Kenneth R Wright
kright@oregon.uoregon.edu
On Mon, 5 Aug 1996, Dean Rehberger wrote:
> Kenneth R Wright:
>
> >One question, will you reward me with a Ph.D. in rhetoric if I write a
> >dissertation that is merely a set of links to a large number of
> >theorists? Probably not because there is no original thinking involved.
> >So should where is that student's original thinking or at least the
> >promotion of such.
> >
> Sure I would. A lot of Dis I have read are basic surveys of the field
> (very few were very original). But the problem here is how our notion of
> "original" pins us like bugs to a board. I think we would be much better
> off it more dis's were critical editions, translations, compilations, and
> such. Toward the end of Walter Benjamin's life, he was creating texts that
> were collections of quotes.
>
> One great assignment for students is to have them collect quotes on
> particualr topics (okay so it's an old rhetorical asssignment of the
> commonplace book) and have them work with different juxtapositions and
> orders to see what sparks fly.
>
> Dean Rehberger
> American Thought and Language, Michigan State University
> e-mail: rehberge@pilot.msu.edu
> URL: http://ATL46.atl.msu.edu/atl/rehberger.html
> http://pilot.msu.edu/user/rehberge/
>