Inventing Arts of Respect and Justice	p. 210
Bibliography	p. 213
Index	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.