The increasing prevalence of marital breakdown in
the United States has been met by the proliferation of
premarital counseling programs in professional counseling
centers and churches. As increasing masses of couples turn
to premarital counseling to prevent future interpersonal
problems, and as communities and churches across the United
States deem it necessary to require them to do so, the
rhetoric of premarital counseling, I argue, is becoming a
significant force in constructing contemporary meanings of
marriage.
Utilizing rhetorical criticism as a new method for
examining premarital counseling, this study addresses two
key issues: a) the images of marriage constructed in these
programs; and b) the process by which these images are
created. An extensive analysis of two national programs,
messages embodied in their counseling materials, themes,
symbols, and clusters of terms that facilitate persuasion
and epistemic functions. Applying a Burkean dramatistic
perspective, I contend that a more complete understanding
of premarital counseling is advanced if such discourse is
treated as "drama" and the participates in such discourse
as "symbol-using animals." The dramatistic analysis of
both programs reveals that a "rhetoric of rebirth" best
explains the process of persuasion that occurs in these
programs.
This research is an example of how premarital
counseling programs can be analyzed from a fresh
perspective--namely, premarital counseling as rhetoric.
Such analysis ultimately leads to a new way of explaining
how these programs attempt to modify couples' beliefs and
actions. The last chapter summarizes the thesis,
discusses the ethics of rhetoric in programs, as well as
the limitations and contributions of the study and
implications for future research. / Graduation date: 1997
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34253 |
| Date | 20 November 1996 |
| Creators | Young, Jun |
| Contributors | Iltis, Robert S. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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