Cheryl Glenn

In Rhetoric Retold (1997), Cheryl Glenn argues that women have been made invisible and silent in the rhetorical tradition because of the value placed on the "good man speaking well" in public. She offers to "regender" the history of rhetoric by not only recovering women in the rhetorical tradition, but also calling into question notions of what rhetoric is. She draws on historiography, feminism, and gender studies in order to ask questions about "Whose history? Whose rhetoric? Which show more rhetoric," and questioning the notion that there is a single "truth" found through empiricism and positivism (5). She is committed to "reading it crookedly and telling it slant" (8). show less

In Unspoken (2004), Cheryl Glenn explains how silence is one of the most misunderstood and under-valued rhetorical acts, and it deserves study (2). Understanding that we are always communicating, Glenn explores how "Silence can deploy power; it can defer to power. It all depends" (18). Silence can be purposeful, used to shame others, discipline others, create authority, become part of a group, avoid shame, and in many other ways.