The Future of Invention: Rhetoric, Postmodernism, and the Problem of Change

Examines the concept of rhetorical invention from an affirmative, nondialectical perspective.

The Future of Invention links classical rhetorical practices of invention with the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida and proposes that some of the most crucial implications of postmodern theory have gone largely unattended. Drawing on such classical rhetorical concepts as doxa, imitation, kairos, and topos, and engaging key works by Aristotle, Plato, the Sophists, and others, John Muckelbauer demonstrates how rhetorical invention can offer a nondialectical, “affirmative” sense of change that invites us to rethink the ways in which we read, write, and respond to others.