Table Of ContentEncyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition
This reference guide surveys the field, covering rhetoric’s principles, concepts, applications, practi-
cal tools, and major thinkers. Rhetoric is increasingly studied in the context of other disciplines,
such as anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy, because its well-estab-
lished rules and time-honored methods are useful for developing modern communications and
writing skills.
Drawing on the scholarship and expertise of 288 contributors, the Encyclopedia presents a
long-needed overview of rhetoric and its role in contemporary education and communications,
discusses rhetoric’s contributions to various fields, surveys the applications of this versatile dis-
cipline to the teaching of English and language arts, and illustrates its usefulness in all kinds of
discourse, argument, and exchange of ideas. The coverage has been tailored to meet the needs of
American teachers and students.
Theresa Enos is founder and editor of Rhetoric Review and Professor of English at the University
of Arizona, where she teaches writing and rhetoric. In addition to being the author of numerous
publications on rhetorical theory and issues in writing, she is the editor of A Sourcebook for Ba-
sic Writing Teachers and Learning from the Histories of Rhetoric: Essays in Honor of Winifred
Bryan Horner.
GARLAND REFERENCE LIBRARY OF THE HUMANITIES (VOL. 1389)
Advisory Board
Carroll C.Arnold Henry W.Johnstone, Jr.
Emeritus, Department of Communication Department of Philosophy
Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University
Patricia Bizzell James Kinneavy
Department of English Department of English
College of the Holy Cross University of Texas at Austin
Ernest G.Bormann Janice M.Lauer
Department of Speech-Communication Department of English
University of Minnesota Purdue University
Stuart C.Brown Andrea A.Lunsford
Department of English Department of English
New Mexico State University Ohio State University
Edward P.J.Corbett James J.Murphy
Emeritus, Department of English Department of Rhetoric
Ohio State University University of California, Davis
Frank J.D’Angelo Muriel Saville-Troike
Department of English Department of English
Arizona State University University of Arizona
Richard Leo Enos Robert L.Scott
Department of English Department of Speech-Communication
Texas Christian University University of Minnesota
Bruce E.Gronbeck Kathleen E.Welch
Department of Communication Studies Department of English
University of Iowa University of Oklahoma
Bruce Herzberg W.Ross Winterowd
Department of English Department of Rhetoric, Linguistics,
Bentley College and Literature
University of Southern California
Winifred Bryan Horner
Emerita, Department of English Richard Young
Texas Christian University Department of English
Carnegie Mellon University
Richard L.Johannesen
Department of Communication Studies
Northern Illinois University
Editorial Assistant Interns
Gregory R.Glau Roberta Binkley Leslie Dupont Richard McNabb
Arizona State University University of Arizona University of Arizona University of Arizona
Encyclopedia of Rhetoric
and Composition
Communication from Ancient
Times to the Information Age
Edited by
Theresa Enos
NEW YORK AND LONDON
First published 1996
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
This edition published in paperback in 2010
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 1996 Theresa Enos, 2010 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Encyclopedia of rhetoric and composition: communication from ancient times to the
information age/edited by Theresa Enos
p. cm.
Includes index.
I.Rhetoric—Encyclopedias. I.Enos, Theresa.
PN172.E53 1996 95–25581
808′.003—dc20 CIP
ISBN 0-203-85488-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0-8240-7200-6 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-415-87524-2 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-85488-8 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-8240-7200-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-87524-0 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-85488-4 (ebk)
Contents
Preface vii
Contributors ix
The Encyclopedia 1
Index 779
v
Preface
The Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition is a one-volume reference work and guide, ar-
ranged in alphabetical sequence, that provides an introduction to rhetoric, including the major pe-
riods and personages, concepts and applications. Rhetoric, though the oldest and broadest of the
humanities, is becoming ever more difficult to locate in a conceptual framework because it draws
increasingly on disciplines like anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. Nearly ev-
ery article or book on rhetoric attempts to place it within one or another of these frameworks, al-
though many theorists are reconceptualizing rhetoric in its own terms. The Encyclopedia’s entries
discuss rhetoric’s debts and contributions to these and other disciplines and present an overview
of rhetoric in the late twentieth century.
Confining the spaciousness of rhetoric and its 2,500-year history of theory and praxis into
one volume cannot completely capture rhetoric’s metadisciplinary nature. I hope, however, that
this Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition can not only suggest the scope of rhetoric as it is
studied in different disciplines in American higher education but also give us future direction in
communicating within and across complex, multilayered discourse communities.
The Encyclopedia’s 467 entries (over half a million words) take four forms: brief “identifica-
tions” of a figure, term, or concept (for example, Hugh Blair, Commonplaces, Kairos); elaborated
“notes” (for example, Exposition, Hermeneutics, Nietzsche); “essays” that explore a topic in
depth (for example, Aristotle, Ethos, Feminist Rhetoric); and full “articles” that illuminate rheto-
ric’s art and methodology (for example, Argument, Composition Studies, Invention).
The number of contributors—288—reflects the vitality of work in rhetoric in two-year col-
leges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities, and research universities. The author of
each entry either has established professional recognition by scholarship on a figure or area in
rhetoric or is currently doing research, traditional or revisionist, on a specific topic.
The Encyclopedia is written for the student in rhetoric, for the specialist in literature or another
field of study who wants to learn about one or more aspects of rhetoric, and for the specialist in
rhetoric who wants to see how the discipline is evolving. In addition, I hope that the volume will
provide many opportunities for those in different yet similar disciplines to form research com-
munities, sharing scholarship.
Following each entry is a bibliography of key texts and recommended reading. Cross-refer-
ences are provided as “see also” topics at the end of an entry when there is significant further
discussion of the topic or a closely related topic to which the reader is directed for further read-
ing. For complete references, a comprehensive index has been provided. Also provided is a list of
contributors and entries.
I am deeply indebted to my eminent advisory board. They not only fleshed out my beginning
list of topics but also suggested names of appropriate contributors. Because each advisor has pub-
lished major scholarship in a particular area, I asked that each write a substantive entry. Those
board members who actively participated by writing a major entry—in some cases, entries—have
strengthened the Encyclopedia’s ethos of “authority.” I particularly thank those who became
editors as well as advisors and contributors, reading and evaluating many entries for coverage
and accuracy: Carroll C.Arnold, Ernest G.Bormann, Stuart C.Brown, Richard Leo Enos, Richard
L.Johannesen, Henry W.Johnstone, Jr., James J.Murphy, Robert L.Scott, Kathleen E.Welch, and
W.Ross Winterowd.
I thank Gregory R.Glau, my editorial assistant, who created the project’s computer database
and kept track of all the manuscripts as they went through several copyediting stages. And I
vii
viii Preface
thank the interns who efficiently formatted the manuscripts: Richard McNabb, Leslie Dupont,
and Roberta Binkley.
I owe special thanks to Garland’s Gary Kuris, who took a chance on my undertaking the gener-
al editorship alone after two colleagues had to withdraw from the project because of the sentence
of time it imposed. I have tried to live up to Gary’s faith in me, to pull off what some said couldn’t
be done—to put the history of rhetoric into one volume. Gary offered encouragement when I
needed it the most during the three years I lived with this project, coming to feel more and more
as Samuel Johnson described himself while working on his Dictionary: a “harmless drudge.”
But I have learned much about rhetoric and have greatly expanded my circle of colleagues.
Especially I have learned how much I did not know about the field in which I’ve been working
for twenty years. This endeavor has enriched me as a teacher, scholar, and editor working in the
realm of rhetoric.
Theresa Enos
University of Arizona
Contributors
Don Paul Abbott James S.Baumlin
Department of Rhetoric and Communication Department of English
University of California, Davis Southwest Missouri State University
Renaissance Rhetoric Roland Barthes
Paul de Man
Valentina M.Abordonado Eloquence
Department of English
University of Arizona Charles Bazerman
Gertrude Buck Department of Literature, Communication,
and Culture
Chris M.Anson Georgia Institute of Technology
Department of English Royal Society of London
University of Minnesota
Portfolio Walter H.Beale
Writing across the Curriculum Department of English
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Dianne Armstrong Decorum
Department of English
Santa Barbara City College Samuel L.Becker
Pragmatics Department of Communication Studies
University of Iowa
Carroll C.Arnold, Emeritus Albert Craig Baird
Department of Communication
Pennsylvania State University Daniel Bender
Herbert A.Wichelns Department of Literature and Communications
James Albert Winans Pace University
Copia
Janet M.Atwill Imitation
Department of English
University of Tennessee James Benjamin
Aristotle Department of Communication
Technê University of Toledo
Deliberative Oratory
Ken Autrey
Department of English Beth S.Bennett
Francis Marion University Department of Speech Communication
Demosthenes University of Alabama
Lysias Alcuin of York
Fred Newton Scott Cassiodorus
Philip Bakelaar Thomas W.Benson
Department of Rhetoric and Communications Department of Speech Communication
Temple University Pennsylvania State University
Protest Rhetoric Longinus
Rhetoric of Film
ix
