History Of Rhetoric Research Articles

The whiteness of LBJ’s rhetoric: The appointment of Vicente T. Ximenes to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

ABSTRACT This article presents a racial rhetorical critique of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential rhetoric. Drawing from examinations of drafts, memos, and proclamations, I argue that LBJ in particular and the administration more generally utilized the appointment of Vicente T. Ximenes to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and his naming as the chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican American Affairs (IACMAA) on June 9, 1967 to reinforce the predominance of the white racial frame in U.S. political life. I highlight how LBJ’s administration relocated “Mexican Americans” politically within his Great Society according to the premises of the white racial frame as Chicana/o movement activism turned toward amplifying separatist, racially charged rhetoric(s). This racially tuned revision of prior rhetorical histories of LBJ’s rhetorics demonstrates how his administration participated in sustaining white supremacy, fashioned a whitened image of “Mexican American” communities capable of flourishing in his “Great Society,” and excluded alternative political forms that challenged the assimilationism typically expected of Latinx communities more generally. I conclude that fomenting the political status of the white racial frame was integral to LBJ’s Great Society rhetoric and to evolutions in Chicana/o activism in the late 1960s.

Exploring the History and Characteristics of Political Rhetoric

In this article, the author provides a comprehensive analysis of the history and characteristics of political rhetoric. The origin and specific belonging of political rhetoric are explored in depth, along with an examination of its various forms and components. One important aspect highlighted in this article is the influence of rhetorical ideas on the foundations of ordinary people's thinking. The author emphasizes the significant role of rhetoric in the restructuring of the political and social sphere, particularly in shaping democratic values. The paper further highlights the importance of rhetoric in the development of democratic societies. By examining the ways in which political rhetoric has been used throughout history to influence public opinion and promote democratic ideals, the author demonstrates its crucial role in shaping the political landscape. Overall, this article presents a thorough and insightful exploration of the history and significance of political rhetoric, shedding light on its key features and its impact on democratic societies.

Of Crowns, Pilgrims, and Non-Asinine Mules

John O’Malley, S.J.’s emphasis on rhetoric challenges students to reconsider not only the significance of the history of rhetoric in relation to St. Ignatius’ texts, but also the importance of rhetoric in their own discourses. In this essay, I focus on one specific event in Ignatius’ Acts, an event replete with rhetorical, textual, biblical (both the New Testament and Tanakh, the Hebrew scriptures), and historical considerations, but which, surprisingly, does not appear as a major focus in John O’Malley, S.J.’s voluminous books: Ignatius on a mule, encountering “the Moor” (un moro). I outline a method of guiding students through this event that emphasizes important intertextual resonances beyond Acts, Tanakh and the New Testament, to the Talmud, paintings, and even Greek and Western literary and theoretical history. This strategy invites students to bring their own interdisciplinary knowledge to reading this passage, to ask how an ostensibly small scene in Ignatius’ life can inspire us to craft clear intertextual understandings of mules throughout different religious traditions, and to engage with O’Malley’s emphasis on rhetorical and historical analysis, but in ways that encourage them to go beyond the explicit expositions of O’Malley to address their own unique interests and histories from a range of Jesuit pedagogical approaches.

A Site-Perspective on the Second Sophistic of the near East and Its Impact on the History of Rhetoric: An Overview

This essay introduces and examines the impact of the Second Sophistic in the Near East on the history of rhetoric. Although the overall impact of sophists is apparent as early as the Classical Period of ancient Greece, this work emphasizes the renaissance of sophistic rhetoric during the so-called Second Sophistic, a movement that flourished slightly before and throughout the Roman Empire. The Second Sophistic provided an educational system that proved to be a major force spreading the study and performance of rhetoric throughout the Roman Empire. This essay examines and synthesizes scholarship that employs conventional historical approaches, particularly research that often focuses on individual sophists, in order to establish a grounding (and justification) for concentrating on what is termed here as a “site-perspective.” That is, this essay stresses the importance of the sites of sophistic education and performance, arguing for such an orientation for future research. This essay also advances observations from the author’s own experiences and research at ancient sites in Greece and Turkey, as well as other sources of archaeological and epigraphical research. Such work reveals that artifacts at archaeological sites—epigraphy, statuary now held at museums in Greece and Turkey, and a range of other forms of material rhetoric—provide contextual insights into the nature, influence, and longevity of rhetoric during the Second Sophistic beyond examining the achievements of individual sophists. A site-perspective approach reveals that a symbiotic relationship existed between the educational achievements of the Second Sophistic—in which rhetoric played a major role—and the social and cultural complexities of the Roman Empire. Such observations also reveal the benefits, but also the need, for further fieldwork, archival research, and the development of new methodological procedures to provide a more refined understanding of the impact of the Second Sophistic on the history of rhetoric.

Non-Negotiable Inclusivity

Six members of a Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC) task force share their insights and affective responses to their work to identify and operationalize inclusive, invitational practices for the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference (FemRhets). This article first de­scribes understandings of antiracist practices that guided the group’s work - rooted in the writings of scholars Sara Ahmed, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Michelle Grue - and highlights parts of the task force’s 23-page report outlining partial, initial steps for inclusive, antiracist conferencing. The article ends with each author sharing personal experiences working on this project. The authors seek to root the non-negotiability of inclusive conferencing practices in the need for antiracism, accessi­bility, affordability, and transparency as central to conference planning.

A New Handbook of Rhetoric: Inverting the Classical Vocabulary

A New Handbook of Rhetoric: Inverting the Classical Vocabulary

Towards a History of Syriac Rhetoric in Late Antiquity

Abstract This article presents the first comprehensive study of Syriac rhetoric in late antiquity. It builds on existing scholarship on the Syrians’ engagement with Graeco-Roman paideia and Christian rhetoric, but it also goes further in that it draws attention to the Syrians’ participation in Near Eastern rhetorical traditions (mainly transmitted through Aramaic) and in the rhetoric of the Hebrew Bible, which was translated into Syriac without Greek intermediaries. At the same time, this article demonstrates that Syriac rhetoric flourished in distinctive and original ways: It developed its own literary genres (with a strong predilection for poetry and a sensibility for gendered voices), performative settings (including the liturgy and the school), and thematic domains (notably Scriptural exegesis and religious controversy). It is especially remarkable that an elaborate “meta-rhetorical” reflection flourished in Syriac, as it first emerged in the work by Antony of Tagrit in the ninth century and in the broader context of late antique and Byzantine Aristotelianism. This comprehensive survey and its conceptual systematisation are designed to facilitate further research on Syriac rhetoric both during late antiquity and in later centuries, when the Syrians’ interaction with Arabic rhetoric came to play an increasingly influential role. Syriac words are given in a simplified transcription. For consonants, the standard system in use for Semitic languages is followed; spirantisation of b g k p t is marked by v gh kh f th respectively. East Syrian vocalisation is generally adopted unless the words are quoted from a West Syrian author; vowel length is not marked, with the exception of a/ā and e/ē in Eastern Syriac.

Architects of Memory: Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age

Architects of Memory: Information and Rhetoric in a Networked Archival Age

Ebû Kâsım Sicilmâsî’nin Belâgat Anlayışı (Belâgat-Mantık İlişkisi Bağlamında)

Arap Belâgat tarihinde Aristocu ve Helenistik düşüncenin etkisinde kalarak felsefi retoriği, mantıksal kavram ve yöntemleri merkeze alan ve belâgat ilmini de buna göre kuran bazı dilbilimciler bulunmaktadır. Bunlardan biri de Mağrip belâgat ekolünden Ebü’l-Kâsım es-Sicilmâsî’dir (ö. ?). İşte bu çalışmada Sicilmâsî’nin el-Menzeʿü’l-bedîʿ fî tecnîsi esâlîbi’l-bedîʿ adlı eseri incelenerek belâgat anlayışının ortaya konulması hedeflenmiştir. Eserin tamamının incelenmesi suretiyle yürütülen çalışma ile Sicilmâsî’nin bu eserinde edebi eleştiri ve belâgat anlayışını Aristo mantığı ve felsefesinin etkisinde ortaya koyduğu; bu çerçevede Aristo’nun varlığın yüklemleri şeklinde belirlediği kategorileri model alarak on üst başlık belirlediği, her bir başlığı yüksek cins olarak tanımladığı ve bu cinslerden her birinin altında türlere, bâb ve kısımlara yer verdiği görülmüştür. Müellifin felsefî kategori mantığı ve eserinde izlediği usul ile belâgattaki beyân, meânî ve bedî şeklindeki klasik üçlü tasnif yönteminden ayrıldığı tespit edilmiştir. Her ne kadar Sicilmâsî eserinde Aristo mantığı ve felsefesinin etkisinde kalsa da Aristo ile kategorilerin isimlendirmesi ve bunlarla edebî anlamları kastetmesi hususlarında ayrıştığı, kendine has sistematik ve özgün bir belâgat anlayışına sahip olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Rhetorical History as Institutional Work

AbstractRhetorical history has emerged as a useful theoretical construct that bridges the long recognized gap between historical and organizational scholarship. Despite its growing popularity, the precise nature of rhetorical history as a construct, its scope conditions, and its utility in resolving critical issues in historical organizational analysis remains unclear. This paper addresses these issues. We define rhetorical history and contextualize the construct by elaborating its relationship to associated concepts like collective memory, rhetoric, and narrative. We ground the construct by reviewing literature that has applied rhetorical history in both theory and empirical research. Our inductive review identifies four recurring themes in which rhetorical history is used to construct perceptions of; (a) continuity and discontinuity, (b) similarity and difference, (c) winners and losers, and (d) morality and immorality. We conclude with a discussion of how rhetorical history is an essential mechanism of institutional work.

The Confluence of Rhetoric and Emotion: How the History of Rhetoric Illuminates the Theoretical Importance of Emotion

This essay argues that the history of rhetoric is a crucial resource for illuminating the theoretical importance of emotion in, for instance, reasoning, reading, knowing, acting, and judging. Taking its cue from two recent histories of rhetoric – Rita Copeland’s Emotion and the History of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (2021), and Benedict Robinson’s Passion’s Fictions from Shakespeare to Richardson (2021), which together trace thirteen centuries of the history of rhetoric, this essay reads these histories with one eye on their theoretical significance. It does so by extracting five theoretical vignettes concerning the role and value of emotion based on Copeland’s and Robinson’s histories of rhetoric: (1) emotional invention; (2) emotional style; (3) emotional knowledge; (4) emotional action; and (5) emotional judgement. In reading history in this way, i.e. for its theoretical significance, the essay seeks to carve out a middle space between theory and history, and thus offer a way of doing theoretically-minded history or historically-responsive theory.

Reviving tradition-bound products: a case of value co-creation using rhetorical history

This study explores the value co-creation framework to revive tradition-bound products using rhetorical history and service-dominant logic. This framework shows the effects of using historical significance to enable value co-creation in a new ecosystem by engaging consumers and local communities without eliminating their traditions. Existing studies merely discuss the methodology of a rhetorical emphasis on the authenticity of traditional industrial firms’ history to attract customers. This study explains the motivation to engage in value co-creation to transform tradition-bound businesses. Through these processes, businesses’ boundaries are thawed, and the customer becomes the advocate and thus, the driver of reviving tradition-bound products.

Historical Narratives and the Process of Next Generation Engagement in Family Firms

There is growing interest in family business on next-generation engagement, the processes by which older family members persuade younger individuals to commit to the family firm rather than pursue outside career opportunities. Recent research on the “Uses of the Past” and historical narratives. To date little has been written about how family firms use historical narratives in next-generation engagement. We address this gap by drawing on the ecological approach to family narratives and shed fresh light on the patterns that demonstrate how rhetorical history is used to persuade younger members of families to commit to careers within the family firm and to behave in ways that the older family members deem to be important. In our paper we identify two types of rhetorical history that are used in next-generation engagement: identity-enrolment rhetorical history, which is used to get the younger person to identify strongly with the family firm, and performative rhetorical history, which is meant to get the individual who has already committed to the family firm to behave in a particular fashion. Our analysis is informed by social-identity theory and cross-cultural management research so that gender and national culture are recognized as important moderators in our analysis.

Composing Beethoven: Not All Organizational Rhetoric is Equal

While there is a growing body of research on the benefits of rhetorical history, we know considerably less about the degree to which a firm’s chosen rhetorical history strategy successfully produces a firm benefit, especially when history may be retold using a variety of mnemonic tools for the storage and retrieval of historical content and organizational memories. Through the qualitative investigation of the most historically elite peer group of U.S. orchestras coined the “Big Five,” rhetorical history strategies emerge in the form of four distinct mnemonic practices – articulation, action, attribution, and artifactualization. The insights from this study have both theoretical and managerial implications for how these practices help mythologize personal histories, while further preserving collective beliefs and traditions.

Temporal Ambidexterity: Synchronizing Rhetorical History and Strategic Foresight

This conceptual work seeks to re-examine the organizational ambidexterity concept (the balance between exploitation of current knowledge and exploration of new knowledge) from the temporal sensemaking perspective—constructing and reconstructing the relationship of past, present, and future. Firms compete in a dual environment—technical environment (labor, capital, and input commodities) and institutional environment (symbolic resources, such as legitimacy). Yet, organizational ambidexterity has been largely conceptualized in the technical environment only. I argue that the institutional environment matters, hence symbolic resources (e.g., legitimacy) are substantially invaluable for firms. In this paper, I explore the ambidexterity paradox in which firms reconcile the sensemaking of both their history and future in search of legitimacy (history-based and future-based legitimacy) in the institutional environment. Particularly, I propose two approaches to temporal sensemaking to gain and preserve legitimacy, namely rhetorical history (a means by which firms solidify the past with persuasive strategies) and strategic foresight (heuristic processes to grasp the environmental discontinuities to devise strategies). By underscoring the symbolic resources that firms can strategically capitalize on, this work provides a nuanced understanding of the ambidexterity concept while delineating new future research avenues.

Anassagora retore

Anaxagoras is a missing author in the history of Greek rhetoric. His style has often seemed archaic and naive, unworthy of in-depth study. Nevertheless, the main so-called Gorgian figures are present in his fragments. They are not used with simply ornamental purposes but with a strongly expressive and even speculative intent. By examining in detail some texts (Lanza frr. B12; B6; B4), such systematicity and speculative depth of the use of the main rhetorical figures can be detected. Thus some conclusions about the contemporary Athenian culture can be inferred.

Anassagora retore

:Anaxagoras is a missing author in the history of Greek rhetoric. His style has often seemed archaic and naive, unworthy of in-depth study. Nevertheless, the main so-called Gorgian figures are present in his fragments. They are not used with simply ornamental purposes but with a strongly expressive and even speculative intent. By examining in detail some texts (Lanza frr. B12; B6; B4), such systematicity and speculative depth of the use of the main rhetorical figures can be detected. Thus some conclusions about the contemporary Athenian culture can be inferred.

An Enduring System of Local Deliberative Democracy: The 21st Century Legal and Normative Structure of Massachusetts Town Meeting

This essay examines the legal framework for local deliberative democracy in Massachusetts, within the legislature known as “town meeting.” We review the trajectory of this system of local government allowing direct exercise of citizen power via deliberative governance. We focus on the current framework of state and local laws that were created to support and direct local deliberative systems in Massachusetts with greater attention to functional elements of the system in this legal rhetorical history. We explore the powers of town meeting, including its role within state and federal government, the laws and norms enabling and limiting deliberation, and how and why the legal framework for town meeting has allowed it to endure. Throughout our analysis, we include examples, detailing how philosophical principles of inclusion, self-determination, fairness, and fidelity to the common good underpin town meeting. We note the system's evolution and close with considerations about directions for further changes. The legal framework for town meeting, largely unchanged for close to three centuries, successfully integrates a local community voice into a broader system of deliberative democracy.

Review: Translingual Histories of Rhetoric, Educational Policy, and Nation-Building

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Alexander Kluge’s Post-Global Politics of Citation: Decolonial Modernity and the Rhetoric of History

Beginning with a strange short story situating “the first globalization” in the ice age, this essay traces some of Alexander Kluge’s literary strategies for re-contextualizing and criticizing the term “globalization.” The essay builds on previous Kluge scholarship around issues of history and temporality by arguing that Kluge’s recent writing plays havoc with the rhetorical moves characteristic of Eurocentric history and social theory as they manifest in military and cultural enactments of “globalization as contest” (Connell & Marsh). Such critical work on globalization as a rhetorical frame both adapts strategies of German Critical Theory and links up with decolonial revisions of history in counteracting the “colonization of time” (Walter Mignolo). The essay argues this point through close-readings of short stories from Kluge’s Tür an Tür mit einem anderen Leben (2006) and Weltverändernder Zorn: Nachricht von den Gegenfüßlern (2018, with Georg Baselitz), seeing these as specific adaptations of Klugean “Gegengeschichte.”