Download Rhetorical Studies

Rhetorical Studies
English 472
Spring 2007
Dr. Katherine Heenan
Overview
• a broad overview of rhetorical studies
• texts that examine
– what is rhetoric;
– the historical roots of rhetoric;
– the significance and purpose of rhetorical
theory;
– the relation between rhetoric and philosophy;
– the relation between enlightenment and
modernity;
– and postmodernity.
Rhetoric
• a body of literature about
– MODELS,
– PRACTICE, and
– THEORIES
The study of Models
• speakers,
• speeches, and
• written discourse
The Study of Practice
• communication production
– Public discourse
• Spoken
• written
The Study of Theory
• focus on our understandings of how
discourse operates
– historical personages,
– Literature, and
– social circumstances
Communication Theory
• social scientific point of view
Rhetorical Theory
• humanistic point of view
What is Rhetoric?
• Rhetoric is the art of discovering all the
available means of persuasion in any given
case (Aristotle)
• Wherever there is persuasion, there is
rhetoric, and wherever there is rhetoric,
there is meaning. (Bryant)
Definitions Continued
• Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language….
. . . Rhetoric is communication that attempts to
coordinate social action. For this reason,
rhetorical communication is explicitly pragmatic.
Its goal is to influence human choices on specific
matters that require immediate attention.
(Hauser)
• "Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human
communication." (Andrea Lunsford)
Rhetoric’s Bad Rap
• it is empty talk
• it is the ornamental use of overly fancy words
• it is the linguistic substitute for action not taken
• it primarily involves appearances rather than
reality
• it is primarily unethical
• “Rhetoric is a complex discipline with a
long history: It is less helpful to try to
define it once and for all than to look at the
many definitions it has accumulated over
the years and to attempt to understand
how each arose and how each still
inhabits and shapes the field.” (Bizzell and
Hertzberg)