Abstract

Abstract Rhetoric-composition's turn toward posthumanism and complexity theory promises to help the field grasp contemporary writing. However, the turn's promise is undermined by its disregard for history, overvaluation of complexity, and unwillingness to engage the field's common sense. Giambattista Vico's theories of rhetoric and human development not only challenge the turn's representation of Enlightenment humanism but also point to the turn's inability to help writers participate in today's complex institutions. Vichian ingenium can serve as a touchstone for critical humanist scholarship and pedagogies that seek to chart a course between a bourgeois humanism and a barbaric posthumanism. Notes 1For the helpful comments and criticisms, many thanks go out to the two RR peer reviewers, Louise Phelps and Jeremy Engels, and Timothy Brennan.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2013-10-01
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2013.828548
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (17) · 1 in this index

  1. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900–1985
  2. Vico and Literary Mannerism: A Study of Early Vico and His Idea of Rhetoric and Ingenuity
  3. Postcomposition
  4. Beyond Postprocess
  5. Beyond Postprocess
Show all 17 →
  1. JAC
  2. Beyond Postprocessand Michael Vastola
  3. Rhetoric on the Margins: Vico, Condillac, Mondobo
  4. Rhetoric Review
  5. Terms of Work for Composition: A Materialist Critique
  6. Vico and the Transformation of Rhetoric in Early Modern Europe
  7. Beyond Postprocessand Michael Vastola
  8. The Function of Theory in Composition Studies
  9. The Moment of Complexity
  10. New Science
  11. The Art of Rhetoric (Institutiones Oratoriae
  12. On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians. Trans.