Browsing by Subject "Rhetoric--Philosophy"
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Item Everyday intensities: rhetorical theory, composition studies, and the affective field of culture(2005) Edbauer, Jennifer Hope; Davis, D. Diane (Debra Diane), 1963-Culture is not only constructed by articulated discourses and social forms, but also through lived experience, embodied processes, and public feelings that are best described as what Raymond Williams calls the “practical consciousness” and “structures of feeling” of everyday life. Rhetorical theory has yet to account adequately for this operation of rhetoric through circulating affective channels. This dissertation addresses three key concepts of rhetorical theory, and recontextualizes them within an affective field: rhetorical situation, rhetorical analysis, and epistemic rhetoric. Drawing from Spinozan theory to delineate the connections between affect and culture, I begin from the premise that rhetoric is a means of production within culture, as well as a hermeneutic tool for reading culture. Yet our theories and pedagogies have tended to privilege the latter over the former. By locating three specific instances of this tendency (in theories of rhetorical situation, textual analysis, and epistemic rhetoric), and reconsidering them in light of contemporary scholarship on affect and culture, this project seeks to broaden our pedagogical and theoretical vocabularies, making them more suitable for describing the full range of rhetorical practice in culture.Item The unconscious as a rhetorical factor: toward a BurkeLacanian theory and method(2007) Johnson, Kevin Erdean, 1977-; Brummett, Barry, 1951-This dissertation provides an exploration of the nature and scope of the category of the Unconscious as a necessary feature of rhetorical theory and criticism. In order to demonstrate the fundamental importance of the Unconscious to rhetorical theory and criticism, this dissertation focuses on Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory of Dramatism. Burke is one of the most frequently cited theorists by rhetorical scholars, and offers a familiar site for rhetorical scholars to understand the Unconscious as a rhetorical factor. Burke formulated a theory of the Unconscious by drawing from Freudian psychoanalysis. Since Freud, Jacques Lacan has advanced and altered the Freudian understanding of the Unconscious. Therefore, by navigating the terrain of both Burkeian and Lacanian scholarship, this dissertation moves toward a BurkeLacanian theory and method to offer a more critical lexicon for the rhetorical study of the dialectical relationship between the conscious and Unconscious parts of the psyche. In doing so, this dissertation develops and answers the following questions: How can we theorize the Unconscious as a rhetorical factor? How is Burke's theory of the Unconscious rhetorically useful? How might we understand Burke's theory of rhetoric differently and better if we read his Freudian influences through Lacanian scholarship on the Unconscious? How is a theory of the BurkeLacanian subject rhetorically useful? How does a BurkeLacanian theory of the Unconscious inform productive criticism? This dissertation applies a BurkeLacanian theory of the Unconscious by introducing a rhetorical method called "Ideographic Cluster Quilting." This method moves toward the rhetorical study of texts as cultural psyches that are constructed from fragments of discourse that form around figures of abjection. In order to demonstrate the usefulness for studying Ideographic Cluster Quilts, this dissertation analyzes the cultural psyche that forms around the figure of the "illegal immigrant" as abject. In doing so, we gain an insight into the Unconscious hatred of humanity as the perverse core of American identity that qualifies which bodies do and do not matter. We will also gain an insight into the way nationalistic identities function within globalization by confining labor forces within national boundaries, while multinational corporations move freely around the world.