Rhetoric and Critical Affect Theory

Critical affect theory continues to hold promise for rhetorical theory and criticism. This article revisits the so-called affective turn in rhetoric and addresses subsequent critiques of the idea of a turn. Accounting for scholarship published since 2010, this article then groups critical affect work into six subareas of research in rhetorical studies: feminist, queer, trans, and crip affects; race and affect; Black women’s affective labor; affective publics and counterpublics; new materialism, materiality, and affect; and affective economics. This article outlines affective methodologies in rhetorical studies and highlights the affective dimensions of “theories of the flesh” in rhetorical inquiry. It ends by considering what is critical about affect theory in rhetoric.

The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland

This book represents the first study of the art of rhetoric in medieval Ireland, a culture often neglected by medieval rhetorical studies. In a series of three case studies, Brian Stone traces the textual transmission of rhetorical theories and practices from the late Roman period to those early Irish monastic communities who would not only preserve and pass on the light of learning, but adapt an ancient tradition to their own cultural needs, contributing to the history of rhetoric in important ways. The manuscript tradition of early Ireland, which gave us the largest body of vernacular literature in the medieval period and is already appreciated for its literary contributions, is also a site of rhetorical innovation and creative practice.

Gender in Rhetorical Theory

The phrase gender in rhetorical theory refers to how gendered identities and dynamics have shaped the conceptualizing of rhetorical performances and interactions. Scholars have attended to this dimension of rhetoric by examining problems relating to gendered norms and representations as contexts, conditions, and functions for rhetoric. Despite the different aims and times of these inquiries, they share central concerns about the gendered productions and exclusions of discourses and rhetorical practices. Scholars also contribute to work in both rhetorical scholarship and gender studies by bringing diverse projects into contact to create new insights. Scholarly attention to gender in rhetorical studies has often critiqued conventional theories of rhetoric for importing simplistic accounts of gender or for failing to address its importance at all. Many crucial contributions to rhetorical studies have worked to correct this problem by drawing on interdisciplinary literature—particularly from feminist theory, intersectional analysis, queer theory, trans theory, and masculinity studies—enriching understandings of how rhetoric functions. Such research has enabled rhetorical theory to begin to account for distinct embodied encounters, material conditions, and performative agencies. Scholars have drawn on interdisciplinary literature to advance a more nuanced account of gendered experiences and representations in rhetorical theory. This research has often related sexism and misogyny to a host of other forms of bias and bigotry that are evident in some of the scholarly assumptions and abstractions guiding the discipline of rhetorical studies. These include universal and neutral standards of rhetorical efficacy, individualistic accounts of the rhetorical agent, and definitions of rhetoric as a representation of (or response to) an external reality that appeals to a preexisting audience. Rhetorical theorists have also contributed to broader conversations engaging complexities of gender by highlighting the role of discourse in the production of biological essentialisms; gender binaries; interlocking oppressions; and multiple vectors of marginalization, discrimination, erasure, exclusion, and violence.

Visual Rhetoric

Visual rhetoric is a relatively new area of study that emerged in the late 1900s when rhetoric scholars recognized the increasing centrality of the visual in contemporary culture. There is no consensus on the definition of visual rhetoric; different scholars use the term in different ways. Broadly, it refers to the analysis of the communicative and persuasive power of visual artifacts. These artifacts range from two-dimensional images such as photographs, political cartoons, and maps to moving images in film or television. They also include three-dimensional objects like murals, as well as places, spaces, and bodies. Although much scholarship on visual rhetoric focuses on the communicative aspects of visuals, there are also a number of studies that examine cultural practices of looking and interpreting. While visual rhetoric borrows from various methods and disciplines that also concern themselves with the visual, such as semiotics, aesthetics, and cultural studies, this bibliography focuses narrowly on the branch of study that emerged from US rhetorical studies within the discipline of communication in the 1970s. This bibliography begins with pieces that hail from other disciplines in order to recognize their influence in thinking about the rhetorical dimensions of visuals. From there, it moves to suggest general overviews and anthologies of this area of study, as well as some methods to evaluate images. Finally, the bibliography focuses on different forms of visual rhetoric that range from photographs to bodies.

Dimensi Teks Berita Online Larangan Mudik 2021 di Tempo.com dan Kompas.com dalam Perspektif Teun A. Van Dijk

In its role, the media is the conveyor of information through discourses that will influence the perception of the masses. The presentation of a news cannot be separated from the ideology of the media and media journalists. The choice of words used by journalists in a text shows how one's meaning of facts or reality is based on ideology. Critical discourse analysis is always interesting to study more deeply. Discourse by Van Dijk is described as having three dimensions or structures: text, social cognition, and social context. This study aims to describe the analysis of Van Dijk discourse in the text dimension of the news on the prohibition of going home in the media Tempo.com and Kompas.com. The approach used in this research is descriptive qualitative with note-taking techniques and Teun A. Van Dijk's discourse analysis techniques. The results showed three structures of the news text. The macro structure shows differences in global coherence, the first news is about the negative impact of policies while the second news is policy considerations. The superstructure consists of summaries and stories based on selected perspectives from global coherence. While in the micro structure there are semantic, syntactic, stylistic and rhetorical studies, the four studies also display the meaning of the background, details, intentions, presuppositions, and sentence building that supports the perspective of each news.

The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of Topoi Used in Introductions

Scholars in the field of writing and rhetorical studies have long been interested in professional writing and the ways in which experts frame their research for disciplinary audiences. Three decades ago, rhetoricians incorporated stasis theory into their work as a way to explore the nature of argument and persuasion in scientific discourse. However, what is missing in these general arguments based on stasis are the particular arguments in science texts aimed at persuasion. Specifically, this article analyzes arguments from the stasis of value in introductions of science research articles. This work is grounded in the Classical topoi, or topics, cataloging types of arguments and identifying seven topoi. I analyzed 60 introductions from articles in three different science journals, totaling the number of value arguments and arguments comprising the topoi. Findings yielded different proportions in types of arguments, sharp disparities among the journals, and widespread use of value arguments. The broader issue at work in this article is how scientists make a case for the importance of their research and how these findings might inform writing and argumentation in the sciences.