An Interesting but Ultimately Futile Experiment

I would like to begin this final blog post by saying thank you to all of you, as it has been a very unique and fun experience being in this class, certainly not the same as it would have been in Norway. I would also like to apologize for my general pessimism towards everything, I am unbelievable enough exaggerating a little. Just a little.

Now, I have to admit that it took a very long time for me to understand why we read most of the readings that we did. The first class I attended of this course was the most confusing time I have ever had with a subject in my life. I was sure that this was a class I would fail miserably, and that I should just drop it right away. Luckily though, I did not have any other options, and it did not take long until I grasped that we were dealing with the rhetoric I already knew. I still struggled a lot with understanding why we were reading the texts about ancient rhetoric. I did not understand how this was any different from the classical rhetoric I had learned in Norway, or how it could contribute anything at all to the rhetorical tradition. Now at the end of the semester, I think that I have finally gotten the point. However, my epiphany is of course followed by my ever present pessimism.

The American Indian rhetoric was what made me realize that the readings are perhaps not just supposed to give me something to expand upon my own rhetoric, but to broaden my perspective of topics that will never concern me, but that I should nevertheless be aware of. Even so, I feel that for all the times that I have felt like this is important, I have come upon utterances within the readings that say such things as: ‘Not enough research has been done’, ‘The field has not had sufficient study’ and ‘It has potential, but there is not enough work being done’. I have to say that these utterances seem like the cynical, but realistic voice in between all of the excitement for bringing the rhetoric of ‘the other’ into the party of the Rhetorical Tradition. As much as I would love to think that us being educated on the different types of rhetoric of the past and present will bring about a radical change in the field, I must say that in the end, it is a very ambitious, and to me, futile task.

Will these forgotten/ignored/minor types of rhetoric change the world of rhetoric as we know it? Possibly with enough research and with enough dedicated researchers and scholars. Looking at the evidence though, I would not put my money on it, and I cannot say that I feel compelled enough to be one of those that pick up the first straw either.