'And Gladly Wolde He Lerne, and Qladly Teche': Using Burke's Grammar of 'Perspectives' as Course Design

摘要

When Chaucer created his motley pilgrims, he paraded them across the pages of the Canterbury Tales with tongue in cheek; the Knight was too proud, the Prioress too worldly, the Monk too interested in earthly delights, and the Friar too fleshly. Only a couple of pilgrims escaped the tart tongue of the creator—the Parson, guardian of the Will, and the Oxford Clerk, guardian of the Intellect. Like many scholars today, that student of Oxford conducted his search for the truth amid the dizzying array of nouvelle philosophies and trendy discussions. By committing his simple life to teaching and learning and relying on the classics, he gave us a lesson for contemporary research. I think it behooves us to follow his example of the 1390s and to look to the modern classics, like Kenneth Burke's Grammar of Motives, to guide us through the maze of rhetorical theories in the 1990s.