Reading the Past Into the Future: Changing Disciplinary Identities in Rhetorical Studies: A Response to Edward P. J. Corbett’s “Rhetoric in Search of a Past, Present, and Future”

In Edward P. J. Corbett’s paper “Rhetoric in Search of a Past, Present, and Future,” he comments on the fi ve position papers prepared for delivery at Wingspread.1 He begins his commentary by remarking on the number of disciplines participating at the conference and argues for even more “cross-fertilization” among those disciplines concerning their shared focus on rhetoric. A self-identifi ed teacher of English, Corbett contributes to the interdisciplinary dialogue with historical contextualization, pedagogical questioning, and literary comparisons, contributions directly relevant to our present concerns about the future prospects for rhetorical studies.