Rhetorical Theory Final

Action:

Action is the meaning that we give to motion, Freedom or Will must be involved in action Example: Naming the snowflakes that are falling from the sky the word "snowflakes".

Simulation

Baudrillard suggests that there have been four stages in the evolution of simulation - symbolic order, counterfeits, production, and simulation. Simulation derives from the increasing separation of signs from the objects they represent - from the increasing disconnect between the material world and the universes of meaning that are taken for reality. Simulation is a substition of "signs of the real for the real itself."

Logology:

Burke's term for his effort to discover how language works or to discover motivational systems of orientations through the examination of words. It is an approach to study symbol systems using a neutralized Christian theology as its model.

Terministic Screen -Burke

Burke: the framework for interpretation that develops from one's use of language

Universal Audience:

In Perelmann and Olbrechts-Tyteca, an imagined audience of highly rational individuals, an audience of all normal adult persons

Symbolic action:

Burke distinguishes human language as symbolic action from the "linguistic" behaviors of nonhuman species. He defines the category of symbolic action to include rhetoric, poetics, science, and philosophy. Burke states that all language is inherently persuasive because symbolic acts do something as well as say something.

Identification/Consubstantiality:

Kenneth Burke selects "identification" as the key term to distinguish his rhetorical perspective from a tradition characterized by the term "persuasion." Burke explains identification as a process that is fundamental to being human and to communicating. He contends that the need to identify arises out of division. Identification cannot be understood apart from division. Burke's concept of identification needs to be seen within the context of his understanding of language as symbolic action. Human beings are agents. Using language is one way of acting in the world, and for us to act by using language is our most defining characteristic. By our very nature, we are beings who respond to symbols, and are symbol-using and symbol-abusing.

Cluster Criticism

Rhetorical critics can gain insight into the rhetor's mind by analyzing terministic screens evidenced in their rhetoric. Cues to rhetors' worldviews and meanings that key symbols have are discovered by charting the symbols that cluster around those key symbols in an artifact. It helps the audience discover what goes with what. 3 steps to analyze: identify key terms in the artifact, chart the terms that cluster around the key terms, and discover an explanation for the artifact. Kenneth Burke is the theorist associated with this theory. Example: If a person has a tic and blinks his eye spasmodically, an audience can take note of what subjects are mentioned when the man blinks and discover what this tic is "symbolic" of.

Ideological Criticism

Rooted in the basic conceptualizations about ideologies and how they function. Critics look beyond the surface structure of an artifact to discover the beliefs, values and assumptions it suggests. The primary goal of ideological critics is to discover and make visible the ideology embedded in an artifact. As a result, a critic seeks to explicate the role of communication in creating and sustaining an ideology and to discover whose interests are represented in that ideology. It creates a critical distance on existing relationships and clears a space in which existing arrangements can be evaluated and altered if necessary. 4 steps to analyze: identify the presented elements, identify the suggested elements linked to the presented elements, formulate an ideology, identify the functions served by the ideology. Examples include beliefs about immigration, Christianity, Modernism, etc.

Pentadic Criticism

Rooted in the work of Kenneth Burke and dramatism, which assumes language use constitutes action, not motion, and that humans develop and present messages in the same way that a play is presented. Seeks to answer the question "What is involved when we say what people are doing and why are they doing it?" Pentad= agent (who), act (what), purpose (why), scene (when and where), agency (how). 2 steps to analysis: label the 5 terms and apply the ratios to identify the dominant term.

Generative Criticism

The critic generates units of analysis or explanation from the artifact, rather than from previously developed, formal methods of criticism. 9 steps: encounter a curious artifact, code the artifact generally, search for an explanation, create an explanatory schema, formulate a research question, code the artifact in detail, search the literature, frame the study and write the essay.

Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation is the context of a rhetorical event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints. Two leading views of the rhetorical situation exist today. One argues that a situation determines and brings about rhetoric, while the other proposes that rhetoric creates "situations" by making issues salient.

Burke's definition of rhetoric:

The use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols

Narrative Criticism

based on Alasdair MacIntyre's notion that humans are story-telling animals. They help us make sense of daily human experiences. A narrative is comprised of at least 2 events, it is organized by time, there is some kind of causal relationship between events, and it must be about a unified subject. It focuses on the stories a speaker or a writer tells to understand how they help us make meaning out of our daily human experiences. 2 steps to analyze: identify the objective of the narrative, identify the features of the narrative to discover how they accomplish the objective (In Communication, Walter R. Fisher has been most influential)

Hegemony

bell hooks • privileges of the one ideology over another • tells us what is the norm • assumes the symbolic power to map and or classify the world for others • must be renewed , reinforced, and defended in rhetorical strategies

Rhetoric:

the art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people

Buadrillard's Definition of Signs

"A sign stands in for its referent. A sign becomes a part of a system of signs. Rhetorically, signs and symbols have lost direct reference to reality, creating a world that has not objective referent. Contemporary technology has made the distance between signs and referent even greater."

Dramatism:

"Kenneth Burke developed a critical technique called dramatism. The foundation of dramatism is the concept of motive: the reasons why people do the things they do. Burke believed that all of life was drama (in the sense of fiction), and we may discover the motives of actors (people) by looking for their particular type of motivation in action and discourse. He set up a ""pentad,"" which are five questions to ask of any discourse to begin teasing out the motive. You may recognize these questions as similar to the six news reporter's questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Of dramatism, Burke said: ""If action, then drama; if drama, then conflict; if conflict, then victimage."

Aristotle's definition of Rhetoric:

"Let rhetoric be [defined as] an ability, in each case to see the available means of persuasion"

Motion:

"Motion encompasses the realm of entities that do not respond to words, Burke labels this realm as nonsymbolic. Motion is the processes going on without any intervention from humans. Example: The snowflakes falling from the sky. "

Postmodernism

"Postmodernism is in general the era that follows Modernism. It frequently serves as an ambiguous overarching term for skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. • consumerism • rejection of grand narratives • relative truth

Formal logic/demonstration:

"Set of Rules for Valid Arguments. Rational. Involves calculation made according to rules accepted by formal, deductive logic."

Ratios:

"Used to describe the relationships among the elements of the elements of the pentad. All the terms are consubstantial in that they share in the substance of the act. Burke Formulated 10 ratios • Agent to act • Agent to scene • Agent to agency • Agent to purpose • Act to scene • Act to agency • Act to purpose • Scene to agency • Scene to purpose • Agency to purpose"

Pentad (5 elements):

"a critical instrument designed to reduce statements of motives to the most fundamental level. 1. Act: What happened? What is the action? What is going on? What action; what thoughts? 2. Scene: Where is the act happening? What is the background situation? 3. Agent: Who is involved in the action? What are their roles? 4. Agency: How do the agents act? By what means do they act? 5. Purpose: Why do the agents act? What do they want?"

Episteme/Discursive Formation - Foucault

"• A cultural code, characteristic system, structure, network, ground of thought, or style of organization that governs the language, perception, values, and practices of a system, a community, or a historical period. (348) • A grouping of statements • Suggests a consistent pattern or order for how those statements function within the system of knowledge • Every time you can define a similar set of rules = a discursive formation "

Rhetorical Theory:

"• Foss: "A set of general clues, generalizations, or principles that explains a process or phenomenon and thus helps to answer the question we asked." The organized presentation of the art or rhetoric, descriptions of the various functions of rhetoric, and clarifications of how rhetoric achieves its goals."

Marginality (bell hooks)

"• Those on the outskirts try to challenge the norms • A space of resistance (being treated different from the mainstream of society/oppressed groups on the outside of culture) • difference allows for perspective and change • "...to live and act in a way that challenges systems of domination"

Ideology

"• worldview • a pattern of beliefs that determines a group's interpretations of same aspects of the world • many coexist in a single culture (can be paired up ex. Christian and patriotism) • they are embodied in institutions • provides an interpretation of parts of the world • encourages a particular attitudes and actions"

Fantasy-Theme Criticism

Provides insights into the shared worldview of groups. It is based on symbolic convergence theory (communication creates reality and individuals' meanings for symbols can converge to create a shared reality or community consciousness). Fantasy theme is a word, phrase or statement that interprets events in the past, interprets events in the future or depicts current events that are removed in time and/or space from the actual activities of a group. They tell a story about a group's experience that constitutes a constructed reality for the participants. There are 3 types: setting themes, character themes, and action themes. Rhetorical vision, "the unified putting together or various shared fantasies," is the second primary unit of analysis for fantasy-theme criticism. Actions that make little sense to someone outside of a rhetorical vision make perfect sense when viewed in the context of that vision because the vision provides motivation for that action. 2 steps to analyze: code the artifact for setting, character and action themes, and reconstruct the rhetorical vision from the fantasy themes. Created by Ernest G. Bormann and influenced by Robert Bales. For example: the willingness of a terrorist to die in order to support a cause makes little sense to us but once we understand the rhetorical vision in which they participate, we have a much better idea of why they are motivated to sacrifice their lives for that cause.

Rhetorical criticism:

Rhetorical criticism analyzes symbolic artifacts to discover how, and how well, they work: how they instruct, inform, entertain, move, arouse, perform, convince and, in general, persuade their audience, including whether and how they might improve their audience. In short, rhetorical criticism seeks to understand how symbols act on people.

Generic Criticism

Seeks to discover commonalities in rhetorical patterns across recurring situations; OR seeks to understand rhetorical practices by discerning similarities in rhetorical situations and the rhetoric created in response to them. Rooted in the assumption that certain types of situations provoke similar needs and expectations in the audiences and thus call for particular kinds of rhetoric. The purpose of this analysis is to confirm, or suggest modification to, the artifact's inclusion in the genre. Important theorists include Karlyn Campbell and Kathleen Jamieson (Edwin Black was the first person to use the term generic criticism, Lloyd Bitzer also contributed to the idea of generic criticism, Anthony Pare and Graham Smart and Mikhail Bakhtin were also influential).

Metaphor Criticism

When used as a tool for criticism, metaphors are used to label and experience phenomenon, suggest how to evaluate and respond to situations, have implications for actions, and tap into our value systems. A metaphor joins two terms normally regarded as belonging to two different classes of experience. Those two terms or parts are the tenor and vehicle. It is seen as a means for constituting reality. They contain implicit assumptions, points of view and evaluations. We experience reality through the language by which we describe it. 4 steps to analyze the artifact: examine for general sense of its dimensions and context, isolate the metaphors, sort the metaphors into groups according to vehicle and tenor, and discover an explanation for the artifact. Example: My roommate is a pig tells us that the roommate is messy. Vehicle=pig; Tenor=roommate. Kenneth Burke, Michael Osborn and Robert L. Ivie contribute to this theory.

Neo-Aristotelianism

focuses on the effectiveness of the orator on the audience. It looks at the context (rhetor, audience, occasion) and the 5 canons (invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery). By this standard, the most important thing is whether or not the rhetor was able to persuade the audience. Aristotle is associated with this criticism, although he did not write is as a criteria for criticism.