Reorienting Rhetoric

Reorienting Rhetoric, Volume 1, by John D. O'Banion, provides a systematic treatment of the role of narration within the history of Western rhetoric. This work of literary criticism and philosophy examines how traditional modes of thinking have shifted toward a privilege of systematic language. O'Banion argues that narration serves as a vital mode of thinking, equal in importance to logic. By analyzing the relationship between proofs and statements of facts, the text challenges the tendency to view narrative merely as an object rather than a functional means of reasoning.

This scholarly volume explores the truncated role of narration in rhetorical and literary history, alongside its twentieth-century resurgence through the work of Kenneth Burke. Within the fields of logic and philosophy, O'Banion investigates how various disciplines contribute to our understanding of narrative importance. Reorienting Rhetoric, Volume 1, offers a deep investigation into the limitations of logic and the enduring necessity of narrative in rhetorical studies.