Rhetoric in the Flesh

"Not since reading Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar's Laboratory Life, have I encountered such a methodologically rigorous study of a laboratory, although this time it is the "cadaver lab" of gross anatomy at the University of Minnesota. Fountain's approach is ethnographic, his observations grounded in a theoretical framework that synthesizes concepts from rhetoric of science, Gibson's ecological theory of vision, and classical rhetoric. Fountain's fine-grained analysis of medical students' socialization into the embodied "ways of seeing" in the anatomy lab constitutes a major contribution to the fields of TPC as well as rhetoric of science/medicine, visual rhetoric, and medical education."

- Carol Berkenkotter, Professor of Writing Studies, University of Minnesota

"Fountain's ethnography expertly interrogates the epistemological processes for developing medical professionals' anatomical lenses. Fountain's argument that "anatomy education is a social, embodied and deeply rhetorical endeavor" is well supported through his carefully triangulated analyses of field notes, interviews, images, and course materials. Using rhetorical and phenomenological lenses, he creates a generative tension between apodeixis and epideixis, a key factor for the students observing and working with cadavers. His prose is superbly wrought, too."

- Barbara Heifferon, Professor of English, Louisiana State University

"Rhetoric in the Flesh is a substantial book, reporting on an ethnographic study of two gross anatomy classes. It filters the study through a rhetorical lens that pairs apodeictic display and epideictic rhetoric in novel and interesting ways. It at once contributes to the growing body of research in the rhetoric of health and medicine and to rhetorical theory."

- Dale L. Sullivan, Professor of English, North Dakota State University