In Pursuit of the Common Life: Rhetoric and Education at the New York State Asylum for “Idiots” at Syracuse, 1854–1884

Abstract

In carving out space in rhetorical history for people with disabilities, this article interprets “asylum-school” curriculum through rhetorical practices involving the art of becoming, the body, and civic participation. Rhetorical practice is understood as it manifests within imposed constraints. So while for some, work as a seamstress might not qualify as the civic life Cicero thought to be rhetoric's ultimate goal, that work is indeed civically vital. By disrupting the social versus civic opposition, rhetoric includes practices other than just the political and is considered across a spectrum of difference.

Notes

¹I thank the RR reviewers, Dr. Jay Dolmage and Dr. David Fleming, for their valuable feedback as well Dr. Lois Agnew for her continued assistance.

²In the rest of the essay, even though I abandon use of quotes around “idiot,” the term should be viewed as a rhetorical construction rather than as having an essence.

³One narrative of Demosthenes says that in order to succeed as an orator, he first had to eliminate his stutter through rigorous training. However, Martha Rose in Disability in Ancient Greece poses a different narrative in arguing that disability in Ancient Greece was not always viewed as a misfortune that had to be overcome in order to succeed and, further, that there is no definitive evidence that proves that Demosthenes was indeed a stutterer (50–57).

⁴See my essay in Disability Studies Quarterly where I look at what is not in the archive. I argue that researching disability should involve an approach to evidence that builds upon Glenn's work and recasts silence as a rhetorical device.

⁵Other histories of institutions for and attitudes toward the “feeble-minded” include those by James Trent, Stephen Noll, and Elof Carlson.