The Materiality of Discourse a Oxymoron: A Challenge to Critical Rhetoric, Dana Cloud - 1st 10 Pages (Jenny Gruenberg, Nick Hochfeld, Andrew Durand)
Theoretical Hypothesis: the materiality of discourse, or the idea that discourse itself is influential in or even constitutative of social and material reality (including the lived experience of work, pleasure, pain, and hunger) (141-142).
Defense of tradition of materialist, realist ideology criticism
Critical Rhetoric
Idealism vs. Material Relativism
Idealism: discourse influencing material reality
Relativism: discourse is material reality - all relationships are symbolic
Historical background that created the division
Postmodernism
Marxism/Post-Marxism
Materialism
1. Social relations as the source of human consciousness. Humans derive identity from their social consciousness
2. Modes of production determine social relations and forms consciousness
Material conditions need to change in order to change people’s views/ideas
Idealism: overemphasizing the power of discourse (text/speech) in creating social change.
Ideas/views will lead to changes in the social reality/material conditions
Realism: there is a truth independent of the individual knower or perceiver of reality, one true reality outside human construction
Relativism: reality building function of discourse - social constructionism, events solely exist through discourse, reality constructed relationally
Gulf War through an Idealist Materialist Perspective (McGee)
Discourse shifting from political to emotional
Domestication of the Homefront
People are created by the way discourse circulates - collective consciousness about how people perceived the war
“If a bomb falls on civilians in Baghdad, and a critic is not present to see it, the bomb still did, in reality, fall” (148).
Cloud: 2nd 10 Pages (Nate Olson) Text Map
Criticism of McGee
Text risks embracing the flaws of an idealist critical stance. We are reduced to simply look for patterns.
McGee overestimates the ability of audiences to create ideas and texts from fragments of information, "The range of popular fragments does not allow for infinite critical possibility."
Even if the public do perform critical readings of texts, they usually do not create any sort of public action. Many texts are simply met with apathy.
Language use in McGee obscures the material effects of the things he is describing. Phrases like 'surgical strike" and "collateral damage" are euphemisms that do not show the real damage that the Gulf War did.
Relativist Perspective
"Reality is malleable and subject to interpretation"
Power is not in a discursive form
Hegemony is the ability of groups to formulate antagonisms towards another group, an us vs them mentality.
Rejection of the idea that the world runs on a set of known concepts
Phrases and ideas do not equate to reality, the term "collateral damage" is not the same as 150 dead Iraqis.
Theories Have Consequences
Capitalist and imperialist power relations between nations have deepened and grown stronger, and no amount of criticism will change that.
Practical truth and material reality is what is vitally important to change, not the discourse surrounding it.
Criticism allows us to see the right action and act, criticism in and of itself is not the goal.
Clarification Questions (Members: )
Questions
Dana Cloud - 1st 10 Pages
What is the distinction between materialism and idealism? Give an example of each.
Dana Cloud - 2nd 10 Pages
What were the two main notions surrounding "Materiality of Discourse?" What was Cloud's third option.
Discussion Questions (Members: )
Questions
Dana Cloud - 1st 10 Pages
What are some examples of the materiality of discourse? In what other current events has rhetoric constituted a changed outcome?
Cloud - 2nd 10 pages
How do relativist and ideological rhetorical analysis compare to each other and which one would be more useful in analyzing the rhetoric of class?
Michael McGee, 1st 7 pages. (Members: Emma Dulaney, Sarah Edwards, Blake L)
Introduction
Relationship between theory and practice
Idealism vs. Materialism
Rhetoric as an Object
Idealism in Rhetoric Defined:
Emergence of a study for practical discourse
Public speech as art
Plato's rhetoric as a knack- not art (pg 21)
Prescriptive rhetoric: A rhetorician finds a piece of "deformed" discourse then change it to be more moral and/or persuasive (bottom pg. 21)
Idealist Perspective; rhetoric as a "product of an imperfect world" (top pg. 22)
The Material Model of Rhetoric:
Aristotle's Methodical Rhetoric:
Speaker
Speech
Audience
Occasion
Change
Rhetoric is object, "pragmatic presence" (pg. 23)
Objective experience vs. objective sensation
Rhetoric in Communicative Research
Ambiguity of Rhetoric
Continuum on which Rhetoric Exists (pg. 24)
Clarification Question:
1.) Why does McGee argue rhetoric to be material?
Discussion Question:
1.) Why isn't it possible for rhetoric to exist in a vacuum?
2.) What are the limitation of focusing solely on the process of creating rhetoric?
Michael McGee, 2nd 7 pages. (Members: Andy Monserud, Nathan Gruenberg, Sam Jacobson
Microrhetorical Experience
Speaker and Single audience and how both impact each other.
Speakers: absolutely specific when referring to a human being making symbolic claims through any medium of communication (25).
Speech: specific when referred to the words of a single individual.
Audience: specific in relation to a particular speaker/speech
Occasion: specific when reference to “speaker/speech” (25).
Change: the effects of the act of speaking, particularly upon the audience. (25)
Experience which is “quantitatively concrete: specific human beings play the important roles -- people with names which could in theory be called out, people with opinions to be counted engaging in behaviors empirically evident” (25-26).
Sociorhetorical Experience
People’s various social roles impact their functioning as speaker or audience
Speaker: identified by his/her membership in a social group, and it is the public persona we pay attention to. it is a tole speaking, not a private person. (car salesman example). (26).
Speech: Speech is also defined by roles, since each role has a set of spiels that come with it.
Audience: Impersonal and abstract, their interest is defined by the drama being enacted. audience only matters because they have money to spend, vote to cast, soul to save, a law to abide, ect. (26).
Occasion: formulary as the roles being played and we learn to recognize particular occasions as we learn to maneuver in society.
Change: means success. It is an alteration of circumstance, moving from having less money to having more money, from having less influence to having more influence, from being lonely or forgotten to being part of a group and accounted for.
Macrorhetorical Experience
Occassion: the totality of human experience.
Change: Utopian fantasy of society’s direction and goal.
Speech: the will of the people as they have voted.
Speaker: Each speaker has several roles (Like Kirkland as both “voice of Labor” and grandfather), which can complicate their position as speaker and influence the reception of their speech.
Audience:
This is all not relevant since orthogonal conceptions of rhetorical experience are too simple since they encourage the mind to think in terms of categories (28). Furthermore, it is overly complex since it tries to place all of these categories in a specific light (which is impossible due to rhetorics groundedness in the particular). The molecular model forces us to check theoretical claims that one element dominates a particular rhetoric by conceptually putting all the other elements momentarily in the foreground of contemplation. (29-30). It also inclines us to see when abstract rhetorics are experienced, there seems to be a unity of abstraction.
A Materialists Definition we too often forget that there is no type of discourse which cannot function as speech in a material rhetoric.
Clarification Questions:
What is the purpose of the diagrams and why are they included? (30).
Discussion Questions
What aspects of McGee’s molecular model of rhetoric do you find successful and/or problematic?
How do we connect McGee’s theories to class, especially with regard to macrorhetorical speakers/audiences and roles?
A Materialist's Conception of Rhetoric, McGee (members: Emma Graham, Ione Fullerton, Valentina Lopez-Cortes) Page 31- 39 Text mapping- Redefining how we think about rhetoric What is rhetoric? How has it been used? Has it been used by persons claiming to instruct would-be advocates? We can measure rhetoric based on changes within rhetoric over time- because we can see the experience from and between the speaker and the audience.
Definition of Material Rhetoric process to use rhetoric to link theory with practices: “The material model of rhetoric is a portrayal of social process, a natural recurring phenomenon with which we must cope, and in which we must participate” (31) theory is philosophical versus material rhetoric is an experience Discourse versus Rhetoric Discourse has history and context that it is built upon whereas rhetoric is malleable in the moment Solutions to problems, ground rhetoric in practice What warrants and legitimizes this theory?→ that’s what materializes the rhetoric. When you explore your experience: that is rhetoric- you should be experiencing this at all social levels Rhetoric as a recurring process that we are always a part of
“Exigence” Relationship between discourse and rhetoric Fallacy within ideal rhetoric that these two are functioning inversely Discourse functions within rhetoric Discourse is the residual and persistent thing versus rhetoric being malleable Existence within public realm of rhetoric- “free agency”
Power dynamics within rhetoric- influences on you as an actor congruity of thought context that we all have terministic screens- understood meaning that are derived from who has power- who is visible- who is heard. Commonality- general understanding of social norms
Cause and Effect between speaker and audience rather there is an experience that occurs simultaneously creating a material rhetoric audience-speaker : assumptions of roles, being able to accomplish something from the experience leader and follower relationship
Motive Purpose only implies intent whereas motive implies intent that interacts with other agents Motive abbreviates occasion and speech abbreviates motive (35) [Burke?] Expectations and good reasons- to accomplish something that will fulfill their interest in someway. Every speaker creates a particular image of the world
Possibility of speech and or discourse- this possibility can create change This change thus could then warrant the theory of rhetoric
Conclusion Thesis: “A study of rhetoric… is a predominately a practice and a ‘rhetorical theory’ should be related to practice as generalization to data not as prescriptive to performance. In this view rhetoric… is a thing- a material artifact of human interaction.” (38)
Clarification Question- What does McGee mean by “good reasons?” (36)
Discussion Questions- So far in our class discussions how can we pose the question “What warrants and legitimizes the theory of rhetoric?” to link this theory within practice?
Think to the film “Class Dismissed” where TV functions as speech/ truth that is influenced within the power narrative of class. How do the phenomena of rhetoric and other phenomena such as economy and race show their interrelatedness when functioning to claim and control narratives? How does this demonstrate that rhetoric is a species of cohersion?
Map
The Materiality of Discourse a Oxymoron: A Challenge to Critical Rhetoric, Dana Cloud - 1st 10 Pages (Jenny Gruenberg, Nick Hochfeld, Andrew Durand)
Cloud: 2nd 10 Pages (Nate Olson) Text Map
Clarification Questions (Members: )
Questions
Dana Cloud - 1st 10 Pages
Dana Cloud - 2nd 10 Pages
Discussion Questions (Members: )
Questions
Dana Cloud - 1st 10 Pages
Cloud - 2nd 10 pages
Michael McGee, 1st 7 pages. (Members: Emma Dulaney, Sarah Edwards, Blake L)
Introduction
Idealism in Rhetoric Defined:
The Material Model of Rhetoric:
Clarification Question:
1.) Why does McGee argue rhetoric to be material?
Discussion Question:
1.) Why isn't it possible for rhetoric to exist in a vacuum?
2.) What are the limitation of focusing solely on the process of creating rhetoric?
Michael McGee, 2nd 7 pages. (Members: Andy Monserud, Nathan Gruenberg, Sam Jacobson
Microrhetorical Experience
Sociorhetorical Experience
Macrorhetorical Experience
- Occassion: the totality of human experience.
- Change: Utopian fantasy of society’s direction and goal.
- Speech: the will of the people as they have voted.
- Speaker: Each speaker has several roles (Like Kirkland as both “voice of Labor” and grandfather), which can complicate their position as speaker and influence the reception of their speech.
- Audience:
This is all not relevant since orthogonal conceptions of rhetorical experience are too simple since they encourage the mind to think in terms of categories (28). Furthermore, it is overly complex since it tries to place all of these categories in a specific light (which is impossible due to rhetorics groundedness in the particular).The molecular model forces us to check theoretical claims that one element dominates a particular rhetoric by conceptually putting all the other elements momentarily in the foreground of contemplation. (29-30). It also inclines us to see when abstract rhetorics are experienced, there seems to be a unity of abstraction.
A Materialists Definition
we too often forget that there is no type of discourse which cannot function as speech in a material rhetoric.
Clarification Questions:
Discussion Questions
A Materialist's Conception of Rhetoric, McGee (members: Emma Graham, Ione Fullerton, Valentina Lopez-Cortes)
Page 31- 39
Text mapping-
Redefining how we think about rhetoric
What is rhetoric?
How has it been used?
Has it been used by persons claiming to instruct would-be advocates?
We can measure rhetoric based on changes within rhetoric over time- because we can see the experience from and between the speaker and the audience.
Definition of Material Rhetoric
process to use rhetoric to link theory with practices: “The material model of rhetoric is a portrayal of social process, a natural recurring phenomenon with which we must cope, and in which we must participate” (31)
theory is philosophical versus material rhetoric is an experience
Discourse versus Rhetoric
Discourse has history and context that it is built upon whereas rhetoric is malleable in the moment
Solutions to problems, ground rhetoric in practice
What warrants and legitimizes this theory?→ that’s what materializes the rhetoric.
When you explore your experience: that is rhetoric-
you should be experiencing this at all social levels
Rhetoric as a recurring process that we are always a part of
“Exigence”
Relationship between discourse and rhetoric
Fallacy within ideal rhetoric that these two are functioning inversely
Discourse functions within rhetoric
Discourse is the residual and persistent thing versus rhetoric being malleable
Existence within public realm of rhetoric- “free agency”
Power dynamics within rhetoric-
influences on you as an actor
congruity of thought
context that we all have terministic screens- understood meaning that are derived from who has power- who is visible- who is heard.
Commonality- general understanding of social norms
Cause and Effect
between speaker and audience
rather there is an experience that occurs simultaneously creating a material rhetoric
audience-speaker : assumptions of roles, being able to accomplish something from the experience
leader and follower relationship
Motive
Purpose only implies intent whereas motive implies intent that interacts with other agents
Motive abbreviates occasion and speech abbreviates motive (35) [Burke?]
Expectations and good reasons- to accomplish something that will fulfill their interest in someway.
Every speaker creates a particular image of the world
Possibility of speech and or discourse- this possibility can create change
This change thus could then warrant the theory of rhetoric
Conclusion
Thesis:
“A study of rhetoric… is a predominately a practice and a ‘rhetorical theory’ should be related to practice as generalization to data not as prescriptive to performance. In this view rhetoric… is a thing- a material artifact of human interaction.” (38)
Clarification Question-
What does McGee mean by “good reasons?” (36)
Discussion Questions-
So far in our class discussions how can we pose the question “What warrants and legitimizes the theory of rhetoric?” to link this theory within practice?
Think to the film “Class Dismissed” where TV functions as speech/ truth that is influenced within the power narrative of class. How do the phenomena of rhetoric and other phenomena such as economy and race show their interrelatedness when functioning to claim and control narratives? How does this demonstrate that rhetoric is a species of cohersion?