Pragmatism as rhetorics of lived experience : the varieties of African American rhetorical pragmatism, the pursuit of rhetorical agency, and the prospects for a pragmatic public

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dc.contributor.advisorStroud, Scott R.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberBrummett, Barry
dc.contributor.committeeMemberGunn, Joshua G
dc.contributor.committeeMemberOchieng, Omedi
dc.creatorTerry, Clayton L.
dc.creator.orcid0000-0003-4301-3533
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-27T00:39:46Z
dc.date.available2022-09-27T00:39:46Z
dc.date.created2022-08
dc.date.issued2022-07-14
dc.date.submittedAugust 2022
dc.date.updated2022-09-27T00:39:47Z
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation offers a reimagined interpretive field for the study of rhetorical pragmatism. Working at the intersections of rhetorical pragmatism, rhetorical agency, African American public intellectualism, and the narrative histories of pragmatism and rhetoric, this project challenges, revises, and advances the scholarly understanding of rhetorical pragmatism in the effort to further attune its commitments to pluralism, lived experience, and meliorism. In so doing, this dissertation begins the work of tracing a rhetorical history of the pragmatist tradition marked by rhetorics of lived experience. I argue this pluralistic strain of rhetorical pragmatism has been ignored due to disciplinary dependence on pragmatism’s dominant origin story and a reliance on its hegemonic classical figures. Likewise, I argue this strain has been ignored in the rhetorical pragmatism scholarship due to its foundational reliance on classical Greek rhetorical theory for disciplinary certainty and validation. In this dissertation, I examine the rhetorical pragmatist practices of three African American public intellectuals typically considered ancillary to the pragmatist tradition and often considered overlooked by the subfield of pragmatism and rhetoric: Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Cornel West. The rhetorical history this project traces centers rhetorical practices rather than foundational theories, figures, or philosophical works. Rather than attempting to include this project’s case studies within a dominant canon, I instead analyze the various ways these figures deploy rhetorics of lived experience to equip their audiences with various forms of rhetorical agency to ameliorate social suffering and build pragmatic publics.
dc.description.departmentCommunication Studies
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2152/115942
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/42839
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectRhetorical pragmatism
dc.subjectLived experience
dc.subjectRhetorical agency
dc.subjectAfrican American public intellectualism
dc.subjectAnna Julia Cooper
dc.subjectW.E.B. Du Bois
dc.subjectCornel West
dc.subjectPragmatic public
dc.subjectPragmatism
dc.subjectRhetoric
dc.subjectNarrative history
dc.subjectRhetorical history
dc.titlePragmatism as rhetorics of lived experience : the varieties of African American rhetorical pragmatism, the pursuit of rhetorical agency, and the prospects for a pragmatic public
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialtext
thesis.degree.departmentCommunication Studies
thesis.degree.disciplineCommunication Studies
thesis.degree.grantorThe University of Texas at Austin
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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