Kairos Issue 11.3:  Call for Webtexts

Classical Rhetoric and Digital Communication: A Canon Blast into the Net

The Internet. Blogs. Hypertext. CMC. Wikis. Drupal. IM. What would the classical ancestors of Western rhetoric think of today's digital world? How should we reinterpret the work of ancient rhetoricians in light of emerging digital practices?

• Plato questioned the nature of rhetoric, especially in the Gorgias and the Phaedrus, revealing its inimical powers that elevated style and duplicity above truth. If Plato were to turn his questions to contemporary technorhetoricians, what would he learn? What can we still learn from him?
• Aristotle delineated the essence of rhetorical theory: the proofs of ethos, pathos, and logos; the enthymeme or abbreviated syllogism, prepon; invention or topical reasoning; attention to audience, purpose, and occasion; and kairos. How do these concepts apply in digital rhetoric and in the pedagogies that emerge for and from educational technology?
• Isocrates was a logographer who taught people how to use words. How do sophistry and/or relativism emerge with the influx of Internet-based information, a subject that Kathleen's Welch's Electric Rhetoric raised in 1999? What would Isocrates say about contemporary uses of the Internet and chat rooms, where-as always in human communication-people must decide whether to believe and take words at face value or to question what they read?

In the 11.3 (Summer 2007) issue of Kairos, we focus on the connections between classical Greek and Roman rhetoric and contemporary digital communication. We are soliciting proposals for webtexts that explore these connections in a variety of creative ways. Possible topics include:

• How have the canons of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery been adapted to digital communication? What do contemporary students who will compose much of their writing on computers and using digital media need to learn about the canons? How does pedagogy need to treat more traditional and digital texts with respect to the canons?
• In the development of hybrid language - such as shorthand and abbreviations like gr8, :), ttys, LOL - how is the ancient view of rhetoric recreated, maintained, improved upon, or even dissolved?
• How were synchronicity and asynchronicity predicted or anticipated by the works of classical rhetoricians?
• In what ways do contemporary theories of educational technology or digital communication accept or dismiss the views of the ancients? What, if anything, can classical rhetoric do to improve upon or advance such theories?

While we are primarily interested in seeing submissions from a range of educational, rhetorical, political, and philosophical dimensions to classical Western rhetoric, we also are willing to consider webtexts that address non-Western rhetorical views of a comparable era as a counterpoint to the 11.3 issue theme. Queries to the co-editors are welcome.

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2006

e-mail URLs to co-editors Beth L. Hewett and Cheryl Ball: <kairosed at technorhetoric dot net>.

Vol. 11 Iss. 1 Fall 2006