Beyond Postprocess and Postmodernism: Essays on the Spaciousness of Rhetoric

The editors and contributors to this volume illuminate many of the tensions in the field of rhetoric and composition studies, thereby contributing to postprocess pedagogy and post-postmodernist rhetoric. They also honor the late Jim Corder, whose body of work reconciles opposites, provides a sustained search for ethos, offers a prophet's call for the commodiousness of language and voice, and attempts to answer the ubiquitous question of why people listen to some but not others. Explaining the scope and role of rhetoric in contemporary scholarship, the book is divided into four parts. Part I contextualizes and highlights the emergence of a fledgling discipline during the 1970s. Part II is an exploration of Jim Corder's work, including analyses of several of his essays and texts. Part III investigates and interrogates various trajectories, vectors, possibilities, and extensions of Corder's rhetoric. Part IV offers future direction for some current issues. This book will be of interest to scholars and teachers of rhetoric and composition in departments of English and scholars in communication studies.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction. Part I: Historical Context--Rhetoric and Composition Studies. J. Lauer, The Spaciousness of Rhetoric. Part II: Theory-Building and Critiquing Corderian Rhetoric. J.S. Baumlin, Toward a Corderian Theory of Rhetoric. K.D. Miller, Jim Corder's Radical, Feminist Rhetoric. W.R. Winterowd, The Uses of Rhetoric. W. Bishop, Preaching What He Practices: Jim Corder's Irascible and Articulate Oeuvre. P.C. Hoy, IIA Writer's Haunting Presence. G.E. Yoos, Finding Jim's Voice: A Problem in Ethos and Personal Identity. Part III: Parallels, Extensions, and Applications. T. Enos, A Call for Comity. R.E. Young, Toward an Adequate Pedagogy for Rhetorical Argumentation: A Case Study in Invention. R. Lloyd-Jones, Rhetoric and Conflict Resolution. E. Ervin, Rhetoricians at War and Peace. Part IV: Theoretical, Pedagogical, and Institutional Issues. T. Warnock, Bringing Over Yonder Over Here: A Personal Look at Expressivist Rhetoric as Ideological Action. P. Elbow, A More Spacious Model of Writing and Literacy. J. Warnock, Weaving a Way Home: Composing a Personal Geography. D. Hesse, Who Owns Creative Nonfiction?


Review :

"If you are going to read only one serious book about writing theory this year, make it this one....this book will make your think about the nature of technical writing, of authenticity and persona, of engaging readers. It will make you think about how you write, what you write, and why you write. It will give you fodder for those discussions that begin, 'The reason kids can't write today is that the schools don't teach enough grammar."
—Technical COMMUNICATION

"For those who thought they understood Corder from reading one or two of his articles or books, Beyond confirms what you thought you knew and then introduces you to interpretations of his writing through the lenses of historical and contemporary issues that are at once philosophical and theoretical...."
—Rhetoric Review

"At its best, this collection argues, the garden of rhetoric is a capacious one, welcoming a wild variety of plants to take root in its rich soil. In celebrating the life, work, and spirit of Jim Corder, these essays also celebrate Corder's view of rhetoric-as spacious, open, gently cooperative, inviting all kinds of experimentation in form and in subjectivities. In making a space for the inventiveness of human agency, Beyond Postprocess and Postmodernism: Essays on the Spaciousness of Rhetoric attempts to move the field of composition and rhetoric beyond both post-process and postmodernism and, along the way, to reclaim an important part of the rhetorical tradition."
—Andrea A. Lunsford
Stanford University