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Abstract
This dissertation seeks to connect classical rhetorical technai to the use of digital technologies in the writing classroom, specifically investigating the ways the canons of memory and delivery are reborn in twenty- first century composition. As I trace the history of canons of memory and delivery in the rhetorical tradition, I reveal the ways in which these canons have been used to develop ethical appeals, specifically analyzing the complex ethos of Virginia Woolf. Foregrounding the ethical implications of digital culture, I situate my analysis within the posthuman landscape and address the limitations of postmodern composition theory in the digital writing classroom, arguing for pedagogies that are based in materiality and practice. As it is my argument that digital technology provides increasing opportunities for the use of the canons of memory and delivery in composition, I connect the concept of rhetorical techne to the use of epideictic argumentation in digital culture, arguing that the rhetorical endeavors of twenty- first century necessitate attention to the tasks of telematic memory: the digital mediums of communication that access knowledge through screens, cables and wires. The telematic memory of the twenty- first century operates as invention, bringing forth new knowledge at the same time as it works to reveal our ideological practices to us. This dissertation specifically analyzes the uses of technology in two college writing courses, articulating the ways that ethical appeals are created through the interconnection between ancient techniques, such as rhetorical figuration that calls upon operations of memory and/or delivery, and digital displays. This dissertation examines the relationships created between machines, students, and teachers, arguing against the disembodied discourses of recent postmodern rhetorical theory and seeking to foreground the need for specific, pragmatic, and materially-concerned pedagogies in the twenty- first century.