Research On Wayne Booth’s Rhetoric Theory During Western Rhetoric Renaissance

The Rhetoric of Western Thought has undergone four major periods:significant classical period,the endorsed middle ages,the "rebirth" during the renaissance and the "renaissance" during the late twentieth century.The flow of knowledge moves along an evolutionary path_a fact which motivates each generation of scholars to build upon the past for the purpose of gaining new intellectual insights for the present and future.In his pursuit of uniqueness in academic idea and academic personality,the renowned contemporary rhetorician and literary critic Wayne Booth weaved his dream of "constructing rhetoric into a basic discipline that guides all kinds of communication activities" during the renaissance.His perfect combination of rhetoric theory and literary criticism contributes greatly to both fields.However,the contemporary study of Booth in China focuses mainly on the interpretation of terminology,concerning narrative theory in his "The Rhetoric of Fiction".Lacking of theory basis and being segmented,these studies fail to evaluate Booth’s huge contribution to rhetoric theory and practice in the overall context of rhetoric renaissance in the 20th century,and neglect his duel identity as rhetorician as well as literary(ethic)critic.Focusing on his rhetoric theory and ethical criticism,this thesis provides a better and comparatively overall view of Booth’s theory,taking into account of the big context of rhetoric renaissance in the 20th century.The thesis consists of three parts:introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction provides an overview of the research value and significance,current studies at home and abroad,innovation points as well as research method,with an emphasis on the review of research theory and works on Booth.This thesis distinguishes itself from previous studies by drawing an outline of Booth’s rhetoric theory and ethical criticism from an overall point of view,taking full account of the general background and western ideology.This thesis mainly discusses three problems:1)why studying Booth’s narrative theory from a western rhetorical point of view;2)the impact and status of Booth’s ethical criticism on transition of American literary criticism rhetoric.3)the academic contributions and influence of Booth’s theory and its modern significance.The body part consists of 6 chapters.Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of the ideological basis and influencing factors that make Booth an English teacher and rhetorician,including family,teacher,religion and society,as well as his academic pursuits and academic identity.Trying to understand Booth’s life long pursuit of rhetoric,this chapter had a survey of his attitude toward rhetoric:from neglect to obsession.Chapter 2 reviews classic rhetoric theories and the main theoretical schools during the rhetoric renaissance and their influences on Booth’s theory.As foundational works of western rhetoric ideology,Plato’s "Dialogue" had a profound impact on Booth’s dialogue rhetoric practice,while Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric as "the moral and useful art of probability nature.influenced Booth’s rhetoric criticism and practice,prompting his pursuit of changing the world with rhetoric.The educational philosophy of Isocrates,Cicero and Quintilian was influential on Booth’s educational philosophy.As the first contemporary writer who regards modern rhetoric as criticism,Blair provided the theoretical basis for Booth’s rhetoric and ethical criticism.and the two great scholars who had a profound influence on his rhetoric ideology.Aristotle’s rhetoric and morals had a profound influence on Booth’s rhetoric practice and ethic philosophy,while Kenneth Bourke’s influence was mainly reflected on the angle and vision of his literary criticism.Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 make the core of the thesis,focusing on Booth’s rhetorical and ethical criticism theory.Chapter 3 discusses Booth’s inheritance and development of classic rhetoric view like "all narrations are rhetoric",with an emphasis on the source and formative process of Booth’s rhetoric,the construction process of rhetoric of assent and the rhetoric of listening,and the influence of his rhetorical theory on his rhetorical practice and literary criticism.In view of the connecting link of Booth’s ethical criticism in American literary criticism rhetoric transition,Chapter 4 starts with the review of classics on ethical criticism and the broad environment giving rise to Booth’s ethical criticism,esp.the dispute on aesthetic and ethical criticism in 20th century America,which laid the philosophical foundation and material basis for Booth’s criticism.Using "The Rhetoric of Fiction"and "The Company We Keep:An Ethic of Fiction" as text,this Chapter proceeds to discuss the ideological basis of "The Rhetoric of Fiction",such as "imitation and purification" view in Aristotle’s "Rhetoric" and "Poetics",and the equal importance of aesthetic and practical view in "On the Art of Poetry",The interpretation of "An Ethic of Fiction" highlights Booth’s inheritance of Plato and Cicero’s ethical rhetoric ideology as well as Burke’s rhetoric theory,and analyzes the impact of discourse ethic on the theoretical framework of "An Ethic of Fiction".While the implied author of "The Rhetoric of Fiction" tries to control the readers with text,"An Ethic of Fiction" interprets the text on semantic levels from the readers’angle,focusing on the significance and ethic level of the missing components in the semantic triangle.The original term "conduction" puts ethical criticism between"intrinsic" and "extrinsic" criticism,with an emphasis on "conduction" of the narrator’s intrinsic power and the readers’ experience and evaluation.In view of the interrelated nature of rhetoric and ethical criticism,neither intrinsic nor extrinsic criticism should be one-sided,but seek balance in between.As the core concept of"An Ethic of Fiction","conduction" argues in favor of the intrinsic power of literature,and mutually reveal interpersonal relationship and community structure under ethical restrictions.Rhetoric is the very key of "conduction".Based on the arguments,reconciliations,references and developments among different ethical and aesthetic schools in the field of 20th century American literary criticism,chapter five attempts to point out the timeliness of ethical criticism in "An Ethic of Fiction",and its practical significance in the transition of American ethical and political criticism.Chapter five mainly discusses the significance and enlightenment of Booth’s rhetoric and ethical criticism on the field of rhetoric and literary criticism.First of all,"The Rhetoric of Fiction" established Booth’s status in the theoretical circle of the 20th century western world.To interpret all the narrative works with the key of rhetoric go beyond the restrictions of Aristotle theory,imposing a profound influence on western literary criticism and narrative theory.Secondly,Booth perfectly combined rhetoric theory with practical literary criticism.In his book"The Rhetoric of Rhetoric:The Quest for Effective Communication",which was hailed as the "rhetoric declaration in the 20th century America",Booth defined rhetoric as "an art to seek proper belief and to improve these beliefs in common language".He believes that the core of rhetoric lies in listening,assent and conduction,and emphasizes a two-way exploration and mutual trust in listening.Since rhetoric can handle such complicated semantic levels as moral and social problems,it provides an ethical criticism angle to interpret literary works.From calling for Listening rhetoric practice to his emphasis on both rational thinking and fine rhetoric,Booth expressed his ideal,desire and endeavor as a rhetorician to build a better society.As the core of "The Rhetoric of Irony",the self irony concept not only developed the metaphorical theory of Aristotle but opened up a new domain for narratology.In his ethical criticism work "The Company We Keep:An Ethic of Fiction",Booth studied the rhetoric effect of fiction and suggested to put ethical problems at the core of literature,explored the metaphor of companionship with books,and criticized pragmatism as "interfere with the distinction between ethical issues and aesthetic judgment and action",so as to activate two pre-modern trends in criticism and education:the inescapable moral dimension of text and the companionship between text and readers.This is a counterstrike to the de-authorization and de-ethicalization trend,which opened up new space for fiction writing and literary criticism.Chapter six covers mainly the academic contributions and influence of Booth’s rhetoric criticism and its modern implication.His academic influence lies mainly in literature teaching,literary criticism and narrative theory.Booth introduced rhetoric angle to literature teaching,providing theoretical as well as practical basis for creating communicators with healthy personality and good reasoning.He emphasizes mutual understanding among critics and methodological pluralism,making a connecting link for literary criticism.However,his greatest influence is seen on narrative theory,scholars like James Phelan are all under his influence.Beyond his previous contributions,Booth’s theory has promoted a close relationship between rhetoric criticism and literary criticism..Meanwhile,the key terms that run through Booth’s works,such as "ethos","conduction","listening","assent","ethic","implied author","reliable/unreliable narration","narrative distance",putting against the big context of the rhetoric renaissance,are the symptoms indicating Booth’s influencing and enlightening rhetoric and ethic criticism has made great contributions to the development of western rhetoric and literal critical theory as well as rhetoric practice.The conclusion part summarizes Booth’s contribution to rhetoric and literary criticism as a rhetorician and literary critic.With a thorough understanding of Booth’s theory,this thesis tries to present a convincing and comparatively original conclusion to break the set view of Booth’s academic identity and theoretical works so as to further promote the academic study of Booth in China.By analyzing views like "all narrations are rhetoric" and "conduction",grasping the practical view that all communication can start from the rhetoric angle,reviewing the transitional process from rhetoric criticism to ethical criticism and Booth’s ideal to make the society a better place through rhetoric education inspired by the narrator and implied author’s personality charm to communicate and persuade,this thesis tries to promote a more extensive study of Booth’s rhetoric theory,ethical criticism and rhetoric education.