The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: The Quest for Effective Communication

by Booth, Wayne C.

• ISBN13: 9781405112376
• ISBN10: 1405112379
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-29
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The Rhetoric of RHETORIC is a manifesto addressed to a broad audience, dramatizing the importance of rhetorical studies and lamenting their widespread neglect. In it, distinguished critic Wayne C. Booth claims that communication in every corner of life can be improved if only we study rhetoric more closely. After exploring and combating the various pejorative definitions of "rhetoric" and briefly tracing its history, Booth explores the consequences of bad rhetoric in education, in politics, and in the media. A few cures for bad rhetoric are offered, and a final chapter investigates the possibility of reducing harmful conflict by practicing a rhetoric that depends on deep listening by both sides. The key example used is the warfare between science and religion.

Author Biography

Wayne C. Booth is Distinguished Service Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His previous publications include The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961), A Rhetoric of Irony (1974), Critical Understanding (1979), The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction (1988), The Craft of Research (with Williams and Colomb, 1994), and For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals (1999). Like most of his publications, his teaching has concentrated on diverse ways of improving human communication.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Acknowledgments	xvi
Part I Rhetoric's Status: Up, Down, and -- Up?	1	(84)
How Many ``Rhetorics''?	3	(20)
A Condensed History of Rhetorical Studies	23	(16)
Judging Rhetoric	39	(16)
Some Major Rescuers	55	(30)
Part II The Need for Rhetorical Studies Today	85	(64)
The Fate of Rhetoric in Education	89	(18)
The Threats of Political Rhetrickery	107	(22)
Media Rhetrickery	129	(20)
Part III Reducing Rhetorical Warfare	149	(22)
Can Rhetorology Yield More Than a Mere Truce, in Any of Our ``Wars''?	153	(18)
Conclusion	171	(2)
Notes	173	(16)
Index of Names and Titles	189	(12)
Index of Subjects	201