Rhetoric and Communication

Abstract

The term “rhetoric” (rhetorike) was coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and systematically elaborated upon by his successor Aristotle. On the basis of these foundational texts in particular, the term has been borrowed, abused, adapted, and transmuted by every culture from the ancient Romans onward to contemporary rhetorical studies and communication scholars. This bibliography conceives of rhetoric as a “metadiscourse,” or a language about language, one that has been used at various times, places, and circumstances in order to enable the production and interpretation of discourse. The Historiography of Rhetoric recognizes that “rhetoric” is a term that is simultaneously enriched, and burdened, by its long history of over two millennia, and the fact that it refers sometimes to practices of language and speech, and sometimes to theories about such practices. On Sophistic and Greek Rhetoric examines the social, political, and intellectual context in which the term rhetoric emerged and was invented. Foundational Primary Texts in Greek and Roman Rhetoric provides a cursory summary of the ancient Greek and Roman texts that have served as the foundation for rhetoric as a metadiscourse. Since the focus of this bibliography is rhetoric and communication, Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Rhetorics provides the thinnest coverage, with an emphasis on some of the earliest texts on rhetoric in the English language. The coverage of the most recent century is itself divided into several sections. 20th Century Rhetoric in Philosophy, Composition, and English reviews some of the major figures outside of communication that helped to give shape to rhetorical studies’ emergence and development within the communications discipline. The next sections (Rhetorical Theory and Criticism from 1914 to the 1960s, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism in the 1970s and 1980s, and Rhetorical Theory and Criticism from the 1990s to the Present) trace some major developments in the fields of rhetorical theory and criticism from 1914 to the present. The distinction between rhetorical criticism, concerning the interpretation of rhetorical texts, and rhetorical theory, pertaining to theories about rhetoric, is not hard and fast insofar as most studies contain critical as well as theoretical aspects; but it will suffice for these purposes. Subsequent sections are organized around some of the emergent subfields and emphases that help to organize scholarship in rhetoric and communication studies (e.g., Rhetoric and Public Discourse, History of Rhetoric, Argumentation, Rhetoric of Inquiry, and Rhetorics of Resistance: Ideological Criticism and Critical Rhetoric). These categorizations may be somewhat imprecise, but will suffice for the purposes and constraints of this bibliographic project.