Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Communication and Culture, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2200. Chair: Patricia Hayes Andrews. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 27, 2006)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2562. Adviser: Gail E. Hawisher. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-299) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Taking as its starting point the ut pictura poesis tradition of artistic theory, this dissertation examines how the poets and dramatists of the English Renaissance transformed mimetic strategies originally developed in the fields of art and architecture into unprecedented literary topoi and figures in their own right. The project focuses primarily on the practice of linear perspective, which simulates visual experience by subordinating abstract space to the artificial logic of the “vanishing point.” It demonstrates how English writers developed the initial idea of linear perspective as an artificially arranged, delimited point of view into a body of descriptive practices that constitute what I term “perspectival metaphysics.” Experiments in perspectival metaphysics in the works of Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Andrew Marvell reveal the assumptions that underlie normative vision, and vision’s relationship to subjective experience and its interpretation. Vanishing Points concludes that the rhetorical strategies of spatial description developed by early modern English writers are an integral part of the broader epistemological shift from renaissance humanism to the increasingly complex modes of scientific and philosophical rationalism that characterized the European seventeenth century. / English

The purpose of this dissertation is a socio-rhetorical exploration of the development and function of the narrative of Noah and the Flood in Sibylline Oracles 1-2. As such, it entails three major emphases: (1) a 21st century western methodology (socio-rhetorical analysis) which is used to examine, on the one hand, (2) a diverse body of Judeo-Christian (but guised as Greco-Roman) literature (the Sibylline Oracles) that emerged primarily during the Second Temple period, and on the other, (3) how a traditional and textual resource (the Genesis flood narrative) has been developed and used within this body of literature to further the particular rhetorical purpose of the Sibyl. Thus, throughout the course of this dissertation, a contribution will be made to the scholarship on each of these three aspects in a number of innovative ways. First, a contribution will be made to the ongoing development of socio-rhetorical analysis, and in particular, as to how it pertains to our understanding of rhetorolects (rhetorical discourse types). Based on our analysis of the discourse and major rhetorical topoi of Sibylline Oracles 1-2 in relation to the topoi of other similar ancient Mediterranean discourses, it will be suggested that the current socio-rhetorical understanding of rhetorolects should be broadened to better reflect not only early Christian discourse, but the discourse of the entire ancient Mediterranean generally. For early Christians enacted their own discourse through reconfiguration of other rhetorical discourses from other Mediterranean cultures. This is especially clear in the Sibylline Oracles, which seems to be an interweaving of various Jewish, Christian, Greco-Roman, and possibly even Gnostic and Babylonian threads of discourse. In particular, we will affirm the insight in early explorations of socio-rhetorical analysis that the early Christian rhetorical discourses described by Vernon K. Robbins are primarily specific localizations of more general ancient Mediterranean discourse types. The case in point for this dissertation concerns both the similarities and differences between the discourses to which the Sibylline Oracles are most often compared---Judeo-Christian apocalyptic discourse and Greco-Roman Sibylline discourse (in addition to the discourse of Greco-Roman oracles generally)---both of which seem to exhibit the same array of major rhetorical topoi, while articulating these topoi in remarkably different ways. Second, the implications of this discussion for future development of the sociorhetorical understanding of rhetorolects are immediately apparent in exploring the Sibylline books as rhetorical productions. It will be demonstrated that a socio-rhetorical approach is able to offer fresh insight into a number of long-debated questions concerning the Sibylline Oracles and their contemporary literary environment. To this end, it will be suggested that what we find in Sibylline Oracles 1-2 (and the Sibylline Oracles generally) is a unique blending of two specific localizations of mantic discourse---namely Judeo-Christian apocalyptic discourse and Greco-Roman oracular discourse. These two localizations blend together to create a discourse that was truly unique among the variegated discourses of the ancient Mediterranean. Significantly, this remarkable blending of these two specific localizations of mantic discourse revitalized the character of the Sibyl by incorporating her into the biblical tradition of prophets. Third, and finally, one of the rhetorical resources that contributed to this transformation was the Noah-Flood narrative---a rhetorical resource that, while permeating the majority of the Sibylline books, is used most extensively in Sibylline Oracles 1-2. Within the discourses of the Second Temple period, the flood narrative as a topographically and topologically rich rhetorical resource appears to have been of greatest interest to two very different sets of authors: (a) the writers of priestly rhetorolect, who saw within the flood narrative a compelling resource that could give legitimacy to their argument for the 364-day calendar and its accompanying implications for religious feasts and festivals, as well as the establishment of pre-Mosaic precedents for various legal prescriptions and priestly responsibilities; and (b) the writers of apocalyptic rhetorolect, who saw within the flood narrative the authoritative typological resources necessary to give credence to their own prophecies of cataclysmic destruction and global re-creation. Significantly, the writers of Sibylline Oracles 1-2 seem to draw upon most fully and contribute to this apocalyptic trajectory. However, unlike a number of apocalyptic texts that seem to blend both priestly and apocalyptic rhetorolects (e.g. the Enoch Astronomical book), the writers of Sibylline Oracles 1-2 actually subordinate the elements of priestly rhetorolect within the flood narrative by eliminating them completely. They appear to do so in order to emphasize the elements of apocalyptic rhetorolect that more usefully contribute to their mantic agenda. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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Free from Any Other Meaning": Truth and Politics in the Rhetoric of Elizabeth I considers the relationship between rhetorical education and practice by examining the rhetoric of Queen Elizabeth I of England in light of dramatic shifts in rhetorical theory in Elizabethan England. This dissertation first examines rhetorical manuals of the sixteenth century, and discusses how a move from considering rhetoric as a complex relationship between knowledge, truth, and language to focusing almost exclusively on the use of figures of speech points to an anxiety over meaning and truth themselves. It then analyzes rhetorical performances of Elizabeth and her interlocutors in key debates during her reign, showing that Elizabeth drew on this anxiety about meaning and truth in order to overcome what was for her the most problematic "truth" of her reign--the doubtful authority of her status as a female prince. Tracing out two parallel narratives--the development of rhetorical theory and the development of Elizabeth's rhetorical strategy--I show finally that a series of dynamic shifts in rhetorical thought were not simply the result of pedagogical needs and intellectual currents, but responses to the problem of female rule. / English

Sacrificial allusions and themes pervade the works of the Venezuelan poet José Antonio Ramos Sucre (1890-1930). However, the recurrent appearance of these allusions, their utilization as metaphors, the interpretation of historical events as sacrifices, and the great number of characters with ascetic or atoning features, have not been examined up to now. The aim of this dissertation, then, is to examine the rhetorical ways and contexts in which José Antonio Ramos Sucre uses sacrifice as a theme. First, I will offer a brief discussion of René Girard's theory of sacrifice. I will also make a detailed review of what literary critics like Ángel Rama and Guillermo Sucre. Next, I will analyze four texts: "El disidente", "Duelo de arrabal", "La venganza del Dios" y "A un despojo del vicio". In my analysis, I will follow Guillermo Sucre's suggestion about historical references as metaphors. The scapegoat metaphor will allow me to identify the surrogate victims in and of the text. This reading is antisacrificial in that it reveals the surrogate victim mechanism; in addition, it suggests that Ramos Sucre is exploring the problem of the persecution of innocent people. The last section summarizes the essential findings: metaphor and metonymy as the main rhetorical trope in Ramos Sucre's poems, the contradictions between the rhetorical ideal of exactitude and its working in the poems; Ramos Sucre's rereadings of myths, literary works, and historical events in order to reveal the sacrificial crisis and the surrogate victim; and sacrifice as rhetorical device that allows Ramos Sucre to explore conflicts, discriminations, and persecutions. / Spanish

Master of Arts / Department of Communications / William Schenck-Hamlin / Public Service Announcements are a fixture of both our media and cultural landscape. Their images and messages have inspired and defined movements and generations. The impact of PSAs is explored in this work to highlight the need to examine the impact of an emerging phenomenon of public service messaging: The Hybrid PSA. The Hybrid PSA is a message that blends and blurs the line between commercial and social causes. To explore the intricacies and impact of the Hybrid PSA, this work first works to define the “classical” PSA. Then, by observation and critique, the variance between the “classic” and the Hybrid is established. To contrast, the genre of Propaganda is explored and the possibility that the Hybrid PSA could be defined as propaganda is examined. Finally, the ethical implications of such a generic classification being established are discussed.