Abstract

This article elucidates Gertrude Stein's theory of rhetorical grammar by locating it in her studies at Harvard University/Radcliffe College in the mid-1890s and by demonstrating how for Stein the study of grammar correlates with rhetoric's first canon, invention. In her experimental primer, How to Write (1931), a book about the craft of composition, Stein devotes chapters to vocabulary, sentences, paragraphs, grammar, and forensics, but refuses to reduce writing to mechanical correctness. For Stein, a grammar that supposes invention as both discovering and creating does something much more than offer pre-existing rules for writers to follow. Placing Gertrude Stein's writing practices in the rhetorical traditions of the nineteenth century reveals a Gertrude Stein who is not necessarily or not only a literary figure, but rather a twentieth-century rhetorician who refigures past traditions to teach a new century how to write.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2008-07-15
DOI
10.1080/02773940802167567
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. College Composition and Communication
  2. Rhetoric Review

References (68) · 2 in this index

  1. How to Write Clearly: Rules and Exercises on English Composition
  2. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198245537.001.0001
  3. Berlin , James .Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900 – 1985 . Carbondale , IL…
  4. Philosophy and Rhetoric
  5. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present.
Show all 68 →
  1. Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
  2. The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: The Quest for Effective Communication
  3. The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875–1925: A Documentary History
  4. The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875–1925: A Documentary History
  5. The Philosophy of Rhetoric
  6. 10.2307/358639
  7. Man Cannot Speak for Her
  8. Philosophy and Rhetoric
  9. The Public Is Invited to Dance: Representation, the Body, and Dialogue in Gertrude Stein
  10. 10.2307/357607
  11. Passionate Collaborations: Learning to Live with Gertrude Stein
  12. The Methodical Memory: Invention in Current-Traditional Rhetoric
  13. Toward a Civil Discourse: Rhetoric and Fundamentalism
  14. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students.
  15. A Different Language: Gertrude Stein's Experimental Writing
  16. Writing and Difference
  17. Rhetorical Theory by Women before 1900: An Anthology
  18. Gertrude Stein: The Language that Rises 1923–1934
  19. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  20. The Practical Elements of Rhetoric, with Illustrative Examples
  21. Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention
  22. Principles of Rhetoric
  23. Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
  24. Pragmatism and the Meaning of Truth
  25. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
  26. The Principles of Psychology
  27. The Varieties of Religious Experience
  28. Nineteenth-Century Rhetoric in North America
  29. Critique of Pure Reason
  30. Rhetoric in American Colleges, 1850–1900
  31. Gertrude Stein Advanced: An Anthology of Criticism
  32. Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention
  33. Teaching Rhetorica: Theory, Pedagogy, Practice
  34. Gertrude Stein: Form and Intelligibility
  35. The Rhetorical Tradition and Modern Writing
  36. Three Centuries of Harvard College, 1636–1936
  37. The Atlantic Monthly
  38. Retallack , Joan , ed.Gertrude Stein: Selections. University of California Press , 2008 . 274 – 280 .
  39. Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s)
  40. 10.1037/12371-000
  41. Rhetoric Review
  42. Essays in Literary Criticism
  43. Of Huck and Alice: Humorous Writing in American Literature
  44. Journal of Modern Literature
  45. Paragraph-Writing: A Rhetoric of Colleges
  46. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
  47. Composition as Explanation
  48. Everybody's Autobiography
  49. The Geographical History of America, Or The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind
  50. Geography and Plays
  51. How to Write
  52. How Writing is Written
  53. Lectures in America
  54. The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family's Progress
  55. Gertrude Stein: Writings, 1932–1946
  56. Narration: Four Lectures by Gertrude Stein
  57. Three Lives
  58. A Primer for a Gradual Understanding of Gertrude Stein
  59. On the Study of Words
  60. “Favored Strangers”: Gertrude Stein and Her Family
  61. English Composition
  62. The Elements of Rhetoric
  63. English Composition in Eastern Colleges, 1850–1940