Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition by Winifred Bryan ... - JAC Online

204 Journal of Advanced Composition
takes into account these new understandings and broadened conceptions of
classical rhetoric, once defined mainly in terms of the formulaic Ad Herennium.
Unfortunately ,Professor Homer has decided not to write that book. She
does, however, give students her understanding of the relationship between
standard classical terms and the standard elements of modem academic
writing-an understanding that offers students "a vocabulary for talking
about writing," along with practice, examples, and readings.
The twenty-page "Introduction to Classical Rhetoric" that begins the
book presents two major uses forrhetoric in Antiquity: (I) as a demonstration
of the "duty of world citizenship," and (2) as the "road to wealth, power, and
influence. " The debate over whether rhetoric is a moral force or a tool of
personal ambition continues today, and Homer seems to respect both sides:
she says, on the one hand, that "through rhetoric, we must continue to
examine moral values and to question right and wrong," and on the other, that
"it was [and is] nothing less than imperative for anyone who aspired to a
position of influence to learn ... the art of rhetoric" (4,2). Thus, Homer's
introduction recalls the discussion begun by Callicles and Socrates in the
Gorgias; she asks students to understand that "skill with spoken and written
language still brings power" (2), while they consider the different kinds of
power that rhetoric can afford.
Throughout the text, Homer introduces potentially unfamiliar terms
associated with classical rhetoric (such as Gorgias, hypocrisis, inventio),
along with their correct pronunciation. These terms are further defined in a
glossary, illustrating Homer's contention that an "acquaintance with classical
rhetoric and the great philosophers who conceived it is part of literacy in
its fullest sense" (xi). This association of literacy with the inculcation of a
canonical lexicon recalls classical Roman schooling, certainly, and it also
enters the current debate about "cultural literacy" on the E.D. HirschI Allan
Bloom side.
Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition is divided into five parts, corresponding
to the canons of Roman rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory,
and presentation. The largest section (seven chapters) treats invention and
includes an interesting emphasis that will be less apparent to writing students
than to teachers who identify invention with exploration and discovery.
Homer does not feature invention-as-exploration, as Aristotle does in the
Rhetoric, choosing instead the Roman identification of invention with
organization or arrangement that we find in the Ad H erennium and the more
formulaic works of Cicero. For instance, in the first of two chapters on
"Discovering Ideas," Homer presents "definition" as "the organizing
principle of a full-length essay" (89); she presents "classification and
division" as "ways of clarifying a subject for a reader" (99), and equates
them with partitio, which is-as Homer says elsewhere {ll}-also a Roman
canon of arrangement. The readings that conclude both chapters on the topics
of invention present the topics as the organizing principles of finished