Reality is Rhetorical

"The idea that reality is 'rhetorical' has brought into focus the problem of defining rhetoric itself. When we teach 'rhetoric,' what is it that we are teaching? One answer is, 'everything' (Covino 47).

"Rhetoric is a mode of altering reality. . . " (Bitzer, qtd in Covino 47).
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Oh most beautiful solution: rhetoric.
Oh most complicated task: rhetoric.
Oh most nebulous definition: rhetoric.
Oh most majority-centric past: rhetoric.

Let me be frank: I think we can learn a lot from rhetorical pedagogy. If my students could THINK and CONSTRUCT ARGUMENTS the way that rhetoricians of old did--I would celebrate mightily.

Perhaps the thing I like most about rhetorical pedagogy (RP) is the idea that, through our rhetorical choices, we really and truly create the universe in which our ideas are sounded.

(All those interested in god-hood, here's your ticket.)

Why is this good? This, I think, opens up rhetorical pedagogy to all people, regardless of age/gender/color/background/ethnicity/etc. etc. etc. In a framework of a rhetorician's choosing, more methodologies become admissible.

Now, I'm not saying that there won't be significant work at hand, especially if the writer is proposing a reality readers may be unaccustomed to. However, the opportunity is significant. And I see this as bringing 'functional' or 'academic' writing closer to the creative arts--context, rhetorical universe, etc. is quite important there. Isn't that what the creative writers do--understand what's been done and then change it, or oblige its continuance?

More than anything, though, rhetoric's 'past'--its old, dead, white guy past--gives the modern rhetorician something to either work with, or, even, against. Do you fancy some inverted binaries? Go forth!

Now: what would it take to teach this? What would students have to be exposed to, to support a RP? I'd like to think about it further, and I just may with my extended project for this class. I really believe in pressing students to become aware of the written context that exists so far outside of their reality, it sometimes seems. Let's make our students aware that their existence is part of a greater whole and that their writing is too.

And that is all, for now.