Rhetoric Review Apr 2015 Open Access

Who Cares If Rhetoricians Landed on the Moon? Or, a Plea for Reviving the Politics of Historiography

Ryan Skinnell University of North Texas

Abstract

Most historical research in rhetorical studies is underwritten by an imperative to “broaden” the field’s historical horizons—to seek out overlooked, underrepresented, or excluded subjects. This “broadening imperative” is commonly aligned with revisionary historiography, which became a tool for historians to critique disciplinary values during the canon wars of the 1980s and 1990s. However, due to political and intellectual shifts in recent decades, “broadening” has become a preservative act to strengthen the field’s ideological values rather than a critical one to examine them. Ultimately, if historians value the radical perspective of “revisioning,” it is necessary to reinvest in critical historiography.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2015-04-03
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2015.1008907
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Topics
rhetorical criticism archival research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (6)

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CrossRef global citation count: 8 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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