Introduction -- Humanist Dialogues and Defenses of Women's Education: Conversation as a Model for All Discourse -- Conduct Book Rhetoric: Constructing a Theory of Feminine Discourse -- Defenses of Women's Preaching: Dissenting Rhetoric and the Language of Women's Rights -- Elocution: Sentimental Culture and Performing Femininity -- Conclusion: Composition Textbooks by Women and the Decline of a Women's Tradition
Summary
Much of the scholarly exchange regarding the history of women in rhetoric has emphasized women's rhetorical practices. In Conversational Rhetoric: The Rise and Fall of a Women's Tradition, 1600-1900, Jane Donawerth traces the historical development of rhetorical theory by women for women, studying the moments when women produced theory about the arts of communication in alternative genres-humanist treatises and dialogues, defenses of women's preaching, conduct books, and elocution handbooks. She examines the relationship between communication and gender and between theory and
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-193) and index
