se of this term) to take an interest in its persuasiveness . . . The rhetorician
. . . is concerned to discover general principles governing the use of words for getting people to believe or feel or act" (5-6). While rhetoric has become something of a pejorative term, writers must admit that all of their work seeks a response from the reader, a belief, a feeling, or an action of some kind.
Rhetoric was a subject of formal study at least as early as the time of Socrates. It was then taught by itinerant teachers, who understood it simply as the art of speaking and writing clearly. The term came into use during the Middle Ages when it had begun to refer to the heightening of language through embellishment. By the nineteenth century, rhetoric had become an often derisive term to describe overblown, bombastic forms of communication. More recently, philosophers studying the use of language have begun to restore rhetoric to its original, simpler meaning, a description of communication used to convince an audience of valid points its author wishes to put forward.
While "rhetoric" has undergone significant changes in its general use, the use of the term in relation to questions has remained relatively untouched. A rhetorical question is that for which the answer is self-evident. The question contains the argument for acknowledging its inherent truth. As modern philosophers have begun to restore to rhetoric a more useful definition, they have started to consider ways in which questions of all kinds might contribute to the process of understanding literary texts.
One of the most original and influential thinkers on this subject was the late Kenneth Burke. Merle E. Brown calls Burke "probably the most controversial literary figure of the past fifty years in America" (5). His obituary in the New Republic observed, "His lifelong project to compile a 'grammar' of 'symbolic action' has proved as influential as it was idiosyncra...