GEISLER, Cheryl

Fall 2005, pages 107 - 113

Teaching the Post-Modern Rhetor:
Continuing the Conversation on Rhetorical Agency

ABSTRACT: In responding to Gunn and Lundberg's critique of her report on rhetorical agency, Geisler uses their Ouija Board metaphor to undertake an analysis of what it might mean to teach the post-modern rhetor. In particular, once the autonomous agent has been denaturalized, members of the profession of rhetoric have plenty to do in helping students first to engage with and then to participate in a more appropriately theorized rhetoric. Like the Ouija Board player, we may not be able to know how the results of our classroom teaching are related to our intentions. But. like every other rhetor. we need to recognize the costs of walking away from the game.