Echoes of Cicero's laughter: applying classical wit to contemporary writing instruction

Abstract

This dissertation demonstrates the importance of, and historical precedent for, using humor in contemporary writing instruction. The dissertation takes a four-stage approach to the examination of humor as a rhetorical and pedagogical tool. In the first stage, the author establishes the historical foundations for the use of wit as a tool of persuasion and argumentation, based on insights gleaned from classical rhetoricians, focusing attention primarily on the extensive passage on ¿laughter raising¿ in Marcus Tullius Cicero's De Oratore and on Quintilian's discussion of humor in De Institutio Oratoria , much of which derives from Cicero's work. In the second stage, the author examines modern theories of humor¿which theorists divide into categories of superiority, relief, incongruity, inappropriateness, and comic distance¿and demonstrates how these theories apply to writing instruction. In the third stage, the author reviews contemporary theories of rhetoric and composition to reveal their many intersections with the modern and classical theories of wit and humor¿and their potential applications to teaching. Finally, the author draws on personal experience, published research from classroom teachers, and a survey of college composition students to create a set of heuristics¿and the syllabus of a model course titled ¿Writing and Analyzing Wit and Humor¿¿for guiding the use of wit and humor by college writing instructors. Although writing teachers can use wit to attract students' attention, foster creative thinking, relieve anxiety, share power, and teach particular lessons about writing, the author argues that teachers will make the most effective use of wit if guided by a sensitivity to the rhetorical proprieties of character, circumstance, and audience.