Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall 1994 Page: 385
viii, 316-612 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Rhetoric andHermeneutics 385
pragmatic attitude towards topics, an attitude such as Quintilian offers (V
10.119- 20), for example, then the practice of interpretation would become
uselessly rigid. And, although a certain amount of rigidity argues against
interpretation as a metaphysical activity, against a quest for epiphanic
meaning, and so highlights the hard work of writing that interpretation
requires, too much rigidity could reduce interpretation to a plodding appli-
cation of rules that would produce formulaic and uninteresting interpreta-
tions.
Another related objection is that topical interpretation seems to remove
natural purpose from interpretive activity. If all topics are equally possible,
as they appear when presented schematically as they are in this essay, then
"why pound the keyboard?" There are two responses to this objection. First
of all, the topics are not purely interchangeable. They are hierarchically
arranged by social conventions so that some topics will be convincing under
certain social circumstances while others will not. Second, by rejecting the
metaphysical concept of a single, stable, and universally available (if partially
obscured) meaning, one foregrounds the labor of composition and so makes
conscious the effort to manipulate and control, to participate, in otherwords,
in the conversation. While we lose the innocent commitment to discovering
the truth behind a given collection of words, we gain an active ability to
consciously influence the collection. We interpret, not to tell the truth or to
amplify a faint sound, but to gain (or relinquish) control over the world and
our place(s) in it.
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia
Works Cited
Aristotle. Rhetoric and Poetics. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts and Ingram Bywater. New York:
Modern Library, 1954.
-- PosteriorAnalytics and Topica. Trans. Hugh Tredennick and E.S. Forster. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1989.
Augustine. On Christian Doctrine. Trans. D.W. Robertson, Jr. New York: Macmillan, 1958.
Atkins, G. Douglas, and Michael L. Johnson, eds. WritingandReadingDifferently: Deconstruction
and the Teaching of Composition and Literature. Lawrence: UP of Kansas, 1985.
Booth, Wayne C. "The Common Aims that Divide Us." Profession 81. New York: MLA 1981.
13-17.
Britton, Earl W. "The Trouble with Technical Writing is Freshman English." Journal of
Technical Writing and Communication 4 (1974): 127-31.
Bruns, Gerald L. Inventions: Writing Textuality, and Understanding in Literary History. New
Haven: Yale UP, 1982.
Clifford, John, and John Schilb. "Composition Theory and Literary Theory." Perspectives on
Research and Scholarship in Composition. Ed. Ben W. Mclelland and Timothy R. Donovan.
New York: MLA, 1985. 45-67.
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall 1994, periodical, 1994; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28611/m1/79/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .