Winifred Bryan Horner argues that an understanding of the changes that occurred in the content of nineteenth-century courses in logic, rhetoric, and belles lettres taught in Scottish universities provides important critical insight into the development of the twentieth-century American composition course, as well as courses in English literature and critical theory. Because of the inaccessibility of primary materials documenting the changes in courses taught at Scottish universities, the impression remains that the nineteenth century represents a break with the traditional school curriculum rather than a logical transition to a new focus of study. Horner has discovered that the notes of students who attended these classes—meticulously transcribed records of the lectures that professors dictated in lieu of printed texts—provide reliable documentation of the content of courses taught during the period. Using these records, Horner traces the evolution of current traditional composition, developed in the United States in the first part of the twentieth century, from courses taught in nineteenth-century, northern Scottish universities. She locates the beginning of courses in English literature and belletristic composition in the southern schools, particularly Edinburgh. Horner’s study opens new vistas for the study of the evolution of university curricula, especially the never before acknowledged influence of belletristric rhetoric on the development of the North American composition course.

An outgrowth of the recent meeting of the International Society of the History of Rhetoric, this collection challenges the reader to reexamine the broad influence of 18th- and 19th-century Scottish rhetoric, often credited for shaping present-day studies in psychology, philosophy, literary criticism, oral communication, English literature, and composition. The contributors examine its influence and call for a new appraisal of its importance in light of recent scholarship and archival research. Many of the essays in the first section discuss the contributions of recognized influential figures including Adam Smith and Hugh Blair. Other essays focus on the importance of 18th-century Scottish sermons in relation to public discourse, audience analysis, peer evaluation, and professional rhetoric. Essays in the second section address 19th-century rhetorical theory and its influence on North American composition practice.

The popular and successful rhetorical textbooks produced by the 18th century Scottish philosophical tradition, such as George Campbell's The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1776), Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783), and Alexander Bain's English Composition and Rhetoric (1877) have been widely accorded a role in the trajectories of 19th and 20th century literary theory. Scholars have generally overlooked them, however, as philosophical works. The selected writings chosen for this volume show how these rhetorical textbooks were a practical extension of the philosophy of language developed by 18th century Scottish philosophers. Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, Alexander Gerard, and Henry Home, Lord Kames, advanced a radically new paradigm of language as an inherently mediated practice, directed simultaneously to personal and social, moral and aesthetic uses. This Scottish philosophy of rhetoric powerfully influenced the teaching of language and literacy as tools for social and educational innovation. This volume - the first of its kind - offers a wide variety of writings on rhetoric and rhetorical theory, selected in a way that reveals their intimate connection with the Scottish philosophical tradition.

This study pays particular attention to trends in the light of the contemporary interest in the study of rhetoric and belles lettres in Scotland during the period of the Enlightenment. Topics covered include contemporary attitudes to the 18th-century Scottish sermon; training in rhetoric in Scotland; printed theories of pulpit rhetoric; the reflection of current literary trends; and links to contemporary developments in the fields of elocution, drama and literature.

At the outset of the eighteenth century, college language study in America concentrated on classical rhetoric. By the end of the century, due to educational innovations from Scotland, courses in rhetoric in American schools expanded to include oratory, disputation, English grammatical lessons, and the reading of English literary selections. This study of English and American literature was born in the study of moral philosophy. Combining the study of moral philosophy with language study created a course emphasis that early American professors called "philosophical criticism." The term, philosophical, carried a meaning for them that was associated with a commitment to civic responsibility, to civic discourse, and to ancient school texts such as Cicero's De Oratore where the word oratory was used to denote, according to Cicero, the mastery of all knowledge either "by scientific investigation or by the methods of dialectic." The classroom practice of disputation was also at the center of what literary historians have deemed the "oratorical tradition," a late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon that, until now, has received little scholarly attention over the years.

"In the years since its publication in 1983, The Present State of Scholarship in Historical and Contemporary Rhetoric has become a classic in its field, proving to be an invaluable resource for students of rhetoric and composition, as well as for scholars in English, speech, and philosophy. This revised and updated edition defines the field of rhetoric as no other volume has."--Publishers website.