The Absent Aesthetic

摘要

Malcolm Sillars' 1976 statement of the central problems of rhetorical criticism was rooted in the practices of its own time. It did not anticipate the radical decentering of the text, the obsession with power and domination, or the fragmentation of the traditional rhetorical event. While Sillars' ideas are still rich and interesting, the article marks the sea change wrought by three decades in our critical enterprise.