Identifies and illustrates characteristics of conservative resistance rhetoric and examines the psychological origins and ideological statements of this rhetoric in the West Virginia textbook protest. (MH)

Employs Jurgen Habermas' communicative action theory and concept of a lifeworld, alongside composition theory's use of community, to examine the effectiveness of guilt as a rhetorical strategy in two national environmental publications. Suggests that environmental groups should not rely on guilt as a rhetorical strategy because, outside their…

States that the Supreme Court's 1996 ruling in Romer v. Evans is widely seen as a significant extension of civil rights to gays and lesbians. Offers a reading of the case that eschews traditional and formalistic legal analysis in favor of more critical approaches to understanding the role of law in lived experience and communal life. (PA)

Comments on the design of a novel's cover, "The Cure for Death by Lightning," and how it mirrors what is inside the book--it recreates a scrapbook belonging to the adolescent protagonist's mother. Finds the use of color and baking smells significant in the novel. States that the protagonist eventually realizes she needs a scrapbook of…

Discusses the relationship of theory and methodology in the field of educational technology research. Topics include critical analysis, the difference between conspiracy theory and the intentional explanation of social science, interpretation, historical analysis, causality, and new theoretical frameworks and paradigms. (LRW)

Explains sharp inconsistencies in Edmund Burke's rhetorical abilities by exploring two distinct conceptions of rhetoric: rhetoric as an instrument of prudential reason and as an existential means of constituting oneself. Examines Burke's private correspondence to show how this struggle between rhetorical prudence and rhetorical heroism generated…

Takes issue with Reed Way Dasenbrock's criticism of literary theory and the terms under which literary interpretation and discussion take place. Presents Dasenbrock's reply, which discusses his understanding of certain terms (evidence, truth, debate), his description of the problem, and the logical contradictions he finds internal to…

Explores silent film actress Norma Talmadge's "star persona" in the 1920s. Focuses on the public discourses that provide the background for Talmadge's departure from the screen. Analyzes why her two "talkies" failed commercially and critically. Concentrates on promotional and publicity materials and on the films themselves. (PA)

Examines interaction between demonstrative and rhetorical modes of visual argumentation by drawing upon two examples: the first includes illustrations from paleoanthropological debates on the origins of modern humans; the second references the widely disseminated "march of progress" image of human evolution. Concludes that rhetorical…

Argues that Andre Norton's "Octagon Magic" is neither a conventional girls' book, nor a witch tale, nor a time fantasy but rather a unique coming-of-age story best understood within the context of theorists such as Carol Gilligan, Mary Belenk, and Jean Baker Miller. (TB)

Responds to Krull's conclusions (1994) that higher educational attainment is indirectly related to sexual promiscuity through more liberal attitudes toward premarital sex. Criticizes Krull's omission of certain variables, recoding of variables, and assumption of a one-way causal relationship between sexual attitudes and behaviors. Reanalysis with…

Detailed discourse analysis is presented for two articles that suggest that postmodernism has little to offer comparative education and should be resisted. The two texts, focusing on postmodernism as the antithesis of comparative education and on the "lost promise" of postmodernism, demonstrate the use of language to convey messages that limit or…

The literature on diversity in higher education spans a broad range of issues. However, while broad in range, contemporary scholarship on diversity in higher education often suffers from a view of diversity that is ahistorical and acontextual. Through a critique of a study by Wolf-Wendel, Toma, and Morphew (2001), aims to demonstrate how…

Explores why, following September 11, historical education should provide a framework that eschews pronouncements about our own superiority and prompts greater self-consciousness among Americans and greater knowledge of those arrayed against us. (EV)

Posits that the birth of the road film is linked to interrelated postwar phenomena: the advent of the automobile as an expression of individuality, and the emergence of a large strata of restless youth. Discusses road films from 1950 to the 1990s. Finds that the gradual depoliticization of road film rebellion must itself be understood finally as…