Rhetorical theory in Yale's graduate schools in the late nineteenth century: The example of William C. Robinson's<i>Forensic Oratory</i>

Rhetoric Society Quarterly Sep 2004

Rhetorical theory in Yale's graduate schools in the late nineteenth century: The example of William C. Robinson's<i>Forensic Oratory</i>

Merrill D. Whitburn Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abstract

Abstract Although conventional views about nineteenth‐century rhetoric highlight a shift from oratory to composition and from classical rhetoric with origins in Cicero and Quintilian to a "new" rhetoric with origins in Campbell, Blair, and Whately (with an attendant loss of scholarship and quality), William C. Robinson's Forensic Oratory (1893) can be grouped with a growing number of works that complicate such views. Robinson continues to emphasize oratory and to derive his theory from Cicero and Quintilian, using a complex of ideas called "uniformitarianism" to justify his direct appropriation of classical ideas. The resulting rhetoric lacks neither responsible scholarship nor high quality.

Journal: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published: 2004-09-01
DOI: 10.1080/02773940409391295
Open Access: Closed
Topics: rhetorical theory

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

Cope (2015)

“Inspiration of Delivery”: John A. Broadus and the Evangelical Underpinnings of…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
DePalma (2012)

Rhetorical Education for the Nineteenth-Century Pulpit: Austin Phelps and the I…

Rhetoric Review

Cites in this index (1)

Hirst (1995)

The sixth canon of sacred rhetoric: Inspiration in nineteenth‐century homiletic…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Also cites 1 work outside this index ↓

Lovejoy Arthur O. (1948)

Essays in the History of Ideas

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network →