Rhetorical Form Research Articles

Gauls in the Roman Senate: A Rhetorical Analysis of Claudius’ Speech Preserved on the Tabula Lugdunensis

Abstract The Tabula Lugdunensis, unearthed at Lyon in 1528, preserves part of a speech that emperor Claudius delivered to the Senate in 48 CE, to argue in favour of admitting the elites of north-western Gaul to the Roman senate. This article presents a rhetorical analysis of the speech. Modern readers have labelled the style of the speech ‘bombastic’ and ‘pedantic’, while criticising its many historical examples. An examination of the speech in terms of inventio, dispositio and elocutio, however, demonstrates that Claudius carefully constructs the ethos of an erudite and open-minded authority. Two moments of rhetorical persuasion can be distinguished: first, the Senate meeting in Rome itself and, second, the publication of the bronze inscription at the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls at Lugdunum. Not much deliberative rhetoric was perhaps needed to persuade the senators to agree with their emperor; the display of the inscription, on the other hand, could be interpreted as a form of epideictic rhetoric, which may have given a significant boost to the self-confidence of Roman citizens in Gaul. While some senators in Rome may have disliked the lengthy historical exempla in the oral speech, visitors to the sanctuary in Lugdunum may have appreciated seeing Gaul included in the long history of Rome.

Infraconstitutive rhetoric: insurgent abolition and the Black radical imagination

ABSTRACT I argue for an infraconstitutive rhetoric as a practice for attending to Black rhetorical formations. I first unfold four key dimensions of infraconstitutive criticism: the infraontological, immanent, praxis, and chronotopian vectors of criticism. I then explicate the contours of an infraconstitutive imagination by reading the George Floyd rebellion as both a planetary and singular irruption of insurgent abolition.

«Хороший слог» и «новая художественность» в журнальной полемике 1860-1870-х годов

The research aims to determine the mutual influence of the principles of democratic criticism and raznochinets (“mixed-title”) literature in the 1860s-1870s. The work examines the issues related to the denial of artisticity as an important aesthetic criterion, as well as to the attempt to diminish the authority of literature with a “good style”, which “real critics” attributed to “aristocratic” literature. The paper considers the polemics of those years related to the socio-literary definition of the new stage of democratic literature with a social orientation, which was presented in magazines and by writers. The influence of raznochinets prose on the development of new criteria for evaluating literary works is identified, the function of the rhetorical form of a “conversation with the reader” in terms of combining critical and literary discourse is analyzed, using the prose of A. Scheller-Mikhailov, F. Reshetnikov, and I. Fedorov-Omulevsky as examples. As a model for subsequent imitation by fiction writers, the “conversation with the reader” in N. G. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What Is To Be Done?” is considered in comparison with his concept of art in “The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality”. Scientific originality is determined by the comparative method, which allows the researcher to reveal the forms of discursive interaction at the level of the concept of criticism and its embodiment in literary practice. As a result, it was found that a “conversation with the reader” as a metatextual manifesto of the author’s program becomes a component in the concept of literature of the post-Gogol period.

Hume’s Philosophy of Religion

ABSTRACT David Hume was a great philosopher of religion and of common life. In this essay, I interpret him as making extreme religious skepticism one part of his overall rhetorical form. In all his religious writings, however, Hume always takes a step back from Pyrrhonian style results to a position that is more compatible with common life. The great twentieth-century religious studies scholar, Ninian Smart, offers seven dimensions of religion which show the extent to which it is thoroughly entwined with the practices and beliefs of ordinary human life, and this connection to ordinary life makes Smart’s divisions a nice match for Hume and his philosophy of common life. I elucidate the ways in which Hume’s philosophy contributes to our understanding of religion in terms of Smart’s dimensions, and in each case, I argue that Hume treats religion not from the perspective of a hostile enemy, but as a student of religion who grounds it in common life and seeks to correct it from that vantage point.

«Слово о законе и благодати»: анализ христологии литературного памятника

This article is a theological analysis of the work "Word on Law and Grace" through the prism of the Christology of the OrthodoX Church. The Old Russian monument was created in the context of St. Hilarion of Kiev’s activity in catechizing believers and conveying the fundamentals of Christian doctrine through poetic and rhetorical forms. The author attaches importance to Christology as a central element in understanding the historical process. St. Hilarion also enters into a polemic with heterodoX views. He emphasizes the divine-human nature of the Savior and the role of oikonomia in the process of human history, which are the key themes in his theological reflections and arguments. In addition, the author builds a coherent argumentation around New Testament subjects, establishing a connection with the prophecies of the Old Testament and the historical event of the Baptism of Rus’. On the one hand, the saint succeeded in creating an original concept of the divine election of the Russian people with an appeal to the text of Holy Scripture, and on the other hand, he succeeded in conveying the foundations of OrthodoX Christology to the believers of the Russian Church.

Creating a religious identity and impression management by Islamic banks

PurposeIslamic banks (IBs) place significant importance on their religious identity, prompting the utilization of impression management (IM) strategies to emphasize such identity. This paper aims to discuss the motivations behind using IM in the creation of religious identity by IBs, and to explore the use of religious symbols and language as a form of religious rhetoric. It is argued that to counteract the threats to their religious identity, IBs use IM techniques, predominantly through the inclusion of religious symbols and rhetoric.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical exploratory study, using content analysis, was conducted on the annual reports of the largest IBs for the year 2022. The analyses involved a total of 39 banks based on a filtered list from The Banker’s Top Islamic Financial Institutions of 2022. A manual content analysis was undertaken to extract religious symbols, images and contents.FindingsThe findings reveal the use of IM techniques that emphasize the religious identity of these banks. Notably, IBs consistently reaffirm their commitment to Sharia compliance and disclose their contributions to Zakah. In addition, the analysis reveals the incorporation of Quranic verses, religious iconographic images and other religious rhetoric statements in the annual reports of many IBs.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis concludes that the assertion by IBs that their guiding principles are rooted in Islamic values are supported by the religious terminology and imagery embedded in their annual reports. Alongside mere religious symbolism, the terms and images are integral part of the corporate identity of the Islamic that not only sends persuasive signals to stakeholders but also help build an impression on the activities of the IBs.Originality/valueIM has been a key objective and strategy of companies. This study aimed at exploring whether and how IBs used religious symbolism as an integral part of IM and corporate identity.

‘If Only That Pitiless Blade Had Pierced My Own Heart and Eyes’: Mughal Royal Women’s Grief as a Form of Political Rhetoric

Royal Mughal women have been acknowledged as powerful historical figures in the early modern Persianate world. This article provides a more concrete understanding of the extent and nuances of their power by carrying out a close reading of Mughal princess Gulbadan Begum’s the Humayunnamah, specifically her recollection of the different ways in which royal Mughal women from the sixteenth century used grief as a form of political rhetoric to undergird and even contest power within the imperial family. The Humayunnamah emerges as a pivotal text inviting a re-evaluation of the early Mughal empire as an integrated matriarchy, while also advocating for a deeper exploration of the history of emotions in the early modern Persianate context, particularly from a female-centred perspective.

Life inside Logos: Discourse, Anthropogenesis and World-Effects in Cassin and Sloterdijk

This article performs a ‘logological’ and ‘spherological’ reading of globalization to critique the topical generality of spatial rhetoric. Posited respectively by Barbara Cassin and Peter Sloterdijk, these seemingly distant theories both show how ‘world’ is created by discourse — that being is an effect of saying. An appropriately equivocal translation of the Greek logos, discourse is here read as the rhetorical forms of ‘inning’ that make space sensible. Cassin's ‘counter-philosophical’ reading of the ancient Greek Sophists challenges post-Parmenidean philosophy's ‘ontopological’ generalization of space into topics, instead attending to the worlds opened by the different ways space is described. This is read alongside Sloterdijk's spherology and its emphasis on transference and ‘inning’, arguing that space is a discursive product, a shared ‘canopy’ under which we make worlds to share meaning. Throughout ‘human’ history, these meanings have, as both Cassin and Sloterdijk argue, determined human life as the ontological being that can be represented under these discursive atmospheres. The article suggests that this can be thought less exclusively by taking up the Sophists’ rhetorics of time and kairos, which reimagines the discursive production of space through contingency and particularity — the sense of reality as the autonomy of the political.

Can Gender Quotas Improve Public Service Provision? Evidence From Indian Local Government

What effect do gender quotas have on political responsiveness? We examine the effect of randomly imposed electoral quotas for women in Mumbai’s city council, using a wide variety of objective and subjective measures of constituency-level public service quality. Quotas are associated with differences in the distribution of legislator effort, with quota members focusing on public goods distribution, while non-quota members focus on individual goods, member perks, and identity issues. These differences in effort seem to influence institutional performance: perceived quality of local public goods is higher in constituencies with quota members, and citizen complaints are processed faster in areas with more quota members. We suggest that men’s more extensive engagement with extralegal and rhetorical forms of political action has led to men and women cultivating different styles of political representation.

RHETORICS OF POLITICAL SELF ACRONYM ADVERTISING

<span lang="EN-US">This study aims to reveal the form of rhetoric of self-acronyms on the 2015 political elections in Central Java. Through this research, we can find out the form of rhetoric of the self-acronym used by the regent/mayor candidate partner in the 2015 <em>Pilkada </em>political advertisement. To answer questions and research needs, researchers analyzed the research data in the form of banners and billboards. The 2015 elections in Central Java through observation techniques and referring to the notes on the fragments of the advertising discourse which are allegedly statements that are a form of rhetoric of self-acronyms. Conclusions in this study are that there are acronyms that function as abbreviators and function as slogans. Acronyms that are classified as name abbreviators (initialization), namely the words </span><span lang="EN-US">Asri, Wali, Si Bagus, Mukti, Jati, Nasir Jos, Sukun, Ada, Nurani, Suko, Aman To, Mae, Harjo, Hati Mulya, Si Winner, dan Harus<span>. While those classified as slogans are </span>Dadi, Karismatik, Super Sumeh, Manis Bersyukur, dan Pasti Harum.</span>

Neo-liberal Narratives or Neo-orientalism: Reflections from Post-9/11 American Novel on Arab Woman

This study argues for an articulation of ‘neo-orientalism’ in order to situate neoliberal agendas (ideology) as an expression of neo-orientalist discourse in a globalized world. Analysis explores these attitudes on the status of Arab Muslim woman by referring to The Dawn by Homa Pourasgari (2009), which extensively elaborates on the dichotomous comparison between the oppressive East and the neoliberal West and how that is reflected in the life of Arab woman. This study on the status of Arab woman in Islam reflects on narrative writers’ attitudes related to neoliberal ideology, religion, and geo-politics and to prove the necessity for an analysis based on conventional selection of subject matter. Focusing on neoliberal thought, the study details how neoliberal ideology operates from above, akin to a form of military intervention, and below, attracting minds and hearts, through a full-blown cultural program to exercise neoliberal influence, while penalizing societies that refuse to participate. Therefore, neo-orientalist discourse is governed by the brutal instrumentalist tools of liberalization, democratization, and modernity. Neo-orientalist discourse implements these terms through the terminology of neoliberal logic; it is a form of convergent rhetoric that holds practices and discourses of both to establish a ground for geo-political and cultural dominance.

Message on a bottle: the use of augmented reality as a form of disruptive rhetoric in wine marketing

ABSTRACT Wine, a product steeped in tradition and history, is often challenging for consumers to decipher due to its intricate characteristics. Appealing to non-wine connoisseurs to break into untapped market segments requires both innovation and creative thinking. To accomplish this, three wine brands utilized augmented reality (AR) technology to craft unique brand storytelling experiences that centered around the label, without focusing on physical product attributes, ultimately resonating with new market segments. This article explores the use cases of three wine brands; 19 Crimes, Barefoot, and Enosophia Wines, that employed AR technology as a form of disruptive rhetoric, to supplement their wine label storytelling. The study sheds light on how multisensory technology such as AR can be used to carve out new wine target markets and proposes an AR experience model with accompanying propositions outlining how the experiential realms can be leveraged to achieve key brand objectives.

The Constitutive Power of Public Debate

Abstract Public debates structure election cycles, feature in news media, and are privileged as a form of academic exchange. Yet, public debate is poorly understood from the perspective of political theory. While theorists often talk about “public debate,” they usually mean diffuse discussion on a topic in the public sphere. This article considers how literal public debates—multisided, publicly accessible and publicly oriented performances of reason-giving—may be normatively distinct from other forms of rhetoric. Drawing on the “constructivist turn” in the scholarship on representation and the philosophy of Gadamer, I offer a hermeneutical approach for assessing public debates. I argue that public debates do not merely provide a platform for opinions to be broadcast, they also purport to provide a representative spectrum of opinions. In so doing, they help to construct the borders of the public sphere itself. I conclude by considering the significance of protest to public debate.

Engaging with melodrama: a tribute to Steve Schwarze

ABSTRACT In this forum, several rhetorical scholars revisit Steve Schwarze’s 2006 essay, “Environmental Melodrama,” and the scholarly conversations his work inspired. The five essays featured in this forum not only remember Schwarze as a supremely gifted, insightful, and kind rhetorician, environmentalist, activist, teacher, colleague and friend; as he would have wished, they engage anew with his recuperation and regeneration of the concept of melodrama in a variety of settings: activist movements, resistance, controversies, ethnographic encounters, public speeches, and political campaigns. In doing so they not only re-establish the crucial importance of melodrama as a rhetorical form, genre, mode, or tactic, they underscore the enduring legacy of Schwarze’s work itself.

Democratic melodrama and authoritarian melodrama

ABSTRACT This essay distinguishes democratic melodrama from authoritarian melodrama. We argue that the distinction between the two forms of melodrama is not merely located in the “eye of the beholder,” but can be found within the rhetorical form based on the way that the melodrama is figured. First, we argue that democratic melodrama is characterized by the use of a double gesture, which polarizes and offers the possibility of affirmation and reconnection—a key difference from authoritarian melodrama, which seeks primarily to exclude and condemn. Second, democratic melodrama generates monopathy, a unity of feeling, in its audience that enables interdependency with the other, while authoritarian melodrama engages in contempt for the other, which enables repression and oppression. Finally, the villain in democratic melodrama is typically a behavior, ideology, or institution, while in authoritarian melodrama the villain is typically scapegoated as a member of an “outgroup” that is dehumanized. In sum, democratic melodrama emphasizes interdependency while authoritarian melodrama engages in dehumanization and separation.

ЗОЛЬСКИЕ СОБЫТИЯ 1913 Г. КАК КРИЗИС ДОВЕРИЯ В ПРАКТИКАХ ОБЩЕСТВЕННО-ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ В НАЛЬЧИКСКОМ ОКРУГЕ

The subject of trust in public-state interactions and local self-government is examined using the example of agrarian protests on Zolsky pastures grasslands in Nalchik district in June 1913. The new pastureland usage laws, authorized in 1912 and applied in the spring of 1913, sparked mass protests among residents of many Kabardian rural societies. Based on archival sources and mate-rials of periodicals,The major strategies for achieving “trust” in the adoption and approval of pub-lic pastureland use laws are outlined. Ritual and rhetorical forms of official and informal interac-tion between the crown authorities and representatives of the Kabardian society, which allowed to restore trust in the regional authorities, are considered. The grounds for the protracted suspension of the Congress of Entrusted from making decisions on the control of pastureland usage are de-termined, and are related to the fear of repeated expressions of protest feelings. The conclusion is substantiated that the complete overcoming of ideological consequences of the pasture crisis of 1913 became possible only in March 1917, when the congress of entrusted, freed from the super-vision of the crown administration, abolished the rules of 1912, which caused unrest on the Zolsky pastures.

‘Property of the Nation’ - Resource Nationalism to Become a Political Doctrine in Contemporary Mongolia?

The proposed paper is a study of resource nationalism. Resource nationalism appeared in Mongolia in the post-Socialist period. In this paper, we understand resource nationalism as a wide spectrum of strategies domestic elites employ in order to increase their control of natural resources - definition by Paul Domjan and Matt Stone. After an analysis of legal materials, mass media articles and political rhetoric, the author of this paper concludes that the sources of resource nationalism should be searched in the texts that date back to the Socialist era. Also, the sources of resource nationalism can be found in the ideas about justice of those times. The idea that natural resources belong to the people has been fixed in mass opinion, while contemporary nationalists justify this idea from the standpoint of “blood and soil”. That creates serious problems for Mongolia, a country with resource economy. The matter is that economic growth driven with foreign investments has caused a deep social stratification. In its turn, social stratification gave birth to a social demand for fair profit distribution from natural resource extraction. In the political sphere, this social demand quickly received a reaction - in the form of resource nationalism rhetoric. In the paper, we notice that resource nationalism in Mongolia has not been formed as a vivid legal or political doctrine. Today, it is a set of populist rhetoric of current interest which are used both for lobbying future political decisions in mining and for legitimizing the decisions already made.

Counting chickens before they hatch: transformational accounting in a development cash transfer program

ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of narratives in international development through an ethnographic analysis of a cash transfer program. Tanzania’s Productive Social Safety Net makes small. Regular payments to some of the poorest households in the country. Implementation centers on public activities accompanying payouts where beneficiaries recount changes they have been able to make through their productive use of program money. Narratives are fundamental to cash transfer programs where agencies have to show that the very small payments poor households receive lead to the substantial changes made in policy claims. Development programs invoke distinct rhetorical forms in order to make hyperbolic claims about the changes people needing development are expected to achieve, despite limited resources. Transformational accounting adopts the dramaturgical conventions of ‘relational accounting’ to situate aid recipients in tales of self-generated transformation that provide the basis for ongoing improvement. The systematic overstatement of impacts from interventions perpetuates longstanding discourses about personal and financial responsibility, sustaining political economies of aid and its organizational arrangements which benefit vested interests.

The Inconsistent Techniques Adopted in Rendering into English the Arabic Definite Article “al ال” in Hilali & Khan's Thematic Translation of the Holy Quran (Sample translations of Islam-Specific Nouns, modified by “al ال”, in selected Surahs/verses)

The thematic translation of the Holy Quran has been attempted long ago by various translators. And due to the fact that the requirements of the translator of Islamic texts are a bit more complicated, the translation of some Arabic grammatical and rhetorical forms might pose a real challenge for non-native speakers of Arabic. Mastering the Arabic language, being it the Source Language of Islamic texts to be translated into any Target Language, is inevitable for any translator of such text types. The thematic translation of the Holy Quran by some translators having neither the SL nor the TL as their L1, makes their attempt even more challenging. Indeed, Arabic language is the mother tongue of Hilali; yet, not of Khan. This study highlights their rendering into English the definite article “al ال” modifying the Islam-Specific Nouns in selected Surahs: Al-Baqara (2:2), (2:3), (2: 43-45), (2:57), (2:198), al-Imran (3:3), Al-Maida (5: 2), At-Tauba (9:60), and Al-Furqan (25 :38).

Seriously Funny: Stand-Up Comedy Clips for Diverse Voices in French

Abstract: Stand-up comedy in France has achieved great success. Clubs are flourishing, and there has been an explosion of recorded performances available on the internet. Stand-up is also the subject of documentaries and shows, including the new French comedy show Standing Up (2022). Unlike their predecessors who performed "one-man" shows with props, today's young, diverse generation of "stand-uppers" is speaking into the microphone about contemporary topics that are socio-politically charged. They are accessible, timely, and engaging, and they deserve our attention as they offer a unique rhetorical form through which our students may explore diverse voices and topics in French.