EXAM 301 Flashcards
Rhetor
Person who produces and uses rhetoric
Rhetorical Critic
Person who analyzes and critiques rhetoric
Artifacts
AKA “text” is the tangible evidence of a particular rhetorical act. Rhetorical acts and artifacts reproduced by rhetoric
Rhetorical act
Delivering a speech. Artifacts would be the video of the speech.
Rhetorician
Someone who produces and analyzes rhetoric
Rhetoric
Refers to persuasive discourses, written and oral, encountered face to face or through electronic print media that seek to affect attitudes and actions
5 characteristics of Rhetoric
It is propositional, addresses problems and conflicts, addressed to an audience, is pragmatic, is poetic.
- Rhetoric is propositional
It involves assembling thoughts/words/symbols into propositions and arguments and/or makes judgement about some matter
- Rhetoric Addresses problems & conflicts
It directly or indirectly gives advice, offers an opinion or makes judgement about a matter
- Rhetoric is addressed to an audience
Or audiences and deal with matters of common concern
- Rhetoric is pragmatic
It senses a practical response to an actual issue
Rhetoric is poetic
Style impacts influence
Naming
A process of ordering the world and focuses an individual’s attention. A name is not a label for one thing, rather a group or category of similar things
Role of the critic:
- a human engaged in qualitative study of human social processes
- engages in thoughtful analysis
- to expose strengths and weaknesses of a message
- to understand why some messages aren’t persuasive to some people
- to understand the message we disagree with ARE persuasive to others
Rhetorical Criticism
A qualitative research method that is designed for the systematic investigation and explanation of symbolic acts and artifacts for the purpose of understanding rhetorical processes and sociopolitical practices
4 Steps of doing all Rhetorical Criticism:
- Select an artifact
- Analyze the artifact
- Formulate a research question
- Write an Essay
Selecting Artifacts can be
Any piece of communication (written, oral, visual) that uses symbols (words, sounds, images) in ways that might influence audiences.
When analyzing an artifact
Read/watch/listen to your artifact at least once before you do anything else - get a full sense of what is happening
When formulating a strong research question:
It is the guiding question that shapes the focus of your essay
- they should be specific, but not too specific
- should be answered by your thesis statement/central argument
Writing the Essay (Components)
INTRO:
- opening paragraph, description of artifact, description of method
BODY/ANALYSIS:
- explains what you discovered when applying method based on your RQ
CONCLUSION:
- summarize & synthesize your analysis, end with memorable closing
4 Key Elements of Good Criticism
Justification, reasoning, insight, coherence
Justification
Your claims about the artifact must be supported by textual evidence/data
Reasoning
Show readers how you’re using evidence/data from the artifact to make claims
Insight
Your analysis should offer interesting, insightful interpretations that use method/perspective to teach readers something they wouldn’t otherwise see
Coherence
Your analysis should be written, organized and presented in a way that is mechanically, stylistically and structurally sound
What types of artifacts are most appropriate for new Aristotelian Criticism?
SPEECHES ARE BEST
5 canons of new Aristotelian Criticism:
Invention, Organization/Arrangement, Style, Delivery, Memory
- Invention
How were arguments constructed using particular persuasive & what are the likely effects of those appeals.
3 appeals in the canon of invention are
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Ethos
Speakers credibility, character, morality, good will, intellect
Pathos
Appeals to emotion
Logos
What are the speaker’s main claims, and how are these claims supported with evidence and reasoning (inductive reasoning: specific examples to make gen claim, deductive reasoning: use general principle to make specific claims)
Enthymemes
Syllogism that leave a major premise unstated for audiences to infer
- Organization/Arrangement
What structure was used to arrange arguments/ideas in this speech and why?
- Style
What words choices were significant & why, what stylistic devices were used & why, what are the overall stylistic characteristics?
- Delivery
What verbal and Nonverbal elements of the speaker’s delivery were significant and why
- Memory
How well does the speaker seem to know/recall the info and details presented.
Critiques of Neo Aristotelian Criticism:
It’s purpose was to see if a speech had intended effect on audience to persuade them.
FLAW: people can flawlessly lie and it would be good still
3 types Aristotelian/Greek theories of speeches
Forensic, Deliberative and Epideictic
Forensic Speech
Concerned with past actions; purpose is to accuse or defend, focus arguments on justice/injustice
Deliberative Speech
Concerned with the future; purpose is to urge audiences to do or not to do something, focus on good/bad/right/wrong
Epideictic Speech
Concerned with the present; purpose is to praise/blame/entertain; focuses on virtues and vices
Rhetorical Situation (Bitzer)
Do situations compel particular types of rhetoric or does rhetoric construct the situation to which it responds?
Genre
Refers to a distinct group, type or category of artifacts that share at least 3 interdependent characteristics In generic criticism which are: situational requirements, substantive & stylistic characteristics, organizing principle.
Situational Requirements (INTRO)
Similar conditions/situations compel similar rhetorical responses; rhetoric imagines particular situations in similar ways
Substantive & Stylistic Characteristics (ANALYSIS)
Characteristics chosen by the rhetoric to respond to the perceived situational requirements
Substantive characteristics =
Content
Stylistic Characteristics =
Form
Organizing Principle (CONCLUSION)
The key idea/logic connecting situational requirements to substantive & stylistic characteristics
3 Approaches to do Generic Criticism:
Generic Description, Generic Application & Generic Participation
Generic Description (inductive)
Analyze several artifacts to identify a genre & its characteristics
Generic Application (deductive)
Analyze one artifact to see how well it fulfills the characteristics of a genre
Generic Participation (deductive)
Analyze one artifact to see if it fits the genre
Generic Description Purpose
To define a genre & formulate theoretical insight about its characteristics/functions, observe similarities across multiple artifacts, unpack stylistic and substantive characteristics among all and finally identify organizing principles between all artifacts
GRQ for Generic Description
What are the (situational, stylistic and substantive) characteristics of this genre?
Generic Application Purpose
To determine how well a particular artifact fulfills the requirements/expectations of a particular genre
GRQ for Generic Application
How well does artifact x fulfill the requirements and expectations of y genre?
Ideology
A system of beliefs, values, assumptions,understandings and norms shared among a group of people that guide the way they “perceive and act” within the world without conscious recognition
Ideology is a lens that focuses out perceptions and shapes
How we see the world, others and ourselves
Ideological criticism takes rhetorical criticism beyond thinking about the mechanics of a rhetorical act (how a piece persuades) and into the
Political realm
Subject positions
The type of identities
Interpellation
The way we become identities with certain subject positions, calling people into identities
Hegemony
Refers to the systematic privileging of beliefs, values, assumptions & norms of dominant groups to the extent that these dominant beliefs, values, assumptions and norms often go unquestioned
Hegemonic ideologies establish
Naturalized and normalized ways of seeing and acting within the world, that support dominant groups
You can resist hegemonic ideology, but you cannot
Escape it
Goal of Ideological Criticism
To identify and make visible the ideology implicitly promoted by an artifact, to explicate the role of rhetoric in creating that ideology and to uncover sociopolitical implications
Ideological criticism DOES NOT discover truth, but rather
Uncover how understandings of what is true or false are being constructed in certain contexts to serve certain interests
Steps of Ideological Analysis:
EST. The sociopolitical context of artifact, inductive analysis (identify rhetorical aspects of artifact connected to beliefs, values, etc.), interpret the suggested ideological meanings of those presented elements, formulate an ideological claim (thesis), identify the ideological functions served by artifact
GRQ for Ideological Criticism
What beliefs/values/norms are being promoted or resisted by artifact? whose interests are being served, represented or favored? What does this artifact suggest us to do?
The terms homosexual and heterosexual were both coined by the
Medical/psychiatric institution to refer to sexual deviants who were labeled mentally ill
Heterosexual
Individuals who engage in sexual acts with members of opposite sex for the purpose of pleasure
Homosexual
Individuals who defy traditional gender norms and expectations
The use of “gay” to label same sex attraction emerged in the 20th century for the label of
Homosexual
Queer
Was once used primarily as an anti gay slur, particular against effeminate men who violate masculine norms
Today, Queer signifies
Celebration of difference & rejection of norms and expectations
Metaphors
Non literal comparisons in which a word or phrase from one domain or experience is applied to a different domain
Tenor of a Metaphor
The topic or subject that is being explained
Vehicle of a metaphor
Lens or mechanism through which the topic/subject is explained
Metaphor Example: my roommate is a pig
Tenor = roommate Vehicle = pig
Target domain
The conceptual domain we’re trying to understand
Source Domain
The conceptual domain we’re using to understand the target domain
Target/Source Domain Example: my roommate is a pig
Target domain: domestic human behavior
Source domain: farm animal behavior
Traditional Perspective of Metaphor
Metaphors are used as a stylistic device, decoration and linguistic embellishment
Contemporary perspective of metaphors
Metaphors participate in the process of constructing social realities. Diff metaphors create diff frames, shapes our understanding, labels phenomenon direct to how we experience it
3 types of visual metaphors
Substitution, Fusion & Juxtaposition
Substitution
Only one of the objects-either tenor or vehicle- is present
Fusion
One object or part of an object is superimposed on another so that both objects are at least partially visible
Juxtaposition
The objects that serve as tenor and vehicle are juxtaposed separately within the same visual space
Metaphors & resistance
Exposing how dominant metaphors make meaning and constructing alternative metaphors is one way to resist hegemonic ideologies and disrupt normative ways of thinking.
Steps of doing a Metaphor Criticism
- Examine artifact as a whole
- Isolate the metaphors
- Sort the metaphors, look for patterns and connections
- Develop an explanation for how the metaphors are functioning rhetorically
GRQ for Metaphor Criticism
How is the meaning of (x tenor) created through the use of (y tenor) and what are the implications of this metaphoric Association?
Archetypal Metaphor characteristics
Popular throughout history and across cultures, grounded in human experience, embodies human motivations, persuasive, present in most speeches
Example of an archetypal metaphor
Light and darkness
Pentadic Criticism is connected with the theory of
Dramatism (Burke)
Key Assumptions of Dramatism
Life is a stage, communication constitutes human social action and is performed, language provides clues to motives, framing and termination screens
“Life is a stage”
Humans present messages like a drama/play by organizing them around actors, scenes, events, plots
Framing
How communicators construct a particular perspective of a situation by organizing the raw details of a given situation/issue in a particular manner, with some details more visible than others
Terministic Screens
Particular word choices that reflect or signal a rhetorical underlying worldview or ideology and shape how audiences perceive situations and issues
5 Elements of Pentadic Criticism
Act, Agent, Scene, Purpose, Agency
Act
What happened
Agent
Who did it
Scene
When and where did it happen
Purpose
Why did it happen
Agency
How did it happen or what enabled it to happen
Ratios
Systemic pairings of two pentadic terms to analyze how one term influences the other
Goal of Pentadic Criticism
To discover which term is dominant/controlling, regaling where the rhetor places responsibility for the situation, issue, problem provides insight into their underlying beliefs.
GRQ for Pentadic Criticism
How does the rhetor construct this situation in ways that assign blame/responsibility (or praise) to a particular pentadic element?
Steps of doing Pentadic Criticism
- Identify the 5 elements in artifact
- Break elements into ratios to identify the dominant term
- Use identification of Pentadic elements and dom term to make a claim about how the rhetor constructs the situation
- Consider the implications of constructing (x issue/situation) through the Pentad
TEST Q: What element of the pentad most significantly influences other elements in the pentadic?
Controlling Term
