Rhetorical Theory Chapter 11
modernism
1900s (industrial revolution) forward, US culture/Western industrial nations have been considered modern; denotes the process of individualization, secularization, industrialization, cultural differentiation, commodification, urbanization, bureaucratization, and rationalization which together have constituted the modern world; scientific research was thought to provide adequate explanations for social life and offer solutions to problems humans faced - describe, explain, predict; modernity produced suffering and misery for its victims
ch 10 symoblic sign - grano
: "arbitrary;" meanings are less obvious, are learned through cultural/historical experience • If everybody looks at the same visual image, its meaning will not be the same for everybody; it will not be self-apparent o It might have different meaning for you if you are personally connected, etc. • Meanings of the image are open to levels of interpretation that will not be shared by everybody • Cultural experience can shape the meaning Ex. Pic of someone smoking a cigarette • Iconic sign: The action is clear, but there's a lot of info missing: why? Who? Etc. • Indexical sign: Cause-and-effect: person has been dragging of cig, inhaling; smoke is trailing off, so we know there may be a breeze; we know it is at person's mouth, so they're not talking • Symbolic: clearly someone smoking, but it doesn't mean same thing to everybody: might put someone in the mood for a cigarette, might remind people of loved ones who got sick from smoking, etc. • We can't make up any old meaning, but at the same time, we don't find a single meaning that will apply to everybody Ex. Video: woman who has children, ad for fitness machine • Shows woman exercising, but there are cultural assumptions • Sort of unrealistic image of her stomach; you could see a little bit of mark on her stomach • Cause-and-effect (buy machine, do a little bit of work, you will lose weight) o Doesn't factor in diet • Visual differences between her before and after: before photo is dark, grainy, her posture is poor, no makeup; after: colored, bright, she has makeup, good posture • Not in what they tell us up-front but the things that are hidden/not as obvious
ch 10 indexical sign - grano
: the sign that involves cause-effect relationship • Ex - Record rainfall in Charleston SC creates record floods; then there is a picture of streets underwater; headline and photo together show a cause-effect relationship with rain as cause of flooding • Give us the sense that we are seeing the effect of some specific cause
power
Foucault - discursive formation controlls who can speak and what they can speak about; is complex; the overall system, process, or network of force relations spread through the entire discursive formation; isn't something that is acquired/seized/shared - it's omnipresent and everyone is involved in power relationships at all times; ex - anyone who as access to the web can disseminate content to the whole world; power is not always apparent - might not realize you have power; there are innumerable local centers of power; always changing; discourse transmits and produces power - reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it
use-value
based on the objective needs of a person - eating, sleeping, etc. products that fulfill these needs have __ value
summary: postmodern rhetoric and identity
concept of what it means to be human is constantly shifting b/c categories we use to create and establish identities are constantly shifting; discourse and disciplinary practices create certain kids of beings; capitalism's production of beings that have particular kinds of desire; sex and gender are linguistically mediated and controlled by hegemonic forces
the postmodern and rhetoric
realizing that women and minorities have been excluded by traditional rhetoric is postmodern; many feminist theories are based on a postmodern view; objectivity is nearly impossible; identifying acceptable standards and goals for rhetorical criticism is the central problem
postmodern
developed in reaction to the dificulties endured by some in the modern world and partially b/c of new forms of technology, comm, and media; we are experiencing new ways of relating to others and our world, and these new experiences are very different from those of the modern period ex. - modern business has top-down structure, postmodern business has comm that flows in all directions; realizes that all theories are human constructions and may not provide objective statements about human nautre
discursive formations/epistemes
discover fundamental unifying historical themse; ex. - locating similarities between various time periods; how knowledge is created through discourse and language (discourse and rhetoric are synonymous)
formation of discursive formations: 4 elements
discursive practices, rules, roles, power knowledge is the product of the interaction of these elements!
knowledge - epistemology
epistemology - the study of knowledge the knowledge produced through rhetoric in a culture is subject to a set of conditions that permits some kinds of knowledge while disallowing other kinds - epistemology, rhetoric, and power are linked
Identity/the self: Judith Butler
explores gender: categories of male-female and masculine-feminine are linguistic creations that have no essential qualities; feminine category only exists because masculine does - because of differance, it's impossible for category to be real or essential; argues that term woman needs to be reconceptualized; sex and gender are not essential - they are performances we enact
rethinking rhetoric in the postmodern age
focus on reception elements of rhetoric; rhetoric produces and reproduces the identities of the subjects and constructs and reconstructs linkages between them
rules - 4 main types
govern discourse practices; are not likely to be conscious; usually are difficult to articulate; determine the possibilities for the content and form of discourse; based on history and beliefs of a culture 4 types: rules concerning: what may be talked about (priveleged rhetors may nominate things ex - what clothing is popular; what is spoken about is usually what is abnormal ex - mentally ill), who may do the talking (not everyoneo has equal rhetorical power; we do have lots of specialists who can talk about their field), the sites from which discourse may originate (discourse from Bush about needing to go to war with Iraq was believed over those who opposed war), how decisions are made about truthfulness of discourse (how language of science gives some statements credibility in the age of modernism)
identity/the self: Foucault
his historical view of knowledge and power led him to conclude that humans are products of certain historical periods (humans today think they have power of language and meaning, but this idea is only temporary and our conception of being a human will change again); humans become products of discursive practices instead of controlling discursive practices themselves - "the author is dead;" ex. - play is the same even when different actors play the parts
reality: living in the world of signs and objects - Baudrillard
his theory attempts to describe the ways that subjects relate to, use, or dominate - or are dominated by - the system of objects and signs which constitute our everyday life; postmodern period has been marked by a concern for the production of signs and objects that have particular meanings for those who consume them use-value and exchange-value; problem is that consumers organize their experience around the exchange-value of signs and the world is built on simulations of the real rather than the real itself (hyperreality)
roles
humans have always played a role in the creation of knowledge, but it wasn't until the 18th century that we gained an active role in creating discourse; when we thought of linguistic reflexivty, we realized our power over language; there are not natural relationships as previously thought, only arbitrary ones that can be control; humans created the episteme of modernity and the knowledge that it produced
implosion
hyperreality will not restore human spirit but will collapse boundaries between what is real and unreal and lead to the collapse of the social system of our culture; unlike previous ages, humans surround themselves by objects rather than other humans - we talk about events, feelings, emotions that are manufactured for us (like what is chosen to be shown on the news)
summary: postmodern rhetoric and knowledge
knowledge, truth, realtiy are constantly shfiting concepts b/c of gaps in meaning between symbols and their referents; skeptical of narratives that seek to establish a definitive, objective truth; knowledge/experience needs to be interpreted in its historical location
postmodern movement and rhetoric
looking to explore the link between symbols and what they mean
identity/the self: Derrida
nature of human identity and being; varies over time; he extended on differance to thinking about human identity - he deconstructs the subject by showing us how the identity of any subject (core of human being) is structured by differance; human subjects are products of differance; we differentiate ourselves in much the same was as a red light is differentiated fro a green light - we obtain meaning only by the differences between us and others; human identity is not set - we constantly shift our conceptions of who we are
ch 10 hypertext characteristics
nonlinear, two-dimensional, interactivity, multimedia
politics
postmodern theorists are concerned with determining what standards can be used to make ethical and moral decisions; ethical stands are relative and contextual; people play games with language to legitimate particular values or ideas - science and its rule dictate what is true and false in our society; need to get past these universal rules
summary: postmodern rhetoric and judgment
questions the standards that are used to make judgments; in place of global theories about universal ethical standards, postmodernists prefer localized ethics and politics
Foucault - historical discursive formations - 3 periods
resemblance - 16th century; language didn't play a key role in how people thought or perceived their world; focus was on objects and what they represented (sky is heaven); not concerned with discovering knowledge, wanted to discover what objects represented representation - 17th and 18th century (classical age); humans sought to use language as a way of representing or symbolizing ideas or objects and began asking questions about what words meant; played a key role in how they perceived world and their place in world; began to use science to understand the world; became active players in quest for scientific knowledge modernity - late 18th, 19th, 20th centuries; humans began to question accuracy of language and its lack of intrinsic meaning; focused on language and inherent difficulties
differance
signs - words or other symbols - only have meaning because of other signs; signs don't mean anything by themselves ex - we only know what a red light on a traffic light means in relation to green and yellow lights; meanings of words lie in the differences between them and in the differences between them and the things they name - differ (words' meaning are grounded in difference) and defer (words are deferred presences of the things they "mean") allows the critic to identify the temporal and spatial differences between a word and a thing; it is a metaphor for a semiological method for determining the degree of variation/difference between a sign and what it signifies in terms of time and space - temporization and spacing
exchange-value
subjective value for a sign based on a culture's understanding of what that sign means - products and services; ex Nike shoes have both types of values, but __ is culturally created and that's why they can charge 200 bucks for a shoe
hyperrealtiy
the blurring of distinctions between the real and the unreal in which the prefix hyper signifies more real than real whereby the real is produced according to a model; the simulations of the real become real for us - we react to Nike shoes as if they can magically transform us into start athletes ex - celebration, FL
definition of discursive formations/epistemes
the consistent pattern of discursive use that creates knowledge, or truth, for a culture; determined and governed by a set of rules, a discursive practice, that determines exactly what discourse can be uttered ex - students input is encouraged, but you are not allowed to attend president's cabinet meeting and say what you want w/o being invited
deconstruction and its four dimensions
the critical methodology, the method of interpretation of a text that focuses upon the logical consistency among the premises expressed or implied with a text and assesses the relationship that is claimed to exist between the text as a sign and what it signifies; method for locating how a group of signs inherently contradicts itself b/c of its lack of essential meaning four dimensions: 1. focuses upon the historical and anthropological identity of each sign w/in a text (try to understand the variety of meanings that exist for signs and how those signs have become meaningful) 2. examines the logical relations among the various signs within a text (must show what relationships exist between signs) 3. look for inconsistencies contained w/in the text, especially implied premises w/in the text that contradict each other and thereby undermine the thesis of the text (signs have multiple and contradictory meanings and will likely have contradictory meanings) 4. critic examines relations among signs w/in the text; what they are said to signify in reality; how others can perceive these sign-signified relationships with particular attention to if the relationships in a text is shared by external audiences
discursive practices
the discourse that, b/c it follows particular rules/has passed the appropriate tests, is understood to be true in a culture ex - physician's diagnosis b/c physician's are afforded privilege to speak about what is true regarding medicine in our culture; not limited to words - can include architecture, use of space, institutional practices, social relations
spacing
the placement of a sign among other signs to which it relates; distinguishes a sign from what it signifies, for a sign exists within a chain or sentence structure of other signs; these define the context for the sign which attributes characteristics to the sign that don't exist for the sign's referent spatially; b/c we have to use rules of grammar when we use signs, we alter their menaings in ways that we can't avoid
temporization
the time difference between a sign and its referent; a sign takes the place of the present ex - when you tell a friend about a concert you went to over the weekend, the signs you use substitute for the concert - you create a present discussion of a past event; there's always a gap between the signs you use and the actual experience; you can't accurately/adequately use signs to refer to object b/c there's always a time lag in your description
identity/the self: Deleuze and Guattari
their analyses rely on marxist traditions but don't consider themselves marxist; they agree with difference, perspectives, fragmentation; we desire in ways that are consistent with capitalist society - ads and consumerism; everything is production; **identity of an individual is based not on physical/emotional needs but on perceived needs fulfilled through consumption of consumer goods
postmodern theory...
thinks theories are highly subjective and influenced by biases of the theorist; reject simple cause-effect relationships; leery of generalizing to larger populations; prefers interpretation over scientific study; all knowledge is subjective, morally culpable, and local; universe is rapidly changing, highly complex; multiple truths exist; grand theorizing is replaced by localized knowledge and understanding
ch 10 cool medium - grano
• Cool medium - extends multiple sense in low definition, low intensity o Ex. TV - extends hearing, sight, usually our tactile (when we use a remote) simultaneously; no one of these sense is being isolated at the exclusion of the other ones
ch 10 hot medium - grano
• Hot medium - medium that extends one single sense in "high definition;" amputates the other senses; intense involvement with one sense o Ex. Radio extends our sense of hearing and/or our ear; not a visual image, but we're listening to it; you tell people to be quiet and lean your ear toward radio o Radio goes out to thousands of people at the same time; extends the ability to get the message out to more ears than f2f comm. o Works two ways o Ex. 2 - the book which extends the mainly the eye (we also use touch, but we use sight mostly)
ch 10 space-binding media - grano
• Space-binding media (paper): more easily disseminated, rapid spread of ideas; more portable o We can reproduce contents of stone tablet on paper and mail it to people's houses, etc. please observe the holiday in your home, you don't have to go to the stone table to observe it anymore o Game-changers because they allow us to send messages at greater distances at faster speeds o Ex. Printing press - don't depend on hand-writing anymore; we can produce mass quantities of messages
ch 10 time-binding - grano
• Time-binding media (a stone table): reinforce ritual, history, and shared space of users; binds us to a collective gathering because we have to go to a place o Distinctions are counter-intuitive; time-binding binds us to space o Ex. You have to go see writing on a stone tablet cause it's hard to move it