Rhetorical Critique

Genre Ideology Feminism

Generic Criticism

• Not “Common”but

GENRE• Communication

situations fall into types or categories:– Deliberative-Political– Forensic-Legal– Epideictic-Ceremonial

Edwin Black’s 1965 critique of

Neo-Aristotelianism1. There are a limited number of

situations in which a rhetor can find themselves.

2. There are limited numbers of ways in which a rhetor can and will respond rhetorically to a given situation.

3. The reoccurrence of a given situation type through history will provide a critic with information on rhetorical responses available for the specific situation.

Examples

• Eulogies– Speeches eulogizing Eleanor Roosevelt,

George Harrison, the Columbia astronauts and Ronald Reagan should have commonalities

• Songs and Poetry• Political Speeches• Sermons• Advertisements• Jeremiads

Selecting an Artifact

• Three options:– Generic Description

• Artifacts that appear to share similarities across time, especially in nature and function.

– Generic Participation• An artifact that is supposed to belong to a

genre but doesn’t appear to fit.

– Generic Application• An artifact you want to assess how well it

functions and conforms to the genre it supposedly belongs.

Generic Description (inductive reasoning)

1. Observe similarities in rhetorical responses to particular situations.

2. Collect artifacts that occur in similar situations of the kind.

3. Analyze the artifacts to discover shared characteristics.

4. Formulate an organizing principle for the specific genre.

Generic Participation(deductive reasoning)

1. Describe the perceived situational requirements, the substantive and stylistic strategies, and the organizing principle of the genre.

2. Describe the situational requirements, the substantive and stylistic strategies, and the organizing principle of the artifact.

3. Compare artifact and genre to see if and how the artifact is indeed part of the genre.

Generic Application

• The first three steps are the same as Generic Participation: ½ Describe both genre and artifact’s:

• situational requirements• substantive and stylistic strategies• organizing principle

3. Compare artifact and genre4. Evaluate the artifact according to its

success in fulfilling the characteristics and goals of its genre.

Ideographic Criticism

Ideological Criticism

• Focus on Beliefs & Values– Social– Political– Economic– Cultural

• Who are we/they?• What do we/they stand for?• What are our/their values?• How do we/they relate to

others?

Immigration

• Too many people coming into country.

• Immigrants come to live off welfare.• Economic refugees.• Take jobs.• Inner city crime.• Should be deported.• “Real” refugees only.

Examples

• Patriotism• Anti-Communism• Christian-Right• Multiculturalism• Liberalism• Neo-Conservatism• Anti-Terrorism• Survivalism

A Set Pattern of Beliefs

Structuralism

• “Go seahawks”• The “Grammars” of systems.• Systematic inventories of elements and

their relationships.• Claude Levi-Strauss

– The structure and grammar of myth.

• Semiotics– The science and analysis of signs.– Words-font styles-camera angles-gestures-

clothes-etc.

Other Forms Ideological Critique

• Marxism– Materialism with capitalistic scapegoat

• Deconstructionism– Exposing underlying meanings

• Postmodernism– Society has been transformed by media

and technology• Culturalism

– Oppressive relationships

The Hegemonic Cultural View

• The privileged cultural view has preeminence.

• After 9/11– Should we invade Iraq?– Administration’s view prevaled.

• To maintain dominance the hegemonic view must be renewed, reinforced and defended continuously.

Confrontational?

• The primary goal of the ideological critic is to discover and make visible the dominant ideology or ideologies embedded in an artifact and the ideologies that are being muted in it.

• To give voice to those whose interests are not represented.

• The aim is the emancipation of the human potential being thwarted by an existing ideology.

Selecting an Artifact

• Almost any Artifact works– Political texts are common choices– Popular culture artifacts

• Advertisements• Television shows• Films• Sports• Concerts and music genres• Coffee houses and Restaurants• Posters

Analyzing the Artifact(2 steps)

1. Identify the nature of the ideology– Membership -Who are they? Where are they from? Who

belongs? How to become one?

– Activities -What do they do? What is expected? Why do they exist?

– Goals -Why do we do this? What do they want to accomplish?

– Values & Norms –What are the main values? How do they evaluate themselves and others? What should NOT be done?

– Position & Relations -What is the social position? Who are the enemies/scapegoats? Who is like them? Who is different?

– Resources –What are the essential resources available to them? What do they need?

Analyzing the Artifact(2nd step)

• Identify the strategies that support the ideology– The rhetorical strategies are almost

infinite.– Nature of the ideology –How acceptable is it to

others? Who is it acceptable to? Inconsistencies? Contradictions?

– Communicative Genre –How do they communicate?

– Size of Audience –Mass mediated? Face-to-face?

– Content –What do they emphasize? Deemphasize? Hide?

– Style –Active or passive? Word/Phrase choices?

– Interactional strategies –Body language & clothing? With whom do they identify?

Feminist Criticism• Feminist Criticism has its roots in a social-

political movement:– feminist or women’s liberation movement– aimed at improving conditions for women

• Definitions:– “women and men should have equal

opportunities for self-expression”– “movement towards a society where woman can

live a full, self-determined life”– “the theoretical study of women’s oppression and

strategies to end that oppression’– “struggle to end sexist oppression”– ‘a struggle to end the ideology of domination that

permeates Western culture”

Three stages or “waves” of Feminism

• 1st wave: mid 19th century to 1920’s– Right to vote (Suffrage Movement)

• 2nd wave: 1963 to early 1980s– Betty Friedan’s A Feminine Mystique (1963)– Liberal, Radical and Marxist Feminists– Lesbian and Cultural Feminists

• 3rd wave: 1980s to Present– Feminists born after 1960– Go beyond a “middleclass, white, able-bodied,

heterosexual” emancipation to the freedom of all women and men of colors, religions, classes, sexuality, worlds and abilities

Feminism and Communication

• Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, The Rhetoric of Women’s Liberation (1973)

• Scholarship dedicated to the critique of the rhetoric of the movement

• Focuses on particular goals like ERA• The recognition that women had been

neglected by rhetorical studies• Defined “What is a women’s

perspective?”

Feminist Critique has:

• emerged as a method to intervene in the “ideology of domination”.

• feminist critics as concerned with relationships of dominance of all kinds, not just women.

Selecting Artifacts

• Any rhetoric that marginalizes or subordinates groups can be analyzed using feminist critique

• Any artifact that presents a view of race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, ability or identity in a way that angers, inspires, challenges or frustrates you may apply.

• Even things like:– Football?– Architecture?– Art – Camille Paglia's, Sexual Personae

(1990)

Naomi Wolf• What is a feminist?

You are a feminist if you believe:

– Women matter as much as men do.

– Women have the right to determine their lives.

– Women's experiences matter. – Women have the right to tell the

truth about their experiences. – Women deserve more of

whatever it is they are not getting enough of because they are women: respect, self-respect, education, safety, health, representation, money.

– -- Naomi Wolf, Fire With Fire

2 steps in Analyzing the Artifact

1. Analysis of the construction of gender

– Or whatever aspect of identity is your focus

2. Exploration of what the artifact suggests about how the ideology of domination is constructed and/or maintained and/or how it can be challenged or transformed.

MY NEW FEMINIS

M by Adam

Strange 199648" x 48" Oil on Canvas

Works Cited• Three & Post Modern Feminism by Kelly Ann

Thomas, http://www.picassodreams.com/picasso_dreams/art/

• Ideology Illustrations © 2003 C. James Parks, http://www.zmangames.com/products/Ideology/

• MY NEW FEMINISM by Adam Strange 1996http://adamstrange.com/index.html

• Presentation content adapted from:Sonja Foss Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice, 3rd Ed. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Illinois: 2004