Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts

In "Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts", editors Cheryl Glenn and Krista Ratcliffe bring together 17 essays by new and established scholars that demonstrate the value and importance of silence and listening to the study and practice of rhetoric. Building on the editors’ groundbreaking research, which respects the power of the spoken word while challenging the marginalized status of silence and listening, this volume makes a strong case for placing these overlooked concepts, and their intersections, at the forefront of rhetorical arts within rhetoric and composition studies.

Divided into three parts — history, theory and criticism, and praxes — this book reimagines traditional histories and theories of rhetoric and incorporates contemporary interests, such as race, gender, and cross-cultural concerns, into scholarly conversations about rhetorical history, theory, criticism and praxes. For the editors and the other contributors to this volume, silence is not simply the absence of sound and listening is not a passive act. When used strategically and with purpose — together and separately — silence and listening are powerful rhetorical devices integral to effective communication. The essays cover a wide range of subjects, including female rhetors from ancient Greece and medieval and Renaissance Europe; African philosophy and African-American rhetoric; contemporary antiwar protests in the United States; activist conflict resolution in Israel and Palestine; and feminist and second-language pedagogies.