"Our purpose here is to provide a brief introduction to the contemporary issues and concerns that have animated the work of rhetorical theorists since the late 1960s, a time of great social, political, and intellectual change. We contextualize the interests and concerns of contemporary rhetorical theorists both historically and conceptually as they have manifested themselves over the past fifty-some years"--

From the moment we begin to understand the meanings of words and symbols, we have used rhetoric. It is how we determine perceptions of who we are, those around us, and the social structure in which we operate. Rhetorical Theory, Second Edition introduces a broad selection of classical and contemporary theoretical approaches to understanding and using rhetoric. Historical context reveals why rhetorical theories were created, while present-day examples demonstrate how they relate to the world in which we live. Borchers and Hundley present conceptual topics in a succinct and approachable manner. The text is organized topically rather than chronologically, so similarities and differences are easily detected in central ideas. Each chapter is enhanced by the inclusion of theorist biographies, applications of theory to practice, and Internet exercises. The Second Edition expands coverage on mediated rhetoric, feminist rhetoric, alternative rhetorical theories including Afrocentricity and intersectionality, cultural and critical rhetoric, and postmodern implications of rhetoric.

This indispensable text brings together important essays on the themes, issues, and controversies that have shaped the development of rhetorical theory since the late 1960s. An extensive introduction and epilogue by the editors thoughtfully examine the current state of the field and its future directions, focusing in particular on how theorists are negotiating the tensions between modernist and postmodernist considerations. Each of the volume's eight main sections comprises a brief explanatory introduction, four to six essays selected for their enduring significance, and suggestions for further reading. Topics addressed include problems of defining rhetoric, the relationship between rhetoric and epistemology, the rhetorical situation, reason and public morality, the nature of the audience, the role of discourse in social change, rhetoric in the mass media, and challenges to rhetorical theory from the margins. An extensive subject index facilitates comparison of key concepts and principles across all of the essays featured.

The anniversary edition marks thirty years of offering an indispensable review and analysis of thinkers who have exerted a profound influence on contemporary rhetorical theory: I. A. Richards, Ernesto Grassi, Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Stephen Toulmin, Richard Weaver, Kenneth Burke, Jürgen Habermas, bell hooks, Jean Baudrillard, and Michel Foucault. The brief biographical sketches locate the theorists in time and place, showing how life experiences influenced perspectives on rhetorical thought. The concise explanations of complex concepts are clear, engaging, insightful, and highly accessible, serving as an excellent primer for reading the major works of these scholars. The critical commentary is carefully chosen to highlight implications and to place the theories within a broader rhetorical context. Each chapter ends with a complete bibliography of works by the theorists.

In this highly accessible new edition, Hauser systematically provides a humanistic account of what transpires when people communicate for some purpose. His masterful blend of classical and contemporary thinking about the use of language and the value of symbolic inducements for social cooperation illuminates fundamental rhetorical precepts and their implications for shaping human realities. The new chapter on publics theory complements the four chapters that introduce the broad themes and issues essential for a rhetorical approach to communication. The new chapter on narrative theory bridges the four chapters devoted to the content of rhetoric and the concluding chapters that emphasize symbolic processes by which humans induce social cooperation and constitute social reality. Throughout the text, Hauser skillfully underscores the power of language to present a particular reality. He explores the fundamental relationship between public discourse and judgment, helping students understand the core of rhetorics civic function. Through relevant, current examples, he illustrates how knowledge and power shape our social and political practices and how both are formed through discourse.

What distinguishes the study of rhetoric from other pursuits in the liberal arts? From what realms of human existence and expression, of human history, does such study draw its defining character? What, in the end, should be the purposes of rhetorical inquiry? And amid so many competing accounts of discourse, power, and judgment in the contemporary world, how might scholars achieve these purposes through the attitudes and strategies that animate their work? Rethinking Rhetorical Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy: The Living Art of Michael C. Leff offers answers to these questions by introducing the central insights of one of the most innovative and prolific rhetoricians of the twentieth century, Michael C. Leff. This volume charts Leff ’s decades-long development as a scholar, revealing both the variety of topics and the approach that marked his oeuvre, as well as his long-standing critique of the disciplinary assumptions of classical, Hellenistic, renaissance, modern, and postmodern rhetoric. Rethinking Rhetorical Theory, Criticism, and Pedagogy includes a synoptic introduction to the evolution of Leff ’s thought from his time as a graduate student in the late 1960s to his death in 2010, as well as specific commentary on twenty-four of his most illuminating essays and lectures.

This book covers criticism of the persuasion that surrounds us in daily life; speeches at political conventions, editorials in newspapers, essays in magazines of opinion, debates in Congress, state legislatures, and political campaigns, and all of the efforts by which protesters and reformers justify their views. The authors focus attention on responding intelligently to this rhetoric. They view rhetorical criticism not as a matter of being critical or of attacking rhetoric but rather, as the process of analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of persuasive uses of language.

The History and Theory of Rhetoric offers discussion of the history of rhetorical studies in the Western tradition, from ancient Greece to contemporary American and European theorists that is easily accessible to students. By tracing the historical progression of rhetoric from the Greek Sophists of the 5th Century B.C. all the way to contemporary studies–such as the rhetoric of science and feminist rhetoric–this comprehensive text helps students understand how persuasive public discourse performs essential social functions and shapes our daily worlds. Students gain conceptual framework for evaluating and practicing persuasive writing and speaking in a wide range of settings and in both written and visual media. Known for its clear writing style and contemporary examples throughout, The History and Theory of Rhetoric emphasizes the relevance of rhetoric to today's students.

Appeals in Modern Rhetoric: An Ordinary-Language Approach introduces students to current issues in rhetorical theory through an extended treatment of the rhetorical appeal, a frequently used but rarely discussed concept at the core of rhetorical analysis and criticism. Shunning the standard Aristotelian approach that treats ethos, pathos, and logos as modes of appeal, M. Jimmie Killingsworth uses common, accessible language to explain the concept of the rhetorical appeal—meaning the use of language to plead and to please. The result is a practical and innovative guide to understanding how persuasion works that is suitable for graduate and undergraduate courses yet still addresses topics of current interest to specialists. Supplementing the volume are practical and theoretical approaches to the construction and analysis of rhetorical messages and brief and readable examples from popular culture, academic discourse, politics, and the verbal arts. Killingsworth draws on close readings of primary texts in the field, referencing theorists to clarify concepts, while he decodes many of the basic theoretical constructs common to an understanding of identification. Beginning with examples of the model of appeals in social criticism, popular film, and advertising, he covers in subsequent chapters appeals to time, place, the body, gender, and race. Additional chapters cover the use of common tropes and rhetorical narrative, and each chapter begins with definitions of key concepts.

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