Arguing for an oral theory of Reader Response Criticism, Steven B. Katz conducts a philosophical investigation into the possibility and desirability of teaching reading and writing as rhetorical music.

In the course of this investigation, Katz deals with New Physics, the sophists, Cicero, orality, epistemology, voice, writing, temporality, and sound. He demonstrates that Reader Response Criticismas part of a new sophistic that has entered the mainstream of pedagogy and practice in our cultureparallels the philosophy of science engendered by the Copenhagen school of New Physics, which...