Rhetorical Principles Research Articles

«Благая весть» Венедикта Ерофеева и модель библейской риторики

This paper analyzes one of the earliest works by Venedikt Erofeev — the tale Blagaja vest’ (The Good news, 1962). This early and unfinished work, which vanished sometime after being read by a small group of Erofeev’s acquaintances and which has only partially survived, relies on the Bible as its most significant intertext, both on an aesthetic and linguistic level: Erofeev uses not only biblical allusions, motifs, references or quotations but also stylistic and rhetorical devices, typically employed by biblical authors. The aim of this article is to explore how and why Erofeev employs these strategies. The purpose is to apply to such a postmodern text a method known as rhetorical analysis. Particular attention is devoted to the essential characteristics of biblical rhetoric (binarity and parataxis) and to compositional figures, such as parallelism and chiasmus. Intertextual and intratextual relations and linguistic or stylistic phenomena will be considered as well. The analysis will note that the composition of Erofeev’s work clearly obeys the same principles of biblical rhetoric. Nevertheless in Blagaja vest’ these formal devises are used in an unexpected and unusual way. The author of this paper also emphasizes the important role that Blagaja vest’ plays in Erofeev’s entire œuvre: although it is an early work, it already prefigures the major qualities of Erofeev’s unique prose.

Joachim Lelewel’s methodological ideas

The main aim of this paper is to capture the essence of a Polish historian Joachim Lelewel’s methodological ideas and their philosophical underpinning. For this purpose, I analyse his publication entitled History: Its Branching and What It Is Based On, which has thus far been overlooked in research. I propose a new perspective on Lelewel’s work, taking into account his European inspirations in the field of historical theory and his tendency to combine the contradictory research approaches of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. I address topics related mainly to the theory of historical cognition, the subject of historical study, source criticism, the concept of truth, historical interpretation, methods of historical analysis and selected rhetorical principles.

A Practice on Supra-Functional Design for Unexpected Experiences using Rhetoric Figures

It has become important to design supra-functional products to change the ordinary into something special, meaningful, and engaging. The practice intends to design supra-functional products that can create a richer emotional response in the users by breaking their common expectations and providing unexpected experiences. Moreover, the practice is intended to explore the possibility of employing the rhetoric figures to design products that can lead to unexpected experiences.<BR>The research method involved first investigating the possibility of using the principles of rhetoric in design. Second, after analyzing the usefulness of rhetoric, and in particular, the application of elocutio, the principles of rhetoric discussed by existing scholars are structured, and a rhetoric figures is proposed as a design tool. Third, design practices are carried out using the principles investigated.<BR>The Practice proceeds in three stages, and the rhetoric figures are applied in different ways in each stage. The first project focuses on exploring the application of the rhetoric figures in the design process and the composition of products based on figures of speech. The second project shifted the focus from employing the rules of rhetoric in the design practices to first establishing product concepts that deviate from standard expectations, and once the deviations are defined, designing the outputs by following the pertinent principles of rhetoric. The focal point of the third project was to enhance the unpredictability of the outputs by following different surprise strategies to design unpredictable experiences while employing the principles of rhetoric relevant to those specific purposes.<BR>The designs derived from this practice are conceived to provide users with unexpected functions and pleasant surprises. The significance of this practice is that it has experimented with whether the rhetoric figures can give emotion or effects that transcend their function through design work. The results suggest that the rhetoric figures could be a tool for design language.

A Reflection on the Digitization of Classical Rhetoric for Pedagogical Uses

In today's world, the traditional means of the dissemination of knowledge have become replaced by advanced digital platforms. This, alongside the context of the global pandemic that has propelled the usage of technological tools in the classroom, has created a conducive environment for innovative pedagogy. In this paper, a case for the digitization of classical rhetorical texts for pedagogical purposes is presented. To do this, principles of digital rhetoric are brought up followed by various examples of how the digital has been embraced (in the context of the wider principles of digital rhetoric) already in the pedagogical sphere. Finally, a potential proposal for an extension of the present work was put forward. Digitization and technology widely are the norms of our day and age. In viewing these elements from a pedagogical perspective, what can be seen is that there is an enormous opportunity not only in teaching the students that will walk through our doors but in preserving the rhetorical tradition that intrigues and fascinates the larger community of scholarship.

An Idea of Higher Education Renewal

Beginning with the briefest reference to the state of higher education today, this paper overviews moral and philosophical concepts of and disposition to education in ancient Greece from the works of Plato and Aristotle, takes a summary view of the subjects taught, sums up the subject content of liberal arts and the principles of rhetoric. The author assumes that even if a dedicated return to the classical ideals may never happen in higher education today, a few concrete ideas might be helpful. With reference to concrete works of classical authors, a suggestion is made to stop never-ending reforms in universities, to recover the teaching of such subjects as style in language and literature programmes, to renew the subjects of history, philosophy and logic and to introduce memory-based learning while paying tribute to classical antiquity and regaining local traditions.

Crossing boundaries and facing others: South African perspectives on the transgressive rhetoric of preaching

The core question posed by this article is, ‘what are the characteristics of a transgressive rhetoric, as evidenced by preaching in South Africa, in particular in view of the transition to democracy, and as based on the African philosophy of Ubuntu?’ Or, the other way around, ‘what type of (homiletical) rhetoric was in fact needed to achieve the political transition in South Africa?’ Cognisance is taken in particular of the rhetorical structures used in this regard by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, under the headings of inter-facing, inter-forming and inter-futuring. These rhetorical structures are evaluated in the light of certain rhetorical principles, as expressed in classical Roman oratory. Contribution: This article traces elements of historical thought and source interpretation by revisiting the particular historical role that former Archbishop Tutu played in the formation of democracy in South Africa, by means of an interpretation of selected writings, i.e. sermons and speeches by the former Archbishop.

When the Black lives that matter are not our own: digital Black feminism and a dialectic of self and community

ABSTRACT Black women and Black feminist scholars have always pointed out the hypocrisy of advocating for civil rights and freedoms that do not extend to them. However, with the rise of digital culture and tools as the primary space and mechanism whereby Black feminists crafted arguments, a new urgency has emerged within Black feminist writing online, advocating for a dialectic of self and community interests. Black feminist writers have created a new rhetorical principle central to the #BlackLiveMatter movement, which began in the blogosphere with longform writing and enclaved communities. Before the hashtag or activism on Twitter or Instagram, the blogosphere provided a space for Black women to craft new arguments that centralized Black cis and trans women in the fight for justice. Black feminist writers insist that caring for themselves is integral to Black feminist praxis and social justice. Retracing this work from the blogosphere to social media reminds us of the importance of centralizing Black women in our discussion of digital culture and activism and the lessons this may provide in crafting a more just future.

ARISTOTLE ON RHETORIC AND POLITICAL PERSUASIVE SKILLS: EXAMPLES FROM POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IN AFRICAN POLITICS

Aristotle’s theory and principles of Rhetoric have an application to political communication. In this paper, we make a descriptive, critical and analytical exposition of the features of Rhetoric according to Aristotle with a focus on their application to political campaigns in Africa and elsewhere. While exposing the persuasive skills of Rhetoric we associate them with some logical fallacies which political speakers commit in their maneuvers to win credibility before the electorates. As Rhetoric is essentially an art of persuasion it is prone to some immoral stances. These may include deceiving and objectifying the audience for the political interests of the speakers, reciprocation of defamatory and hate speeches among political speakers, inciting of hatred and violence, etc. all aiming at persuading the electorate at all cost and by all means.

The interactional principle in digital punctuation

While early CMC research already mentioned the repetition and omission of certain punctuation signs as salient features of digital interactional writing (cf. Crystal, 2001; Runkehl et al., 1998; Werry, 1996), the theoretical perspective on punctuation was mostly limited to noting down these phenomena in their deviations from an orthographic norm and interpreting them as emulation of spoken language features. In contrast, this paper adopts a graphocentric approach and argues for investigating digital punctuation with regard to its emergent interactional principle: While the rhetorical principle (marking intonational structures) and the grammatical principle (marking syntactical structures) of punctuation are well known in the history of writing (cf. Parkes, 1992), digital punctuation appears as an innovative extension to these functional realms in that it is used by co-participants to shape and organize their mediated interactional order. When punctuation is deployed in an interactional mode, it structures primarily neither intonational patterns nor grammatical patterns, but interactional patterns such as shaping sequential organization and stance-taking. Drawing on a data set of 47 text-messaging threads by German adolescents, the paper investigates the interactional principle of punctuation by frequency analyses as well as by in-depth sequential analyses of <.>, <:>, <!>, <?>, and <…>. The findings suggest that even punctuation signs whose codification in descriptive and prescriptive grammars is based on pure syntactic criteria are utilized to achieve interactional goals. It shows that by following the interactional principle, punctuation establishes collaborative interactional management and serves participants as a graphic means of communicative and social contextualization in digital interactions.

Tips and Traps for Trainees Traversing Social Media.

The spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection across the world accelerated the adoption of social media as the platform of choice for real-time dissemination of medical information. Though this allowed useful clinical anecdotes and links to the latest articles related to COVID-19 to quickly circulate, the broad use of social media also highlighted the power of platforms such as Twitter to spread misinformation. Trainees in medicine have important perspectives to share on social media but may be reluctant to do so for a variety of reasons. There is a need to provide guidance on how to safely engage with social media as well as move the conversation forward in a meaningful way. In this manuscript, we suggest a stepwise approach for trainee social media engagement that integrates the modified Bloom’s Taxonomy for social media with Aristotle’s principles of rhetoric. This provides trainees with guidance on making ethical, logical, and persuasive cases on social media when creating, consuming, promoting, and discussing content produced by themselves or others.

“Statement of the Problem - Solution” as a Rhetorical Principle of Persuasive Advertising

“Statement of the Problem - Solution” as a Rhetorical Principle of Persuasive Advertising

Cahiliye Asrından Abdülkahir el-Cürcani Dönemine Kadar Belağat Gelişimi

Bu çalışmanın amacı,Abdulkahir el-Curcani çağına kadar, belagat ilminin tarihi ve gelişme sürecine genel bir bakış sağlamaktır. Diğer bir ifadeyle tedvinden önce ve sonra belağat ilmi denilebilir.Çalışma, aynı zamanda alimlerin beleğat ilmine dair kaideleri belirlemede dayandıkları usul ve esaslara ışık tutmak hedefi ile, belagat ilminin çeşitli dönemlerde geçirdiği süreci de konu edinmektedir. Belagat tarihini ve gelişme dönemini incelen araştırmacı özellikle son dönem alimlerin önceki dönem bilginlerinin eserlerini inceleme konusunda ortaya koydukları gayreti görecektir. Ayrıca belagat ilminin öncelikle zevk, sonrasında eleştiri ve daha sonra belagatı kaideleştirme olmak üzere üç merhaleden geçtiğini ve belagatın edebi eleştiri geleneğinden doğduğunu görecektir. Araştırmanın önemi, neden ve sonuçlarında kendini göstermektedir. Ortaöğretim, lisans ve lisansüstü eğitimin çeşitli kademeleri sırasındaki derslerde edebi zevkin eksikliği ve zayıflığı fark edilmiştir. Belagatın ihmal edilmesi ve yalnızca genel sanatsal imaja odaklanılması gerektiği iddiasında bulunan veya belagatin Arap kökenli değil de diğer medeniyetlerden alındığını iddia eden ya da batı metodolojisine uygun modern kavramlarla belâgat ilmini güncelleme çağrısında bulunan bazı seslerin arasında bizim kendi öğrencilerimizin birçoğunun eleştiri belagatın zayıflığını saymıyorum bile. Dolaysıyla bu çalışma bilim adamlarımızın çağlar boyunca özgünlük, edebi zevk ve eleştirel açıdan belagatın gelişimini ortaya koymak için yapmış oldukları çaba ve gayretlerini göstermek içindir. Araştırmanın önemi, aşağıdaki hedeflere ulaşmayı amaçlamasıyla ortaya çıkmaktadır. • Belagatın ortaya çıkış tarihi ve çağlar boyu gelişimi üzerinde durmak. • Edebi zevki geliştirmede Arapça gramer, biçim bilgisi ve dil ilkelerini kullanmak • Bilim adamlarının belâgat ilmindeki çalışmalarına vakıf olarak kelimeler ve cümledeki bileşenlar arasında ki farkları ortaya koyma konusunda ne denli mahir olduklarına tanıklık etmek. • Edebi metin örnekleri üzerinde düşünerek okuyucunun belagat ve eleştirel melekesini geliştirmek. Çalışma şairlerin, dil ve kulaklarının aşinalığı sebebiyle doğaçlamaları neticesi çok güzel bir performans sergiledikleri ve yargılarının çoğunlukla bir illete ve sabit belagat temellere bağlı olmaksızın sırf edebi zevkin olduğu İslam öncesi çağda, İslam'ın ilk zamanlarında ve Emevi’ler dönemindeki belagat gelişme aşamalarını ele alacaktır. Doğaçlamaların sağlam olmasından herhangi bir analiz ve eleştirel yargıya ihtiyaç duymadılar, bu da onların tek kabahatidir. Cahiliye dönemi hükümdarlarından en önde geleni “en-Nâbiga ez-Zübyânî”dir. İslam'ın ilk zamanlarında Basra’daki “el-mirbed” ve kûfe’deki “kunâse” pazarları aynen cailiyye dönemindeki Ukâz pazarına benzemekte idi. Bu pazarların en önemli öncüleri arasında Cerîr, Farazdak, zürrumme ve Leylâ el-Ahyeliyye sayılabilir. Edebiyat kitapları, Araplarda kelime ve anlamların doğru seçimlerinden neşet eden edebi güzelliğin ölçülerini gösteren örneklerle dolup taşmıştır. Onlardan bazıları hatip ve şair olarak meşhur olurken, Züheyr b. Ebî Sülma, el-Hutye ve daha başkaları gibi bazıları da kelimelerde doğru seçim, kompozisyon bütünlüğü ve doğru ifade gibi hususlarda ön plana çıkmıştır.

Qur'ān as a Hidden Academy for Learning Dialogic Exchange

The Qur’ān hosts numerous dialogues independent of its readers’ moral and ideological positions – a key source for renewed learning and understanding. Conventional readings of the Qur’ān rarely notice the subtle underlying linguistic features. Similarly, rote readings can narrow one’s capacity for renewed learning. As a result, the accustomed reader misses the profound moral lessons. To address this problem, I have analysed how the Qur’ān can be imagined as an open academy for learning dialogic exchange. This article’s thematic approach is inspired by heuristic modes of learning to ascertain the Qur’ān’s dialogic medium as a model of ‘invitational rhetoric.’&#x0D; The theories in this article create an inter-disciplinary framework. I used the Arabic word qawl (statement/assertion) as a primary linguistical index of dialogic exchange. I quantitatively surveyed two morphological derivatives of this word across the Qur’ānic text: qul (say, denoting God’s voice) and qālū (they said, plural in the past tense, denoting voices of the Other vis-à-vis God). These derivatives signify voices speaking from different yet interactive contexts.&#x0D; This article argues the Qur’ān’s down-to-earth guidance translates the notion of dialogue from an elitist noun concept into an interactive dialogic context. The Qur’ān’s dialogic medium illustrates its artistic elevation of dialogic exchanges at two levels: justice and iḥsān (excellence). To this end, I use content analysis to analyse emergent themes according to the three principles of invitational rhetoric. The outcomes of this analysis ascertained how the Qur’ān records multiple voices of dialogic exchange, which it accords with its aesthetic features.

(Not the) Same Old Story: Invisible Reasons for Rejecting Invisible Wounds

Thousands of former military service-members have been discharged with other-than-honorable discharges due to misconduct that can be traced to a mental health condition. These veterans may request a post-discharge change to their discharge characterization — known as a “discharge upgrade.” Discharge review boards consider discharge upgrade requests and typically (90-99% of the time) deny the requests. In the past few years, the Department of Defense has issued new policy guidance partly in response to the low grant rate and to specifically address the growing understanding of the relationship between misconduct and mental health conditions for military service-members. The policy guidance requires the boards to give “liberal consideration” to veterans seeking relief for matters relating to “invisible wounds,” such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Liberal consideration mandates a relaxed view of misconduct in connection to mental health conditions, with the overall goal of granting relief to those who deserved it. Despite the significant shift in policy, there has been very little change in the rate of discharge upgrades granted. This essay seeks to explore why liberal consideration has not had its intended effect. Rather than take on a comprehensive evaluation of the liberal consideration policy, this essay intentionally narrows in on one possible explanation for why liberal consideration has not been fully implemented. In exploring this implementation gap, the essay looks to storytelling and rhetorical principles to consider a possible explanation for the boards’ failure to embrace liberal consideration. The essay applies a narrow slice of storytelling scholarship — how humans respond to stories — to the specific context of discharge review board decisions.

Ομοφυλοφιλία, ουσιοποίηση και ταυτότητα στο λόγο ομοφυλόφιλων και ετεροφυλόφιλων ανδρών

Essentialism of social categories and its consequences on intergroup relations constitute one of the most popular research topics in social psychology. Drawing upon the relevant literature, the present study explores essentialist and de-essentialist representations about homosexual men and their identity functions in discourse. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight men who identified themselves as homosexual and eight men who identified themselves as heterosexual. Interviews were analyzed by the use of the principles of discursive psychology and rhetoric. Analysis indicated the coexistence of essentialist and de-essentialist representations of homosexuality in the discourse of both groups as a result of the negotiation and reconceptualization of naturalness, historical stability and normality of social categories. However, similar essentialist representations –suchas the historical stability of homosexuality– perform different intergroup functions, whereas different entitative representations perform common intergroup functions in the discourse of homosexual and heterosexual participants.

Theorizing Race and Gender in the Anthropocene

What does it mean to think about race and gender in the Anthropocene? In collaboration with Achille Mbembé’s recent work, this article argues that the Anthropocene requires rethinking race and gender and that retheorizing race and gender might just offer avenues for mitigation and adaptation of/to radical ecological and cultural transformation. To understand how we arrived at the Anthropocene and how race and gender are implicated, the article first traces the emergence and articulation of race and gender alongside the discursive formations of colonialism, capitalism, and necropolitics. These relations, effected in the establishment of differential temporalities, catalyzed our arrival at the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene, we argue, marks the generalization of precarity that was once concentrated among those disempowered through perceived racial and gender differences. Turning to Mbembé’s radical humanism as antidote, we conclude the article with some rhetorical and ethical principles for (re)asserting the plurality of ontology, part of which is positioning rhetoric as a counterforce to the asymmetrical distributions of precarity. Rhetoric as an analytic for tracing necropolitics, rhetoric as an inventional resource for the rearticulation of racialized and gendered subjectivity, and rhetoric as a counterhegemonic challenge to necropolitical representation—these we argue are central to the future of the field in the age of the Anthropocene.

Film as dialogue: Documentary theorization through practice

A large body of documentary scholarship approves of the documentary’s effectiveness in addressing social issues beneficially. However, documentaries that have been made with the primary aim of testing such effectiveness are rare. This article presents the findings based on a documentary made specifically to test this theory. Titled Forsaken, the documentary was made and used as a test tool to assess its rhetorical ability to generate pledges for support of neglected adolescent orphans in South African communities. This article highlights the documentary’s rhetorical strategies and the extent to which such strategies led audience members to pledge support for this category of orphans. Contrary to views in the extant literature that pay little attention to the contextual limitations of the documentary’s rhetorical principles, the present article argues that a documentary’s effectiveness in addressing social issues beneficially is largely dependent on the cultural attuning of the documentary’s rhetorical principles.

Penerapan Semitic Rhetorical Analysis (SRA) Pada Surah Al-Qiyamah

Nicolai Sinai has criticized the method of Qur’anic structural analysis offered by Michel Cuypers due to his arbitrary mode of cutting verses and neglecting rhyme of the Qur’an. This paper, then, attempts to apply the method, which is called as Semitic Rhetorical Analysis (SRA), into surah al-Qiyamah by concerning the waqf of the verses. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the structure of surah al-Qiyamah is coherent and consistent to the pattern of text composition in Semitic Rhetoric analysis. This paper argues that there are parallel, concentric, or mirror symmetrical composition patterns at various levels of text based on Semitic Rhetoric principles. The structure of the surah, then, shows its coherence and thus, opposes to the notion of the existing of some irrelevant verses in this surah.

СЕМАНТИКА МУЗИЧНОЇ МОВИ ДУХОВНИХ КАНТАТ Й. С. БАХА ПАСІОННОГО ТИПУ

Мета статті – проаналізувати семантичні аспекти духовних кантат Й. С. Баха пасіонного типу, виявити й розкрити їхню смислову глибину та філософсько-релігійні інспірації. Методологія дослідження базується на застосуванні фундаментальних загальнонаукових методів пізнання, а також спеціальних музикознавчих методів, зокрема аналітичного у вивченні наукової літератури; жанрово-стильового й історико-культурологічного, які сприяють встановленню закономірностей розвитку та специфіки жанру кантати як цілісного художнього об’єкта; герменевтичного методу, що допоміг осягнути філософську глибину бахівських кантат. Семантичний аналіз постає як один із головних та найбільш перспективних методів розшифрування смислових структур духовних кантат Баха пасіонного характеру. Наукова новизна полягає в розкритті семантичних аспектів духовних кантат Й. С. Баха пасіонного типу як носіїв сотеріологічної теорії, що проявляються музично-риторичними фігурами та символікою, у розширенні уявлень про символіко-риторичні принципи мислення композитора. Висновки. Завдяки семантичному аналізу музичної мови духовних кантат Й. С. Баха виявлено, що в кантатах пасіонного типу найбільш повно відобразилася бахівська інтерпретація лютеранства, а саме сотеріологічна теорія, яка розкриває вчення про спасіння. Доведено, що кантати пасіонного типу композитор будує за драматургічним принципом «від страждання до благодаті». Бах застосовує комплекс символіки пасіонності; для відтворення болю і мук Христа він часто використовує риторичну фігуру passus duriusculus як символ страждання. З’ясовано, що занурення в смислову глибину духовних кантат Й. С. Баха пасіонного типу дає підстави по-новому розкрити багатовимірність комплексу одвічних проблем, які сприяють народженню нового сенсу.

Linguistics and Classical Theories of Rhetoric: Connections and Continuity

The Connections between ancient approaches to rhetoric, as found in Plato and Aristotle, the prime ancient theorists of rhetoric, and modern linguistic approaches to register and genre theory, as in Hallidayan linguistics, show continuity of thought across the centuries. They also suggest that there may be such things as universal rhetorical principles as evidenced in various schemata. However, ethical considerations comprised an essential part of the ancient view of rhetoric. A major feature of the modern age is the opportunity to employ techniques of persuasion by means of new technological channels such as social media and blogs. As the use of these techniques have ethical consequences, so ethical considerations are becoming more prominent and perhaps should be incorporated into linguistic models of register.