In chapter 10, Selzer examines rhetorical analysis, a broad methodological term that usually falls into two categories or approaches:
- textual: use of rhetorical terminology on a singular symbolic act, taken on its own terms
- contextual: examining a particular act as it fits into a larger chain or conversation
Key peeps:
- Aristotle
- Quintilian
- Cicero
- Barthes
- Burke
- audience
- forensic rhetoric--characteristic of courtrooms; concerning actions done in the past
- deliberative rhetoric--characteristic of legislative forums; concerning future course of actions
- epideictic rhetoric--ceremonial discourse used to create and reinforce community values; concerning present moment
- five canons--actions of a rhetor from planning to delivery; see next five terms
- inventio--finding/creating of info and planning
- dispostio--arrangement
- exordium--introduction
- narratio--forecasting
- confirmatio--proof
- refutatio--refutation
- peroration--conclusion
- elocutio--style
- memoria--recollection of rhetorical resources one could call upon and memorization of what has been arranged
- pronuntiatio--delivery
- elocutio--stylistic maneuvers (antithesis, irony, hyperbole, metaphor, epanalepsis, antimetabole and anacoluthon)
- ethos--trustworthiness and credibility of rhetor
- pathos--reasons that derive from a communities deeply and fervently held values
- logos--sound reasons that emerge from intellectual reasoning
- invention
- emotional appeal--the pathos used
- argument by example--where a single case stands in for many cases (how is this different than synechdoche)?
- details--not merely concrete description, but also hard evidence
- anastrophe--violation of normal subject/verb/object order
- parenthesis--distracting interrupters
- hypotaxis--modifying or subordinate clauses
- parataxis--independent clauses that begin with "and" or "but"
- isocolons--precise mirror-image parallel structures
- hyperbole--exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect
- irony--expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning
- allusion--direct or indirect mention of figure or event
- metaphors--implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words
- connotations--emotional charges of words
- dramatistic pentad--elements to identify before engaging in analysis; elements represented by questions
- act--What purposeful act has taken place?
- agent--Who took this action?
- agency--How or with what did they do it?
- scene--Where, when and in what context did the act take place?
- purpose--Why did they do it? What was their intent? (usually done after the first four)
- identification--for persuasion to work, one identifies with another, either a self or objects
- consubstantiality--humans have symbolic understanding of themselves and others; to share knowledge, people align their personal symbol-system with another's symbol system
- interpretive screens: terminology itself
- rhetoric is both a productive and interpretive enterprise (280)
- rhetorical analysis can be understood as an effort to understand how people within specific social situations attempt to influence other through langauge (281)
- rhetorical analysis is a form of critical reading (281)
- textual and contextual analysis are not mutually exclusive (302)
- specific rhetoric performances are an irreducible mixture of both text and context (302)
- as Burke demonstrates, rhet analysis can in and of itself be a part of an unending process (303)
- try to use elements of both in an analysis to understand rhet event more completely
- remember (and perhaps make an explicit note of?) the limits of the analysis, it is always somewhat partial and incomplete, ready to be deepened, critiqued, modified and extended by others
