Week 4 - Lecture notes 4 PDF

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ENGL 101B – Week 4: The Rhetoric Field 4a: George A. Kennedy, A Hoot in the Dark: Part 1 -

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Modern rhetoric o Vast expansion of parameters of the field of rhetorical studies o Readings: A Hoot in the Dark (Kennedy), Rhetoric (Fish) Kennedy: o Historian scholar of rhetoric, particularly rhetoric in the ancient world o Not an animal ethologist or biologist Humanist vs animal rhetoric o Offers a radical critique of many humanist assumptions that underlie the history and theory of rhetoric o Logos: speech and reason, logic, communication  What separates animals from humans o Animal communication is sophisticated, complex, and an evolutionary achievement Kennedy began to wonder what rhetoric meant – analyzing general rhetoric: o Principle poles of rhetoric theory: a) Politics and law: affected all forms of oral and written communication b) Style and delivery: under the roman empire, rhetoric begins to transform into literature  Aesthetic, literature, poetics, and literary criticism  Rhetoric became more interested in style Modern restriction of rhetoric o Deep historical roots for prejudice against rhetoric as mere style o Decline of rhetoric into literature gave birth to the western tradition of literature o Literary history in European and English literature Trends of modern rhetoric: o Rhetoric as quality of use of language (ex: metaphor) o Cultural and political values – public discourse A new history of rhetoric o Original history of rhetoric traces its origins back to Greece and Rome o “Interested in expanding the historical of rhetoric – begins a search for more fundamental and ancient point of departure of the evolution of rhetoric” o The genus of rhetorical species o Something found in nature that resembles rhetoric as a possible standing point – lead to more general meaning of rhetoric The search for general rhetoric o Encompasses natural organic life and communication o Rhetoric is shared with animal life – common o Humans and animals share a Deep Universal (The Universal Rules of Rhetorical Code)  Project: search for fundamental rules of universal rhetoric code (general rules for a natural rhetoric) Rhetoric: energy in communication o Radical expansion of the field of rhetorical study/theory/practice o Kennedy expands the domain of rhetoric and its history back to the origins of organic life o Semiosis & energy: the producing of signs by all humans and animals

Kennedy’s definition of rhetoric: “Energy inherent in communication”  Rhetoric as action Rhetoric, energy and power o Rhetoric produces effects, communicates power o This energy is present at each step of the rhetorical process No non-rhetorical communication Two different acts of speech: o Description  Low energy utterance  Exerts no power, doesn’t influence you  “the window is open” o Prescription  Commanding that someone do something  Performative utterance that is rhetorically intense  “shut the window”  Speaker is expressing an order – authority for request  Recipient can execute order or refuse The Rheme o Different intensity levels of rhetoric in speech o Kennedy: can quantify unit of rhetorical energy (rheme) o

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4b: George A. Kennedy, A Hoot in the Dark: Part 2 -

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Kennedy emphasis rhetoric as the exertion of power, force, and influence o Seeks to modify belief, action, and behavior of other organisms Energy inherent in communication o Not confined to language and discourse  Physical actions, facial expressions, gestures, and signs generally Rhetoric is multimedia and multimodal Kennedy expands the notion of Actio – action vs invention o Invention/arrangement/style/memory – discovering/formulating arguments o Actio is a matter of corporeal action  Actions not subtleties of vocalization  Ie: animals that react to a challenge by change of color Protorhetoric and action o Rhetoric among plants: use colors and odors to attract/repel animals o “coloration and scent are each a kind of rhetoric and the creation and perception of each involves the use of energy” (p 112) o Actio now includes realm of animal deception The colors of rhetoric: colores rhetorici o Tropes and figures of speech o The gloss, slant/spin put on one’s legal case (colorable argument) o Strategies of persuasion and deception The colors of rhetoric in nature o Goldenrod crab spider: changes color to match flower in which it hides in o Ruse disguise, and survival strategy o Cuttlefish: camouflages skin and creates its own light bio luminous)

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Kennedy challenges some of the most known assumptions about the nature of rhetoric and its relationship to humanity Rhetoric is prior to speech o Accustomed to understanding rhetoric as the art of speech o “rhetoric is prior to speech historically and in biological evolution” (p 107) o Rhetoric is not simply a matter of speech, but an evolutionary achievement that exists in all organisms o A sign-giving activity by which an organism exerts energy over another organism o All organisms communicate through signs “deep universal rhetoric” Interpretation in persuasion o “The receiver’s interpretation of a communication is prior to the speaker’s intent in determining a meaning” o Rhetoric is always oriented toward an audience o Success or failure lies in  The effect it has upon its intended audience  How they interpret what has been communicated Signification is use: meaning is what the receiver does as a result of receiving the message o Meaning doesn’t lie in semantics o Meaning is use Success in communication o Much of animal communication is at the level of instinct (low-energy) o Human communication is about belief, culture, value, and ideas o Human communication is embedded in a complex network of existing knowledge Function of rhetoric in zoosemiotics or biorhetoric o Survival of the fittest o Rhetorical code evolves by selective variation Rhetoric is a tool of social power o A means of making one’s way through a social world of law, politics, commerce, and success in life o Why it has been a continuous object of study Nature favors successful communication o “Increased options for adaptation” o Communication is a matter of survival The five arts of rhetoric o Invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery Inventio or biorhetoric o Animals have a sophisticated sense of creativity o Deploy ethos, pathos, and logos in their communication o Animals are capable of making propositions and debate Dispositio in animal rhetoric o Ritualization, dialogue, calls and response in birds o Behavior of birds has an aesthetic sense Elocutio in animal rhetoric o Likens different kinds of animal communication to figures of speech Kennedy projects arts of rhetoric into natural world to understand ways animals communicate with each other Kennedy is speaking about suggestive analogies with human and animal rhetoric

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o “Not its direct source” Features of communication common among many species (including humans) o Rhetoric: A form of energy driven by a basic instinct to survive Emergence of new spheres of rhetoric: general rhetoric, biorhetoric o New interpretation of rhetoric o Includes sign-giving activity of organic life that seeks to influence and affect others o Modern rhetoric: constitutes a revitalization of classics is determined by new technologies

4c: Stanley Fish, Rhetoric: Part 1 -

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Modern rhetoric: constitutes a revitalization of classics is determined by new technologies o Expands rhetoric to all communication systems o Almost infinite expansion of rhetoric Stanley Fish: Rhetoric o Literary critic, legal scholar, Times columnist Renaissance thinkers on rhetoric o Begins essay with a quotation that captures the negative dimension of the art of rhetoric (for renaissance thinkers) o Many negative judgements of rhetoric that have persisted over the years Action/performance o Rhetoric is a matter of acting o Superficial aspects o Rhetoric is a matter of acting/dramatization/hypocrisy Rhetoric is empty o Superficial aspects of language “pleas’d the ear” (Paradise Lost) o Suados- sweetness (persuasion in Latin) Critics on rhetoric o Oriented to pleasure o Pleasing the ear o Sweetness instead of deep meaning o Making the worst appear better o Double meaning o “all show” “unsupported by any relation to truth” (123) Arguments against sophistry o Double argument – law: make just appear unjust vice versa Ancient quarrel o Philosophy vs rhetoric o Distinction between 2 approaches to language o Opposition between language as pure representation as appose to language somehow suffused with rhetoric (infected language) Language as representation o Language is mimetic (mirrors matters of facts of the world in a transparent way) o Offers a picture of the world – realistic representation of how things are o Language should be simple, plain, and naked The ideal of language

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o View of language as representation o Purged of all style, rhetoric, interest, partiality, etc o Language as logic o Used to arrive at an impartial truth Foundational thought o Overturn the relationship between philosophy, science, and rhetoric o Rhetoric is foundational thinking Return to classical rhetoric o Sophists, plato, aristotle Return to Aristotle o Morally neutral instrument o Notion of rhetoric as a faculty of constructing and inventing arguments o How one deploys rhetoric makes them a sophist “moral purpose” o Art of arguing o Means of discovering the truth of an argument (no double meaning) Rhetorical world view o Oriented towards a pluralist conception of truth (more than one truth) o Dissoi logoi: rhetoric as discovery of truth Homo seriosus and homo rhetoricus o Serious man: objectivity, impartiality, impersonality, calculation, cold facts o Rhetorical man: partial, interested, social, constituted, no unmediated language...