JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 18, Number 1, 1998 Page: 85
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Rhetoric at the End of History 85
Knoblauch andBrannon's inability to represent the past in anythingbut the form
of an essentialist historiography only serves to underscore my point. Even though
Knoblauch and Brannon consider any uses of history necessarily essentializing,
arguing that constructionism is only available to those who theorize in the now, even
they cannot avoid the historicityofthepresent. They must confrontthepowerexerted
on the here and now through uses of the past. Thus, their arguments for modern
rhetoric can account for classical rhetoric and engage Bloom and Hirsch and
historians of rhetoric only by essentializing historiography. There are, of course, a
number ofways to argue about the links between history and theory as well as account
for the power of the past in the present. As debates overBlackAthena demonstrate,
some possible narratives of ancient Greece radically challenge the authority of
essentialist historiographies without dismissinghistory altogether. ApplyingBernal's
strategies to the writing of histories of rhetoric, Welch argues for a constructionism
that moves beyond Knoblauch and Brannon's impasse by rewriting Heritage School
historiography and in so doing working to undo its domination.
Drawing on BlackA thena, Welch has argued for readingthe history of rhetoric
through the racial dynamics of European historiography in general, making the case
that BlackA thena provides critical leverage on traditional histories of rhetoric that
locate ancient Greece as the "fount of Western civilization" ("Interpreting," 45). Not
onlydoes Bernal's challenge to the relationship between classical Greece and modern
Europe shift the ground of our historical narratives, but it also compels us to rethink
the current disciplinary exercises of power those histories enable, particularly in the
classroom. As Welch puts it, "integration of Bernal's shattering but also constructive
presentations offers all ofus inthe academy apowerful new way to attack racismwhere
it may be least suspected of residing: in the disciplines that have transmitted what we
know and how we know and, at least in the discipline of English and probably in other
fields as well, continue to bind us to ethically bankrupt ways of transmitting to our
students what and how we know" (46).
Welch is proposing escape from hegemonic pedagogies by encouraging us to side
with Bernal and historical constructionists against essentialists and "conservatives"
(41). But, as Lefkowitz and Levine argue it, acceding to Bernal is what in fact binds
us to an ethically bankrupt tradition. For them, our only salvation lies in the hope for
objectivity. Which side can ultimately claim the high road is yet to be seen, but I want
to note here the terms of the impasse: both sides claim to be "more ethical" and "more
just," claims based at one and the same time on fact and myth, essentialism and
constructionism, historical reconstruction and rational reconstruction. Sowho is right?
While I generally side with constructionists, the either/or option that yields
constructionist historiography seems to me adead end. Constructionism in and of
itself does not help one out of being involvedwith or implicated in structures of racism
and practices of neocolonialism. Writing Bernal's insights into histories of rhetoric
is not, in and of itself, enough. As Robert Young has pointed out, Bernal's BlackA thena
"provides the most detailed and comprehensive demonstration to date of the way in
which the allegedly objective historical scholarship of apparently non-political
academic disciplines, classics and archaeology, were in fact determined by their own
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 18, Number 1, 1998, periodical, 1998; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28621/m1/89/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .