Reflections on an argument that won't go away: Or, a turn of the ideological screw

This essay revisits the discussion that followed the 1983 publication of Philip Wander's “The Ideological Turn in Modern Criticism.” It reviews the debate briefly, clarifies the meaning of the term “ideological criticism,” and demonstrates that the critics who opposed Wander's position themselves adhered to a partial and exclusionary academic ideology. Specifically, the essay shows how those critics subscribed to an essentialist notion of rhetoric, adopted a theory of innocent reading, and displayed unexamined prejudices about canonical texts. This essay concludes with a call for academic rhetoricians to realize the ethical urgency of their acknowledging that all rhetorical criticism is saturated with ideological presuppositions.