Rhetoric Of Purity Research Articles

Purity culture and the limits of queer evangelicalism

ABSTRACT Taking purity culture as a framework for understanding evangelical approaches to sexual ethics, this article examines the connection between the recent emergence of queer evangelical celibacy narratives and the rhetoric of purity as a form of personal freedom. To do so, we approach the construction of queer celibacy through a theology of sexuality and narratives of celibacy within purity culture. We constellate stories from gay- and lesbian-identifying evangelicals to question the limits of queer celibacy. How is evangelical celibacy queer? Can evangelical celibacy claim queerness when it depends on White heterosexist logics? To answer these questions, we explore a series of texts written by evangelical authors who have chosen celibacy as a method for their spiritual commitments while identifying as gay or lesbian. We work with these texts as examples of queer narratives that interanimate paths between evangelical belief and sexual identity.

“Drowned in Blood”:

“Drowned in Blood”:

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity during the War on Terror

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity during the War on Terror

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror (review)

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror (review)

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror

Baseball and rhetorics of purity: the national pastime and American identity during the war on terror

has long been considered America s national pastime, touted variously as a healthy diversion, a symbol of national unity, and a model of democratic inclusion. But, according to Michael Butterworth, such favorable rhetoric belies baseball s complicity in the rhetorical construction of a world defined by good and evil. Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity is an investigation into the culture and mythology of baseball, a study of its limits and failures, and an invitation to remake the game in a more democratic way. It pays special attention to baseball s role in the reconstruction of American identity after September 11, 2001. This study is framed by a discussion that links the development of baseball to the discourses of innocence and purity in 19th-century America. From there, it examines ritual performances at baseball games; a traveling museum exhibit sponsored by the National Hall of Fame and Museum; the recent debate about the use of performance-enhancing drugs; the return of Major League to Washington, D.C., in 2005; and the advent of the World Classic in 2006. Butterworth argues that by promoting myths of citizenship and purity, post-9/11 discourse concerning baseball ironically threatens the health of the democratic system and that baseball cannot be viewed as an innocent diversion or escape. Instead, Butterworth highlights how the game on the field reflects a more complex and diverse worldview, and makes a plea for the game s recovery, both as a national pastime and as a site for celebrating the best of who we are and who we can be.

The Avant-Garde and the “New Spirit”: The Case of Ballet mécanique

37 What are we to make of this statement? In part, as Kristin Thompson has pointed out to me, it is probably the case that Leger simply meant that his film is not the sense that, say, Hans Richter and Victor Eggeling's films are abstract. In other words, unlike their films, or the paintings of a Kandinsky or a Mondrian, Ballet mecanique is not concerned with the Neoplatonic depiction of spiritual or metaphysical truths behind appearances.38 However, there is a second sense which the film can be understood as in no way that is hinted at the manner which the quotation above lists some of the concrete objects depicted Ballet mecanique, as opposed to their abstract similarities to each other. One of the things that readers of Leger might notice his remarks on film general is the extent to which, above all other cinematic techniques (including editing, which he hardly ever mentions), Leger privileged and emphasized the close-up and its transformative power. For example, his retrospective notes on Ballet mecanique, he remarked, I used the close-up, which is the only cinematographic invention.39 And his March 1923 reply to Rene Clair's enquete the journal Film, he observed, [The cinema] will be everything... when filmmakers develop the consequences of the close-up, which is the cinematic architecture of the future.40 By themselves, neither of these quotations should surprise us too much, for as we know from Lawder's research, Leger was indebted to Cendrars's book L'ABD du cinema, which the close-up, along with editing, is singled out repeatedly. However, following the passage just quoted from Film, Leger goes on to say of the power of the close-up, A detail of an object transformed into an absolute whole is personified when projected large dimensions; a portion of a human being is personified when projected large dimensions.41 And his remarks on Ballet 37. Quoted Kosinski, Leger, 1911-1924, p. 24. 38. On Neoplatonism Kandinsky and Mondrian, see Mark A. Cheetham, The Rhetoric of Purity: Essentialist Theory and the Advent of Abstract Painting (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press,

Recent Rhetorics of Purity in the Visual Arts. Infection, Dissemination, Genealogy

The rhetoric of purity has been foundational in the visual arts of this century, particularly in the advent of abstract art. Is it still a potent discourse? There can be no question that contemporary artists address this issue. As examples, I analyze the relationships between Kazimir Malevich's art, especially his notion of the “supplemental element,” and new work by Taras Polataiko, who is “infected” by the earlier artist. I extend this analysis of medical discourses of infection, purity, and impurity to the group General Idea's recent manipulations of the images and ideas of the quintessential Modernists Piet Mondrian and Ad Reinhardt. My readings suggest that purity as a concept in the visual arts remains powerful — both in the genealogy of artists and in individual works — but in a mutated form.

The Rhetoric of Purity. Essentialist Theory and the Advent of Abstract Painting (New Art History and Criticism Series)

The Rhetoric of Purity. Essentialist Theory and the Advent of Abstract Painting (New Art History and Criticism Series)

The rhetoric of purity: essentialist theory and the advent of abstract painting

List of illustrations Introduction Acknowledgements Part I. Out of Plato's cave: 'abstraction' in late nineteenth-century France: 1. Gauguin and the art of pure memory 2. Serusier and Plato's poison Part II. The Mechanisms of Purity I: Mondrian Part III. The Mechanisms of Purity II: Kandinsky Part IV. Purity as Aesthetic Ideology: 1. Absolute autonomy 2. Universal exclusivity 3. Authoritarian freedom Postscript. Klee and the Interrogation of Purity Notes Selected bibliography Index.