Berlin, Rhetoric and Reality

Berlin,
James A. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges,
1900-1985
. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1987.

Berlin begins by framing three epistemological orientations in twentieth
century rhetoric: objectivist, subjectivist and transactional. In an
effort to characterize trends in the teaching of writing and rhetoric from
1900-1985, Berlin further subdivides each category. Objectivist
orientations to reality, best reflected in current-traditional pedagogies as
well as "behaviorist, semanticist, and linguistic rhetorics," presumes a realm
of irrefutable truth and assumes a positivistic attitude toward language as that
which reports, more or less precisely, on a stable, concrete reality.
Subjective orientations to reality emphasize the interiority of mind and the
individualist construction of a relationship to the real which extends beyond
but is not necessarily influenced by the material world. The emphasis in
subjective rhetorics is on original metaphor, journaling, and supportive
forms of collaboration; this orientation blends, as well, with the genteel, the
solitary genius, depth psychology (as well as Freud), and romantic reverence for
solitary inspiration: "The student can discover the truth, but the truth cannot
be taught; the student can learn to write, but writing cannot be taught" (13). The
third and final orientation is transactional. Transactional rhetorics
divide into classical (truth emerges from a discourse community
interacting, not necessarily in agreement), cognitive (mind formation in
stages through interactions with the environment), and epistemic
(experience and language involve rhetoric in all human activity). Each category
is explained in detail in the opening chapter and again at the end.

Each chapter accounts for an (arbitrary?) era in the twentieth century, and
along the way, Berlin reads the three rhetorical orientations against tendencies
in English education given various moments, scenes, figures and programs.
To begin, for example, he accounts for the rise of the poetic and literary at
the expense of rhetoric, which was "petrified in a possitivistic configuration"
(25).

From 1900-1920, there was a strong resistance to "Uniform Reading Lists";
NCTE was founded to organize resist the domination of the curriculum by such
lists (33). There were three major approaches to teaching writing, and each
accords to one of the broader categories designated above: current-traditional
rhetoric (36), rhetoric of liberal culture (43), and rhetoric of public
discourse (46).

Remainders

  • Emphasis on pluralization of rhetoric to rhetorics
    (via Paolo Valesio) (3)
  • Refers to tiff with Connors on the possibility of objective,
    neutral historiography (17)
  • A propensity toward statistics and counting accompanied
    notions of efficiency at the same time as progressive education
    arose–1920-1940 (58)
  • Research papers in 1930: "It should be noted that the widespread
    use of this assignment [the research paper] was influenced by the improvements
    in library collections during the twenties, as well as by new ways of
    indexing these materials for easy access–the periodical guides, for example"
    (70).
  • Largely a credit to Jerome Bruner, the notion of process
    becomes associated with all rhetorics (123, 158): "The implications of
    Bruner’s thought for writing instruction are clear: Students should engage in
    the process of composing, not in the study of someone else’s process of
    composing" (123).
  • Limitations of problem-posing and solving: emphasis on solutions.
    Lauer, instead, in "The Problem of Problem Posing," suggested "the act of
    creation
    " rather than "a mechanical art of problem-solving" (161).

Berlin closes with a bibliographic gloss of what was happening in the
mid-1980’s. He mentions that the three major categories–objectivist,
subjectivist, and transactional–apply less neatly to the formations (a
disunity) in the field of rhetoric and composition in the mid-late 1980’s.

Epistemic rhetoric: "All experiences, even the scientific and logical, are
grounded in language, and language determines their content and structure. And
just as language structures our responses to social and political issues,
language structures our response to the material world. Rhetoric thus
becomes implicated in all human behavior" (16).

Objective rhetoric: "Semanticist rhetoric focuses on the distortions
that are introduced in communication through the misuse of language"
(10). "Disagreement has always to do with faulty observation, faulty
language
, or both, and never is due to the problematic or
contingent nature of truth
" (11).

"This thumbnail sketch shows that a number of powerful groups of academic
literary critics have divided discourse into two separate and unequal
categories: the privileged poetic statement and the impoverished
rhetorical statement
, the one art and the other ‘mere’ science" (29).

"To many faculty [1900-1920], the freshman writing course had come to stand
for all of the possibilities of rhetoric" (55).

"The distinguishing characteristic of the epistemic view,
explains Leff, is ‘that rhetoric is a serious philosophical subject that
involves not only the transmission, but also the generation of knowledge
(75)" (165).

Terms: New Criticism (28), rhetoric-poetic relationship (26), Uniform Reading
Lists (33), progressive education (58), general education movement (92)

Related sources:
Kinneavy, James L. A Theory of Discourse. New York: Norton, 1971.
Ohmann, Richard. "In Lieu of a New Rhetoric." CE 26 (1964): 17-22.
Winterowd, W. Ross. Rhetoric: A Synthesis. New York: Holt, 1968.