Sweet Reason – Rhetoric & the Discourses of Modernity - Hardcover

Wells, Susan

 
9780226893365: Sweet Reason – Rhetoric & the Discourses of Modernity
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0226893367 ISBN 13: 9780226893365
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

This volume presents a rhetorical model for understanding the diverse discourses of modernity. Wells describes modernity as a system of texts which we are only now learning to read. In order to comprehend how these texts organize our world, she argues, we must grasp how reason and desire interact to create meaning. To this end, Wells offers a rhetoric based on an understanding of meaning as intersubjectivity created through the work of language. Wells elaborates this "rhetoric of intersubjectivity" by drawing on both Jurgen Habermas's concept of communicative rationality and on Jacques Lacan's theory of desire, affirming the significance of reason and desire for rhetorical studies. From scientific articles to classroom altercations, contemporary government hearings to Montaigne's "Essays", Wells organizes several using rhetoric as an art, and she shows how rhetoric operates in practice.

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About the Author

Susan Wells is associate professor of English at Temple University.

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Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Publication date
1996
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0226893367
ISBN 13 
9780226893365
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
264

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780226893372: Sweet Reason – Rhetoric & the Discourses of Modernity (Paper)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0226893375 ISBN 13:  9780226893372
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996
Softcover