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Much of the scholarly exchange regarding the history of women in rhetoric has emphasized women's rhetorical practices. In Conversational Rhetoric: The Rise and Fall of a Women's Tradition, 1600-1900, Jane Donawerth traces the historical development of rhetorical theory by women for women, studying the moments when women produced theory about the arts of communication in alternative genres-humanist treatises and dialogues, defenses of women's preaching, conduct books, and elocution handbooks. She examines the relationship between communication and gender and between theory and pedagogy and argues that women constructed a theory of rhetoric based on conversation, not public speaking, as a model for all discourse. Donawerth traces the development of women's rhetorical theory through the voices of English and American women (and one much-translated French woman) over three centuries. She demonstrates how they cultivated theories of rhetoric centered on conversation that faded once women began writing composition textbooks for mixed-gender audiences in the latter part of the nineteenth century. She recovers and elucidates the importance of the theories in dialogues and defenses of women's education by Bathsua Makin, Mary Astell, and Madeleine de Scudéry; in conduct books by Hannah More, Lydia Sigourney, and Eliza Farrar; in defenses of women's preaching by Ellen Stewart, Lucretia Mott, Catherine Booth, and Frances Willard; and in elocution handbooks by Anna Morgan, Hallie Quinn Brown, Genevieve Stebbins, and Emily Bishop. In each genre, Donawerth explores facets of women's rhetorical theory, such as the recognition of the gendered nature of communication in conduct books, the incorporation of the language of women's rights in the defenses of women's preaching, and the adaptation of sentimental culture to the cultivation of women's bodies as tools of Intro -- Book Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: Adding Women's Rhetorical Theory to the Conversation -- Humanist Dialogues and Defenses of Women's Education: Conversation as a Model for All Discourse -- Conduct Book Rhetoric: Constructing a Theory of Feminine Discourse -- Defenses of Women's Preaching: Dissenting Rhetoric and the Language of Women's Rights -- Elocution: Sentimental Culture and Performing Femininity -- Conclusion: Composition Textbooks by Women and the Decline of a Women's Tradition -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index -- Author Bio -- Studies in Rhetorics and Feminisms -- Other Books in the Studies in Rhetorics and Feminisms Series.
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