Exam 11: Contemporary Rhetoric III: Texts, Power, Alternatives

Provide the term for the following definitions: -Initiation rite and speech of the Lo Dagaas people of Ghana.

Provide the term for the following definitions: -To read a text for what a traditional reading would overlook, dismiss, or omit; violating the received interpretation of a text in search of its submerged meaning.

Who were the jian shi in ancient China?

__________________ is an intellectual movement that argues that gender is not fixed, but instead is socially constructed. This movement emphasizes the symbolic construction of the self and investigates how this occurs within our social existence.

Which of the following is an accurate translation of jian shi, which was the name of the ancient practitioners of rhetoric in China that advised leaders on political and governmental matters?

Which of the following theorists was instrumental in the development of postmodernism, wrote The Postmodern Condition, and thought people should question the concepts of reality, truth, and morality?

Why does Sally Gearhart find traditional rhetoric to be a form of violence?

What does Derrida mean by saying that meanings are unstable? How is this notion related to his practice of deconstruction?

What characterized the traveling persuader tradition in ancient China?

How does Sally Miller Gearhart's claim that persuasion is a species of violence align with your experience?

Jacques Derrida developed the critical theory of _____________________, which works to destabilize discourse by dissecting its underlying structures of meaning and assumption.

Which of the following is the term Jean-François Lyotard uses to describe grand explanatory schemes that claim to account for the entirety of human history and the human condition?

Several of the authors in Chapter Eleven identify some sort of relationship between language, rhetoric, or discourse on the one hand, and power or influence on the other. Overview and compare the positions of at least three authors in this chapter regarding this relationship. What, for each, is the relationship between language and power? Which view or views do you find the most revealing or helpful? Explain your answer.

Provide the term for the following definitions: -In Foss and Griffin, a rhetoric that does not require or assume intent to persuade on the part of a source.

Much of Michel Foucault's work explores the relationships among discourse, knowledge, and power. Briefly, how are these three components related for Foucault? Provide an example to illustrate your answer.

Is Foucault convincing in his argument that language and power are intimately connected?

What striking difference between the Western rhetorical tradition and the rhetorical traditions of other cultures has George Kennedy noticed in his study of comparative rhetoric?

Briefly overview the feminist criticism of the Western rhetorical tradition. Why has this tradition ignored women? What are the specific results of this historical development? Briefly explain what Sally Miller Gearhart means by claiming that rhetoric as it has been taught and practiced is a form of violence?

Sonja Foss and Cindy Griffin outline a form of ____________________ rhetoric, in which the goal of rhetoric is not persuasion, but instead is focused on audiences entering the world of the rhetor and making their own evaluative decisions.

Derrida suggests that the meanings of words are fundamentally unstable. Provide examples of terms you are familiar with that seem to shift meaning with new contexts, or that change meaning depending upon who uses them.