Recovering and Teaching Heuristics through The Moth Christopher

Recovering and Teaching Heuristics through The Moth Christopher Maggio Miami University 21 st Century Englishes Conference

Outline: ● Dispel the creative black box ● Argue heuristics are forgotten but useful ● Summarize the Moth and its use of the pentad ● Explicate heuristics in the classroom

Creative Black Box Heuristics aid in invention by refining creativity, not reducing it to a series of mechanical moves (Richard Young “Concepts of Art and the Teaching of Writing” 135)

Heuristics ● Rhetorical rubric that assists w/ invention ● Aristotle, Hermagoras ● Cicero, De Inventione, stasis theory ○ Fact (Did you steal this? ) ○ Definition (Theft or sacrilege? ) ○ Nature ○ Processes Image courtesy José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro and Wikipedia

25 ratios ● scene-agent ● agent-scene ● agent-agency ● agent-purpose ● agent-agent Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Prentice-Hall, 1945. Print. Image courtesy West, T. and Turner, L. and Wikipedia. Kneupper, Charles W. “Dramatistic Invention: The Pentad as a Heuristic Procedure. ” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, no. 3, 1979, p. 130 -6.

● mid-sized venues ● 5 -min. true story about you on theme (given ahead of time) ● 10 people per slam ● 3 judging teams ● Grand. SLAMS, NPR Image courtesy Stephen Doyle and The Moth/Catherine Burns - Themoth. org and Wikipedia “The Story Behind (sic) the Stories. ” The Moth, https: //themoth. org/about. Accessed 25 April 2019.

Story Title Storyteller Other Agent(s) “Family Tree” Paul Nurse His Mother “First Kill” Frank D’Amico His Father “What Goes Up” Katherine Russell- Firefighter Rich “Animal Husbandry” Jeffery Rudell His Parents “Pie Man” Jim O’Grady Pie Man The Duel Jonathan Ames Russell Wilson

Story Title Storyteller Other Agent(s) “It’s Not the Fall That Gets You” Andy Christie Skydiving Instructor “Alternate Ithaca Tom” Tom Weiser “Alternate” Tom Weiser “Elevator ER” John Levin Patient “A Kind of Wisdom” Ellie Lee Her Father “Development” Adam Wade TV Crew

Burke’s Attitudes toward History: “getting along with people is one devil of a difficult task but that … we should all want to get along with people (and we do want to)” (i).

The Best of the Moth Volume 9 ● Paul Nurse discovers his true mother. ● Frank D’Amico clashes with his father. ● Katherine Russell-Rich dates a fireman. ● Jonathan Ames duels Russell Wilson (in fencing).

agent↔act↔agent-agent

Trouble between the Ratios: ● Scholars can advocate for marginalized groups and legitimize their alternative social realities (Althouse and Anderson) ● Illuminate issues of class, gender, race Althouse, Matthew T. , and Floyd D. Anderson. “‘Trouble with a Capital T’: Jerome S. Bruner’s Reenvisioning of Kenneth Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad. ” KB Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, 2016. EBSCOhost, search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=true&Auth. Type=cookie, ip&db=m zh&AN=201280296&site=eds-live&scope=site. n. p. Accessed 8 April 2019.

Story Title Storyteller Other Agent(s) “Family Tree” Paul Nurse His Mother “First Kill” Frank D’Amico His Father “What Goes Up” Katherine Russell- Firefighter Rich “Animal Husbandry” Jeffery Rudell His Parents “Pie Man” Jim O’Grady Pie Man The Duel Jonathan Ames Russell Wilson

Attitude ● Burke believes “persuasion to attitude” to be the ultimate goal of communication (Warnock 92). ● Attitudes toward History: “‘communication’ is the most generalized statement of the principle of ‘love’” (347) Warnock, Tilly. “Kenneth Burke. ” Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication From Ancient Times to the Information Age, edited by Theresa Enos, New York  Garland Pub. , 1996. pp. 90 -2. Print.

“Spicy” by David Montgomery. Recorded live September 26, 2016 in London, England. Image courtesy themoth. org

Pedagogical Possibilities: ● FYC: required narrative assignment. Later remix. ○ “The Duel” by Jonathan Ames ● “Rhetorical Heuristics: Probabilistic Strategies in Complex Oratorical Arguments” by Gabor Tahin.

Jim Ridolfo et al note how the Moth “blends ancient [media] (live performance), ‘old’ [media] (radio), and ‘new’ (Internet podcast) media” (xiv). It demonstrates how “[n]ew technologies build on earlier traditions even as they broaden rhetorical options” (Ridolfo et al xiv).