TY - JOUR
T1 - “Suppose a grammar uses invention”
T2 - Gertrude stein’s theory of rhetorical grammar
AU - Kirsch, Sharon J.
PY - 2008/7/15
Y1 - 2008/7/15
N2 - This article elucidates Gertrude Stein’s theory of rhetorical grammar by locating it in her studies at Harvard University/Radcliffe College in the mid-1890s and by demonstrating how for Stein the study of grammar correlates with rhetoric’s first canon, invention. In her experimental primer, How to Write (1931), a book about the craft of composition, Stein devotes chapters to vocabulary, sentences, paragraphs, grammar, and forensics, but refuses to reduce writing to mechanical correctness. For Stein, a grammar that supposes invention as both discovering and creating does something much more than offer pre-existing rules for writers to follow. Placing Gertrude Stein’s writing practices in the rhetorical traditions of the nineteenth century reveals a Gertrude Stein who is not necessarily or not only a literary figure, but rather a twentieth-century rhetorician who refigures past traditions to teach a new century how to write.
AB - This article elucidates Gertrude Stein’s theory of rhetorical grammar by locating it in her studies at Harvard University/Radcliffe College in the mid-1890s and by demonstrating how for Stein the study of grammar correlates with rhetoric’s first canon, invention. In her experimental primer, How to Write (1931), a book about the craft of composition, Stein devotes chapters to vocabulary, sentences, paragraphs, grammar, and forensics, but refuses to reduce writing to mechanical correctness. For Stein, a grammar that supposes invention as both discovering and creating does something much more than offer pre-existing rules for writers to follow. Placing Gertrude Stein’s writing practices in the rhetorical traditions of the nineteenth century reveals a Gertrude Stein who is not necessarily or not only a literary figure, but rather a twentieth-century rhetorician who refigures past traditions to teach a new century how to write.
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U2 - 10.1080/02773940802167567
DO - 10.1080/02773940802167567
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:69849128346
SN - 0277-3945
VL - 38
SP - 283
EP - 310
JO - Rhetoric Society Quarterly
JF - Rhetoric Society Quarterly
IS - 3
ER -