Week Five

COMM 401Interpreting Strategic DiscourseWeek FiveIdentity

Studying IdentityRace-Class-Gender StudiesIdentity of speakerIdentity of audiencesImpact of identity on message production and reception

Women’s Rhetorical HistoryWomen have not just been observers, they have played an integral part in developing our rhetorical traditionsWomen's presence mentioned by Plato & AristotleWomen often used conversation and writing to show their competence and pursue intellectual interests.In the 18th and 19th centuries, women started giving speeches for their rights and against slavery. As women had more access to education, they started entering the public domain more.

Six Reasons for Women’s Exclusion from Rhetorical HistoryWomen feel rather than thinkWomen empathize rather than argueWomen are robbed of eloquence by conception, gestation, and birthWomen who speak in public sacrifice their womanhoodWomen who speak in public sacrifice their reproductive capabilitiesWomen who speak in public are “unsexed”

Powerful Female LeadershipMedieval/Enlightenment Leaders:Medieval period marked a change in the cultural scene, increasing opportunities for education for girls and women.Powerful female leaders emergedWomen began to have the opportunity to exercise power via rhetorical skillsHowever, still little historical record of women’s rhetoricVery few women were taught to readEmergence of Christian women as social-activist orators created a new sense of sexual equality

Christine de Pizan, 1364-1430Taught medieval women about persuasion and public speakingSought to show that:women could develop their minds and still achieve a good afterlifewoman’s intellect and words could empower her genderWidowed at age 25, she began writing to make money. Some feminist scholars date the beginning of the modern feminist movement to her worksShe was France’s, and possibly Europe’s, first woman known to have earned her living through writing.

Margaret Fell, 1614-1702The spread of Protestant Christianity promoted women’s education. Women were still not allowed to attend universities. However, some protestant groups encouraged using preaching to address social evilsMargaret Fell a key figure of Quakerisma prolific writeran activistShe used biblical passages to argue that women:Were equal to manCould be involved in public ministryHad the right to speak in public

Mary Astell, 1666-1731One of the first English protofeministsDemonstrated that women have the ability to participate in rhetorical activitiesAstell insisted: on women’s right to participate in the rhetorical traditionthat custom, not nature, produced inferior womenthat women and men were intellectual equals, but lack of education held women back

Mary Wollstonecraft, 1759-1797The first to insist that women’s nature was basically the same as men’s: free, rational, and independentShe believed and argued that:reason would lead the way to a progressive social orderwomen had the right to participate in public debatesthe position of women in a given culture is not natural but is produced by that cultureWrote a book: Vindication of the Rights of WomenA feminist manifestoArguing that the rights of man should be extended to women

Waves of Feminism—First Wave (1840-1925)Specific events:Mid/late 1700s—revolutions in France and America1792—Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women1848—Seneca Falls Convention1890s—Suffrage movement begins1918—Women win right to vote in U.K.1920—Women win right to vote in U.S.

Waves of Feminism—Second Wave (1960-1995)Also called women’s liberation movementGrew out of New Left politicsProtested Vietnam warFought for civil rightsNew Left men treated women as subordinates1964: women in SNCC challenged sexism in New Left male members unresponsive1965: women in SDS also found no receptivityMany women withdrew and formed their own organizationBasic principle: oppression of women is fundamental form of oppression on which others are modeledRelied on “rap” groupsEnsured equal participationIdentification of structural basis of oppressionThe personal is political

Waves of Feminism—Third Wave (1997-?)Recognize women differ in many waysCommitment to building alliances with menLeads to understanding of intersections among forms of privilege and oppressionSocial change requires efforts from both sidesPower exercised and resisted in local situationsGoal to incorporate structural changes wrought by second wave into lifeChallenging racist commentsConfronting homophobic attitudesExamine class privilege

Race & Rhetoric—Critiquing LiberalismWhat has liberalism meant for race/how does liberalism confront race?Is liberalism meaningfully dealing with the material inequalities of race?What does the rhetoric of liberalism and race mean for oppositional voices?Examples in rhetoric: MLK vs. Malcolm X

Other Critiques of LiberalismOther identity-based rhetorics employ a critique of liberalism:Gay rights/Gay marriageLatina/o rightsDisability Activists

Identity & Rhetoric—NarrativeRooted in the power of narrative in the formation of moral reason/public discourseRecognizes the power of non-narrative technical rhetoric to oppressRhetorical examples: slave narratives/civil rights testimony

Identity & Rhetoric—Narrative Other identity movements employ rhetorics of narrative, both to highlight injustice and to memorialize their own historyStonewall UprisingThe 1965 Easter March from Delano to Sacramento

Revisioning & RevalorizingRevisioning rhetorics recognize that the revealed and conventional narratives of race and civil rights are often sanitized and naturalized (hegemony)Revalorization strives to find lost voices, create new canons, rewrite existing visions of greatnessRhetorical examples: Rosa Parks; Thurgood Marshall

Revisioning/Revalorism—Name the Orator

Revalorism at Work—Name the Orator

Structuralism & MaterialismRace relations and considerations of race are as much about economy and materiality as about valuesExplore rhetorics for how they manifest or mask these concernsRhetorical Examples: Oprah; Clarence ThomasHow do structural and material factors influence and affect the rhetoric of other identity groups?Role of class/privilege?Immigration?

Essentialism & Non-essentialismEssentialism is the view that a given entity entails characteristics or properties that all individual units must possess.Non-essentialism denies this vision of essentialism.Rhetorical examples: eugenics; miscegenation; segregationHow do essentialist rhetorics affect current rhetorics of identity?Gay marriageImmigration—Americanism

COMM 401Interpreting Strategic DiscourseWeek FiveCulture

Culture of Strategic DiscourseCulture = a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period.Lots of different meanings of culture: biological, anthropological, sociological, etc.To discuss the “culture” of strategic discourse is to highlight important dynamics of the contemporary condition that affects the circulation of discourse/rhetoric.Examine two dynamics of the culture of strategic discourse: journalism & popular culture

Journalism & Strategic Discourse1833 Ben Day’s New York SunElemental and emotionalCheap material…mass produced (technology)Flippant but readableAssumes widespread literacy for successJacksonian Democracy and egalitarianism.James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald, 1835The “Extra”Starts the first “letters column”Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, 1841Supports Henry Clay and “Manifest Destiny”Social engineering

Journalism & Strategic DiscourseYellow JournalismNewspapers based on:Human-interest/crime storiesLarge headlinesReadable copyCelebrity news; sensationalismInvestigative reportingHearst’s New York JournalPulitzer’s New York World

Journalism & Strategic DiscourseObjectivityOchs and the New York Times.Times became the newspaper of record— found in libraries, etc.Provided a contrast to yellow press.Inverted pyramid style Most important summary info in first paragraphLeast important material last (can be cut)Who, What , When, Where, Why, How.Brief, accurate writing style.Does the style make news bland?

Journalism & Strategic DiscourseMedia Changes:USA Today (TV-shaped vending box; introduced in 1982).GannettColorBrief, almost broadcast-length copyBroader cultural changesLess readingMTV; 24-hour newsSince 1994, the InternetDrudge Report (breaks Lewinsky story)Reduced standards for journalism accuracy?

Journalism & Strategic DiscourseBiasIs the news media biased?If no, is that a good thing? Should the news media be biased?If yes, what is the nature of the bias? How would we describe it?

Journalism & Strategic DiscourseD’Alessio and Allen (Journal of Communication, 2000) examined 59 scholarly studies of news media bias using a meta-analysis—a method that combines numerous studies to determine larger knowledge claims. They examined studies of news media bias in presidential election campaigns.They discover no statistically significant bias in newspaper coverage.They conclude there is a small, coverage bias in television news (52.7% airtime for Democrats; 47.3% for Republicans).They find a slight pro-Republican bias in major newsmagazine coverage of presidential elections.Overall, any bias is insubstantial.Most discussions of news media bias are subjective, impressionistic, and anecdotal (Goldberg, Alterman, FAIR, AIM).

Popular Culture & Strategic DiscoursePopular Culture = the arts, artifacts, entertainment, fads, beliefs and values that are shared by large segments of society.Continued media proliferation expands the range and reach of popular culture.Tension: High Culture vs. Popular CultureMatthew Arnold: Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is the study of perfection; it is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world.

Understanding Popular CultureThe Historical Approach—Social historians attempt to understand the role of popular culture in explaining the past. Studies include examinations of the development of literacy, the history of the book, the role and place of particular examples of popular culture, etc.Levine on Shakespeare in 19th century AmericaShakespeare’s plays were frequently performed all over the U.S.Audiences were diverse and complex—like today’s sports crowds.Shakespeare’s values, morality, and form were ideally suited to 19th century America

Understanding Popular CultureThe Anthropological ApproachStructuralism relies on language and a structure or framework of orderPopular culture becomes a means for a society/collectivity to structure its systems and relationshipsInterpretivism sees popular culture not as a representation of structure and order, but as a symbolic force that creates it.Allows for the possibility of disorder and post-structures to emerge.

Understanding Popular CultureThe Sociological Approach—Production-of-culture: How does a society produce, manufacture, market, sell culture?What do such processes tell us about the culture?Culture and popular culture are manufactured products—not simply/only repositories of meaning.Concerned with the cultural production of fads, icons, celebrity, etc.

Understanding Popular CultureThe Literary ApproachAppreciates and analyzes the symbolic, the meaning-centered sense of popular culture texts.Focus is less on how the texts operate in culture, but the meanings they produce, the messages they communicate.Such criticism is performed for aesthetic purposes, ideological purposes, etc.

COMM 401Interpreting Strategic DiscourseWeek FiveDelivery

Homeric RhetoricHomer lived in an oral societyRhetors were bards – storytellers Homeric orator learns by imitation and repetitionSpeech is extempore and comes from God

Delivery—(pronunciatio)Demosthenes—three greatest qualities for a good speaker: “Delivery, delivery, delivery”Rhetorica ad Herennium:Conversational deliveryDebating deliveryPathetic deliveryCicero believed strong delivery came from nature.

Delivery—(pronunciatio)Quintilian saw a blending of nature and training in good delivery.Articulated the relationship between emotions, delivery, vocal quality, gesturing.

Delivery in the Second SophisticSecond SophisticLasted from 50 A.D. to 400 A.D.“a period of oratorical excess in which the subject matter became less important than the interest in safer matters like the externals of speech, especially style and delivery.”One form of oratory (“Asianism,” “Ionian,” or “Ephesian”) was particularly prone to “theatrical excess.”Philostratus claimed such oratory was “flowery, bombastic, full of startling metaphors, too metrical, too dependent on the tricks of rhetoric, too emotional.”

Rhetorical Delivery & the Middle AgesGrammar/Verse (arspoetriae)Concerned with correctness in language and with analysis of literatureLaid claim to all uses of languageLetter Writing (arsdistaminis)Dictated by the demands of the cultureImitated a classical approach to rhetoric and applied it to letter writingPreaching (arspraedicandi)Preaching was the “characteristic form of oratory” in the Middle AgesExceptional preachers include: Leo the Great; Gregory the Great; Thomas Aquinas

ElocutionElocution was rooted in the belief that existing rhetorical theories neglected the importance of deliveryThomas Sheridan (Lectures on Elocution-1762) condemned Locke and others for not discussing delivery.They also observed poor delivery in churches, government, schools, etc. Why study delivery?Allows for a greater understanding of human natureOnly canon of rhetoric not attacked in the modern eraEnglish was a good language for public speaking and oratory

Neglect of DeliveryIn The Art of Speaking in Public (1727), British clergyman John “Orator” Henley complained that Aristotle didn’t offer any rules about delivery.Quintilian’s advice on delivery was only appropriate for legal speaking.Problem was belief that delivery came from nature.

Poor Delivery in England“It proceeds, perhaps, from this our national virtue, that our orators are observed to make use of less gesture or action than those of other countries. Our preachers stand stock-still in the pulpit, and will not so much as move a finger to set off the best sermons in the world. We meet with the same speaking statues at our bars, and in all public places of debate. Our words flow from us in a smooth, continued stream, without those strainings of the voice, motions of the body, and majesty of the hand, which are so much celebrated in the orators of Greece and Rome. We can talk of life and death in cold blood, and keep our temper in a discourse which turns upon everything that is dear to us.”The Works of the Right Honorable Joseph Addison, 1811

Sheridan’s RulesForce: the orator should “fix his eyes upon that part of his auditory which is farthest from him,” and “mechanically endeavour to pitch his voice so as that it may reach them.”Speed Correction: “The most effectual method will be, to lay aside an hour every morning, to be employed in the practice of reading aloud, in a manner, much slower than necessary.”“To improve the pronunciation of vowels and consonants, these sounds should be repeated over and over again.”Accents: “lay the accent always on the same syllable, and the same letter of the syllable, which they usually do in common discourse, and to take care not to lay any accent or stress, upon any other syllable.”

ElocutionInfluences on elocution:Relationship between the voice and gestureFaculty psychologyConnections between invention and deliveryCritiques of contemporary delivery practiceElocution created a series of rules and guidelines for correct/effective delivery (p. 192)Most notable work of elocution was Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia (1806)

Austin’s ChironomiaDelivery was important to “conceal in some degree the blemishes of the composition, or the matter delivered, and...add lustre to its beauties.”Delivery was an ignored, understudied canon.Chapter breakdown:Two on voiceOne on CountenanceOne on ReadingOne on DeclamationOne on OratoryOne on ActingFifteen chapters on gesture

Elocution"The human figure being supposed to be so placed within this sphere, that the centre of the breast shall coincide with its centre, and that the diameter of the horizontal circle perpendicular to a radius drawn to the projecting point, shall pass through the shoulders, the positions and motions of the arms are referred to and determined by these circles and their intersections" (Chironomia Plate 2, Figure 18.)

ElocutionThe position of the orator is equally removed from the awkwardness of the rustic with toes turned in and knees bent, and from the affectation of the dancing-master, constrained and prepared for springing agility, and for conceited display" (Chironomia Plate 1, Figures 8, 9).

ElocutionClasped, crossed, and folded hand positions. (Chironomia Plate 8, Figures 75, 76, 78)

Elocution’s ImpactPrescriptive, mechanical rules that led to excess.Ignored or minimized the close relationship between message and channel, between content and form.“voice and gesture seem much more trivial when studied by themselves than they are when studied within the context of the best possible conceptions of invention, arrangement, and style.”—Wilbur Samuel Howell, 1959

Elocution’s Impact“It is the elocutionists’ primary claim to fame in rhetorical history that they applied the tenets of science to the physiological phenomena of spoken discourse, making great contributions to human knowledge in that process…The methodology of the elocutionary movement, like that of science, was a combination of observing and recording.”Frederick W. Haberman, History of Speech Education in America, 1954.

Elocution’s ImpactContemporary focus on deliveryMedia and corporealityEmbodied rhetoric and moving imagesToastmasters

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