Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts

“This well-edited and thematically coherent collection offers in-depth studies from a variety of topics and methods that reveal the complexity of these two critical (but often unattended) concepts: silence and listening. Those interested in orality and literacy will find a new, dynamic vector for study.”–Richard Leo Enos, Holder of the Lillian Radford Chair of Rhetoric and Composition, Texas Christian University

“With this collection we see unmistakably that indeed a tide of interest is rising and that it promises to yield groundbreaking changes across the spectrum of rhetorical history, theory, criticism, and pedagogy. After reading this collection, one must surely ask, “Why in the world did we take so very long to pay attention?” Our thanks must go to Krista Ratcliffe and Cheryl Glenn for casting such a much needed light in this direction.”–Jacqueline Jones Royster, author of Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women

With this edited volume, Glenn (Pennsylvania State Univ.) and Ratcliffe (Marquette Univ.) advance their previous work, which includes Glenn’s Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence (CH, Apr’05, 42-3875) and Ratcliffe’s Rhetorical Listening (2005). Both well-established and emerging scholars are represented. The first section, “History,” traces Western culture’s disparagement of silence and listening. Here Shevaun Watson’s essay, “Trying Silence: The Case of Denmark Vesey and the History of African American Rhetoric,” argues that though Vesey’s accusers remark on Vesey’s soaring rhetoric, they never quote him. The only “word” attributed to Vesey is silence. In response, the book’s second section, “Theory and Criticism,” complicates the political meanings of silence and listening. Thus Kennan Ferguson’s essay “Silence: A Politics” argues that silence may also constitute spiritual restoration, political resistance, or community building. The final section, “Praxes,” suggests methods of practicing silence and listening. For example, Sheri Stenberg teaches students to consciously listen to angry text and their own angry responses in her essay “Cultivating Listening: Teaching from a Restored Logos.” This superb, thought-provoking collection includes essays that treat history, literature, rhetoric, and pedagogy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above. — B. A. McGowan, Northern Illinois University

–B.A. McGowan “CHOICE” (8/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

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With this edited volume, Glenn (Pennsylvania State Univ.) and Ratcliffe (Marquette Univ.) advance their previous work, which includes Glenn’s Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence (CH, Apr’05, 42-3875) and Ratcliffe’s Rhetorical Listening (2005). Both well-established and emerging scholars are represented. The first section, “History,” traces Western culture’s disparagement of silence and listening. Here Shevaun Watson’s essay, “Trying Silence: The Case of Denmark Vesey and the History of African American Rhetoric,” argues that though Vesey’s accusers remark on Vesey’s soaring rhetoric, they never quote him. The only “word” attributed to Vesey is silence. In response, the book’s second section, “Theory and Criticism,” complicates the political meanings of silence and listening. Thus Kennan Ferguson’s essay “Silence: A Politics” argues that silence may also constitute spiritual restoration, political resistance, or community building. The final section, “Praxes,” suggests methods of practicing silence and listening. For example, Sheri Stenberg teaches students to consciously listen to angry text and their own angry responses in her essay “Cultivating Listening: Teaching from a Restored Logos.” This superb, thought-provoking collection includes essays that treat history, literature, rhetoric, and pedagogy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above. — B. A. McGowan, Northern Illinois University

–B.A. McGowan “CHOICE” (8/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

Cheryl Glenn is Distinguished Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University, the director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric there, and a coeditor of the Studies in Rhetoric and Feminisms series of books. Her publications include Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity through the Renaissance; Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence; Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts; and Rhetoric and Writing Studies in the New Century: Historiography, Pedagogy, and Politics.

Krista Ratciffe is a professor and chair of English at Arizona State University. The author of Anglo-American Feminist Challenges to the Rhetorical Traditions: Virginia Woolf, Mary Daly, and Adrienne Rich and co-editor of Rhetorics of Whiteness and Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts, she has written numerous articles and chapters on feminism and rhetoric . Rhetorical Listening won three outstanding book awards from CCCC, RSA, and JAC.

Nancy Myers is an associate professor of English and the director of college writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a coeditor of The Writing Teacher’s Sourcebook, fourth edition.

Joyce Irene Middleton is an associate professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in Rhetoric Review, JAC, and College English, and in a number of rhetoric anthologies, including African American Rhetoric(s), and Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts.