Showing papers in "Quarterly Journal of Speech in 1993"
TL;DR: This article argued for a revised perspective of the theory of "feminine style" developed by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell to explain the characteristics of historical feminist rhetorical action, using a cas...
Abstract: This essay argues for a revised perspective of the theory of “feminine style” developed by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell to explain the characteristics of historical feminist rhetorical action. Using a cas...
150 citations
TL;DR: The authors made no attempt to incorporate or extend those articles, with one exception: they did not attempt to include or extend them in the discussion of the functions of silence with what purports to be an Eastern attitude, specifically derived from several Chinese texts.
Abstract: This essay is both conventional and non‐conventional. The function of silence in communication has been addressed in academic journals, so the topic is conventional. This essay makes no attempt to incorporate or extend those articles, with one exception. Such silence is not conventional for essays in academic journals. The deeper attempt to be non‐conventional, however, stems from placing in dialogue form a discussion of the functions of silence with what purports to be an Eastern attitude, specifically that derived from several Chinese texts. Posed in contrast to the Eastern portion, with an “apology” marking a transition, is a purportedly Western, didactic discussion. The intention is both to let the mingling of voices enrich the concept of silence and to test further possibilities for extending the understanding of communication by seeking westward in the East. In doing so, the ancient question of the relation of rhetoric and dialectic recurs.
80 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that no discursive effort can escape its own rhetoricity and that all discourse is based on aesthetic impulses, and suggest that Nietzsche's aestheticism provides an alternative to the aforementioned debate.
Abstract: This essay addresses the debate over rhetoric's epistemic status in terms of Nietzsche's critique of epistemology. Asserting that no discursive effort can escape its own rhetoricity and that all discourse is based on aesthetic impulses, the essay suggests that Nietzsche's aestheticism provides an alternative to the aforementioned debate. Taking this alternative seriously, the essay focuses on the differences between two rhetorics: the epistemic and the aesthetic.
79 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors employ Kenneth Burke's theory of motivation to examine the intense debate surrounding the killing of Karen Wood, and demonstrate that a scenic perspective can also accomplish the reverse: motion may be elevated into action depending upon the qualities that inhere within an individual or the indivudal's relationship to the scene.
Abstract: This essay employs Kenneth Burke's theory of motivation to examine the intense debate surrounding the killing of Karen Wood. The shooting itself and its divisive aftermath was a representative anecdote for a community struggle over territory in both literal and figurative senses. Whereas previous studies have demonstrated how a controlling malignant scene may be used to reduce action to motion and thereby absolve agent, this study demonstrates that a scenic perspective can also accomplish the reverse: motion may be elevated into action depending upon the qualities that inhere within an individual or the indivudal's relationship to the scene. Agent is the coordinating term to resolve the polarity of scene and act and thereby makes a transfer possible.
64 citations
TL;DR: The authors proposes that cross-cultural rhetorical studies may provide singularly valuable insights into the sources of these difficulties with pathos, by means of an extensive case study, that of appeals to the emotions in Classical Chinese rhetorics.
Abstract: Pathos is a deeply problematic notion in the Western rhetorical tradition. This essay proposes that cross‐cultural rhetorical studies may provide singularly valuable insights into the sources of these difficulties with pathos. The argument proceeds by means of an extensive case study, that of appeals to the emotions in Classical Chinese rhetorics. The presuppositions of these rhetorics highlight the contingent nature of certain fundamental assumptions of many Western rhetorics and also point to potentially fruitful lines of reconceptualization for Western rhetorical theory, criticism, and pedagogy.
56 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study follow-up to an article previously published in this journal applies the critical approach developed in the initial work, which integrates ideology and archetypal concerns, to examine the film Jaws.
Abstract: This essay offers a case study follow‐up to an article previously published in this journal. The present installment applies the critical approach developed in the initial work, which integrates ideology and archetypal concerns, to examine the film Jaws. The critique is situated as a counterpoint to prior analysis by Marxist critic Fredric Jameson and archetypal critic Jane Caputi. Set within the American culture myth of the frontier hunter, Jaws scapegoats the feminine principle for sociopolitical maladies, and reveals how the social hierarchy fractures and devitalizes both masculine and feminine identities.
55 citations
TL;DR: The authors developed a theory of apocalyptic texts and movements by applying Kenneth Burke's conception of the tragic and comic frames of acceptance to the text of the Christian Apocalypse and to the history of its interpretation.
Abstract: This essay develops a theory of apocalyptic texts and movements by applying Kenneth Burke's conception of the tragic and comic frames of acceptance to the text of the Christian Apocalypse and to the history of its interpretation. Burke's “psychology of form” is used to explain the recurring patterns of apocalyptic argument as functions of rhetor/audience interaction. Viewing the Apocalypse as an epochal rhetoric that structures human experience of temporality through the rhythms of drama leads to insights on the possibilities and limitations of interpretive argument.
49 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe Pure Talk, a type of witty conversation practiced in China from 200-600 C.E. Pure Talk differs from other uses of wit by oppositional, marginalized groups because its practitioners came from the elite and were not inherently stigmatized.
Abstract: This article describes Pure Talk, a type of witty conversation practiced in China from 200–600 C.E. Pure Talk differs from other uses of wit by oppositional, marginalized groups because its practitioners came from the elite and were not inherently stigmatized. Pure Talk is compared to two contemporary uses of wit by oppositional marginalized groups, African‐Americans and gay men. This comparison is used to support some hypotheses about the advantages and drawbacks of the game of wit and to raise some questions about the values assumed by this communicative strategy, its effects on its practitioners, and the degree to which such wit is truly oppositional.
39 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a particular conversation which invokes Soviet and American cultures is analyzed, demonstrating how conversation is, at least in part, shaped by cultural systems, and how cultural systems differently employ a generic ritual communicative form.
Abstract: Conversation is often treated outside its cultural context, just as culture is often treated above its conversed moments. This essay brings these concerns together and asks: how does one hear in conversation, culture at work ? A particular conversation which invokes Soviet and American cultures is analyzed, demonstrating how conversation is, at least in part, shaped by cultural systems, and how cultural systems differently employ a generic ritual communicative form. Where the Soviet expressive system foregrounds collective moral claims about social life, that is “soul,” the American system highlights truth claims based upon individual experiences, that is “self.” Implications are drawn for an ethnographically informed communication theory of conversation, culture, and ritual.
38 citations
TL;DR: The First Inaugural Address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as discussed by the authors is a prime example of a speech that used metaphor to transcend a recurring rhetorical problem, which drew its strength from the nation's civil religious traditions.
Abstract: Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address is a prime example of a speech that used metaphor to transcend a recurring rhetorical problem. Roosevelt's twofold task was first to calm, then activate the American people. In service of these conflicted goals, Roosevelt merged two metaphoric clusters, religious and military, into a powerful and familiar image of “holy war,” which drew its strength from the nation's civil‐religious traditions. In so doing, Roosevelt enacted military and religious leadership and called for action in a genre of speech normally focusing on contemplation.
34 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the psychological framework of Carl G. Jung as an interpretive lens to view the 1989 movie "Gotham City" and found that the integration of the psychic elements represented by the Joker is necessary for the psychological health of both Gotham and Wayne/Batman, but paradoxically the Joker must be destroyed to preserve both the city and savior.
Abstract: This essay uses the psychological framework of Carl G. Jung as an interpretive lens to view Batman, the 1989 movie. Gotham City is suggested to represent a contemporary, collective dream; the psyche is scene. To be an effective crime fighter in this city, Bruce Wayne must actively cultivate schizophrenia. The integration of the psychic elements represented by the Joker is necessary for the psychological health of both Gotham and Wayne/Batman, but paradoxically the Joker must be destroyed to preserve both the city and savior. Gotham City represents a contemporary psyche unwilling to do the hard work of psychological maturation. Therefore, it can maintain order only through the efforts of a madman.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an ethnographic study of Dealey Plaza, the site of the assassination of Kennedy, based on an ethnography of the area around the assassination site.
Abstract: This article critiques how the Kennedy assassination is interpreted by visitors to Dealey Plaza, the assassination site in Dallas, Texas. Specifically, it is based on an ethnographic study of Deale...
TL;DR: The authors examines one woman's autobiography of Los Alamos, emphasizing its recovery of elements obscured by that focus, specifically gender, subjectivity and sexuality, revealing its contested status as a site of cultural memory and advances critical understanding of the nuclear weapons organization.
Abstract: Symbolic forms play an important role in mediating cultural knowledge of nuclear weapons. One recurring form in postwar cultural texts is the nuclear weapons organization—the various groups using labor, technology and materials to design, manufacture and deploy the Bomb. Several of these texts depict the wartime Los Alamos Laboratory, where the first atomic bomb was constructed. Conventionally, these texts privilege masculine, rational and technological elements of that event. Alternately, this essay examines one woman's autobiography of Los Alamos, emphasizing its recovery of elements obscured by that focus, specifically gender, subjectivity and sexuality. This alternate version of Los Alamos reveals its contested status as a site of cultural memory and advances critical understanding of the nuclear weapons organization.
TL;DR: An inquiry into the rhetoric of what has been acknowledged as one of the most important and controversial issues of the authors' time: euthanasia is begun, with the suggestion that the story is addressing both its topic and its readers in a “postmodern” manner.
Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to begin an inquiry into the rhetoric of what has been acknowledged as one of the most important and controversial issues of our time: euthanasia. Attention is focused primarily on the medical profession's involvement with the issue. A brief history is provided of the relationship that exists between medicine, rhetoric, and euthanasia. The majority of the essay is devoted to offering a critical reading of a controversial narrative on euthanasia that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In paying particular attention to what this narrative is doing rhetorically—how it means, not just what it means—the suggestion is developed that the story is addressing both its topic and its readers in a “postmodern” manner. The essay concludes with an assessment of this rhetorical strategy.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This article analyzed the way a specific narrative text (Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 feature film The Big Chill)confronts the relationship between communal norms and political possibilities by inviting the audience to engage in a constant process of character and community identification and contrast.
Abstract: This essay analyzes the way a specific narrative text—Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 feature film The Big Chill—confronts the relationship between communal norms and political possibilities. By inviting the audience to engage in a constant process of character and community identification and contrast, the film enacts a complex disjunctive narrative argument endorsing a specific form of communal affiliation (what Hannah Arendt refers to as philia) and rejecting its opposite (Arendt's sense of eros). In rejecting communities grounded in eros, the film also critiques what can be called “the politics of intimacy” and adumbrates an alternative “politics of friendship.” Additionally, the reading of the film illustrates the importance of narrative to communal constitution and political friendship.
TL;DR: The authors examines the complex relationship between rhetoric and order in the works of Kenneth Burke, Friedrich Nietzche and Jacques Lacan, and concludes with an analysis of the construction of order in Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan.
Abstract: This essay examines the complex relationship between rhetoric and order in the works of Kenneth Burke, Friedrich Nietzche and Jacques Lacan. It argues for three differing, yet complementary, views of rhetoric and order, each having a corresponding epistemology and axiology, and concludes with an analysis of the construction of order in Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, illustrating the convergence of the three perspectives as well as how each theory might be used to understand more fully the social construction of order through supernatural, social‐political and natural appeals.
TL;DR: The authors reconstructs the metaphorical and discursive processes that led from the feminization of liberty to a political culture organized by the practices of "virtuous power" in early American political discourse.
Abstract: In 1980, Michael McGee suggested that power is “feminized” to produce liberty. This study rearranges the terms of McGee's equation in order to describe and analyze the shifting terrain of early American political discourse. The essay seeks to reconstruct the metaphorical and discursive processes that led from the feminization of liberty to a political culture organized by the practices of “virtuous power.”
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the way a specific narrative text (Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 feature film The Big Chill)confronts the relationship between communal norms and political possibilities by inviting the audience to engage in a constant process of character and community identification and contrast.
Abstract: This essay analyzes the way a specific narrative text—Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 feature film The Big Chill—confronts the relationship between communal norms and political possibilities. By inviting the audience to engage in a constant process of character and community identification and contrast, the film enacts a complex disjunctive narrative argument endorsing a specific form of communal affiliation (what Hannah Arendt refers to as philia) and rejecting its opposite (Arendt's sense of eros). In rejecting communities grounded in eros, the film also critiques what can be called “the politics of intimacy” and adumbrates an alternative “politics of friendship.” Additionally, the reading of the film illustrates the importance of narrative to communal constitution and political friendship.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed COMMUNAL WEBS: COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE in CONTEMPORARY ISRAEL. By Tamar Katriel and Tamar Katzriel.
Abstract: Books reviewed COMMUNAL WEBS: COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY ISRAEL. By Tamar Katriel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. pp. vi + 226. $59.50; paper $19.95. HE‐SAID‐SHE‐SAID: TALK AS SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AMONG BLACK CHILDREN. By Marjorie Harness Goodwin. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990. pp. x + 371. $49.95; paper $19.95. STORIES, COMMUNITY, AND PLACE: NARRATIVES FROM MIDDLE AMERICA. By Barbara Johnstone. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990. pp. vii + 148. $22.50. WESTERN APACHE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: ESSAYS IN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY. By Keith H. Basso. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990. pp. xx + 195. $32.50.
TL;DR: In this paper, the limits and sub-stance of Kenneth Burke and his critics are discussed, and a discussion of the relationship between Burke's critics and his audience is presented.
Abstract: (1993). On the limits and sub‐stance of Kenneth Burke and his critics. Quarterly Journal of Speech: Vol. 79, No. 2, pp. 225-231.
TL;DR: The Code of Codes: SCIENTIFIC and SOCIAL ISSUES in the Human Genome Project as mentioned in this paper, is a seminal work in the field of science and technology.
Abstract: Books reviewed THE CODE OF CODES: SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT. Edited by Daniel J. Kevles and Leroy Hood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992; pp. 473. $29.95. THE NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES. Edited by Maureen McNeil, Ian Varcoe, and Steven Yearley. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990; pp. 384. $39.95. PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS IN REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE. Edited by David R. Bromham, Maureen E. Dalton and Jennifer C. Jackson. Manchester University Press, 1990; pp. 304. $70.00. TOMORROW'S CHILD: REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE 90S. Lynda Birke, Susan Himmelweit, and Gail Vines. London: Virago Press, 1990; pp. 340; paper $17.95. WOMEN AND NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES: MEDICAL, PSYCHOSOCIAL, LEGAL, AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS. Edited by Judith Rodin and Aila Collins. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991; pp. 240. $29.95.
TL;DR: This article argued that the debate over British intervention in the American Civil War allowed for realignment of the parameters of the rhetorically constructed notion of national interests, and that the context of the recognition debate afforded the opportunity to situate morality within the dominant sphere of consciousness of “interest.
Abstract: This essay argues that the debate over British intervention in the American Civil War allowed for realignment of the parameters of the rhetorically constructed notion of “national interests.” Such constructions prior to the speech under investigation limited moral considerations; the context of the recognition debate afforded the opportunity to situate morality within the dominant sphere of consciousness of “interest.” A close reading of John Bright's speech in opposition to Confederate recognition demonstrates the ways this opportunity was exploited and reveals the speech as an instantiation of the rhetorical shift in the meaning of national interests.
TL;DR: The emergence of the epoch of transcendence identified by John Angus Campbell can be better understood by a closer look at one of its constituting elements, the development of Hebrew monotheism as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The emergence of the epoch of transcendence identified by John Angus Campbell can be better understood by a closer look at one of its constituting elements—the development of Hebrew monotheism. The rhetorical character of monotheism is a direct consequence of its symbolic engagement with the wholly Other. Out of this engagement emerges three distinctive rhetorical exigencies—prophecy, gospel, and praise—which call forth rhetorical acts. Rhetorical activity within monotheistic religion is continuous, since successfully addressing one exigence will typically intensify another.