Rhetoric (1)
The art and study of persuasion.
Rhetoric (2)
Signs and texts that accomplish persuasion.
Rhetoric (3)
The action potential of language and signs.
The art and study of rhetoric has emerged from social and political conditions in history
-broader philosophical world views
Rhetoric can be an intentional art and craft, working through a series of appeals and structures
-logos, pathos, ethos, kairos
-Toulmin model
People naturally respond to structure and logic, but they similarly respond to narratives and dramas
-rhetoric can be about more than just appeals
Rhetoric can be unintentional and inherent to languages and/or media used
-Burke
-we communicate by repeating and developing already-existing signs & language
-texts often say more than they mean to say
All thought, communication and rhetoric can only happen through specific sets of terms, values, world views
-terministic screens
-recurring narratives
-social institutions reinforcing these values
World views – and arguments they support – are always a choice
-there are always other rhetorical views and possibilities, even opposites
-we must always include/focus on some things, and disregard others
Values, terms and arguments emerge out of real, material conditions
-where we come and what we do from defines our preferences and ways of thinking
-we are separated from other people and their experiences by material as well as cultural conditions
There are many voices that seek to assert themselves and be accepted through culture
-different styles and ways of communicating come from different social and economic conditions
-in any society, some styles and voices are accepted and their values are promoted; others are sidelined
-cultural products are a site for struggle between ideas about the world, and between economic interests
-rhetoric can be used both to support and to oppose dominant ideas about the world.
We belong to many different cultural groups simultaneously
-through work, education, hobbies, popular culture preferences
-this often causes us to contradict ourselves – and use rhetoric on ourselves to resolve contradictions
Studying (popular) culture offers a fascinating look at the views, norms, debates and values of our society
-understanding struggles for meaning and rhetorical ways in which they operate helps us understand how the human world works
--------------------------------------------------------
“Cheat Sheet”
--------------------------------------------------------
Traditional Rhetoric
Persuasion
Rationality
Structure
Dialectic: meeting of opposite perspectives
Appeals:
Ethos, Logos, Pathos; also Kairos
Structure, style, expression
Cicero's canons:
Invention, Disposition (organization), Elocution (style), Memorization, Action
Toulmin model:
Claim, Grounds, Warrant, Backing, Rebuttal, Qualifier
Contemporary Rhetoric
Narrative – people as storytellers
Drama – people driven by motives
Cultivation effect: persuasion by recurring narratives/dramas; view of the world in terms of typical narratives/dramas
Dialectic: people define and restrict signs that they use to communicate their views, but these signs also define and restrict people's views
Terministic screens
'God Terms' vs. 'Devil Terms'
Identification/Division: power of naming/categorizing; ability to identify and agree with narratives and characters that fit your world view
Alienation: discomfort; guilt and mystery; fear of otherness; inability to reconcile what you see with your values
Narrative structure:
Setting, Characters, Narrator, Events, Causal & Temporal Relations, Intended Audience
Coherence, Fidelity, Conveyed Morals
Dramatic structure
The Pentad:
Act, Agent(s), Agency, Scene, Purpose
Means of Absolution:
Transcendence, Mortification, Victimage (Comic Fool vs. Tragic Hero)
Values, Role Models
Marxist Cultural Theory
Materialism: all culture, ideology and rhetoric is grounded in real economic conditions of people
Base (economics) vs. Superstructure (culture)
Modes of Production
Dialectic: signs are created by material and social conditions in the world, but also create these material and social conditions
Class Struggle
Capitalism
Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat; Lumpenproletariat, Intelligentsia and Aristocracy on the sidelines
Ideology: an overall world view created by social and economic institutions
Different classes have different ideologies, but
Hegemony: ideological domination of all classes by the economically-dominant class (bourgeoisie)
Soft power (ISAs) vs. Hard power (ISAs) – Hegemony mostly works through repeated 'soft' messages
Culture and Arts: key role in creating, maintaining, challenging dominant ideology
Commodification, Commodity Fetishism (use value vs. exchange value), Reification
Cultural economy: cultural tastes also a form of capital
Different classes = different genres and styles
Alienation: (sense of) inability to control your own economic and cultural conditions; (sense of) your values, ideas and world views being denied by dominant society
Readings (of the real world):
Preferred reading, Oppositional reading, Subverted (oppositional) reading, Inflected (oppositional) reading
Subject positions: Models vs. Antimodels
Feminism and Gender Theory
-First Wave (women's suffrage movements)
-Second Wave (women's liberation movements)
-Third Wave (current)
-social identity vs. biological identity
-male vs. female heroes
-assertiveness and subjectivity
No comments:
Post a Comment