Showing papers on "Rhetorical question published in 1971"

An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication

Abstract: An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication offers a true integration of rhetorical theory and social science approaches to public communication This highly successful text guides students through message planning and presentation in an easy step-by-step process An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication provides students with a solid grounding in the rhetorical tradition and the basis for developing effective messages

Eighteenth-century British logic and rhetoric

Abstract: Wilbur Samuel Howell has been shaping and strengthening our knowledge of logical and rhetorical theory for well over a quarter of a century. His treatment of these two areas of study places his work in the history of ideas, and all students of his subject matter recognize themselves as deeply in his debt. None will be surprised that his most recent book, Eighteenth-Century British Logic and Rhetoric, gives added cause for gratitude and admiration. It is a large book, more than 700 pages, and the material it covers could easily have overwhelmed a lesser man. Howell's grasp of the whole pattern and the significance of the parts and pieces is formidable. He has produced a book that is certain to be a basic text, a necessary starting place, for the study of eighteenth-century logic and rhetoric for many years to come. The firm and secure foundation he has laid must be regarded as a clear advancement for this entire field of study. The precision of his method and the breadth of his erudition will both inspire and inform future investigation. Those who are familiar with Howell's earlier book, Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500-1700, will know what to expect from the new volume, for it follows a similar pattern and sets similar goals. What Howell has given us is a description of the movements of logical and rhetorical theory during the period he has investigated. Theory, in this case, is a rather rarified altitude of specialization, and future readers of this book need to be warned not to expect of it what it never aimed at doing. I suspect that a large percentage of its readers will be interested in logic and rhetoric as parts of movements or symptoms of the larger whole of intellectual history and will, therefore, find themselves wishing that the book were more of an account of logical and rhetorical practice. They may well want to know not so much what theoretical doctrines were preached as what effect, if any, those doctrines had on the structure and quality of the communicative writing of the period. They might want to know, for example, if theory followed practice, or if the practice was formed by the theory. Such concerns, however, play no important part in Howell's design, although it must be said that with his sorting and pointing of theoretical movements, much work toward a description of logical and rhetorical practice has been done. After they have consulted this book, students of the practice of these disciplines will have a clearer idea of where they are going, what terms and issues to work with, and what sort of distinctions they will need to make.

The Hidden Persuader: The Complex Speaking Voice of Sidney's Defence of Poetry

Abstract: IN HIS DISCUSSION of Sidney's poetics, Neil Rudenstine classifies the Defence as a "manifesto: a public, carefully marshalled, consistent . . . rhetorical argument ... [that] banishes all the conflicting feelings and inclinations, the alternative impulses and the doubts which the letters to Languet, the verse, and the Arcadia itself reveal. It banishes, that is, much of what makes Sidney an absorbing personality and... poet."' While it is true that Sidney never explicitly refers to any reservations or doubts that might interrupt the flow of his energetic exoneration of poetry, it is also true that his Defence is much more than a polite rehearsal of well-known Renaissance literary theory.2 The Defence of Poetry succeeds not so much because it convinces as because it beguiles: it wins support for its theory of poetry by means of sophisticated exercises in audience psychology rather than by intellectually cogent argumentation. The speaking voice lures the audience into an emotional response to the philosophical and moral attacks on poetry, and thus establishes a rapport with its listeners. At the same time, however, the speaker distances himself through irony from his argumentation, smiling at its persuasiveness and its fervor. The Defence of Poetry, thereby, confronts its reader not with bare emotionless theory, but with highly charged alternative views. Not a "thorny argument" (p. 31, 1. 31)3 but a richly textured imaginative work, the Defence compels the reader to evaluate its argumentation critically, and to reconcile conflicts in tone "poetically": in I. A. Richards' terms, by playing "reference" against "attitude" of the speaking voice.4 Thus, while the "reference" of Sidney's work may betray no qualifying doubts, the speaker's attitude toward his subject is complex and generative of energizing tensions that save the Defence from emotional flatness or pedantry. Although the theoretical "argument" of the Defence lacks the inherent vitality afforded by a "dramatic" form like the dialogue (used effectively in pieces like The Courtier to modify and qualify abstract theory by immediate human response),5 Sidney's canny and convincing persona vitalizes the oration through effortless shifts in mood, opulent imagery, parody, and gentle self-mockery. On an even deeper level, however, the persuasive "forcibleness" (p. 70, 1. 7) of the piece arises from two related "dramas" into which the speaking voice draws the listener, and through which it not only evokes but also directs a complex emotional response. The first or "macro" drama is engendered by the traditional rhetorical structure-that, as Kenneth Myrick points out, of a classical judicial oration6 -and is evident in the speaker's adoption of the role of public defender who undertakes a "pitiful defence of poor poetry" (p. 18, 1. 8). The implicit trial metaphor not only determines the rhetorical format, but also permits the speaker to create certain dramatic effects: it immediately elicits sympathy for the "underdog" defendant, Poesy, whose character has been defamed; moreover, it disposes the audience favorably toward the diffident, ostensibly untutored defender, who, after all, has "slipped" into an "unelected vocation," (p. 18, 11. 2-4). Most important, the trial situation enables the persona to create a role for his listeners-to ascribe certain attitudes and sensitivities to them-and then to threaten these auditors with defection from their imposed role and loss of privileged status as the speaker's confidantes if they disagree with his reasoning. "You," whispers the speaker, "are a reasonable, learned group, vastly superior to the vulgar poet-haters with their 'ill-favoured breath'" (p. 61, 1. 15). "Since only the intellectual elite can comprehend my arguments, you surely perceive their logic and join me as a member of Poesy's cultivated coterie." The speaker thus "convinces" on a level distinct from the surface presentation of fact and structured argument: he molds his audience,

The rhetorical implications of the axiology of Jean‐Paul Sartre

Abstract: (1971). The rhetorical implications of the axiology of Jean‐Paul Sartre. Western Speech: Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 155-161.

The rhetorical legacy of the black church

Abstract: The legacy of the Black Church to Black oratory has been a rhetoric on non‐action, a Salvationist metaphor that has often eclipsed immediate secular goals.

Booker T. Washington: A study of conciliatory rhetoric

Abstract: The philosophy and methods of Booker T. Washington have remained controversial since his ascendance in 1895. Rhetorical strategies reflected in his speaking confirm charges that as leader of American Negroes he was a pacifier and conciliator rather than a promoter of aggressive action.

The interpretative experience as a rhetorical transaction

Abstract: The interpretative experience becomes a rhetorical transaction with the interaction of the literary work, the interpreter, and the auditor. When viewed from a phenomenological perspective, such a transaction becomes a “lived situation,” one that can extend the life worlds of the interpreter and his auditors.

Comparative Aspects of the Theory of Expression in the Baroque Age

Abstract: THIS STuDY deals with intellectual history, or more precisely with what is called in German "Geistesgeschichte," the study of the spirit of a time. Given the length of the discussion I will not analyze any work of art-poem, painting or musical composition-to illustrate my point. However, I will quote primary sources which I feel speak eloquently enough. My purpose is twofold: first, to show that there exists a common basic concept of expression in the different arts of the Baroque period, and second, to show that this basic concept is directly related to the medical art and more generally to the philosophical trends of thought of the time. In the introduction to his Commonwealth of the Arts, Curt Sachs states that "from whatever different sensations the arts may derive, from touch or vision or hearing-on to whatever the artists may project their visions, on statues or murals or melodies-they are one in spirit and meaning. They are as different and as one as the parts of the body with which a man expresses his glee and grief, his hope and despair: the bright or saddened eyes, the speaking gesture of eloquent hands, the cheerful or listless sound of the voice. The arts, like gesture and speech . . confirm and corroborate, in their own individual ways man's emotive reactions to stimuli from without or within." 1 This could have been said by a man of the Baroque age. The statement contains the key elements of the Theory of Expression: the reference to specific feelings-glee and grief, hope and despair; the mention of "speaking gestures" implying synesthesis, and of "eloquent hands" bringing out the rhetorical aspect; and last, the empha-

Conflict rhetoric and game theory: An extrapolation and example

Abstract: Facets of game theory offer an additional way to view rhetoric that stems from conflict situations. It may offer ways to judge unique parts of the rhetorical act. In this essay an explanation of game theory's rhetorical potential is given, its relationship to conflict‐centered rhetoric discussed, and an example of its application is reflected in an analysis of the persistent controversy over the role of key oral statements made immediately prior to Korean War.

The rhetorical situation is the message: Muskie's election eve television broadcast

Abstract: Last November's election eve television broadcasts from both major political parties should have been predictable rhetorical situations. The momentum of Muskie's rhetoric could have been pre‐empted by President Nixon who is usually rhetorically sensitive. In this instance he was not. Consequently, the American people saw a reversal of roles dramatically manifested by Muskie's substantive and periodically eloquent television message.

Auxesis: A concept of rhetorical amplification

Abstract: This essay examines and analyzes the classical concept of auxesis, a device used for amplification in Greek and Roman rhetoric, and redefines it through association with contemporary principles and practicess

Elizabeth Morgan: Pioneer female labor agitator

Abstract: This article explores Elizabeth Morgan's efforts to improve the working conditions of Chicago women during the 1890's. When she altered her rhetorical strategy, switching from vituperation to investigative rhetoric, Mrs. Morgan achieved notable success in battling against the sweating system.

Plato's conception of dispositio

Abstract: The “living creature” image in Plato's PHAEDRUS has typically been interpreted either as formalized schema of DISPOSITO or as a declaration in behalf of “organic unity” of rhetorical and literary composition. In this article, it is argued that both of these interpretations are inconsistent with major aspects of Platonic philosophy and rhetorical theory. An alternative interpretation of the image is presented.

Invention Once More: A Role for Rhetorical Analysis.

Abstract: ed away from data or experiences the student may have had. By attempting to apply broadly to all experiences and arguments, they apply directly to none, and thus cannot vividly catch the possibilities for significance and value in a particular group of data. But essays in which significance, urgency has been found in data and experiences by skilled writers can illustrate and exemplify some of the paths available. Read carefully, they can disclose how skilled men have worked with their data, and thus give students concrete guidance in looking at their data. Since invention is a kind of behavior, perhaps an analogy from psychology may help reinforce this proposal. I think we may say that any piece of writing, certainly any piece of rhetorical writing, is likely to result from the execution of a "plan" in the sense of the term used by George A. Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram: "any hierarchical process in the organism that can control the order in which a sequence of operations is to be performed."2 ("Hierarchical" here means "organized simultaneously at several levels of complexity."3) The three psychologists are discussing plans by which human beings carry out tasks; completing a piece of writing is for some writers, sometimes at least, a planned task. Although a reader cannot infer from a piece of writing the sequence in which the operations of composing were performed (what might be called the "process of composing"), he can discover through analyis the sequence by which the steps or functions vwithin the completed piece are controlled. I am suggesting that in some essays the sequence controlling the steps by which the piece unfolds may become, in the hands of a reader or student, a "plan" for the expanding of a body of data, a feeling, or an idea into an essay-that is, a heuristic for rhetorical invention. To be sure, not all essays embody precisely describable plans; the student as reader (and perhaps the teacher as the o e who plans instruction) has to distinguish between plans uniquely suited 2George A. Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl H. Pribram, Plans and the Structure of Behavior (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960), p. 16. 3Plans and the Structure of Behavior, p. 15. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.116 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 06:39:23 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The Status of Recent Experimental, Empirical, and Rhetorical Studies in the Teaching of Persuasion

Abstract: It was the problem of this study to determine the status of recent experimental, empirical, and rhetorical studies in the teaching of persuasion. An instrument was devised which included studies related to ten major categories traditionally covered in the persuasion course.

In Memoriam and the Rhetoric of Confession

Abstract: One reason why scholars have difficulty interpreting In Memornam is that they are uncertain about the poem's generic type. A preliminary generic conception of In Memoriam determines in advance what scholars are likely to discover in the work. The failure of most interpreters to account for the unity, or even the most characteristic effects, of In Memoriam comes, I think, from a misunderstanding of its form. To call the poem an elegy or a philosophic treatise is to miss its essential type. A less obvious, but I think, finally, a more meaningful, prototype is the Augustinian confession. In Memoriam has more in common with Augustine's Confessions, Grace Abounding or Apologia Pro Vita Sua than it has with " Lycidas " or The Essay on Man.' If this is so, then it may prove profitable to ask two further questions: what are the defining forms of confessional literature, and how can they increase our understanding of In Memoriam? Characteristic features of confessional writing, found to varying degrees in different works, help identify the form. In the first place, the confession, as its name implies, presents the personal, and often private, experience of the author. But by admitting us to his private world, the author hopes to convince us of the truth of his discoveries. In Northrop Frye's terms, the confession is "introverted" but " thematic "; though private and inward, it explores ideas, which it wants us to share; it is therefore, in the end, pragmatic or rhetorical in aim. That is to say, the authors of confessions, from Augustine to Joyce, want to persuade the