ERIC Number: ED306572
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1989-Mar
Pages: 19
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Bridging the Gap between Literature and Composition: Rediscovering the Synthesis of Logical and Narrative Argumentation.
O'Banion, John D.
To bridge the gap between literature and composition, and between tradition and individual talent, teachers of literature and composition should consider how Roman rhetoricians integrated many arts into their instruction on oratory. With the perspectives of Cicero and Quintilian in hand, teachers would be inclined to stress rhetorical argumentation, which incorporates both narrative and logical reasoning. Characterizing the interrelationship between narrative and logical discourse is crucial for understanding the nature of rhetorical argumentation. Both Cicero and Quintilian emphasized the place of narration in preparing and arranging orations. Argumentation was understood as the blending of several arts into a complex whole. Viewed as a whole, classical oration had two faces--logical and narrative proof. Proof (confirmatio) was the decontextualized, explicit, logical version of the narrative; and the narrative (narratio) was the contextualized, personalized, implicit version of the proof. One way to provide a structure for teaching rhetorical argumentation in introductory courses is to provide students with questions which raise rhetorical consciousness and to require students to ask these questions of both the texts they read and the texts they produce. Through a rhetorical perspective, teachers can help provide students with guidelines for evaluating texts as well as for writing their own texts. (A list of questions and rhetorical argumentation, and 24 references are appended.) (MM)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Guides - Non-Classroom; Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A