Rhetoric Review Oct 2011

Commonplace, Quakers, and the Founding of Haverford School

Elizabeth Kimball Drew University

Abstract

This article examines a series of essays published in 1830 that were instrumental in the founding of Haverford School, the first Quaker liberal arts college, where a literary, language-oriented curriculum would be taught despite the Friends' long antipathy toward higher learning. The essays successfully persuade by deploying commonplaces that bridged the disparate spheres of Quaker discourse of experience and elite, mainstream discourses of taste. The findings are significant to rhetoricians interested in how social change can be mediated even in entrenched discursive traditions, especially faith traditions that are deeply felt and strongly held.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2011-10-01
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2011.604609
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Topics
discourse analysis
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