Research

Most of my research perambulates across three overlapping areas: (1) history of rhetoric, (2) history of English Studies (literature and composition), and (3) the history of criticism. At the core of much of this research is a theoretical and historical interest in the perennial encounter between rhetoric and philosophy, especially the fact that the typical setting of these encounters, from Plato to Kenneth Burke, is defined by a strong sense of educational and social crisis. This page lists links to my recently completed and ongoing projects.

Recently Completed

• Book - Between Politics and Ethics: Toward a Vocative History of English Studies (Southern Illinois UP, Apr 2006)
  For 25 years, English Studies has shaped itself around two terms: politics and, more recently, ethics. Yet, in spite of the influence of these terms, little effort has been spent examining the institutional conditions of their emergence, development, and relationship. Between Ethics and Politics fills this gap by (1) tracing the development of these terms in contemporary English Studies, (2) examining the difficulties of defining both terms, and (3) rethinking the history of English Studies based on the interrelations of political and ethical dimensions within critical discourse. More . . .

Current Projects

• Book - Antimodernism and the History of Rhetoric
  Based on the historiography introduced in my "Rhetoric" article for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, this book complicates the accepted relationship between rhetoric and postmodern thought by elucidating an "antimodernist" strand of rhetorical theory beginning in the early eighteenth century (Vico) and developing throughout the nineteenth (Nietzsche) and twentieth (Burke) centuries. It then compares this antimodernism in relation to Gianni Vattimo's recent thinking on the relationship of rhetoric and postmodernism.
• Article - "Dithyrambic Criticism: The Emergence of Social Commentary in the Early Writings of Kenneth Burke"
  Examines Burke's early social criticism, with primary focus on his influential article "Psychology and Form" (1925). In doing so, it places Burke within a stream of thought I call "anti-modernist rhetoric," which, beginning with Vico's 1709 defense of rhetorical pedagogy, envisions a rhetorical perspective on language as the basis of opposition to the influence of science on society. The critical writings of Burke's early period (1921-1931) are typically regarded as "aesthetic" in interest and concern.
• Article - "The Anxiety of Postwar Cosmopolitanism: World War I and the Reorganization of the MLA."
  First of a two-part study that chronicles the establishment of theory as a key term in American literary studies by tracing its use within organs of the MLA, beginning with the establishment in 1921 of discussion groups that came to define specific areas of study. This part of the study shows that the modern structure of the MLA resulted from (1) a strong sense of intellectual inferiority in the face of the formation of new international societies of learning following World War I and (2) a new organizational sensibility brought by John Manly from his experience of helping to organize and run the military intelligence unit of the War Department.
• Article - "From 'Aesthetics' to 'Theory': A Lost Chapter in the History of English Studies"
  Second of a two-part study that chronicles the establishment of theory as a key term in American literary studies by tracing its use within the MLA discussion groups beginning with their establishment in 1921 until 1948, when "literary theory" replaces "aesthetics" as the philosophical foundation for professional literary studies. Includes list of all papers delivered at annual MLA within groups devoted to the philosophical foundation of literary study.
• Article - "Quintilian and the Problem of Translating Rhêtorikê"
  This article examines Quintilian's criticism of the Latin translations of the Greek rhêtorikê and, in the process, explores the possibility of a long-standing misinterpretation of Quintilian by English, Italian, French, and German translators.