Modern and Postmodern Rhetoric / Mikhail Bakhtin

                According to Rhetorical Traditions, “at the beginning of the twentieth century, rhetoric appeared to be in decline” (Rhetorical Traditions 1183) and it was no longer present in university. However, even though it became considered an outdated subject for curriculum I feel that rhetoric never can truly decline. Only the institutional study of it. At its most basic level as discussed previously rhetoric is always present in any interaction which involves a position being taken or persuasion taking place. In the later 20^th century however, “philosophers and literary critics rediscovered rhetoric or reinvented it under some other rubric, such as discourse or dialog-ism” (Rhetorical Traditions 1183). This would show in my opinion that rhetoric never really disappeared at all, but was reformed in the modern and postmodern times.

                Mikhail Bakhtin was not one who had a standing in the intellectual academic community, but his “work is fired by his conviction that language and the form it takes can be properly understood only as dialogue” (Rhetorical Traditions 1206). His readings are all but easy to understand in my opinion, but what I got from them was that dialogue occurs when people are able to arguably meet stasis between the reader and the author. It is important in creating an understanding and meaning of a text. Though not considered an academic according to the reading, he did publish many works, however, he did it through publishing aliases. This also could have been because it was not uncommon for him to attack the work of others in his works and it may have been in his interest to remain anonymous.