Showing papers in "Quarterly Journal of Speech in 1996"
TL;DR: For Chicana feminists, this process is accomplished in three stages: carving out a space within which they can find their own voice, turning it into a home where connections to those within their families are made strong, recognizing their still existing connections to various other groups, and connecting them with others.
Abstract: When Chicana feminists refuse to accept mainstream definitions of themselves and insist that they establish and affirm their own identity, they build a space through discourse. For Chicana feminists, this process is accomplished in three stages. They begin by merely carving out a space within which they can find their own voice. After establishing this space, they begin to turn it into a home where connections to those within their families are made strong. Finally, recognizing their still existing connections to various other groups, Chicana feminists construct bridges or pathways connecting them with others. Such a process allows for the construction of boundaries that establish the Chicana feminist homeland as distinct but are flexible enough to allow for interaction with other homelands.
140 citations
TL;DR: The rhetorical strategies of the direct action AIDS organization, ACT UP, are analyzed using Kenneth Burke's concept of the comic frame in this paper, and conditions under which other despised and oppressed groups may respond after h...
Abstract: The rhetorical strategies of the direct action AIDS organization, ACT UP, are analyzed using Kenneth Burke's concept of the comic frame. Commentators have criticized ACT UP for its rude, angry, irreverent, and indecorous demonstrations. The group's actions reflect the immediate danger of AIDS‐related sickness and death that many ACT UP protesters face; they also reflect the group's reliance on the comic frame as a way of contending with the onus of being named the scapegoats for introducing AIDS to the United States. In contrast to the prevailing tragic frame, comic rhetoric is hopeful and humane because it invites reconciliation and affirms the importance of rationality and community. ACT UP's challenge to the prevailing tragic frame of guilt‐victimage‐redemption‐purification was designed to reposition its members as part of the community and reframe the AIDS crisis in realistic, humane, and pragmatic terms. The study suggests conditions under which other despised and oppressed groups may respond after h...
82 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the link between labor union agitation and the use of symbolic motherhood by female labor leaders, arguing that maternal aims of physical protection, facilitating emotional and cognitive development, and developing group identity were conducive to empowering oppressed coal mining audiences who suffered from fear, low self-esteem and chronic dependency.
Abstract: This essay uses industrial labor's Mary Harris “Mother” Jones as a case study to explore the link between labor union agitation and the use of symbolic motherhood by female labor leaders. The essay argues that maternal aims of physical protection, facilitating emotional and cognitive development, and developing group identity were conducive to empowering oppressed coal mining audiences who suffered from fear, low self‐esteem and chronic dependency, and ethnic and geographic barriers. Jones's militant version of motherhood—realized through non‐discursive maternal practices and a “feminine” rhetorical style comprised of warm validation and aggressive confrontation—equipped developmentally immature audiences with skills essential for resistance.
74 citations
TL;DR: In the lexicon of contemporary liberal-democratic legal practice, to "think like a lawyer" is to have mastered the fundamental, rational principles of "the law", a mastery which confers a technical, professional understanding of legal practices unavailable to ordinary, untrained people.
Abstract: In the lexicon of contemporary liberal‐democratic legal practice, to “think like a lawyer” is to have mastered the fundamental, rational principles of “the law, “ a mastery which confers a technical, professional understanding of legal practices unavailable to ordinary, untrained people. This essay invites critics to take a different approach to jurisprudence, one that looks at the ways in which laws are negotiated within the broader rhetorical culture and then transformed into legal edicts. Using a case study of the “Separate But Equal” doctrine, the authors offer a set of characteristics that demarcate the rhetorical substance of legal practices within American rhetorical culture.
42 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that the writings of Isocrates offer an example for and an extension of the critical rhetoric project and suggest that Isocrates's combination of critique and service urges rhetors to act as critical servants.
Abstract: The critical rhetoric project at present lacks a strong understanding of the relationship between the critical rhetor and the audience. This essay suggests that the writings of Isocrates offer an example for and an extension of the critical rhetoric project. Isocrates's combination of critique and service urges rhetors to act as critical servants. By combining community history, critical possibilities, and rhetorical performance, the critical servant strives to arrive at a contingent good submitted for the acceptance of the community. The critic's reading, interpreting and remaking of the community's history reunites the individual and the social, theory and practice, critique and service.
32 citations
TL;DR: Angelina Grimke's 1835 letter to William Lloyd Garrison announced her entrance into public life and the work of moral reform as mentioned in this paper, and the text represents rhetorically a display of commitments put at risk.
Abstract: Angelina Grimke's 1835 letter to William Lloyd Garrison announced her entrance into public life and the work of moral reform. Composed in a period of intense anti‐abolitionist activity, the text represents rhetorically a display of commitments put at risk. This essay conducts a close reading of the text to demonstrate how Grimke construes violence into a source for the refashioning of self and community into forces of change.
20 citations
TL;DR: FIRE WITH FIRE: THE NEW FEMALE POWER and How to Use It as mentioned in this paper, by Naomi Wolf. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993; pp. xxii + 180; paper $8.95.
Abstract: FIRE WITH FIRE: THE NEW FEMALE POWER AND HOW TO USE IT. By Naomi Wolf. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993; pp. xxix + 373; paper $12.00. THE MORNING AFTER: SEX, FEAR, AND FEMINISM. By Katie Roiphe. New York: Little Brown/Back Bay Books, 1993; pp. xxii + 180; paper $8.95. WHO STOLE FEMINISM?: HOW WOMEN HAVE BETRAYED WOMEN. By Christina Hoff Sommers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994; pp. 320; paper $12.00.
20 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a collection of essays about culture and intersectionality in the film industry, including the following: Culture and IMPERIALISM: RESISTING REPRESENTATIONS, RHETORIC AND MARXISM.
Abstract: CULTURE AND IMPERIALISM. By Edward Said. New York: Vintage Books, 1993; pp. xviii + 380. $25.00; paper $13.00. FRAMER FRAMED: FILM SCRIPTS AND INTERVIEWS. By Trinh T. Minh‐Ha. New York: Routledge, 1992; pp. viii + 276. $59.95; paper $19.95. LEASING THE IVORY TOWER: THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF ACADEMIA. By Lawrence C. Soley. Boston: South End Press, 1995; pp. iii + 204. $30.00; paper $13.00. OUTLAW CULTURE: RESISTING REPRESENTATIONS. By bell hooks. New York: Routledge, 1994; pp. 260. $49.95; paper $15.95. RHETORIC AND MARXISM. By James Amt Aune. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994; pp. xi + 187. $59.95; paper $18.95.
20 citations
TL;DR: This paper used de Certeau's concept of textual poaching to construct a new genealogy of resistances, one which better suggests what resistance might look like in the age of postmodern power dynamics.
Abstract: Because of Foucault's many insights on power, we are now better able to understand how discourse plays a central role in social relations and power dynamics. Central to Foucault's theory concerning the power‐knowledge‐discourse dialectic is the idea that for every force there is resistance. However, his notion of “resistance” is very obscure and for the most part neglected in most of his writing. This analysis offers a slightly different genealogy of resistances, a selective history of disobedience which seeks to improve on Foucault's strategy of genealogy at the same time that it fills the gap left by his inattention to what he deems to be an essential aspect of power. By utilizing de Certeau's concept of “textual poaching,” I present a new genealogy, one which better suggests what resistance might look like in the age of postmodern power dynamics.
18 citations
TL;DR: A Study of Humanity (Ren), the first Chinese "manifesto of egalitarianism" as discussed by the authors, was one of the most important spiritual contributions to the republican movement toward the end of China's last imperial dynasty.
Abstract: A Study of Humanity (Ren), the first Chinese “manifesto of egalitarianism,” written by Tan Sitong in 1896–97, was one of the most important spiritual contributions to the republican movement toward the end of China's last imperial dynasty. This essay argues that the particular persuasiveness of its nontraditional egalitarian argument is explained by the writer's skills in exploiting the humanistic and organic ethos of Chinese tradition. This case reveals the interaction of rhetoric and culture. It shows how a dynamic process of rhetorical mediation led to change and also how the fundamental experience of Chinese culture remained intact as long as the Confucian organic world views remained operative in dictating the writer's choice of the appropriate channels, means, and modes of moderation.
15 citations
TL;DR: A RHETORIC OF SCIENCE: INVENTING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE. By Lawrence Prelli as discussed by the authors, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993; xiv + pp. 446.
Abstract: A RHETORIC OF SCIENCE: INVENTING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE. By Lawrence Prelli. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989; xi + pp. 321. $34.95. NOVELTIES IN THE HEAVENS; RHETORIC AND SCIENCE IN THE COPERNICAN CONTROVERSY. By Jean Dietz Moss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993; xiv + pp. 352. $49.95; paper $17.95. PERSUADING SCIENCE: THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC RHETORIC. Edited by Marcello Pera and William R. Shea. Canton, MA: Science History, 1991; xi + pp. 224. $39.95. PHILOSOPHY, RHETORIC, AND THE END OF KNOWLEDGE: THE COMING OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES. By Steve Fuller. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993; xxii + pp. 446. $54.00; paper $22.50. SHAPING WRITTEN KNOWLEDGE; THE GENRE AND ACTIVITY OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ARTICLE IN SCIENCE. By Charles Bazerman. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988; xi + pp. 400. $40.00; paper $17.50. THE LITERARY STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT. Edited by Peter Dear. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991; vi + pp. 224. $32.95. THE R...
TL;DR: The authors argue that irony in campaign rhetoric is a response by candidates to the increasing levels of cynicism toward government over the past thirty years, and that irony used by candidates is cynical as well, since candidates exploit the very problem they articulate for themselves and the nation they wish to lead.
Abstract: This essay considers irony as rhetorical strategy in recent presidential campaigns and argues that it promotes identification on the basis of public cynicism toward government, through which people transcend problems of government. The irony in campaign rhetoric is viewed as a response by candidates to the increasing levels of cynicism toward government over the past thirty years. Since the irony used by candidates is cynical as well, candidates exploit the very problem they articulate for themselves and the nation they wish to lead. While this strain of ironic discourse helps challengers overcome incumbents, it also generates public cynicism toward government.
TL;DR: This article argued that the U.S. Constitution is, among various confluent motives, a characterological document that motivates the image-based politics characteristic of contemporary confirmation controversies, and that such ideological embodiment may democratize and problematize ideological debate by allowing for more polysemous readings of public discourse.
Abstract: The U.S. Constitution is, among various confluent motives, a characterological document that motivates the image‐based politics characteristic of contemporary confirmation controversies. This essay suggests that this motive results in the embodiment of ideology in the characters who dominate American public life. An illustrative example is the 1967 confirmation debate regarding the nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. In this debate, Marshall embodied opposing conceptions of “civil rights” for both opponents and supporters of his nomination. Ultimately, I maintain that such ideological embodiment may democratize and problematize ideological debate by allowing for more polysemous readings of public discourse.
TL;DR: The authors proposed a collaboration between feminist rhetorical analysis and schizoanalysis as one route to meet this new need in feminist rhetorical criticism, and applied a feminist-schizoanaly tic perspective to Madonna's The Immaculate Collection to illustrate the perspective's potential for developing criteria for evaluating the emancipatory potential contained in contradictory texts such as those of Madonna.
Abstract: The hallmark of Madonna's career has been her contradictory play with gender roles and images. While the analytic foci are varied, feminist evaluations of Madonna's contradictory gender play continue to employ binary models of assessing Madonna as either challenging or reinforcing gender roles. To move out of this binary model and to analyze instead how Madonna's contradictory practices both challenge and reinforce gender, new analytic tools must be employed. This essay proposes a collaboration between feminist rhetorical analysis and schizoanalysis as one route to meet this new need in feminist rhetorical criticism. A feminist‐schizoanaly tic perspective is applied to Madonna's The Immaculate Collection to illustrate the perspective's potential for developing criteria for evaluating the emancipatory potential contained in contradictory texts such as those of Madonna.
TL;DR: This article applied and tested Michel Foucault's theories about local centers of power and knowledge by rhetorically analyzing a Midwifery Study Advisory Group in Minnesota in 1991-1992, demonstrating how a group of traditional midwives achieved status within the public sphere and temporarily resisted the surveillance and normalization of state authority.
Abstract: This essay applies and tests Michel Foucault's theories about local centers of power and knowledge by rhetorically analyzing a Midwifery Study Advisory Group in Minnesota in 1991–1992. In particular, the dividing practices of traditional midwives and their spokespersons illustrate how knowledge may be produced or suppressed and how a rhetor may become empowered by projecting negative traits upon the “other. “ The essay demonstrates how a group of traditional midwives achieved status within the public sphere and temporarily resisted the surveillance and normalization of state authority.
TL;DR: Barrie's 1922 address Courage is a paradoxical rhetorical text, and it has been interpreted as the rhetorical form of "the closet" as discussed by the authors, a metaphor for the liminality of life's liminal passages.
Abstract: J. M. Barrie's 1922 address Courageconstitutes a paradoxical rhetorical text. In his oratorical debut, Barrie offered seniors at St. Andrews poignant and explicit advice concerning life's liminal passages, even as he carefully obfuscated his own identity. This essay offers two readings of the text to illuminate an alternative relationship between text and context in rhetorical criticism. The first interpretation focuses on the obvious textual paradox related to liminality. The second reading moves from the “textual context” to the social and ideological context, and argues that working within the address is the rhetorical form of “the closet.” Recontextualizing Barrie's address from within “the closet,” renders visible a second “invisible context” related to homosexuality, opening a new interpretive doorway for the critic.
TL;DR: The authors argued that Freud's failure to persuade his original audience was not only due to their denial of sexual abuse, but also due to his failure to make clear how the young science of psychoanalysis could comport with traditional models of medical authority.
Abstract: In “The Etiology of Hysteria, “ the young Sigmund Freud defended the “seduction theory,” which asserted that the sexual abuse of children was the single cause of hysteria in adults and especially adult women. This essay argues that one can attribute Freud's failure to persuade his original audience not only to their denial of sexual abuse, but also to Freud's failure to make clear how the young science of psychoanalysis could comport with traditional models of medical authority.
TL;DR: The authors argued that viewers' decisions to move toward the pro-NAFTA position on the basis of judgments of source credibility in the debate were rational and proposed a conception of rhetorical rationality.
Abstract: On November 9, 1993, Vice‐President Albert Gore debated Ross Perot on the subject of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. That Gore triumphed in the debate and succeeded thereby in winning pivotal votes in Congress for NAFTA has been widely acknowledged by the news media. The argument of this essay is that, from a rhetorical as opposed to a dialectical or logical perspective, viewer decisions to move toward the pro‐NAFTA position on the basis of judgments of source credibility in the debate were rational. The essay proposes a conception of rhetorical rationality and illustrates a method by which norms of rhetorical rationality may be derived.
TL;DR: The authors investigates the rhetorical implications of Sydney Pollack's translation of Isak Dinesen's autobiographical texts, and argues that Pollack used strategies of transference, redefinition, antithesis, and displacement to renarrate Dineen's writings, resulting in a depoliticized romantic adventure.
Abstract: Through a thematic analysis, this study investigates the rhetorical implications of Sydney Pollack's translation of Isak Dinesen's autobiographical texts. Specifically, the essay argues that Pollack's film uses strategies of transference, redefinition, antithesis, and displacement to renarrate Dinesen's writings, resulting in a depoliticized romantic adventure. These strategies marginalize, or mute altogether, pivotal elements of Dinesen's texts and life, including her complex voice and unconventional beliefs regarding the role of women, of race, and of colonialism. The consequence of Pollack's translation is a film narrative that honors patriarchal norms and cinematic conventions while fundamentally misrepresenting Dinesen and her life stories.
TL;DR: The LYOTARD READER as mentioned in this paper is a collection of essays by Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jean-Loup Thebaud written in the early 1990s.
Abstract: THE LYOTARD READER. By Jean‐Francois Lyotard. Edited by Andrew Benjamin. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1989; pp. 370. $49.94; paper $21.95. TOWARD THE POSTMODERN. By Jean‐Francois Lyotard. Edited by Robert Harvey and Mark S. Roberts. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1993; pp. xvii + 256. $45.00; paper $17.50. JUST GAMING. By Jean‐Francois Lyotard and Jean‐Loup Thebaud. Translated by Wlad Godzich. Afterword by Samuel Weber. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985; pp. 120. Paper $12.95. THE POSTMODERN CONDITION. By Jean‐Francois Lyotard. Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Foreword by Fredric Jameson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984; pp. xxi + 110. Paper $12.95. THE DIFFEREND: PHRASES IN DISPUTE. Trans. Georges Van Deen Abbeele. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988; pp. xvi + 208. $39.95; paper $ 14.95.
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