2.1: Rhetorical Criticism

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Define rhetoric.
• Identify key features of classical rhetorical theory.
• Identify the challenges that contemporary theorists are making to the study of rhetoric.
• Define rhetorical criticism.
• Explain the purpose and uses of rhetorical criticism.
• Explain the different models of rhetorical criticism.
• Understand how rhetorical theory and criticism are a current part of the communication discipline.

In this chapter devoted to rhetorical theory and criticism, we will explore both of these separate but related fields of inquiry, briefly map out their history, discuss some of the major rhetorical theories and methods of doing rhetorical criticism, and finally, explain how this specialization contributes to the larger discipline of Communication. But, before going any further, let’s begin by highlighting the definitional and historical debate so we may begin with a common understanding of the term, “rhetoric.” Remember from Chapter 5 that we are defining rhetoric as “any kind of symbol use that functions in any realm” (Foss, Foss, and Griffin 7).

• 2.1.1: Rhetorical Theory and Practice

  • 2.1.1.1: Rhetorical Criticism Overview
  • 2.1.1.2: Understanding Rhetorical Criticism
  • 2.1.1.3: Current Uses of Rhetorical Theory and Criticism
  • 2.1.1.4: Implications of Rhetorical Analysis
  • 2.1.1.5: Research and Critical Reading
  • 2.1.1.6: Elements of the Rhetorical Situation
  • 2.1.1.7: Rhetorical Analysis
  • 2.1.1.8: Critical Reading and Rhetorical Context
  • 2.1.1.9: Rhetorical Criticism Summary
  • 2.1.1.10: Rhetorical Criticism References

• 2.1.2: Rhetorical Lenses

  • 2.1.2.1: Critical Race Theory
  • 2.1.2.1.1: Race
  • 2.1.2.1.2: Literary Snapshot- "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland"
  • 2.1.2.1.3: Postcolonial, Racial, and Ethnic Theory- An Overview
  • 2.1.2.1.4: Writing about Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Identity- A Process Approach
  • 2.1.2.2: Biographical Study
  • 2.1.2.2.1: Author Analysis
  • 2.1.2.2.2: Sample Biography- Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
  • 2.1.2.2.3: Sample Biography - Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
  • 2.1.2.2.4: Sample Biography - Max Weber (1854-1920)
  • 2.1.2.3: Dramatism (Kenneth Burke)
  • 2.1.2.3.1: Explaining Your Perspective
  • 2.1.2.4: Feminism and Queer Theory
  • 2.1.2.4.1: Introduction- Feminist Movements
  • 2.1.2.4.2: 19th Century Feminist Movements
  • 2.1.2.4.3: Early to Late 20th Century Feminist Movements
  • 2.1.2.4.4: Third Wave and Queer Feminist Movements
  • 2.1.2.4.5: Feminist Theory- An Overview
  • 2.1.2.4.6: Gender Criticism and Queer Theory
  • 2.1.2.4.7: Gender Criticism- Masculinity Studies
  • 2.1.2.4.8: Conceptualizing Structures of Power
  • 2.1.2.4.9: Women and the Media
  • 2.1.2.4.10: Critical Introduction to the Field
  • 2.1.2.4.11: Feminist and Gender Criticism- A Process Approach
  • 2.1.2.4.12: Literary Snapshot- "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland"
  • 2.1.2.5: Genre Theory
  • 2.1.2.5.1: Introduction
  • 2.1.2.5.2: A Scenario
  • 2.1.2.5.3: Discussion
  • 2.1.2.6: Historical Case Study
  • 2.1.2.6.1: History and Biography
  • 2.1.2.6.2: Ethics Case Study
  • 2.1.2.7: Metaphorical Criticism (George Lakoff)
  • 2.1.2.7.1: The Symbolic Nature of Culture
  • 2.1.2.7.1A: The Symbolic Nature of Culture
  • 2.1.2.7.1B: The Origins of Language
  • 2.1.2.7.1C: Language
  • 2.1.2.7.1D: Language and Perception
  • 2.1.2.7.1E: Symbols and Nature
  • 2.1.2.7.1F: Gestures
  • 2.1.2.7.1G: Values
  • 2.1.2.7.1H: Norms
  • 2.1.2.7.1I: Sanctions
  • 2.1.2.7.1J: Folkways and Mores
  • 2.1.2.7.2: Figurative Language
  • 2.1.2.7.3: Metaphor and Metonymy
  • 2.1.2.7.4: Student Sample Student Paper- Alyce Hockers’s “The Slavery Metaphor of Moby-Dick”
  • 2.1.2.7.5: Symbolic ‘Lived Spaces’ in Ancient Greek Lyric and the Heterotopia of the Symposium
  • 2.1.2.7A: "Does the Sun Rise? A Study of Metaphors in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises" (Day)
  • 2.1.2.8: Narrative Theory (Walter Fisher)
  • 2.1.2.8.1: Introduction
  • 2.1.2.8.2: Narrative Theory
  • 2.1.2.8.3: Reading Skills- Analyzing Narrative
  • 2.1.2.8.4: Reading- The Children with One Eye, A Canadian Folk Tale
  • 2.1.2.8.5: Article- The Hero’s Journey
  • 2.1.2.8.6: Putting It Together
  • 2.1.2.8.7: How to Analyze a Film
  • 2.1.2.8.8: How to Analyze a Novel
  • 2.1.2.8.9: What is Good Music?
  • 2.1.2.8.10: Elements of Design
  • 2.1.2.8.11: Principles of Design
  • 2.1.2.8.12: Close Reading Strategies - A Process Approach
  • 2.1.2.9: Neo-Aristotelian Criticism (Aristotle)
  • 2.1.2.9.1: The Role of Philosophy (Categories)
  • 2.1.2.9.2: The Rhetorical Process
  • 2.1.2.10: Social Movement Study
  • 2.1.2.10.1: Social Movements
  • 2.1.2.11: Other Theoretical Models
  • 2.1.2.11.1: The Literary Tradition
  • 2.1.2.11.1.1: What Is Literary Theory?
  • 2.1.2.11.1.2: How to Read Like a Writer
  • 2.1.2.11.1.3: Literary Criticism
  • 2.1.2.11.1.4: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism
  • 2.1.2.11.1.5: Why Write Literary Criticism?
  • 2.1.2.11.2: The Psychoanalytic Tradition
  • 2.1.2.11.2.1: Literary Snapshot- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
  • 2.1.2.11.2.2: Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism- An Overview
  • 2.1.2.11.2.3: Focus on Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)- Unconscious Repressed Desire
  • 2.1.2.11.2.4: Focus on Jacques Lacan (1901–81)- Repressed Desire and the Limits of Language
  • 2.1.2.11.2.5: Focus on Carl Jung (1875–1961) - The Archetypal Collective Unconsciousness
  • 2.1.2.11.2.6: Reading Keats’s “Urn” through the Psychoanalytic Lens
  • 2.1.2.11.2.7: Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism- A Process Approach
  • 2.1.2.11.3: The Semiotic Tradition
  • 2.1.2.11.3.1: Semiotics
  • 2.1.2.11.3.2: Signs and Signifiers
  • 2.1.2.11.3.3: Sign Systems
  • 2.1.2.11.3.4: Semiotics and Communication Processes
  • 2.1.2.11.3.5: Codes
  • 2.1.2.11.3.6: Two-step flow of communication
  • 2.1.2.11.4: The Critical Traditions
  • 2.1.2.11.4.1: Critical Perspectives
  • 2.1.2.11.4.2: Introduction to Critical Theory
  • 2.1.2.11.4.3: Formalism
  • 2.1.2.11.4.3.1: The Foundations of New Criticism- An Overview
  • 2.1.2.11.4.3.2: New Criticism
  • 2.1.2.11.4.3.3: Reading- Formalism and Content
  • 2.1.2.11.4.4: Reader-Response Theory
  • 2.1.2.11.4.4.1: Reader-Response Criticism
  • 2.1.2.11.4.4.2: Literary Snapshot- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  • 2.1.2.11.4.4.3: Reader-Response Theory- An Overview
  • 2.1.2.11.4.4.4: Focus on Reader-Response Strategies
  • 2.1.2.11.4.4.5: Reader Response- A Process Approach
  • 2.1.2.11.4.5: Postmodernism

Thumbnail: Bust of Aristotle. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Lysippos from 330 BC; the alabaster mantle is a modern addition. (Public Domain)