Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks (review)

Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks provides a comprehensive collection of differing perspectives on conceptualizations of the rhetorical tradition as it is understood and theorized through civilizations not traditionally considered a part of the Western schools of rhetorical understanding. Introducing rhetorical artifacts from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Chinese, biblical, and Rhodesian traditions, Carol S. Lipson and Roberta A. Binkley seek to elucidate how that which is classically conceptualized as rhetoric is largely exclusive and narrowly construed without regard for perspectives offered through earlier traditions, often excluding rhetorical artifacts stemming from traditions that the Greek approach does not regard as rhetoric.

Lipson and Binkley argue that while other rhetorics may not fall into specific Greek conceptualizations of the rhetorical, they bear significance and importance for the purposes and perspectives that they represent, taking into account the influence that such alternative rhetoric has had on shaping discourse, on altering and informing the recording and understanding of major historical events, and on the structure and creation of theoretical frameworks.

Throughout this collection, the performative nature and strength of the rhetorical tradition appears to be prominent in many different ways. Rhetoric is understood as a presentational form of oral and vocal exchange between a rhetor and an audience. The inclination toward public address, existing within many of these oral traditions (such artifacts from this collection include letters, songs, legal texts, stories, sanctions) exemplifies how rhetoric functioned in these cultures as largely a part of human interaction and the natural performativity existing therein. Lipson and Binkley indirectly address the inherent argumentative nature of the many oral traditions represented in these essays by harkening back to Western conceptions of public address. The artifacts analyzed in this collection focus on the vocality of the oral tradition and the dialogue contained therein, a different approach to rhetoric with implications for the epideictic nature of the ceremonial attributes of rites and rituals. With this thread of the vocal nature of the oral tradition and the resemblance it bears to the Western conception of public address, the nature of vocality and the significance it plays in these other rhetorics should be clearly punctuated. If Lipson and Binkley argue that these other modes of rhetoric are "legitimate" and should be included, they ought to draw parallels with how these other rhetorics in form reflect and often mirror some of the Western understandings and conceptions of the rhetorical. Such a parallel would be evident in the oral tradition of these cultures and the speaker-audience relationship that is analyzed and critiqued in the Western rhetorical paradigm.

The nature of rhetorical contingency wrestles with the challenge of how to include other approaches to rhetoric not recognized nor understood by the Western rhetorical canon. Resting at the core of this issue, and what Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks mildly hints at, is that rhetoric, as rhetoric, is too narrowly defined for its own good. This collection as a whole questions and challenges the contingent and the desire for, or establishment of, the norm. Reading Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks encourages one to think of how we as scholars understand and conceptualize rhetoric without necessarily arguing that everything bears rhetorical merit. Questions and reflections we should bear in mind include how we use the norm (being the Western rhetorical tradition) for the purposes of exclusivity rather than employing the idea of contingency as a gauge to measure only what it purports. Currently the measure of the rhetorical fails to recognize other artifacts representing different forms of rhetoric. Introducing other approaches to rhetoric challenges the measure of the contingency of the canon and questions how this measure is qualified.

In the introduction of Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks, Lipson and Binkley address some of the primary aims and concerns of assembling a collection that seeks to broaden and enlarge conceptions of rhetoric and introduce new participants to the rhetorical conversation. In doing so, Lipson and Binkley argue that the inherent aim...