Abstract This article interrogates recent computational work on discovering and analyzing topoi through the use of topic modeling in the discipline of the literary digital humanities against the long history of topical research and pedagogy in rhetoric and composition. While significant work has been done in the literary digital humanities to advance the study of texts through topic modeling, this article argues that the emphasis on the textuality of topoi in computational research neglects situated rhetorical actions and the dynamics of audience interaction. In response to this deemphasis, this article proposes an algorithmic alternative to the identification and explanation of the rhetorical topoi through the integrated use of a computational rhetorical move classifier called the Faciloscope (Omizo et al., 2016) and the pattern-matching program, Docuscope (Kaufer and Ishizaki, 1998).