The article shows that the feminine and maternal are inscribed into rhetorical categories such as figure, simile and catachresis that are shunned, demeaned or abjected (1) by the
rhetoricians, but that as abjected categories do not cease to challenge and fascinate the system that produces and abjects them (Kristeva, Powers of Horror 2, 4).
Beyond their specific theoretical extensions, the authors model different ways
rhetoricians can build theory, all of which involve engaging theoretical frameworks and concepts, moving and adapting them in new contexts and analyses, and making novel understandings and propositions available for future use.
Ritovi acknowledges this, but circumvents the problem by focusing on the use-value for
rhetoricians. Her chapter on Ricoeur's personal and intellectual development, "The Vagrant Scholar," is concise and illuminating, and she makes an unusual choice in selecting several lesser known works of Ricoeur as foci "not for the sake of novelty but because they allow me to complete a rather sketchy picture of this important thinker" (8).
If the character of the speaker is often singularly effective in persuading others, it is of importance for the
rhetorician to know how character and honor and nobility are comprehended by others.
Another young Roman, Marcus Tullius Cicero, also spent significant time with the master
rhetorician at about the same time.
Shanks was the image of urbanity: tall, well dressed, and a highly skilled
rhetorician, he did an awfully good job of managing to be both restrained and intense in front of an audience whose scientific instincts incline them to abhor emotion.
Though Brooks disdained the academic study of oratory, Chesebrough says (18), his studies in languages, classical prose, and poetry made Brooks a
rhetorician who embodied the principles of Aristotle (83).
For this reason, Caulfield is often mistaken for a
rhetorician rather than a sensitive craftsman.
In the final chapter, Johnson appeals to academia to develop "technical
rhetoricians." A technical
rhetorician is "a technical communicator who is trained in the theory and practice of the arts of discourse, and who practices these arts as a responsible member of a greater social order" (p.
The theme explored in this personal narrative is that of the life of a
rhetorician, in writing and in speech.
Her portrayal of Calvin as
rhetorician and crafter of rhetorical strategies raises issues about Calvin's views of truth--and here dialogue must go on.