Rhetoric

The Ethics of Metonymy

by Gert Buelens

The Ethics of Metonymy; published in "Fiction and Ethics". Special issue of Studia Germanica Gandensia (2002): 18-27.

Rhetorical Criticism of the 2008 Presidential Campaign: Establishing Premises of Agreement in Announcement Speeches

by Emma Frances Bloomfield

No One Is Safe from the Parodist (Part 3) by Barbara Ardinger

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Vader has lost the helmet and is now old and fat and speaks in a tenor voice. He’s obviously the smartest guy in the... more Vader has lost the helmet and is now old and fat and speaks in a tenor voice. He’s obviously the smartest guy in the room.

I am not the first to mess with Shakespeare. In 1680, a hack named Nahum Tate rewrote King Lear to give it a happy ending (Cordelia marries Edgar and they assume the throne), and in 1699, Colley Cibber “adapted” Richard III. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Shakespeare’s plays were operacized, balletized, and Broadwayized (The Boys from Syracuse, West Side Story) In 1868, French operatic composer Ambroise Thomas wrote a Hamlet in which Ophelia sings a long aria and dies. After wild applause, she gets up and sings some more. I’ve seen this opera.

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada: la retórica frente al infortunio

by Catalina Quesada Gómez

Published in Trinidad Barrera (coord.), Herencia Cultural de España en América: poetas y cronistas andaluces en el Nuevo Mundo. Siglo XVI, Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, 2007, pp. 159-180. ISBN: 978-84-472-0946-0

Review: N. Gaul, Thomas Magistros und die spätbyzantische Sophistik: Studien zum Humanismus urbaner Eliten der frühen Palaiologenzeit (Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik, 10). Wiesbaden 2011

by Alexander Riehle

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.05.37

WOMEN ARE NOT SLUTS, RUSH, DOUCHE-BAG IS NOT FUNNY, JON, AND SEXISM IS MORE THAN “INAPPROPRIATE,” MR. WHITEHOUSE SPOKESPERSON! by Carol P. Christ

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Why is it OK to insult women, our bodies, and our sexuality in ways that it is no longer OK to insult other groups?more Why is it OK to insult women, our bodies, and our sexuality in ways that it is no longer OK to insult other groups?

The recent controversy over Rush Limbaugh’s rant about Sandra Fluke would not be so important if Limbaugh were not the “voice” allowed to say things that Republican politicians cannot say in public. Republican politicians wish to appeal to men who would say exactly what Rush said, while watching Fox News or over a beer with their buddies.

The Virgin-Whore split is alive and well in our culture. Sandra Fluke  finally did get to testify in a hearing called by Nancy Pelosi.  She  assumed a woman’s right to choose when and with whom we have sex and whether and when we will have children, but she did not focus on sexual freedom. One of her examples was a married woman who could not afford birth control and another was a woman who needed birth control pills for reasons having nothing to do with sex or sexual activity. She did not appear in Congress in a mini-skirt (though she should have had every right to do so) but in a business suit. Yet she was called a slut and a prostitute and asked to post porno films of herself on the internet.

‘Wolność w Peryklejskim epitaphios logos’

by Bogdan Burliga

Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium 13 (2000), ss. 15-30

Emotion in scholarly discourse: denial, deconstruction, reinstatement

by Karen Bennett

In Fernanda Gil Costa & Igor Furão (eds.), Estética das Emoções. V.N.Famalicão: Edições Humus (2011) 271-282.

Since the 17th century, a battle has been raging between two distinct paradigms of knowledge in which the role of... more Since the 17th century, a battle has been raging between two distinct paradigms of knowledge in which the role of emotion has taken centre stage. With the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, all forms of subjectivity were effectively proscribed, a philosophical orientation that was reflected in the lexico-grammar of scholarly discourse. However, despite the increasing centrality of the scientific paradigm in the modern world, the older humanities tradition has continued to make its presence felt over the years, not least through the challenges to objectivity raised by poststructuralism. This paper traces the various phases of this battle in England and Continental Europe. It looks at how the humanities paradigm flourished in Catholic Europe long after Scholasticism and Rhetoric had been discredited in Protestant England, and focuses on various historical moments when the two paradigms came into conflict.

New Media Texts of WWII: Kenneth Burke’s Intersection with Computer Culture

by Jason C. Thompson

EFL learners’ use of presentation software to structure their English thoughts.

by Simon Humphries

Reference: Humphries, S. (2006). EFL learners’ use of presentation software to structure their English thoughts. In W. Chan CLaSIC 2006 Conference Proceedings (341-351). Singapore: National University of Singapore.

EFL students in essay-writing classes can struggle to balance the cognitive load of writing in the foreign language... more EFL students in essay-writing classes can struggle to balance the cognitive load of writing in the foreign language with the necessity to clearly structure their opinions and supporting evidence. The result is that they can often just translate words from the L1 until they reach the necessary word count, but the essays lack coherence. Student use of presentation software is a good solution for two reasons. Firstly, the written cognitive load is reduced because the students only need to write key-words on the slides. Secondly, the software is designed so that the students separate their ideas onto different slides that contain titles and supporting reasons. This prepares them in a very graphic way for the expository essay-structure of paragraphs, topic sentences and supporting information. Students at my college made presentations in small groups on subjects that interested them. Their presentations were very imaginatively presented and entertaining. Feedback revealed that a large majority of them found the course to be very enjoyable and useful. In particular, they felt that they worked well in groups to make the slides. This course is therefore a powerful way to motivate groups of students to use English coherently in an entertaining and visual way.

Disabled upon Arrival: The Rhetorical Construction of Disability and Race at Ellis Island

by Jay Dolmage

I will examine Ellis Island in the early 20th century as a “special rhetorical space,” a heterotopia for the invention... more I will examine Ellis Island in the early 20th century as a “special rhetorical space,” a heterotopia for the invention of new categories of deviation. And I will suggest that Ellis Island floats into every aspect of contemporary American society.  As Robert Chang has argued, “the border is not just a peripheral phenomenon…to be an immigrant is to be marked [always] by the border” (27).  Further, “it is through its flexible operation that the border helps to construct and contain the nation and the national community” (Chang 27).  Ellis Island has been rhetorically used, internalized, incorporated, embodied.

Metis, Mêtis, Mestiza, Medusa: Rhetorical Bodies across Rhetorical Traditions

by Jay Dolmage

The author argues that we have chosen a rhetorical history that normalizes and silences rhetorical bodies. In... more The author argues that we have chosen a rhetorical history that normalizes and silences rhetorical bodies. In response, the author exhumes an embodied history of rhetoric, reexamining the myths of the Greek goddess Metis as a means of enlivening rhetorical theory and history. The author then connects these myths to other rhetorical traditions invoked by Hélène Cixous and Gloria Anzaldúa, connecting Metis to Medusa and to mestiza consciousness. The author affirms the rhetorical power of the body, specifically of those bodies that challenge rhetorical norms.

"Breathe Upon Us an Even Flame": Hephaestus, History, and the Body of Rhetoric

by Jay Dolmage

This essay challenges accepted versions of rhetorical history by recovering the mythical figure of Hephaestus and the... more This essay challenges accepted versions of rhetorical history by recovering the mythical figure of Hephaestus and the cunning rhetoric he embodied, metis. This critical retelling offers a new and more expansive perspective on history, rhetoric, and embodiment, as it lays bare many of our assumptions about the available means of persuasion. The author asserts that a cunning approach to rhetoric might allow for the celebration of all of our embodied differences.

BETWEEN THE VALLEY AND THE FIELD: Metaphor and disability

by Jay Dolmage

This essay locates discourses about disability in opposing spaces – prose and poetry, the literal and the... more This essay locates discourses about disability in opposing spaces – prose and poetry, the literal and the metaphorical. The author explodes the binary and charts a new territory, following disability to challenge language use, to reveal the metaphorical nature of prose and the literal power of poetry, to shake up the terms that objectify people with disabilities and to listen, look and feel for new ways to express bodily experience.

Style: Definition, Separation, and the Teachable

by Carol Mohrbacher

Catholicism, Contraception, and Conscience: Church Imposed Teaching, God’s Gift of Free Will, and Political Rhetoric by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

ertainly one cannot turn on the news without seeing a story about the feud over the Catholic Church’s stance on... more ertainly one cannot turn on the news without seeing a story about the feud over the Catholic Church’s stance on forbidding the use of contraception and Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that mandates free contraception to women.  In preparing this article, I took the time to review many articles from liberal and conservative news outlets, law professors who are experts on constitutional law, and statements from the USCCB and Bishops.  Before asking questions, I want to outline the following points:

    *In the literature reviewed, only two women, Sr. Carol Keehan and Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, made a statement against this policy stating that the government is interfering with the working of the Church.  Most voices heard and shouting the loudest are members of the clergy.

    *Hospitals considered “Catholic” hire people of all faiths and various beliefs.  They also treat patients of all faiths.  They are not exclusively “Catholic.”

    *Catholic identified Colleges hire professors and staff that are not Catholic.  Moreover, their student body is not totally Catholic.

    *Catholic Charities, once again, hire non-Catholics.

  * Insurance plans currently in place often offer contraception prescriptions at a zero to low co-pay price.  These plans are in-force at many Catholic Institutions.

    *Under HIPAA, healthcare of employees are protected and the Employer, even the Catholic Church cannot violate the privacy of the patient, even if it is an employee.

    *Birth Control Pills are often prescribed for women with endometriosis or other “female” reproductive disorders and not birth control.

    Women pregnant, carrying a dead baby, cannot have surgery due to risks are given medication to induce abortion are given

The Rhetoric of Freedom of Religion in the Debate about Contraception Coverage By Elise M. Edwards

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

Does freedom of religion include the right to impose your religious views on your employees?  Should freedom of... more Does freedom of religion include the right to impose your religious views on your employees?  Should freedom of religion exempt you from financially contributing to a medical benefit for your employees that you consider sinful?

According to an Associated Baptist Press article, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, “called a new rule [by the Obama Administration] requiring insurance plans to cover birth control — including those paid for by religious employers that believe artificial birth control is a sin — a ‘horrible decision’ that poses a problem not just for faiths that object to birth control” in the January 28 broadcast of Richard Land Live.  Land believes that this policy infringes on religious freedom.  (Note that the health care policy  does exempt houses of worship and religious organizations that employ primarily those of the same faith, but not organizations like hospitals and colleges that employ and serve people of all faiths, or no faith. An article by Religion News Service, posted here, also on a Baptist media outlet, explains the policy in more depth.)

Does Humor Have a Place in Religion? by Barbara Ardinger

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project.

Is there anything funny about the divine? Any joke-telling gods? From the days of Abraham until today, the gods and... more Is there anything funny about the divine? Any joke-telling gods? From the days of Abraham until today, the gods and their preachers are a very earnest lot intent on saving us from our sins and building congregations.

Like it or not, we neopagans are still children of the society we’re endeavoring to change. Some of us seem to want to switch patriarchy to matriarchy, but that’s just swapping Big Daddy for Big Momma. It’s still a hierarchical arrangement with the deity at the top of the mountain. Immediately below the “arch” are angels, men, eagles, lions, and other superior beasts. At the bottom of the mountain are women, mud, and matter. (In case you don’t recognize it, this is the 18th-century Great Chain of Being.)

Any humor in spiritual and religious writing? The Hebrew Bible (which Christians refer to as the Old Testament) is a collection of laws, canonically approved versions of history, prophetical preachings, and poetry. The Christian Bible (aka New Testament) give us different approved versions of history, plus further preaching, plus myth and mysticism.

Rhetorical devices in "Apologeticus atque Antirrhetici", an anti-iconoclastic treatise by Nicephorus of Constantinople

by Lev Lukhovitskiy

Voprosy filologii / Journal of Philology. 2007. Vol. 3. P. 85-93.
In Russian with English summary.

Byzantine Iconoclasm – a dispute about terms?

by Lev Lukhovitskiy

Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology: 14th I. M. Tronsky memorial conference. St. Petersburg, 2010. Vol. 2. P. 155–163.
In Russian with English summary