Composing Legacies: Testimonial Rhetoric in Nineteenth-Century Composition

In 2015, Professor Emerita Lucille M. Schultz donated a collection of composition materials to the University of Cincinnati, spanning from 1785 to 1916. The collection includes picture books, grammar textbooks, student writing, and advanced rhetoric textbooks. It provides a glimpse into nineteenth-century ways of thinking and teaching, highlighting prewriting, collaborative invention, freewriting, and object-oriented pedagogy. The documents relate these pedagogies to expressions of social class, nationalism, and public engagement throughout the Victorian era and the Gilded Age.

Format: Hardback
Length: 182 pages
Publication date: 15 June 2021
Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc

In 2015, Professor Emerita Lucille M. Schultz generously donated her extensive collection of composition materials to the University of Cincinnati. Spanning fifteen libraries and collections across the country, this remarkable collection boasts 350 entries, dating from 1785 to 1916. Within these pages, one can discover a treasure trove of picture books designed for early primary schools, grammar textbooks, student writing, and advanced rhetoric textbooks for undergraduates. The documents offer a captivating glimpse into the nineteenth-century mindset, revealing practices that we now recognize as prewriting, collaborative invention, freewriting, and object-oriented pedagogy.
Composing Legacies delves into the interconnectedness of these pedagogies with expressions of social class, nationalism, and public engagement that permeated the Victorian era and the Gilded Age. The early chapters shed light on how writing and grammar handbooks aimed to perpetuate social hierarchies, while the later chapters explore how textbook authors sought to mitigate the lecture-style pedagogy by considering student backgrounds, personal interests, economic aspirations, and presumed audiences. Interestingly, while many authors expressed a strong interest in national unity, there were instances where Confederate textbooks interpreted this ideology as a form of Northern aggression, promoting the preservation of state and local traditions through their classroom exercises and sample passages.
For composition scholars who perceive the nineteenth century as a time characterized by skills-and-drills teaching, devoid of explicit political concern, the archival texts provide a surprising revelation. Testimonies within these texts shed light on national crises and civic participation, challenging the notion that the "social turn" in writing and rhetoric, although relatively recent in historical terms, has been underway for over two hundred years.
In conclusion, Professor Emerita Lucille M. Schultz's donation of her composition materials to the University of Cincinnati is a significant contribution to the study of writing and rhetoric. The collection offers a wealth of insights into nineteenth-century ways of thinking and teaching, highlighting practices that have shaped the field over the centuries. By exploring the intersections of social class, nationalism, and public engagement with writing and rhetoric, Composing Legacies contributes to our understanding of the complex and evolving nature of the discipline.

Weight: 355g
Dimension: 225 x 150 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781433180453
Edition number: New ed