The Methodical Memory: Invention in Current-Traditional Rhetoric

In this first sustained critique of current-traditional rhetorical theory, Sharon Crowley uses a postmodern, deconstructive reading to examine the historical development of current-traditional rhetoric. She identifies it (as well as the British new rhetoric from which it developed) as a philosophy of language use, not a rhetorical theory, and she argues that its use as such has led to a misrepresentation of invention.

Crowley contends that current-traditional rhetoric continues to prosper because a considerable number of college composition teachers—graduate students, part-time instructors, and teachers of literature—are not involved in the development of the curriculum they are asked to teach. As a result, important voices, necessary to create any true representation of the composition teaching experience, are denied access to the scholarly conversations evaluating the soundness of this approach.