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The purpose of this study is to analyze the rhetorics of fear operating in public discourses surrounding metal music. This analysis focuses on how the public rhetorics deploy identity on listener populations through both the mediation and legislation of identities. Specifically, this mediation takes place using both symbols of fear and arguments constructed on potential threats. Texts for analysis in this study include film and television documentaries, newspaper articles, book-length critiques of and scholarship on heavy metal, and transcripts from the U.S. Senate Hearings on Record Labeling. "Heavy metal" and "metal music" are labels that categorize diverse styles of music. While there is no exemplar metal song that accounts for a definition of the genre, the terms have been consistently used in rhetorics of fear. These rhetorical movements produce and deploy deviant identities, depend on the construction of cultural crisis, and generate counter rhetorics of agency for individuals and subcultures. The study moves 1) chronologically through metal history, 2) geographically from the United States to Norway, and 3) contextually through media events that produce the public discourses of identity, crisis, and counter rhetorics. This study charts the rhetorical movements that have created fear within communities, leading to threats of legislation or criminalization of segments of the population.

This thesis seeks to offer a rhetorical explanation to the sudden rise of superhero films in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This study draws on the theoretical writings of Kenneth Burke and his concepts of equipment for living and form. I argue through the rhetorical usage of form these films have constructed symbols that respond to the trauma and fears audiences experience living in the context of a post 9/11 world. Chapter one outlines a historical literature review tracing the origins of superhero films to their literary roots in comic books. This literature review outlines the history of comic book characters addressing social fear and trauma throughout the United States' history and suggests that superhero movies continue this tradition through the visual medium of film. Chapter two constructs a methodology in which to critically examine these films. The chapter outlines Burke's concept of the Symbol and Barry Brummett's notion of the rhetorical homology. With this methodology in place, chapter three and four present case studies explicating how form manifests itself in specific superhero films and explores the rhetorical influence these movies have on audiences. Chapter three examines the Symbol that is found within three films: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Spider-man. Chapter four looks critically at the rhetorical homology that exists between the film 300 and the Bush administrations justification of the Iraq invasion. Furthermore, chapter four defines the Mask found in V for Vendetta as a site for political protest and a rhetorical source of empowerment for the disenfranchised. The concluding chapter investigates the ramifications of these symbols and critiques the messages some of them suggest to audiences and also discusses the opportunity for further research in the subject area. / text

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This dissertation argues that a diversity of epistemology within the field of rhetoric and composition can encourage Imagining as a strategy to negotiate the conundrums and binaries of the post-everything era, especially in negotiating the social presence of online learning. I trace Imagination from Enlightenment Pedagogy, which privileged the individual, unteacheable genius, to the conflation of invention and Imagination and the disappearance of both in current-traditional, modern, and postmodern pedagogy. Underlying this disappearance seems to be a distrust of Imagination, as exemplified by Kenneth Burke. I suggest that strategy of Imagining, rather than the faculty of Imagination, is needed—a move that is congruent with the active agency suggested by Marilyn Cooper. I also suggest that the theoretical basis for Imagining as a bridge can be found in the “Thirdness” of Charles Sanders Pierce. Following Coleridge, I suggest that four means of knowing serve as foundations for Imagining: the group, the text, knowledgeable others, and the spirit. These four means can give the field of rhetoric and composition a diversity of epistemologies, and these terms provide the means to more fully describe our complex, partial, and recursive ways of knowing in the twenty-first century. These ways of knowing are especially necessary in online learning where teachers and students may only “see” each other through their words. I argue that these means of knowing enhance Imagining and that a unsyllabus is a way to implement Imagining.

abstract: The aim of this project is an exploration of health literacy as found in the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae. The rhetoric of the Catholic Church clearly demonstrates its creation and promotion of moral authority over the health practices of the faithful. As such, the encyclical illustrates the means by which Catholic conscience dictates corporal existence. Through its denunciation of the evolving social mores of the 1960s, its condemnation of contraception, and its encouragement in the reception of natural law, the document offers the merits of Catholic marriage as guiding principles beneficial to all good men. Ultimately, group morality is conveyed as the path to health. Consideration of Humanae Vitae through a Burkean logological lens allows an inquiry into the elements of theology and biology, and evaluates the foundational language of each as a form of action. As well, the oracular nature of the rhetoric merits analysis, for the Church continues to maintain the encyclical as the final declaration of sexual rectitude. However, many Catholics and members of secular society disagree, necessitating a forecast which questions the rhetorical retention of the text. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2010

La ‘inclusión social’ está de moda, pero ¿qué significa? El concepto es analizado en este artículo a través de los lineamientos del mercadeo político y los postulados de Kenneth Burke, teórico de la retórica. Teniendo como marco la más reciente campaña presidencial en el Perú, el objetivo del presente artículo es analizar hasta qué punto ‘inclusión social’ es un postulado estratégico o algo meramente coyuntural. Para ello, el análisis discursivo considera tanto elementos de la campaña del Partido Nacionalista Peruano (PNP) como promesas políticas del gobierno del presidente Humala, tal como la creación del Ministerio de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Marjorie R. Hancock / No Child Left Behind legislation has required public schools to increase efforts to measure and track student performance through school, district, state and nation-wide assessments. Researchers argue that it is essential for all students, including special education students, to be included in accountability assessments in order to help measure and track educational progress and compare the performance of schools, districts and states in terms of achieving educational goals. One method for including more special needs students in accountability assessments is to use accommodations during testing. Assistive technology is an accommodation that is approved for use on accountability assessments in many states and has the potential to significantly impact the performance of special education students. The primary purpose of this research was to gather and analyze data from special service providers (staff of a special education cooperative) and educators and administrators (employees of the school districts the cooperative serves) on the subject of using assistive technology as an accommodation on Colorado State Assessment Project (CSAP) testing. The researcher conducted a survey to measure the attitudes and knowledge of educators and special service providers on this subject. The survey was a five point Likert scale comprised of ten items designed to measure "attitudes" and ten items designed to measure "knowledge". Data was analyzed using backward regression analysis to compare scores between groups and consider the impact that years of work experience had on survey scores. The researcher used responses from survey data to select ten survey respondents to participate in in-depth interviews. Interview data was analyzed using pentadic analysis, a method of rhetorical analysis designed by Kenneth Burke (1945). Survey results indicated that the knowledge and attitudes scores between the two groups were similar, however regression analysis identified a significant increase the attitude scores of employees of the special education cooperative as they gained work experience. Scores of district employees did not increase on either scale as participants gained work experience. Analysis of interview data provided rich description of participants’ knowledge and attitudes concerning the use of assistive technology as an accommodation and enabled the researcher to identify significant similarities and differences between groups of employees and the state standards intended to guide their decision making on this subject. Results of this research suggest a need for improving education on the subject of assistive technology, related state regulations and improving resources to foster the use of assistive technology as an accommodation on accountability assessments.

The purpose of this research was to identify the motives and use of language of William Sloane Coffin, Jr., president of SANE/FREEZE organization. The rhetorical elements of his peace speeches between the years 1978-1988 were analyzed using Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad as a method of analysis.

As the public becomes more aware of environmental issues, corporations are pressed to consider and address the sustainability of their practices. Unwilling to drastically change business models, many corporations turn to greenwashing in an attempt to construct an environmentally friendly image while doing little to nothing to address sustainability issues. Using Kenneth Burke's work on identification and terministic screens, I analyze The Coca-Cola Company's "2020 World Without Waste Report" to illuminate how consumers come to believe in and identify with corporate greenwashing tactics. In line with Burke's theories related to identification, I argue that Coca-Cola's greenwashing strategies can be categorized into three main tactics: establishing common ground, creating antithesis against a shared enemy, and subtly invoking a sense of transcendence. Through my analysis, I also expand Burke's notion of transcendence and propose that established ethos and intertextuality can foster identification. By understanding how these rhetorical strategies operate within corporate texts, consumers can be more aware of greenwashing and hold corporations more accountable.