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Jimmy Swaggart's ordeal in 1983 provides the focus for this research. WBRZ's documentary and Swaggart's interview, hour-long video, and full-page newspaper replies are examined from the perspective of Lloyd Bitzer's "Rhetorical Situation." The degree to which Swaggart's responses were "fitting" is determined and insights regarding Bitzer's theory are provided. Reporter John Camp's program, "Give Me That Big Time Religion," was aired in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Thursday, May 19, 1983. Analysis of this documentary reveals that Swaggart stood charged with "Being in Business for the Money;" "Being Corrupt;" "Being a Manipulator;" "Being Too Political;" and "Being Big-Time Rather Than Old-Time Religion." Examination of Swaggart's replies corroborates that he perceived these charges to be exigencies he must address. Swaggart's discourses demonstrate that the perception of his "Being Anti-Catholic" also needed resolution. Bitzer's criteria for assessment of the appropriateness of Swaggart's replies include: the existence of genuine exigencies; the presence of a capable audience; reliance upon embedded constraints and interests; and the function of the discourse as a means or motivation for actual or probable alteration. This study concludes that Swaggart provided his audience with generalized explanations which would make sense. However, when specific replies to particular charges are assessed, Swaggart did not fare so well. In particular, Swaggart inadequately addressed the issues of his family getting rich, his accountability regarding the Children's Fund, that he often is corrupt, and that he manipulates others for money. Furthermore, this paper argues that Bitzer's "Rhetorical Situation" does not reveal more about the critic than the rhetoric; that meaning can be discovered as well as created; that rhetoric can be an effect not just a cause; and, that ethical responsibility of a rhetor is not removed due to the compulsion of "situation." Suggestions for future research include: examination of the discussion and debate concerning televangelism using Bitzer's approach; Swaggart's situation in 1983 as an ideal test case for the genre of apologia; and, a comparison of Swaggart's 1983 ordeal with that in 1988.

As the basis for major religions widely practiced in western cultures, the Pentateuch also has deeply influenced the structure of these societies. A short historical review demonstrates the secondary status women occupy in western cultures. This study focuses on uncovering the presumed existence of embedded patriarchal ideology within the Pentateuch's text. For the purpose of this study, the researcher draws on the Pentateuch as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible. By conducting an ideological rhetorical analysis of this text, this examination uncovers elements characteristic to patriarchal rhetoric promoting men's superiority and ideals as well as constricting and channeling women's identities. This ideology has contributed to depreciating women's status in western cultures, and awareness of its existence might help women in their struggle for equality. / by Mihaela E. Mallen. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 200?. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Recently, feminist scholars have begun to question the traditional telling of the history of rhetoric. Dissatisfied with a history which is told in terms of privileged, white males to the exclusion of all other voices, these scholars have worked to recover "lost" female rhetoricians and have begun critically rereading the traditional narrative of the history of rhetoric in terms of the gender and power structures which helped create it. This project takes as its goal the recovery of women's lament in ancient Greece. Through close readings of classical texts, analyzing ancient legislation, and using anthropological work on modern Greek laments, I demonstrate that lament offered women in ancient Greece a unique opportunity for public performance and a powerful position to speak from. I then show how the city-state of Athens took great pains to contain this genre first by legislating against it and later by creating a rhetorical institution, the epitaphios logos (funeral oration), which worked to contain lamentation and tell a history of Athens without women. Lastly, I attempt to locate lament inside the rhetorical tradition as a form of pre-rhetoric. I show that not only was this form of speech stylistically powerful, but that it also had an underlying epistemology, one which is similar to the poetically-based rhetoric of the sophists. / Graduation date: 2001

This dissertation explicates the work of George Jardine, an eighteenth-century Scottish rhetorician, through two lenses--Scottish Enlightenment epistemology and contemporary epistemological writing theories. I use these dual interpretive lenses to create a dialogue between Scottish Enlightenment epistemology, contemporary epistemological writing theories, and Jardine's own ideas. I constructed this dialogue beginning with an examination of Jardine's work, most of which was held in Scotland's National Library and the University of Glasgow's archival library. I then added the lens of Scottish Enlightenment epistemology in order to position Jardine's ideas as contributing to philosophy or theory. Finally, I used the lens of contemporary epistemological writing theories to position Jardine's ideas as being concerned with writing and epistemology, anticipating our own theories. From these two lenses I have shaped Jardine's ideas into what I am labeling investigative rhetoric and epistemic writing theory.Investigative rhetoric is the process of searching for the best truth about a humanist issue and the resulting discourse. The procedure for composing this discourse puts epistemic writing theory into practice and allows writers to construct significant meaning.Epistemic writing theory explains how knowledge is created through writing. This theory is composed of three parts--thinking, motivations, and process, with all three being critical components of the theory and all interrelating. The first part includes the most cognitive aspects of composing knowledge, the second part explains how moral and intellectual commitments motivate knowledge construction, and the third part details the interaction of writing and knowledge production and presents a composing process that utilizes this theory.I conclude with an appeal to apply this rhetoric and theory derived from Jardine's work in our classrooms. If we taught epistemic writing theory as a first year writing curriculum, our students could understand all three aspects of what it means to generate knowledge through composing. Students could apply this theory to their own writing while composing investigative rhetoric, a rhetoric that engages the writer in the process of composing knowledge, motivated by moral and intellectual commitments to fording the best "truth" available. / Department of English

Brummett’s ontological view of epistemic rhetoric frames a world in which reality is truly only shaped once it is communicated. This reality creation is uniquely performed within online spaces that are separated from the physical world by means of programming code and internal culture. These spaces are constructed of language and constitute new realities (Chesebro ) which are fundamentally rhetorical. However, the study of these tools lack shared terminology with which to classify and understand their potential as educational spaces. This study explores connections between communication mechanics of multi-user social technologies and their effectiveness as teaching tools. The study focuses on virtual worlds (defined as WAN-based, persistent, multi-user spaces which include avatars), such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, as examples of multi-user social technologies because these tools converge mechanics and communication tools found separately elsewhere. Communication mechanics are operationalized as facets found through the application of Shiyali Ranganathan’s Faceted Classification method. The facets of seventy worlds are first identified. These facets are then used to describe typical uses of the facets through Activity Theory (Engeström) and Genre Ecology Models (Spinuzzi). Finally, a framework is suggested for selecting virtual worlds and the most effective activities within them by ensuring coordination among the strategic, tactical, and operational goals and activities of the tool, the course/instructor, and student. / Incommensurate terms, incommensurate practices -- Background and current state of virtual world technology -- Classification of virtual worlds -- Using activity theory and genre ecology models to connect facets with motivations in virtual world education -- Implications, limitations and further study. / Department of English

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Aristotle's own solution is treated as a series of responses to his predecessors. His dialectical character and his subtle understanding of the complexity of human condition enable him to reach a dialectical and dynamic mean between these two extremes solutions. Aristotle objects Plato's attack of rhetoric, acknowledges its value, and secures its legitimate status in political life. But he also realizes the innate limitations of rhetoric. His theoretical solution to the tension lies in his theory of virtue and happiness. According to his ethics, virtue bridges these two series of goods, and in a virtuous person the tension does not exist. But this theory also has the same limitation of rhetoric in general, i.e., the lack of compulsory power. Therefore Aristotle, like Plato, tries to establish an ideal city, habituating the people to be truly virtuous through a series of legislative efforts. Good as it is, legislation cannot solve the tension permanently either, due to the universality of law. Therefore, when facing new situations or in critical moments, the system of law needs the supplement of decent and prudent politicians and through rhetoric. Thus, Aristotle establishes a virtuous circle between rhetoric and legislation, and such a dynamic system will give enough flexibility to deal with the complexity of human political life, and enables him to solve this tension successfully. / The first part presents two solutions given by Aristotle's predecessors. On the one hand, Gorgias, the representative rhetorician of that time began to reflect and champion the power of rhetoric. Such a theoretical reflection brought huge impact on Athenian political life. I treat Pericles and Alcibiades under Thucydides' depiction as spiritual heirs of Gorgias. They both try to solve the tension through rhetoric. On the other hand, Plato, fully realizing the limitation of rhetoric, attacks it in his Gorgias, and further in his Republic tries to solve this tension through legislation. / The tension between private and cornmon good is a problem for any human political society, and a central question for any political philosophy. This thesis tries to examine some attempts of solving this tension in ancient Greek context, and focuses on Aristotle's practical philosophy. / Liu, Wei. / Adviser: Qingjie Wang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-266). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This dissertation provides an exploration of the nature and scope of the category of the Unconscious as a necessary feature of rhetorical theory and criticism. In order to demonstrate the fundamental importance of the Unconscious to rhetorical theory and criticism, this dissertation focuses on Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory of Dramatism. Burke is one of the most frequently cited theorists by rhetorical scholars, and offers a familiar site for rhetorical scholars to understand the Unconscious as a rhetorical factor. Burke formulated a theory of the Unconscious by drawing from Freudian psychoanalysis. Since Freud, Jacques Lacan has advanced and altered the Freudian understanding of the Unconscious. Therefore, by navigating the terrain of both Burkeian and Lacanian scholarship, this dissertation moves toward a BurkeLacanian theory and method to offer a more critical lexicon for the rhetorical study of the dialectical relationship between the conscious and Unconscious parts of the psyche. In doing so, this dissertation develops and answers the following questions: How can we theorize the Unconscious as a rhetorical factor? How is Burke's theory of the Unconscious rhetorically useful? How might we understand Burke's theory of rhetoric differently and better if we read his Freudian influences through Lacanian scholarship on the Unconscious? How is a theory of the BurkeLacanian subject rhetorically useful? How does a BurkeLacanian theory of the Unconscious inform productive criticism? This dissertation applies a BurkeLacanian theory of the Unconscious by introducing a rhetorical method called "Ideographic Cluster Quilting." This method moves toward the rhetorical study of texts as cultural psyches that are constructed from fragments of discourse that form around figures of abjection. In order to demonstrate the usefulness for studying Ideographic Cluster Quilts, this dissertation analyzes the cultural psyche that forms around the figure of the "illegal immigrant" as abject. In doing so, we gain an insight into the Unconscious hatred of humanity as the perverse core of American identity that qualifies which bodies do and do not matter. We will also gain an insight into the way nationalistic identities function within globalization by confining labor forces within national boundaries, while multinational corporations move freely around the world. / text

Nineteenth-century classical scholar Friedrich Wilhelm Blass wrote over 300 densely annotated pages on Isocrates, an ancient Athenian schoolmaster and political essayist. A lengthy section of Blass' Die attische Beredsamkeit (1898) has been excerpted here and translated into English for the first time. The excerpt involves Blass' inventory of the Isocratic canon, an argument for the existence of a lost Isocratic rhetoric (techne), and an illustration of what that lost rhetoric likely contained. A translator's prologue discusses the value of both Isocrates and Blass to the study of classical rhetoric. Blass' work is also contrasted with the work of his British contemporary, R. C. Jebb.Blass' commentary on Isocrates requires of its readers a fluency in the technical terminology of classical rhetoric and a patience, perhaps a passion, for difficult rhetorical style. Blass frequently exercises in his writing the Isocratic principles and schemata he discusses. The English translation here, in order to preserve that trait in Blass' personal style, often approaches rhetorical replication of the original German text. Hence it becomes, to a certain extent, as much a simulacrum rhetoricum as a translation.In his text, Blass exposes a traditional misunderstanding of Isocrates that has resulted in a lack of appreciation for his overall contribution. We too often judge the Isocratic canon's value based either upon orations Isocrates constructed early in his career, before he matured in his art, or upon ones he composed late in his life, when he was in his eighties and nineties and becoming a bit senile. As a result, the merit of Isocrates' work during his most influential period, his middle age, is often ignored.The quality of the entire Isocratic canon must be carefully examined, Blass maintains, before its author or his work can be accurately judged. Accordingly, Isocrates' rhetoric is illustrated here as it evolved throughout his career. Blass' examination includes more detailed rhetorical explications than any other treatise currently available in English. / Department of English