Epideictic Rhetoric Research Articles

Invention, wit and melancholy in the art of Annibale Carracci

Deploying the methods of epideictic rhetoric, the Bolognese biographer Carlo Cesare Malvasia compared the Carracci's dedication to their art, even to the point of putting at risk their own well-bei...

Un/civil Mourning: Remembering with Jacques Derrida

The death of philosopher and public intellectual Jacques Derrida drew international attention and generated public acts of mourning in the media. Several of the published obituaries for Derrida are notable for their overtly hostile and dismissive tone. This essay explores the genre of epideictic rhetoric and is grounded in Derrida’s work on mourning, analyzing several instances of “uncivil” epideictic rhetoric including three hostile obituaries and several responses to them written by friends and colleagues of Derrida for the insight that they yield regarding ethical public remembrance. We argue that a sincere engagement with the ideas of the dead, while always incomplete, is at the heart of an ethical, civil mourning.

The Sustainability Report as Epideictic Rhetoric

In its 2010 Sustainability Report the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Chairperson explicitly recognised that the bank must re-establish its reputation. In this paper, this Sustainability Report is ana...

Rhetoric and Dialogue in Hopkins's “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child”: An Approach through Burke and Levinas

The epideictic genre of rhetoric has traditionally included public, ceremonial types of rhetoric, such as eulogies and public speeches, that affirm communities. Public memorials and even lyric poetry, however, also epideictically constitute personal and communal identities. When read through the theoretical lenses of Kenneth Burke and Emmanuel Levinas, Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” seems to evoke a public, communal attitude in readers. This epideictic effect challenges the conventional dichotomy between public and private audiences, inviting us to think more broadly about epideictic rhetoric and its audiences.

The George W. Bush Presidency: A Rhetorical Perspective. Edited by Robert E.Denton, Jr.Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. 184 pp.

W. Bush Presidency: A Rhetorical Perspective. Edited by Robert E. Denton, Jr. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. 184 pp. preface to W. Bush Presidency declares that are a few academic volumes on Bush presidency, but they were completed while he still in office. They tend to be uniformly negative (p. ix). book thus recommends itself as a fresh, distanced look at forty-third president through prism of rhetoric. Eight chapters constitute this effort. first, by Joseph M. Valenzano III, is titled, The Presidency that Almost Wasn't: W. Bush's First Inaugural. Valenzano's central point is that President Bush fully unveiled his governing ethos and philosophy in his first inaugural address and that 9/11 attacks did not change his approach. man who took office was overtly Christian, valued individual over governmental action, and would emphasize freedom and democracy promotion around world (p. 17). According to Valenzano, attacks simply afforded Bush political capital to become president he had already announced himself to be. This is a fair and well-argued point, ultimately functioning as a defense of man's principled consistency. second chapter, Ben Voth's George W. Bush at a Global Gettysburg, redoubles this effort in a 10-speech joyride through president's invocation of trope of freedom, which Voth sees as metaphysical inheritance of Gettysburg address. This chapter is not a piece of critical-rhetorical reflection but a Lincoln-Bush-inspired rhetorical performance in its own right, complete with an easy dismissal of the conscience of moral relativism (p. 24) and a cheap shot at Obama's rhetorical flourishes in Cairo (p. 38). A more measured version of same theme-tracking approach follows in Chapter Three, Robert V. Friedenberg's George W. Bush's First Year of Time Rhetoric. author traces four themes through first year of president's speeches: good versus evil, American exceptionalism, swift justice, and national character. Although there is no critical interrogation of these themes, Friedenberg concludes productively, noting that Bush's initial use of epideictic rhetoric to rally a nation into war must ultimately give way to more deliberative reflections on how that war is conducted. fourth chapter, War Stories, by Patrick S. Loebs, tracks narrative shifts instead of a common trope or set of themes. Loebs is interested in how President Bush used his 2002-2006 State of Union addresses to explain changing nature of war on terror. Here, we get a more penetrating look at how Bush composed these speeches; it is a study of adaptation of rhetorical means (symbolic construction of a threat) to political ends (military success). Loebs offers additional insights that symbolic construction of an enemy is a constitutive feature of U.S. political discourse, that changing nature of this construction testifies to power of people, and that Bush among the great panoply of leaders who view victory as more important than absolute truth (p. 87). For conceptual and political stakes raised by these final comments alone, Loebs's chapter is handily book's most illuminating. Chapter Five, George W. Bush, American Press, and Initial Framing of War, by Jim Kuypers, Stephen Cooper, and Matthew T. …

Epideictic Rhetoric and the Foundations of Politics

At least since the time of Plato’s writings, epideictic rhetoric has been criticized as deceptive, as epistemologically bankrupt, and as politically irrelevant. Aristotle himself emphasizes that the key ‘topic’of epideictic is amplification and stresses that the epideictic orator chiefly adds ‘size’(megethos) and ‘beauty’(kallos) to widely shared memories. This paper reinterprets Aristotle’s statements and argues that Aristotle’s account brings to light significant civic resources embodied in epideictic. A genuine statesman uses ceremonial speech to articulate and explain a regime’s underlying ethos and purposes; thus he defines the regime’s telos and orients the citizenry toward it. In that way, it is argued, epideictic oratory is not the trivial cousin of deliberative and judicial rhetoric, but rather the rhetorical genre whose essential function is to explain and defend the fundamental building blocks of the regime.

Cultural Persuasion in Lexicographical Space: Dictionaries as Site of Nineteenth-Century Epideictic Rhetoric

This article discusses two nineteenth-century rhetors who engaged in cultural persuasion through their respective lexicons. It argues that lexicography served an epideictic function in nineteenth-century culture, entering educational values and pervading print culture. Nineteenth-century lexicography functioned epideictically as a storehouse of cultural values and influenced the discourse of nineteenth-century rhetorics, evidenced in their concern with clarity, usage, and the disambiguation of language. But there is an acceptance and awareness of the inherent ambiguity of language in nineteenth-century rhetoric, which is also reflected in other satirical lexicons. The two poles of lexicography in theory and practice illustrate how dictionaries became a site of cultural dialogue and dissent.

Lydgate Rewrites Chaucer:

Lydgate Rewrites Chaucer:

Philosophers in the New World: Montaigne and the Tradition of Epideictic Rhetoric

This article studies the essays of Michel de Montaigne in the context of the tradition of epideictic rhetoric from antiquity to the Renaissance, with particular attention to the humanist reception of Aristotle's Rhetoric. The focus of this attention is the relationship between epideictic and consensus, which proves to be more problematic than Aristotle seems to have anticipated. If we read Montaigne's essay “Des Cannibales” as a paradoxical encomium and compare it to Plutarch's declamation on the fortune of Alexander, we can see how epideictic works to undermine consensus and even to challenge the very impulse to conform to social and ethical norms.

Philosophers in the New World: Montaigne and the Tradition of Epideictic Rhetoric

Philosophers in the New World: Montaigne and the Tradition of Epideictic Rhetoric

A retórica epidítica e o conjunto escultórico do Poço de Moisés

The purpose of this article is to analyze the use of strategies originating in the genre of epideictic rhetoric in Claus Sluter’s Well of Moses in the Charterhouse of Champmol, in Dijon, dated around 1400. It will be argued that the Well is the work of an artist that makes ample use of rhetorical strategies, resorting to ornament and adornment, using art as a form of discourse.

Epideictic Rhetoric in the Service of War: George W. Bush on Iraq and the 60th Anniversary of the Victory over Japan

This essay explores the relationship between epideictic discourse and war through the analysis of George W. Bush's August 20, 2005, address at the Naval Air Station near San Diego, ostensibly to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Japan. The case also serves as an exemplar for how Bush routinely interwove epideictic appeals with collective memories of World War II in order to promote the Iraq war and deflect criticism of his policies there. Bush praised the greatest generation and linked it to the current generation; blamed and dehumanized enemies of the past and present; advocated for war based on “lessons” from the past; and reinforced a shared identity to instill both obligation and confidence.

IPods, Viagra, and the Praiseworthy Life: Epideictic Rhetoric in Technology and Medical Print Advertising

iPods, Viagra, and the Praiseworthy Life: Epideictic Rhetoric in Technology and Medical Print Advertising

President Nixon's Speeches and Toasts during His 1972 Trip to China: A Study in Diplomatic Rhetoric

Although hailed by historians and political scientists as a pivotal moment in the reestablishment of U.S.-Sino relations, President Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China has received little attention from rhetoricians. The toasts and speeches Nixon presented during his trip are important rhetorical artifacts as they illustrate the intricate relationship between diplomatic and epideictic rhetoric. Nixon adroitly employed epideictic diplomatic rhetoric during his 1972 trip to convey diplomatic aims and accomplish deliberative objectives. In so doing, he created a new, positive definition of U.S.-Sino relations, which rhetorically bridged the ideological differences that had separated the nations for more than two decades.

President Nixon’s Speeches and Toasts during His 1972 Trip to China: A Study in Diplomatic Rhetoric

Abstract Although hailed by historians and political scientists as a pivotal moment in the reestablishment of U.S.-Sino relations, President Richard Nixon’s 1972 trip to China has received little attention from rhetoricians. The toasts and speeches Nixon presented during his trip are important rhetorical artifacts as they illustrate the intricate relationship between diplomatic and epideictic rhetoric. Nixon adroitly employed epideictic diplomatic rhetoric during his 1972 trip to convey diplomatic aims and accomplish deliberative objectives. In so doing, he created a new, positive definition of U.S.-Sino relations, which rhetorically bridged the ideological differences that had separated the nations for more than two decades.

Native American Stand-Up Comedy: Epideictic Strategies in the Contact Zone

Contemporary Native American stand-up comedy is a form of epideictic rhetoric in the contact zone of the performance space, using generic conventions of stand-up comedy, traditional elements of Native humor, and Aristotelian strategies to challenge what audiences think they know about indigenous experiences in this land. Specifically, Howie Miller is one Native American stand-up comedian who constructs an epideictic performance in which entertainment, education, and assumptions collide.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary

Citational Epideixis and a “Thinking of Community”: The Case of the Minuteman Project

That a single author creates a rhetorical artifact is fundamental to traditional genre theory. This article draws on posthumanist notions of linguistic “citationality” in order to divest the epideictic rhetoric of the Minuteman Project of the fantasy of the original author. We argue that, in epideictic engagements, language is reinvigorated; it recurs and circulates infinitely, accumulating meaning in each new instantiation. Using a text with considerable ethical complexity, we examine three themes of particular interest to posthumanism: accountability/responsibility, the potential for (political) resistance, and community. Epideictic discourses tell us not only who to be, but how to be; from a posthumanist point of view, those constructs, we claim, are enfoldments of the exterior. By positing citationality as key dimensions of genre, and following the theoretical works of Jean-Luc Nancy and Giorgio Agamben, we explicate the significance of subjectivity as a rhetorical outcome of the social.

Hymnus, Enkomion oder Psalm? Schattengefechte in der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft

For much of the twentieth century scholars tried to reconstruct various cultic hymns beneath the surface of NT texts. With the rise of rhetorical criticism the focus of research has shifted to the properties of epideictic rhetoric. Exegetes, therefore, often tend to contrast ‘encomia’ with ‘hymns’ or ‘psalms’. To avoid any shadow boxing one has to consider whichdescriptive languagewould fit best the texts. A brief examination of ancient hymnic traditions and their treatment in rhetoric demonstrates that while encomia interact strongly with hymns each genre has its own characteristics; hymns, whether in poetry or prose, consist especially of praiseofdivinities and are addressedtodivinities. Futureformgeschichtlicheanalysis has to distinguish carefully between ‘hymn’ (in a narrow sense), ‘hymnic praise’ and ‘encomion’ (which does not refer particularly to divine beings). In early Christian literature, as far as it relates to the textual surface, we find beside hymns to God only a few hymns directed to Christ. Nevertheless Christ's divine status is praised with rich hymnic rhetorical devices. This amazing tension corresponds exactly with what we call ‘Christological monotheism’.

African American Rhetoric of Greeting During McKinley's 1896 Front Porch Campaign

African American speakers who participated in William McKinley's 1896 Front Porch campaign events used epideictic rhetoric to address the issues of racial equality. They praised McKinley but presented few arguments on policy matters. This rhetorical strategy helped them to advocate policies in a manner that would superficially appear to be ceremonial more than deliberative. Paradoxically, in doing so, the speakers advocated their views to ameliorate the injustices of the Jim Crow era, while adapting to the campaign's rituals.