There has certainly been a shift in terms of rhetoric and even analysis.
Cloze-type is an integrated skill test, where particular language skills are not tested, but rather a mix of grammar skills, syntax and rhetoric, and critical analysis.
For both of these authors, elements of rhetoric and self-analysis remain important, although the dose of rhetoric varies from one romance to another.
I begin with the Comment I put onto Facebook the day after your remarks: "I'm not so sure about the speech Jesse Williams gave the other night... It's full of exciting rhetoric and a good analysis of the system..
"There are a lot of people who would disagree with the governor's rhetoric and parts of his analysis, but would agree with the big picture," Mr. Lowry said.
Peirce also understood, under the heading of speculative rhetoric, the analysis of communicational interactions and strategies, and their bearing on the evaluation of inferences.
That's tired new-atheist rhetoric and even more tired Freudian analysis, both of which confuse the fact that it may be "just us," with the fact that we too are bigger and better than we can possibly imagine.
For an analysis of the rhetoric and the meaning of the rhetoric of the Prot., see my "Relying on Your Own Voice: An Unsettled Rivalry of Moral Ideals in Plato's Protagoras," Review of Metaphysics 53 (1999): 283-307.
Sadly, with the passage of time I have seen rhetoric replace objective analysis and, like Mr. Halperin, I have watched with dismay as Western money for AIDS has distorted the larger picture of health priorities of the developing world.
