Mimesis, Duality, and Rhetorical Education

## Citation

Terrill, Robert. "Mimesis, Duality, and Rhetorical Education." *Rhetoric Society Quarterly*, no. 41, vol. 4, 2011, pp. 295-315.

## Abstract

"The pedagogical strategy of *imitatio* cultivates particular attitudes and habits that are useful resources for democratic citizens. Specifically, a mimetic pedagogy cultivates duality, as manifest in a faculty of perspective taking and enabled through the close analysis of rhetorical texts. Reviving *imitatio* as the central component of a rhetorical education entails a productive critique of norms of sincerity that prevail in contemporary culture, and as such constitutes one of the more significant contributions that rhetorical education can make toward enhancing and sustaining democratic culture." (295)

## Summary

Study of rhetoric is capable not just of producing and cultivating certain skills, but a certain type of person - thus, the argument for rhetorical education. Terrill proposes going back to the classics and ancients for renewed approaches to rhetorical education.

Binary tension between sincerity and persuasion; rhetoric is the field that effaces itself, that denies its own art in order to appear sincere and authentic. Latin for "sincerity" comes from roots for cleanliness, purity, honesty, as well as singularity or simplicity. (299) This one-ness is at odds with rhetorical practices like *dissoi logoi* (the taking on and advocating for perspectives not necessarily held by the speaker), and *imitatio* (mimetic, but not purely reproductive imitation).

"*Imitatio*, then, might encourage duality in multiple ways, but I will focus on two: it requires students to divide their attention between the immediate requirements of the case at hand and the models they are using as resources, and it structures a dialogic relationship between a critic/rhetor and a text that is perceived to be inherently intertextual." (302)

*Imitatio* not just as imitation, but an excavation of older texts that can be turned into future rhetorical production. (303) A distance is maintained between student and the original speaker; "The student engaged in mimetic pedagogy strives to take on some characteristics of the exemplar, but never to *become* the exemplar. A moment of eloquence may have been a fitting response to a particular past situation, but to import it directly into a present situation would be absurd, and perhaps repulsive." (303) The goal of rhetorical education is not to reproduce Cicero or Churchill, but to produce orators who can speak *as effectively as* they did.

Two-step process to *imitatio* - analysis and genesis. Analysis as first stage, when students study an exemplar to understand "how its excellences followed the precepts of art." And genesis, the second stage, when students attempt to produce. Interpretation leads to production - reading leads to composing.

*Imitatio* points to public texts as double-voiced; "a rhetorical pedagogy brings students to the realization that all rhetorical texts have been formed through the critique and recombination of previous rhetorical texts, and that therefore the analysis of previous discourse is the foundation for the production of new discourse. [...] A mimetic pedagogy, thus, instills in a student an awareness that she does not exclusively author even her own discourses, and that therefore she both can and cannot say precisely what it is that she intends to say. She must always be aware not only that she is speaking and acting within a context constituted by what others have said, but also that others have said, in part, what she is saying." (304-305)

### Memorization, Translation, Paraphrase

Memorization - Per Quintilian, it is more difficult to memorize another's thoughts than one's own, so by practicing memorization in *imitatio*, memorizing one's own speeches will be that much easier, later on. Also, students who memorize will have absorbed the exemplars of speech, and will have those resources on hand when speaking (Compare with Kenneth Burke on identification)

Translation - Moving between Latin and Greek. For Cicero, "the value of translation for an orator is [...] in the invention of a new text that relies upon the form or shape of the original, modifying even those as necessary." (306)

Paraphrase - For Cicero, a relatively useless exercise, since the best words for the subject have already been taken by the original speaker; for Quintilian, he views paraphrase not just as passive reproduction, but an attempt to rival the original through doubling it - recognizing that there is more than one way to say something well. This is a self-conscious imitation and production, and thus a direct challenge to the ideal of sincerity - "willingness to alter nature, rather than merely portray it." (308)

### Transformative Duality

*Imitatio* as rhetorical pedagogy helps cultivate self-awareness in students of the intertextuality of their invention, the ways in which discourse is informed by and built upon that which has already been said.

Also draws upon Burke's conception of attitude as a complement to duality. Attitudes as "'incipient acts.' meaning that an attitude is preparatory or anticipatory to action, exhibiting a potential that is likely to be realized" (310). A style, an approach, to action and acting and engaging with the world and others.

## Conclusion

Note the absent term "duplicity." *Imitatio* and mimetic rhetorical education would push back against the negative connotations of duplicity and the valorization of sincerity in public culture. Pure imitation undermines democratic society, but the cultural literacy and attitudes instilled by a mimetic pedagogy would benefit.