Sarah Whitehead, visiting instructor in the Communication Department, has written a book review for the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. The RCCS published her review in its October 2007 edition.

Her review examines Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s book, The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television (Vanderbilt University Press, 2006). In addition to a thorough summary of the book, Whitehead applies traditional theories of communication and information networks to the content and challenges Fitzpatrick’s application of those theories.

Whitehead’s complete review can be found on the RCCS web site.

Cross posted on Medaille College News.

In recent years many rhetorical studies have been “too politically correct by half” with scholars’ politics being used as substitutes for rigor. More recently, however, this tendency seems to have abated a little bit and interesting “new directions” are now being considered, such as serious consideration of a neo-Sophistic view of rhetoric as symbolic magic, a line of endeavor that I have attempted to pursue since I finished my dissertation, which more or less pioneered such study, in 1982.

Dr. Schedel, whose main research interest is in rhetoric, has been teaching public speaking for over 20 years. He was asked to weigh in on the current state of rhetorical studies.  You may ask him follow up questions here, or by e-mailing him at jschedel@medaille.edu