Week 11: Group A Moves
Implicating Morality and History in Rhetoric
By now you have a sense for the active creative force of text in creating the socio-cultural world
in which humans live. Discourse serves a practical role in the knitting of our day-to-day activities.
Once rhetoric is seen as a force for textual merger, then a number of questions open seeking to
understand traditional concepts and their relationship to this process. Two of those that have
been a focus of rhetorical theorists are morality and history.
In addressing the practical reasoning problem, theorists had discovered that one of the most
important advantages of rhetorical logic was its more powerful account of morality in human
action. The initial development here was the concept of an advisory rhetoric: as individuals we
use rhetoric to provide moral advice to others. But then, with the growth of the constitutive
rhetoric, attention turned to rhetorically constituting morality. The rhetorical construction of
morality became a central problem just as the rhetorical construction of reality was a problem for
the social epistemics.
Similarly, history could be seen not as a study of material events told in language, but as a
construction brought textually into rhetorically constituting the moment. But on what terms?
Clusters: Rhetoric as advisory; Rhetoric and history; Rhetoric and morality
Questions to stimulate thought:
- What changes in our concept of "morality" are required by these new understandings?
- Differentiate among patterns of doing moral work in formist, mechanistic,
and contextualist theories.
- What is the relationship between rhetoric and morality?
- Are there differences between public and private morality? What are those
differences? Is rhetoric relevant to one and not to the other?
- How do positivist views of history differ from contextualist views? What
role do contextualist theories give to rhetoric and history?
- What do these theorists mean by "community"? What are the relationships
among community, rhetoric, morality, and history?
- Differentiate between the place of discourse in material theories of history
and theories which constitute history discursively. How does intellectual
history relate to each of these?
Before Class Preparation:
Take some time to peruse this website: http://september11.archive.org/
As, and after, your perusal, consider the following questions:
- What are your personal memories of 9/11?
- How does the way that we nationally discuss the events of September 11th shape how we remember the event?
- How did the rhetoric used to describe the event define moral action?
Basic Readings:
- * Foss, Foss, and Trapp on Weaver.
- Weaver, Richard. "The Cultural Role of Rhetoric." Visions of Order.
Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1964. 55-72.
- Gergen, Kenneth J. "Narrative,
Moral Identity and Historical Consciousness: A Social Constructist Account.."
- Bellah, Robert N., et al. "Transforming American Culture." Habits of
the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: Univ.
of California Press, 1985. 275-296.
- Fisher, Walter. "Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of
Public Moral Argument." Communication Monographs 51 (March 1984):
1-22.
- Condit, Celeste Michelle. "Crafting Virtue: The Rhetorical Construction
of Public Morality." Quarterly Journal of Speech 73 (February 1987):
79-97.
- * Cox, J. Robert. "Memory, Critical Theory, and the Argument from History."
Argumentation and Advocacy 27 (Summer 1990): 1-13.
Additional Reading:
- Brown, Vivienne. "The Moral Self and Ethical Dialogism: Three Genres." Philosophy
and Rhetoric 28 (1995): 276-99.
- * Crusius, Timothy W. "A Question of Kenneth Burke's Ethics." KB Journal 3.1 (Fall 2006)
- Johannesen, Richard. L. "Conflicting Philosophies of Rhetoric/Communication:
Richard M. Weaver versus S. I. Hayakawa." Communication 7 (1983):
289-315.
- Norton, Janice. "Rhetorical Criticism as Ethical Action: Cherchez la
Femme." Southern Communication Journal 61 (Fall 1995): 29-45.
- * Klumpp, James F., and Thomas A. Hollihan. "Rhetorical Criticism as
Moral Action." Quarterly Journal of Speech 75 (February 1989): 84-96.
- McDaniel, James P. "Responsibilities: Speculations on Rhetoric and the
Ethico-Political in Postmodernity." Argument and the Postmodern Challenge:
Proceedings of the Eighth SCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation. Ed. Raymie
E. McKerrow. Annandale VA: SCA, 1993. 159-61.
- McGee, Michael. G. "The Fall of Wellington: A Case Study of the Relationship
between Theory, Practice, and Rhetoric in History." Quarterly Journal
of Speech 63 (1977): 28-42.
- Shotter, John., and Gergen, Kenneth. J. "Social Construction: Knowledge,
Self, Others, and Continuing the Conversation." Communication Yearbook
17 (1994).
- Janack, James A. "The Future's Foundation as a Contested Past: Nostalgia
and Dystalgia in the 1996 Russian Presidential Campaign." Southern
Communication Journal 65 (1999): 34-48.
- Murray, Jeffrey W. "Bakhtinian Answerability and Levinasian Responsibility:
Forging a Fuller Dialogical Communicative Ethics." Southern Communication
Journal 65 (2000) 133-150.
- Gehrke, Pat J. "Turning Kant Against the Priority of Autonomy: Communication
Ethics and the Duty to Community." Philosophy and Rhetoric. 35.1,
2002.
- Griffin, Charles. J. G. "The 'Washingtonian Revival': Narrative and
the Moral Transformation of Temperance Reform in Antebellum America."
Southern Communication Journal 66 (2000): 67-78.
- Carpenter, Ronald H. History as Rhetoric: Style, Narrative and Persuasion.
Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1995.
Recent Work: Selected by Sheri Parmelee and Elizabeth Gardner
- Abbott, Don Paul. "Kant, Theremin, and the Morality of Rhetoric." Philosophy and Rhetoric 40, no. 3 (2007): 274-292
- Arnett, Ronald C., Pat Arneson, and Leeanne M. Bell. "Communication Ethics: The Dialogic Turn." The Review of Communication 6, no. 1-2 (2006): 62-92.
- Batt, Shawn. "Keeping Company in Controversy: Education Reform, Spheres of Argument, and Ethical Criticism." Argumentation and Advocacy 40, no. 2 (2003): 85-104.
- Dickinson, Greg, Brian L. Ott, and Eric Aoki. "Spaces or Remembering and Forgetting: The Reverent Eye/I at the Plains Indian Museum ." Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 3, no. 1 (2006): 27-47.
- Fernandez, James W. "Rhetoric in the Moral Order, A Critique of Tropological Approaches to
Culture." Diss. University of Chicago .
- Goodnight, G. Thomas, and Kathryn M. Olson. "Shared Power, Foreign Policy, and Haiti , 1994: Public Memories of War and Peace." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9, no. 4 (2006): 601-634.
- Gronbeck, Bruce E. "The Rhetorics of the Past: History, Argument, and Collective Memory." Greenspun Conference on Rhetorical History: "Rhetoric, History, and Critical Interpretation: The Recovery of the Historical-Critical Praxis," UNLV, 1995.
- askins, Ekaterina. "Choosing Between Isocrates and Aristotle: Disciplinary Assumptions and Pedagogical Implications." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 36, no. 2 (2006): 191-201.
- Hauser, Gerald A. "Aristotle On Epideictic: The Formation of Public Morality." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1999): 5-23.
- Hoerl, Kristen. "Mario Van Peebles's Panther and Popular Memories of the Black Panther Party." Critical Studies in Media Communication 24, no. 3 (2007): 206-227.
- Hyde, Michael J. "Acknowledgment, Conscience, Rhetoric, and Teaching:
The Case of Tuesdays With Morrie." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 35 (Spring 2005): 23-46.
- Hyde, Michael J. "The Rhetor as Hero and the Pursuit of Truth: The
Case of 9/11." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8 (Spring 2005):
1-30.
- Hyde, Michael J., and Sarah McSpiritt. "Coming to Terms with Perfection: The Case of Terri Schiavo." Quarterly Journal of Speech 93, no. 2 (2007):150-178.
- Jack, Jordynn. "Space, Time, Memory: Gendered Recollections of Wartime Los Alamos ." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 37, no. 3 (2007): 229-250.
- Katz, Claire Elise. "Emmanuel Levinas: The Rhetoric of Ethics."
Philosophy & Rhetoric 38 (2005): 99-102.
- Klean Zwilling, Jillian. "A Feminist Icon in Uncharted Territory:
The Public Memory of Gloria Steinem." International Communication Association,
2005 Annual Meeting (New York, NY): 1-21.
- Kurtz, Jeffrey B. "'They Were Days Delirious with Belief': Public
Moral Rhetoric, Biography, and Our Democratic Fortunes." Review of
Communication 4 (2004): 265-77.
- Marback, Richard. "Writing and Cultural Influence: Studies in Rhetorical
History, Oriental Discourse, and Post-Colonial Criticism (Book)." Rhetoric
Review 23 (2004): 405-8.
- Matthews, Amanda. "Transforming Social Menace into Social Justice:
The Rhetorical Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility." International
Communication Association, 2005 Annual Meeting (New York, NY): 1-28.
- McDorman, Todd F. "Controlling Death: Bio-Power and the Right-to-Die
Controversy." Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 2
(Sep 2005): 257-79.
- Metcalf, Robert. "For the Sake of Argument: Practical Reasoning, Character,
and the Ethics of Belief." Philosophy & Rhetoric 38 (2005):
95-7.
- Murray, Jeffrey W. "The Face in Dialogue: Part II: Invitational Rhetoric,
Direct Moral Suasion, and the Asymmetry of Dialogue." Southern Communication
Journal 69 (Summer 2004): 333-47.
- Noe, Mark. "The Real and the Preferable: Perelman's Structures of Reality in Jonson's
Bartholomew Fair ." Rhetoric Review 24, no. 4 (2005): 421-437.
- Noon, David Hoogland. "Operation Enduring Analogy: World War II, The
War on Terror, and the Uses of Historical Memory." Rhetoric and Public
Affairs 7 (2004): 339-66.
- Perpich, Diane. "Figurative Language and the 'Face' in Levinas's Philosophy."
Philosophy & Rhetoric 38 (2005): 103-21.
- Remer, Gary. "Two Models of Deliberation: Oratory and Conversation in Ratifying the
Constitution." Journal of Political Philosophy 8, no. 1(2000): 68-91.
- Rowland, Robert C. and John M. Jones. "Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate: Moral Clarity Tempered by Pragmatism." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9, no. 1 (2006): 21-50.
- Smith, Miss Jenny. "The Morality of Rhetoric in Pico della Mirandola's Oration." Honors
Thesis, History, University of Melbourne , 2006.
- Spielvogel, Christian."'You Know where I Stand': Moral Framing of
the War on Terrorism and the Iraq War in the 2004 Presidential Campaign."
Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8 (Winter 2005): 549-69.
- Stroud, Scott R. "Kant on Community: A Reply to Gehrke." Philosophy and Rhetoric 39, no. 2 (2006): 157-165.
- Wahl-Jorgenson, Karin and Herman Galpenn. "Discourse Ethics and the Regulation of Media:
Journal of Communication Inquiry 24, no. 1 (2000): 19-41.
The Critical Rhetoric Move
This move is probably the "end" of contemporary theory, because it reduces the very idea of
theory to criticism. It builds this possibility on the place of rhetoric within social action.
This movement begins in the neo-Marxist tradition called critical theory. Habermas writes in this
tradition. Critical theory attacks concepts of "theory" that are abstract rather than concrete (the
critique it gets from Marxism). It is, therefore, a theory which forces praxis. But Marxism is a
modern theory. Does postmodernism call for something more? That has given rise to concepts of
critical rhetoric where theory is set aside.
Clusters: Critical theory; Critical rhetoric, Cultural criticism.
Questions to stimulate thought:
- What is the distinction between critical theory and critical rhetoric?
Is there continuity or discontinuity between them? Are there different definitions
of "theory" operating here?
- How does postmodernity affect critical rhetoric?
- Is this movement the end of theory?
- How would you conceptualize the critical turn in relation to the ideological
turn?
- Professor McKerrow's manuscript contains many references and edits of his own work pertaining to the developments and challenges to critical rhetoric that have taken place in the last 18 years. How well has he captured and integrated these developments since his article on critical rhetoric first appeared in 1989?
- Discuss the radicalism of McKerrow's project. Do you believe his brand of radicalism has been followed by those who have adapted and challenged the theory? Are we watering McKerrow down?
- What is the value of civility in McKerrow's critical rhetoric project? How does this change the face of argumentation? How does it change the face of the critical act? What is different about McKerrow's movement than, say, Klumpp and Hollihan's "Rhetorical Criticism as Moral Action?" What assumptions do they share?
- How much power does critical rhetoric give to the critic? Do you think there is too much agency transferred to the critic? Why or why not?
Basic Readings:
- McGee, Michael Calvin, and Martha Anne Martin. "Public Knowledge and Ideological
Argumentation." Communication Monographs 50 (March 1983): 47-65.
- Klumpp, James F., and Thomas A. Hollihan. "Rhetorical Criticism as
Moral Action." Quarterly Journal of Speech 75 (February 1989): 84-96.
- McKerrow, Raymie E. "Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis." Communication
Monographs 56 (June 1989): 91-111.
- * McKerrow – Manuscript in Progress . Chapters 2, 3, and 4
- Foucault, Michel. The Archeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language.
Trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon, 1972. 1-39.
Additional Reading:
- Zompetti, Joseph P. "Toward a Gramscian Critical Rhetoric." Western
Journal of Communication 60 (Winter 1997): 66-86.
- Murphy, John M. "Critical Rhetoric as Political Discourse." Argumentation
and Advocacy 32 (Summer 1995): 1-15.
- Kuypers, Jim A. "Doxa and a Critical Rhteoric: Accounting for the
Rhetorical Agent Through Prudence." Communication Quarterly 44 (Fall
1996): 452-62.
- Clark, Norman. "The Critical Servant: An Isocretean Contribution to Critical
Rhetoric." Quarterly Journal of Speech 82 (May 1996): 111-24.
- * Hariman, Robert; Maurice Charland; Raymie McKerrow. "Critical Rhetoric:
Critiques and a Response." Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (February
1991): 67-78.
- McKerrow, Raymie. "Corporeality and Cultural Rhetoric: A Site for Rhetoric's
Future." Southern Communication Journal 63 (1998): 315-328.
- Pollock, Della, and J. Robert Cox. "Historicizing 'Reason': Critical Theory,
Practice, and Postmodernity." Communication Monographs 58 (June 1991):
170-78.
- Strine, Mary S. "Critical Theory and 'Organic' Intellectuals: Reframing
the Work of Critical Theory." Communication Monographs 56 (June 1989):
195-201.
- Cloud, Dana L. "The Materiality of Discourse as Oxymoron: A Challenge to
Critical Rhetoric." Western Journal of Communication 58 (Summer 1994):
141-63.
- Cobb, Sara. "A Critique of Critical Discourse Analysis: Deconstructing and
Reconstructing the Role of Intention." Communication Theory 4 (May
1994): 132-52.
- Cherwitz, Richard A., and James W. Hikins. "Climbing the Academic
Ladder: A Critique of Provincialism in Contemporary Rhetoric." Quarterly
Journal of Speech 86 (November 2000): 375-85. Schiappa, Edward, Alan
G. Gross, Raymie E. McKerrow, and Robert L. Scott. "Rhetorical Studes
as Reduction or Redescription? A Response to Cherwitz and Hikins." Quarterly
Journal of Speech 88 (February 2002): 112-20.
- Cloud, Dana. "The Materiality of Discourse as Oxymoron: A Challenge
to Critical Rhetoric." Western Journal of Communication 58 (1994) 141-63.
- McKerrow, Raymie. "Critical Rhetoric." Encyclopedia of Rhetoric.
Ed. Thomas Sloane. New York: Oxford U P, 2001: 619-22.
- Hariman, Robert. “Status, Marginality, and Rhetorical Theory.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 72 (1986): 38–54.
- McGee, Michael Calvin. “Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture.” Western Journal of Speech Communication 54 (1990): 274–289.
- Ono, Kent A. and John M. Sloop. “Commitment to Telos – A Sustained Critical Rhetoric.” Communication Monographs 59 (March 1992): 48–59.
- Gunn, Joshua and David E. Beard. “On the Apocalyptic Sublime.” Southern Communication Journal 65, no. 4 (2000): 269–86.
Recent Work: Selected by Jim Gilmore and Tim Barney
- McKerrow, Raymie. "Principles
of Rhetorical Democracy: The Role of Argument." Wake Forest Conference
on Argumentation, February 2006.
- Rufo, Kenneth. "Rhetoric and Power: Rethinking and Relinking."
Argumentation and Advocacy 40.2 (Fall 2003): 65-84.
- Flores, Lisa A., and Dreama G. Moon. "Rethinking Race, Revealing Dilemmas:
Imagining a New Racial Subject in Race Traitor." Western Journal of
Communication 66 (2002): 181-207.
- Roberts Miller, Patricia. "Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric."
Rhetoric and Public Affairs 8 (2005): 459-76.
- McKerrow, Raymie E. and Jeffrey St. John. "Legitimizing Public Discourse:
Civility as Gatekeeper." Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of
the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. Eds. Frans
H. van Eemeren, J. Anthony Blair, R.H. Jonson, and R.C. Pinto. Amsterdam:
Sic Sat Press, 2002: 747-51.
- Bennett, Jeffrey A. “ Seriality and Multicultural Dissent in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate. ” Communication & Critical /Cultural Studies 3, no. 2 (June 2006): 141-161.
- Enck-Wanzer, Darrel . “ Trashing the System: Social Movement, Intersectional Rhetoric, and Collective Agency in the Young Lords Organization's Garbage Offensive. ” Quarterly Journal of Speech 92, no. 2 (May 2006): 174-201.
- Goldzwig, Steven R. “ Demagoguery, Democratic Dissent, and ‘Re-Visioning' Democracy. ” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 471-478.
- Hogan, J. Michael and Dave Tell. “ Demagoguery And Democratic Deliberation: The Search For Rules Of Discursive Engagement. ” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 479-487.
- Johnson, Davi. “Mapping the Meme: A Geographical Approach to Materialist Rhetorical Criticism.” Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 4, no. 1 (March 2007): 27–50.
- Lazar, Michelle M. “Feminist Critical Discourse Studies: Articulating A Feminist Discourse Praxis.” Critical Discourse Studies 4, no. 2 (August 2007): 141–164.
- McDorman, Todd F. “ Controlling Death: Bio-Power and the Right-to-Die Controversy. ” Communication & Critical /Cultural Studies 2, no. 3 (Sep 2005): 257-279
- McKerrow, Raymie E. and Jeffrey St. John. “ Review Essay: The Public Intellectual and the Role(s) of Criticism. ” Quarterly Journal of Speech 92, no. 3 (Aug 2006): 310-319.
- Peterson, Erik and Kristin Langellier. “The Performance Turn in Narrative Studies.” Narrative Inquiry 16, no. 1 (2006): 173–80.
- Roberts, John. Philosophizing the Everyday: Revolutionary Praxis and the Fate of Cultural Theory (Pluto Press: London , 2006).
- Roberts Miller, Patricia. “Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 8 (2005): 459–76.
- Phillips, Kendall. “Spaces of Invention: Dissension, Freedom, and Thought in Foucault.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 34, no. 4 (2002): 328–44.
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