Editing Rhetoric (section)

== Comparative rhetoric ==
Comparative rhetoric is a practice and methodology that developed in the late twentieth century to broaden the study of rhetoric beyond the dominant rhetorical tradition that has been constructed and shaped in western Europe and the U.S.<ref name=":3">{{Citation |last=Mao |first=LuMing |chapter=Redefining Comparative Rhetoric |date=2020-06-10 |title=The Routledge Handbook of Comparative World Rhetorics |pages=15–33 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780367809768-3 |isbn=978-0-367-80976-8 |s2cid=225672002}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Sharma |first=Shyam |chapter=Teaching World Rhetorics |date=2020-06-10 |title=The Routledge Handbook of Comparative World Rhetorics |pages=353–362 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780367809768-39 |isbn=978-0-367-80976-8 |s2cid=225769076}}</ref> As a research practice, comparative rhetoric studies past and present cultures across the globe to reveal diversity in the uses of rhetoric and to uncover rhetorical perspectives, practices, and traditions that have been historically underrepresented or dismissed.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Mao |first=Luming |year=2015 |title=Thinking beyond Aristotle: The Turn to How in Comparative Rhetoric |journal=Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |volume=129 |issue=3 |pages=448–455 |doi=10.1632/pmla.2014.129.3.448 |s2cid=161874901 |issn=0030-8129}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=Mao |first1=LuMing |last2=Wang |first2=Bo |last3=Lyon |first3=Arabella |last4=Jarratt |first4=Susan C. |last5=Swearingen |first5=C. Jan |last6=Romano |first6=Susan |last7=Simonson |first7=Peter |last8=Mailloux |first8=Steven |last9=Lu |first9=Xing |date=2015-06-15 |title=Manifesting a Future for Comparative Rhetoric |journal=Rhetoric Review |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=239–274 |doi=10.1080/07350198.2015.1040105 |s2cid=142944901 |issn=0735-0198}}</ref> As a methodology, comparative rhetoric constructs a culture's rhetorical perspectives, practices, and traditions on their own terms, in their own contexts, as opposed to using European or American theories, terminology, or framing.<ref name=":3" />

Comparative rhetoric is comparative in that it illuminates how rhetorical traditions relate to one another, while seeking to avoid binary depictions or value judgments.<ref name=":3" /> This can reveal issues of power within and between cultures as well as new or under-recognized ways of thinking, doing, and being that challenge or enrich the dominant Euro-American tradition and provide a fuller account of rhetorical studies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mao |first=LuMing |year=2003 |title=Reflective Encounters: Illustrating Comparative Rhetoric |journal=Style |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=401–24 |jstor=10.5325/style.37.4.401}}</ref>

[[Robert T. Oliver]] is credited as the first scholar who recognized the need to study non-Western rhetorics in his 1971 publication ''Communication and Culture in Ancient India and China''.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5">{{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Keith |title=The Routledge handbook of comparative world rhetorics: studies in the history, application, and teaching of rhetoric beyond traditional Greco-Roman contexts |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-000-06623-4 |oclc=1162596431}}</ref> [[George A. Kennedy (classicist)|George A. Kennedy]] has been credited for the first cross-cultural overview of rhetoric in his 1998 publication ''Comparative Rhetoric: An Historical and Cross-cultural Introduction''.<ref name=":5" /> Though Oliver's and Kennedy's works contributed to the birth of comparative rhetoric, given the newness of the field, they both used Euro-American terms and theories to interpret non-Euro-American cultures' practices.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garrett |first1=Mary |last2=Sharon-Zisser |first2=Shirley |last3=Swearingen |first3=C. Jan |last4=Schiappa |first4=Edward |last5=Lares |first5=Jameela |last6=Skretkowicz |first6=Victor |last7=Abbott |first7=Don Paul |last8=Bator |first8=Paul |last9=Miller |first9=Thomas |title=Short Reviews |journal=Rhetorica |publisher=Project Muse |volume=16 |issue=4 |year=1998 |issn=0734-8584 |doi=10.1525/rh.1998.16.4.431 |pages=431–454}}</ref>

LuMing Mao, Xing Lu, Mary Garrett, Arabella Lyon, Bo Wang, Hui Wu, and Keith Lloyd have published extensively on comparative rhetoric, helping to shape and define the field.<ref name=":5" /> In 2013, LuMing Mao edited a special issue on comparative rhetoric in ''Rhetoric Society Quarterly'',<ref>{{cite journal|title=Beyond Bias, Binary, and Border: Mapping out the Future of Comparative Rhetoric|journal=Rhetoric Society Quarterly|volume=43|issue=3|year=2013}}</ref> focusing on comparative methodologies in the age of globalization. In 2015, LuMing Mao and Bo Wang coedited a symposium<ref name=MaoWang>{{cite journal|first1=LuMing|last1=Mao|first2=Bo|last2=Wang|journal=Rhetoric Review|title=Manifesting a Future for Comparative Rhetoric|doi=10.1080/07350198.2015.1040105|volume=34|number=3|year=2015|pages=239–274|s2cid=142944901 }}</ref> featuring position essays by a group of leading scholars in the field. In their introduction, Mao and Wang emphasize the fluid and cross-cultural nature of rhetoric, "Rhetorical knowledge, like any other knowledge, is heterogeneous, multidimentional, and always in the process of being created."{{r|MaoWang|page=241}} The symposium includes "A Manifesto: The What and How of Comparative Rhetoric", demonstrating the first collective effort to identify and articulate comparative rhetoric's definition, goals, and methodologies.<ref name=":6" /> The tenets of this manifesto are engaged within many later works that study or utilize comparative rhetoric.<ref name=":5" />