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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 In my analysis, I will follow Guillermo Sucre's suggestion about historical references as metaphors.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

This study searches twenty composition readers' table of contents for the degree of inclusivity of queer people and issues. Four means of erasure are labeled as possible erasing of queer identity: presuming heteronormativity, overt homophobia, perpetuating tokenism, and pathologizing queer identity. The presence of other differences are compared to the number of times that queer identity is referenced in the table of contents. The final portion of the analysis examines the two most inclusive composition readers to understand more clearly how the readers present queer individuals and issues. In a sense, I want to explore the question of how often queer people are discussed or addressed and in what forms within these composition readers. My hope is to develop a means for instructors and students to investigate whether or not, and in what ways a composition reader prescribes presence for the queer individual.

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.

The language on university websites and the policies provided by Disability Services provide material for a rhetorical analysis addressing the marginalization of students with disabilities on college campuses. In this thesis, I discuss the degree to which university distributed texts marginalize students with disabilities. My discussion begins with commentary on Critical Disability Studies, the theoretical influence for this thesis. Following the discussion of theoretical modes in disability studies is a brief commentary on the history of disabilities in academic contexts. After historically contextualizing Disability Services on university campuses, I analyze the rhetoric of San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California San Diego's (UCSD) informational texts aimed at students with disabilities, including analysis of how and to what degree information is provided, but also the language of the written policy itself. Through my rhetorical analysis, it is clear that SDSU's values are effectively conveyed through language, whereas UCSD explicitly and implicitly separates the Office of Disability Services from disability advocacy. My aim in writing this thesis is to convey the importance of rhetorically sensitive and intentionally constructed language regarding disability and to situate language as a critical factor in creating an inclusive university environment.

The purpose of this project is to argue the effectiveness of utilizing comics as a learning tool in the first-year composition classroom to help students better understand synthesis. The two main features of comics that help teach synthesis are comic panels and comic closure. Library research was conducted to give insight into the history and terminology of comics, the value of comics in the classroom and in the field of rhetoric and composition, the practicality of using visual rhetoric and literacy in the classroom, and synthesis in the first-year composition classroom. I furthered my research by conducting a retrospective account of my own synthesis comic that I created during my graduate program. I analyzed how creating the synthesis comic helped me to better understand synthesis. I also analyzed how I was better able to effectively execute synthesis specifically through the genre conventions of panels and comic closure. Based on insights from my retrospective account, I will illustrate how the scaffolding exercise of creating a synthesis comic can be an effective tool in the first-year composition classroom. Additionally, I will offer suggestions for further research on the significance of this scaffolding exercise. Comics are becoming more widely valued in academia at large, as well as valued specifically in the field of rhetoric and composition. It is my hope that this thesis will contribute positively to this trend.

ABSTRACT Treating the concept of culture as a heuristic allows us to analyze multiple contexts involving culture as continuously changing with or without exterior contact. The productions from such system have the potential to develop identities through ideological materials produced by specialized rhetoric. This paper then focuses on how figurative language and structure affect the ways in which rhetoric, ideology, and identity are formed within the context of film reviews. In particular, I analyze reviews from the films Birdman and The Revenant, both directed by Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu, to detail how the use of metaphors influences the production of rhetoric. I use cross-cultural rhetoric and identity frames in each review as a way to identify the implications of the use of metaphors in film reviews and what this choice details about the writers and the agencies for which they work.

Identity is not fixed but rather performed through interactions. The eminent philosopher and gender theorist, Judith Butler famously investigates performativity in her research on gender. Butler asserts that “gender is not a performance that a prior subject elects to do, but gender is performative in the sense that it constitutes as an effect the very subject it appears to express” (314, emphasis original). She believes that gender identity is performative because it constitutes itself though actions, gestures, and speech. This project seeks to investigate the performative nature of roller derby personas, highlighting the identities of the characters in the movie Whip It and the comic series “Slam!” to help students learn to perform an academic identity in writing. Reading roller derby texts through the lens of performativity can be a useful pedagogical tool because it helps students see that a writer’s identity can be carefully crafted into an academic persona. In this project, I examine these texts to discover how roller derby personas are constructed and performed. The texts introduce freshmeat skaters to roller derby and explore how their new derby persona is negotiated and informed by the derby community. By creating a new persona, the characters are able to constitute it through their performance. Students in First Year Composition are undergoing a similar process to the freshmeat skaters: they are learning to craft an academic identity when they enter the university. Ultimately, a performative academic identity can lead to greater agency both in and out of the classroom because it helps students take a stance and control their performance as writers.