Trust in Texts: A Different History of Rhetoric
By Susan Miller
* Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
* Number Of Pages: 224
* Publication Date: 2007-11-20
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0809327880
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780809327881
Product Description:
Trust in Texts: A Different History of Rhetoric challenges the accepted idea of a singular rhetorical tradition poorly maintained from the Athenian Golden Age until the present. Author Susan Miller argues that oratorical rhetoric is but one among many codes that guide the production of texts and proposes that emotion and trust are central to the motives and effects of rhetoric.
This groundbreaking volume makes a case for historical rhetoric as disbursed, formal and informal lessons in persuasion that are codified as crafts that mediate between what is known and unknown in particular rhetorical situations. Traditional, unified histories of rhetoric ignore the extensive historical interactions among discourses—including medicine, drama, lyric poetry, philosophy, oratory, and literary fiction—that have operated from antiquity across cultures that are historically and geographically joined.
Drawing not just on traditional rhetorical works, but also on texts from philosophy and literature, Miller expands the body of works to be considered in the study of rhetoric. As the first book-length study that calls into question the centrality of logos to rhetoric, Trust in Texts will change the way the history of rhetoric is viewed and taught and will be essential to scholars and students of communications, rhetoric, English, classics, and literary studies.
(20080901)
Summary: Disturbing and rewarding
Rating: 5
Miller's book is much like her earlier *Rescuing the Subject*--dense, allusive, ambitious. It's not an easy read. At the same time, its exploration of discourses not often (if ever) included in narratives of rhetoric and composition provides a much-needed and long-overdue corrective to the field. Where does persuasion occur? How does one move others, or oneself be moved? Miller suggests that our sense of rhetoric has left us enamored of logic/brain and less interested in trust/connection/material-self. That's not to say there's no place for "logic" in her revisioning of rhetoric--it's more that she puts logic in context of other activities of the self, rather than making logic *the* context of all other activities. This book will disturb more traditional historians/theorists of rhetoric, even those who purport to challenge "the Western tradition." Why? Because it pulls the tablecloth right out from under their nice, familiar, self-satisfied place settings. A truly important book.
Summary: More Miller than rhetoric
Rating: 2
Susan Miller's contribution to the development of composition studies as a theoretical field of study is indisputable. But at some point she became more interested in being Susan Miller than in applying her considerable intelligence to her object of analysis. This book is ample evidence of that unfortunate turn. If you're a fan of Miller's recent work, by all means read this. If you want more, go elsewhere.
Summary: Rich, but not quite satisfying
Rating: 3
Trust in Texts: A Different History of Rhetoric
Susan Miller offers another highly literate and scholarly survey on the history of rhetoric, this time with a focus on the role of trust, emotions, and more in rhetoric's rich, multi-dimensional development. Unfortunately, this work will be most appreciated by a small audience that doesn't mind the, at times, painfully, minutiae-focused, narrative, occasional excessive verbiage, and mostly rare, but annoying, missteps, e.g. declaring "humiliation" to be a "sinful emotion." (Isn't the author a bit confused between a "sinful" act, and the natural, perhaps even healthy, response to that act?) Those of us more interested in finding some nuggets of significant, original insight might better spend their reading time elsewhere.
Contents: Introduction : rhetoric, emotion, and places of persuasion. Rhetorics, pedagogies, and methods. Topics : simultaneous and consecutive. The trouble with emotion, and rhetoric. Emotional educations. The trouble with rhetoric, and emotion -- Decentering rhetoric. Reviewing rhetoric. Everyone knows : antique characters. Everyone knew : rhetoric as its precedents -- Trusting texts. Trusting printing. Trusting rhetoric. "Sincerely, and prudently, yours" -- The mobility of trust. Literature, "literature," and rhetorical truths. Rhetorical rhetoric and literary truth. The communicative essence of language : pure British tongues. The turn to words. The ends of trust -- Conclusion : centering rhetoric--the psychology of anxious moments and solemn occasions. |
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