The academy is defined by a fundamentally uncertain pursuit of certainty. The question of whether academic work is a sufficient form of engagement on its own is inseparable from the contradiction inherent to this pursuit. Like any properly academic question, it lends itself to a forum: a response is nearly obligatory for any professor in the…

Does rhetoric have a place in the discourse of human rights? Without certain reply, as the dilemmas of defining, claiming, and promoting human rights appear both to include and exclude the rhetorical gesture, this question invites inquiry into the preface of the contemporary human rights regime, the moment of the aftermath that provokes a struggle…

This essay examines nineteenth-century Native resistance to the American Indian removal policy as a strategy of decolonization. Attention focuses in particular on the tactics of decolonization employed in the rhetoric of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations as it functioned to expose the dilemmas and hypocrisies of U.S. government…

Prevailing idealist and materialist theories of rhetoric fail to account for the continual circulation and recirculation of "racism" as a scientific discourse. An alternative theory of modal materialism addresses this problem by suggesting that the properties of all being are constituted through three distinguishable forms of matter that include…

This essay features a debate in "Freedom's Journal," the first African-American newspaper, in 1827 and 1828, concerning the proposals of the American Colonization Society. Arguments favoring colonization illuminate the ways in which whiteness informs and constrains the discourse of white self-professed reformers about race, nation, and public…

States when Chicana feminists refuse to accept mainstream definitions of themselves and insist that they establish and affirm their own identity, they build a space through discourse. Describes the three-step process by which they do this: carving out their own space, turning this space into a home with connections to family, and building…

Applies Kenneth Burke's "Five Dogs" segment in "Language as Symbolic Action" to analyze Mother Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. (MM)

Examines the complex relationship between rhetoric and order in the works of Kenneth Burke, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jacques Lacan. Argues for three differing, yet complementary, views of rhetoric and order, each having a corresponding epistemology and axiology. Concludes with an analysis of the construction of order in Thomas Hobbe's…

Examines recent attempts by a number of theorists to develop a "rhetoric of the human sciences." Argues that contemporary tendencies to elevate rhetoric at the expense of such traditional notions as scientific objectivity, ontology, and epistemological foundationalism are mistaken. (JK)

Claims that the rhetoric of Quebec sovereignty is based on an appeal to a particular motivated subject, the "Quebecois." Discusses certain consequences for the theory and practice of rhetoric that are suggested by Kenneth Burke's treatment of the term "identification" and an understanding of rhetoric's constitutive and…

Considers the United States Constitution a "characterological" document that motivates the image-based politics characteristic of contemporary confirmation controversies. Suggests that this motive results in the embodiment of ideology in the characters who dominate American public life. Cites the confirmation debate regarding Thurgood…

Develops a theory of apocalyptic texts and movements by applying Kenneth Burke's conception of the tragic and comic frames of acceptance to the text of the Christian Apocalypse and to the history of its interpretation. Uses Burke's "psychology of form" to explain the recurring patterns of apocalyptic argument as functions of…

Examines three recent popularized accounts of emerging lethal viral strains within the context of a late 19th-century rationale for imperialism: the ideologeme of scenic contamination, which justifies imperialism as a defensive measure. Notes how the three texts present ideologically charged images of the Third World and its relationship to the…

Developing literature on late twentieth century U.S. immigration rhetoric has failed to attend adequately to the character of sovereignty claims in contemporary immigration politics. This essay demonstrates the centrality of sovereignty discourse by examining texts created by the state, specifically public affairs videos produced and distributed…

Contends that is sometimes rhetorical genres and not rhetorical situations that are decisively formative, and cites the papal encyclical, early state of the union addresses and their replies as supporting evidence. (MH)