From Aristotle to Persephone: A 2400 year odyssey

"All that is necessary for ignorance to prevail in our discipline is for historians of rhetoric to forget their primary job of doing history." ~Richard Enos

In "Recovering the Lost Art of Researching the History of Rhetoric" Richard Enos paraphrases Edmund Burke's famous quote to relate his argument about the importance of conducting primary research to the ways scholars actually conduct research. Enos bemoans the fact that so much of research is more commentary than digging and that most of the information uncovered is truly secondary information. He recommends that scholars should "get their hands dirty" and not obtain their information from transcribed documents that have been "corrupted by generations of well-intentioned scribes and the unsympathetic ravages of time" (13). He also recommends that we seek interviews with living rhetoricians when possible. In our rhetorical family-tree project, we were able to do just that when Erin, Jennifer, and I interviewed Dr. Eskew. Interviewing Dr. Eskew was a highlight for me. I have not yet taken any of his courses, and I am looking forward to his teaching. Dr. Eskew told us about his influences and dissertation co-directors, Wayne Rebhorn and Frank Whigham, whom he refers to as "a yin and yang of Renaissance studies," in his dissertation acknowledgement (vi). The odyssey that began after our interview seemed to run into a wall in Czechoslovakia, but with further digging, we were able to trace paths to the Prague Linguistic Circle to Kant, to Marx, and discover amazing connections along the way. One of the more interesting connections of the project was finding (according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) that some of the great linguists and philosophers of all time were contemporaries and friends, such as Humboldt, Schlegel, and Goethe, and these gentlemen together discussed Kantian philosophy.

One of the more personally meaningful aspects of the family tree project was speaking with and listening to Dr. Hugh Burns - Dr. Souder's link in the rhetorical family tree. He has had a profound impact on me and on my pedagogy. His history with computers is phenomenal, and what he has done with multi-modal composition is inspiring. And in his "Four dimensions of significance: Tradition, method, theory, originality," Dr. Burns provides us with a framework for research that I am using in conjunction with my final paper. He writes, "I ask where is the originality? How does research demonstrate creativity and even courage? Tradition, method, theory, and originality: I claim that our community can weigh the potential significance of scholarship on these four scales" (2). Utilizing the questions Burns asks in his article effectively guides research. Meeting Dr. Burns was an honor, and speaking with him after class reminds me about Richard Enos's admonishment about conducting live interviews. When we met with Dr. Burns, we met with, as Dr. Souder said several months ago, "a real, live, rhetorician."

And where is Persephone's branch in the tree? Persephone, a student of mine who happens to be named for the Greek goddess of the underworld, is one of the younger members of this long and growing, living rhetorical family tree. Aristotle began our rhetorical tradition, numerous others perpetuated it, our professors continue with and sometimes debate it, and with the help of Dr. Burns, Persephone learned rhetorical methods of persuasion and created a 21st century multi-modal composition, 2400 years after Aristotle planted the seed.