Rhetoric Past and Future / ISMLL 73-139

In all honesty the word "rhetoric" for me was one of those words I always heard and used but never quite understood until deep into the trenches of undergraduate study. Though English study was at the forefront of my academic interest throughout high school and my first attempt at college the basis, foundation, and history by which it (as an academic discipline) came to be remained lost for a long time. Today my grasp of what rhetoric is remains a bit shaky but at least it's some sort of hold and I have no intention of letting it slip away. Susan C. Jarratt has a better grip on rhetoric and delivers her take in her work appropriately titled, Rhetoric. In her work she recognizes that rhetoric has a long history deeply rooted in argument, counterargument, and an inclination to change. She writes of rhetoric's past in speculation of its future while addressing four touch points or "staseis:" "Does it exist? If so, what is it? What value should it be assigned? And where does it reside (in whose jurisdiction does it fall)" (75)? Jarratt opens her study explaining that rhetoric is no stranger to change as she states, "[Rhetoric] falls from grace with the rise of science and Enlightenment reason but is reborn in the twentieth century." She continues that "The very proliferation of scholarship in rhetoric that has brought the field into this volume has unearthed disputes over its legitimacy, purposes, and effects" (73). So in a way, rhetoric's biggest critic may be rhetoric itself. So what could possibly be in the future of a discipline that masterminds its own rise and fall? If past fact reveals that rhetoric has been shaped by a roller coaster of acclaim and criticism what could be said about its future?

I once learned that the only constant in this world is change so why would rhetoric be any exception to this rule? Rhetoric has come a long way to what it is today. Originating from its early roots in a culture driven practice of recitation it now covers a much broader area of language study and practice. Though rhetoric can be broken down into different facets of communication it can be fitted into a frame of concerning itself with "the ways human beings use speech to influence one another's attitudes and behavior" (75). As the attitudes and behaviors of society constantly evolve it's evidence of the fact that the rhetoric of society is changing as well. As rhetoric has more rapidly developed and matured over the past decades it assures me that its future will be one of change as well. I highly doubt that rhetoric has come this far to merely plateau and remain stagnant. In fact, in the wake of the current presidential election we're feeling the waves of yet a new twist on rhetoric. What it actually is we probably won't truly understand until all is said and done, but surely we will be feeling it's ripples throughout the future both near and far.