Rhetoric & Memory Diss/Thesis Projects

So I've been currently researching dissertations and thesis projects on rhetoric and memory and found some very interesting ones, which I'm sharing with you here:

Carolin A. Metzger, M.A., "Poems as Mnemonic Devices to Aid Grammar Recall," University of Texas-Pan American, 2000

Daniel John Fitzmier, PhD, "The Role of Maxims and Memory in Isocrates' Pedagogy," Northwestern University, 2005

Donna Allard Halford, PhD, "A Rhetorical Legacy: The Art of Memory's Place in Literature and Semiotics," Texas Woman's University, 1990.

Janine Rider, PhD, "Memory as Muse: Recomposing Memory in Rhetoric and Composition," Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1992.

Kathleen J. Ryan, PhD, "Rememoried Knowing: A Feminist Interpretation of the Canon of Memory," University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2001

Linda Theresa Calendrillo, PhD, "The Art of Memory and Rhetoric," Purdue University, 1988

Richard Edward Smyth,"Renaissance Mnemonics, Poststructuralism, and the Rhetoric of Hypertext Composition," University of Florida, 1994

Interesting, verdad?

I'm currently reading Hayden White's "Supression of Rhetoric in the Nineteenth Century," which revisits the ways in which rhetoric was demoted in an effort to elevate the invention and proliferation of literature.

In the essay, I've been particularly drawn to the way White defines rhetoric:

"Rhetoric...represents a kind of knowledge with a distinct social value insofar as it yields insights into the relation between political power and the control of language, speech, and discourse, which political elites always have recognized as a necessary basis for effective rule" (27).

White states that rhetoric was born as a "science" (as opposed to an "art") of speech, language and representation which "purports to explain not only the principles of literary-artistic discourse but also those of all nonartistic, practical discourse, such as those of politics and the law, not to mention philosophy and history, and, more importantly, the relation of these to power--political, social, and economic" (27).

I'm drawn to this definition because it proves useful for students of rhetoric attempting to map out the evolution of rhetoric from a historical context. Mapping the rise and fall of rhetoric continues critical in history courses on rhetoric.

White has written extensively about rhetoric and history, specifically about issues relative to historiography. Check out his bibliography here.



This particular essay is featured in The Rhetoric Canon (Brenda Deen Schildgen, ed., 1997). Check it out!

Hasta la proxima.

h

PS.

Currently listening to:

Maroon 5's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" (released today)