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Lingua Fracta: Toward a Rhetoric of New Media
Lingua Fracta begins from the assumption that there is an intrinsically technological dimension to rhetoric, arguing that we have become so accustomed to practicing rhetoric in the context of print technologies that we have often naturalized or ignored that dimension. New communication and information technologies do not simply provide us with new sites of thetorical practice; instead, they challange us to reconceive rhetoric altogether. This goundbreaking volume argues that a rhetoric of new media should attend to ecologies of practice treating interfaces rather than texts as our sites and units of analysis In order to devise such a rhetoric Lingua Fracta offers a systemic reconsideration of the canons of classical rhetoric. Rather than understanding the canons as stages in a linear composing process, this book describes the canons as repertoires of multiple pracices that shift as we move among media.
- GenresAcademicNonfiction
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 8, 2021
Recasting Rhetoric (and the Trivium) to Work with New Media - I found out about this book from an article called “The Classic Trivium: A Heuristic and Heuretic for New Media and Digital Communication Studies” by Kevin Brooks and Andrew Mara in the on-line journal "Kairos." My introduction to the trivium had come years ago through my reading of Marshall McLuhan (see my review of “McLuhan: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed) )" and I was looking for some more recent material concerning these heritage approaches to knowledge, learning and public life (see also my review of the McLuhans' "Theories of Communication").
In his book, to my delight, Brooke recasts and updates the classical Trivium (rhetoric, grammar and dialectic) and particularly the 5 cannons of rhetoric to help in understanding and utilizing new media such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, cloud computing and the enhanced communication/information handling vehicles they provide, such as hypertext, search, blogs, databases, gaming, wikis and so on. (See my review of Rushkoff's "Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity" for more on related impacts.)
Brooke, an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing a Syracuse University, early on indicates that “When writing is being transformed all around us . . . Rebuilding our discipline . . . not just to cope, but to contribute to such change . . . [is among] our obligations as writing teachers and researchers” (see The Present State of Scholarship in the History of Rhetoric: A Twenty-First Century Guide for background I sought to better understand the field). He goes on to discuss ways we have been moving from “text to screens/interfaces” and “lingua fracta.” The author proceeds to “. . . re-envision the [elements of the] trivium [most particularly, rhetoric] . . . to see them less as separate disciplines . . . more as scales of activity to focus our attention in different ways” (taken from pgs. xvii to xix).
With his rationale and framework laid out in the Preface, Interfaces and Ecology chapters, Brooke goes through and reframes the five canons of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery) in successive chapters (as Proairesis, Pattern, Perspective, Persistence, Performance). Within each chapter, he provides a revised interpretation of the canon, new media examples and comments on practices enabled and constrained. (it occurred to me that such information could readily be used to populate a table for more clarity and ready reference).
For instance, invention is renamed “Proairesis” meaning a systematic search for arguments, discovery of new prospects opened up by new media (I would rather see some rename like possibilities, potential or preferences). In terms of arrangement or Pattern, we can “. . . consider rhetoric in the context of databases . . . [as accessed in] Amazon book recommendations and Google searches as data mining . . . [that convey] advantages, access to trends and patterns . . .” Along these lines, “. . . attempts to translate the work of humanities scholars into quantifiable data may have limitations . . . [but] is providing interesting avenues of inquiry . . .” Furthermore, “New media interfaces such as blogs and wikis . . . allow us to link with databases . . . and switch back and forth between database and narrative . . . “ (taken from pgs. 101-109). Such passages certainly speak to my interests and concerns with databases (see my review of Robinson and Webber's "Graph Databases: New Opportunities for Connected Data").
In a final chapter, A Coda, Brooke talks about what he does and does not cover and goes back to his original intention. He summarizes the “. . .re-casting . . .venerable frames from classical rhetoric, the cannons and the trivium, setting them almost as axes along which to plot a rhetorical approach to technology . . . to map out different scaled ecologies (code, practice, and culture) . . . “ He recognizes that within the book there is “. . . no explicit focus on pedagogy . . . [but] there are classroom implications . . . [as well as for] on-line education . . . [where this revised] vocabulary that could be of use . . . in transforming or improving our practices” (taken from pgs. 199-200). As he states in an early chapter, “. . . teachers and students of writing . . . scholars of rhetoric and composition are in a unique position . . . [in terms of] bringing what we know to bear on new media [and this effort] is the next step in the growth of our discipline” (pg. 5).
While there are also useful indices, references and figures (i.e. mostly screen shots), I wondered why Brooke didn’t include some of the diagrams he used in an MLA presentation referred to by Brooks and Mara (see above) as they would have provided more guidance in the text; a chart like a Prezi presentation done by Mandy Brooks outlining the also book provides an example of way such visuals could help. Also, the author’s designation of grammar and dialectic as ecologies of code and culture respectively was also unclear to me (likely due to my dialectic/business consulting bent).
Despite having a number of questions, I found “Lingua Fracta” very helpful in reorienting rhetoric and its cannons as well as providing useful information and an idea of how to similarly flesh out the other elements of the trivium (dialectic and grammar). I imagine it can also be valuable to rhetoric and writing scholars and others of us as we work with the new media.
In his book, to my delight, Brooke recasts and updates the classical Trivium (rhetoric, grammar and dialectic) and particularly the 5 cannons of rhetoric to help in understanding and utilizing new media such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, cloud computing and the enhanced communication/information handling vehicles they provide, such as hypertext, search, blogs, databases, gaming, wikis and so on. (See my review of Rushkoff's "Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity" for more on related impacts.)
Brooke, an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing a Syracuse University, early on indicates that “When writing is being transformed all around us . . . Rebuilding our discipline . . . not just to cope, but to contribute to such change . . . [is among] our obligations as writing teachers and researchers” (see The Present State of Scholarship in the History of Rhetoric: A Twenty-First Century Guide for background I sought to better understand the field). He goes on to discuss ways we have been moving from “text to screens/interfaces” and “lingua fracta.” The author proceeds to “. . . re-envision the [elements of the] trivium [most particularly, rhetoric] . . . to see them less as separate disciplines . . . more as scales of activity to focus our attention in different ways” (taken from pgs. xvii to xix).
With his rationale and framework laid out in the Preface, Interfaces and Ecology chapters, Brooke goes through and reframes the five canons of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery) in successive chapters (as Proairesis, Pattern, Perspective, Persistence, Performance). Within each chapter, he provides a revised interpretation of the canon, new media examples and comments on practices enabled and constrained. (it occurred to me that such information could readily be used to populate a table for more clarity and ready reference).
For instance, invention is renamed “Proairesis” meaning a systematic search for arguments, discovery of new prospects opened up by new media (I would rather see some rename like possibilities, potential or preferences). In terms of arrangement or Pattern, we can “. . . consider rhetoric in the context of databases . . . [as accessed in] Amazon book recommendations and Google searches as data mining . . . [that convey] advantages, access to trends and patterns . . .” Along these lines, “. . . attempts to translate the work of humanities scholars into quantifiable data may have limitations . . . [but] is providing interesting avenues of inquiry . . .” Furthermore, “New media interfaces such as blogs and wikis . . . allow us to link with databases . . . and switch back and forth between database and narrative . . . “ (taken from pgs. 101-109). Such passages certainly speak to my interests and concerns with databases (see my review of Robinson and Webber's "Graph Databases: New Opportunities for Connected Data").
In a final chapter, A Coda, Brooke talks about what he does and does not cover and goes back to his original intention. He summarizes the “. . .re-casting . . .venerable frames from classical rhetoric, the cannons and the trivium, setting them almost as axes along which to plot a rhetorical approach to technology . . . to map out different scaled ecologies (code, practice, and culture) . . . “ He recognizes that within the book there is “. . . no explicit focus on pedagogy . . . [but] there are classroom implications . . . [as well as for] on-line education . . . [where this revised] vocabulary that could be of use . . . in transforming or improving our practices” (taken from pgs. 199-200). As he states in an early chapter, “. . . teachers and students of writing . . . scholars of rhetoric and composition are in a unique position . . . [in terms of] bringing what we know to bear on new media [and this effort] is the next step in the growth of our discipline” (pg. 5).
While there are also useful indices, references and figures (i.e. mostly screen shots), I wondered why Brooke didn’t include some of the diagrams he used in an MLA presentation referred to by Brooks and Mara (see above) as they would have provided more guidance in the text; a chart like a Prezi presentation done by Mandy Brooks outlining the also book provides an example of way such visuals could help. Also, the author’s designation of grammar and dialectic as ecologies of code and culture respectively was also unclear to me (likely due to my dialectic/business consulting bent).
Despite having a number of questions, I found “Lingua Fracta” very helpful in reorienting rhetoric and its cannons as well as providing useful information and an idea of how to similarly flesh out the other elements of the trivium (dialectic and grammar). I imagine it can also be valuable to rhetoric and writing scholars and others of us as we work with the new media.
August 30, 2023
Now to take notes; especially interesting to me are the sections on memory (or persistence, as he calls it).
April 27, 2012
I read portions of this book and really liked it. It was very cool to see someone updating traditional rhetorical concepts to fit our modern age. It was not useful for my work but I found myself wanting to continue reading.
December 20, 2010
Amazing work of scholarship. Brooke reformulates the five rhetorics of canon for the digital age.
February 2, 2011
Really interesting look at how new media affects rhetoric.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews