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

Question 1

What are defining the marks of postmodernism?

Answer 1

Postmodernism questions both reason and progress and rejects all "meta-narratives." Jean Francois Lyotard, one of the most prominent postmodern theorists, discussed meta-narratives as the grand explanatory schemes that claim to account for the entirety of human history, including, Christianity, Marxism, and capitalism. Lyotard advises against accepting the concepts of reality, truth, and morality, as they have traditionally been dictated by meta-narratives. The movement was a reaction against both the enlightenment ideals of reason, as well as against structuralism.

Question 2

What tenets characterized the Structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss?

Answer 2

Lévi-Strauss, realizing the similarities between mythologies around the world, wrote about the patterns and structures that characterized myths. The structure, or "grammar," of myths and narratives revealed the structure of the human thought and experience. Lévi-Strauss sought to reveal the structure of human thought by investigating the narrative patterns humans created and valued. His form of structuralism also held that these patterns reflected a cosmic order. Properties of myth were above ordinary linguistic expression. Much of Lyotard's work and postmodernism was a reaction against Lévi-Strauss' structuralism.

Question 3

Why, generally, was Michel Foucault interested in language and discourse? What is discourse's relationship to knowledge? To power?

Answer 3

Foucault was interested in language and discourse because he believed in its ability to significantly shape perception and society. Foucault believed the world was constructed through language and discourse. Foucault writes that power and knowledge are inseparable and that discourse shapes each of these within a society. Discourse's relationship to knowledges is not that language represents a knowable objective reality, but rather discourse produces knowledge for a community. Foucault was also preoccupied with power and how it was created and operated. He writes that power is not fixed or static, but instead is always in flux. Power is the result of the complex ways in which language is employed and the result of language competition within a discourse community. Foucault theorized that power and knowledge are always being shaped and created through language and discourse.

Question 4

What did Foucault mean by an "archaeology of knowledge"?

Question 5

What is Derrida's goal in "deconstruction"?

Question 6

What are the basic assumptions of Queer Theory?

Question 7

What is the basic feminist criticism of the Western rhetorical tradition?

Question 8

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

Question 9

What do Foss and Griffin mean by the phrase "invitational rhetoric"? Information Classification: General

Question 10

What did Cheris Kramarae mean when she referred to women as a "muted" group?

Question 11

What logical step does the Indian avayava argument contain that is not exhibited in a Greek syllogism?

Question 12

What have feminist rhetoricians said about language itself as a source of problems for women seeking a distinctly female rhetoric?

Question 13

What is unusual in the Greek tradition of rhetoric when compared to other rhetorical traditions?

Question 14

Who were the jian shi in ancient China?

Question 15

Who is thought to possess the bagre form of discourse among the LoDagaa people?

Question 16

What Greek form of speaking does ancient Aztec speaking most closely resemble?

Question 17

Identify a way in which the rhetoric of Averroes departs from that of Aristotle?

Question 18

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

Question 19

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.

Question 20

Cheris Kramarae quotes the heroine in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd to the effect that "it is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs." What is your reaction to this statement from Hardy's novel?

Question 21

Some feminist theorists have called for an "invitational" rather than a competitive rhetoric. Is such a rhetoric possible? Does the nature of rhetoric itself, or of human beings, render this suggestion impracticable?

Question 22

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

Question 23

What is your response to George Kennedy's claim that the Western rhetorical tradition is unusually aggressive and competitive when contrasted with other rhetorical traditions?

Question 24

Michael V. Fox has noted that argument was not central to Egyptian rhetoric. In what ways, if any, is contemporary American rhetoric moving away from argument and toward other discursive forms?

Question 25

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

Question 26

Michel Foucault uses the term ___________________ to represent the totality of discursive practices for a society within a defined period of time.

Question 27

__________________ 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.

Question 28

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.

Question 29

____________________ was an early twentieth century movement in discourse studies which affirmed the presence of underlying structures or "grammars" in myths and other narrative forms. Information Classification: General

Question 30

Always concerned with power, Michel Foucault coined the term ___________________ to describe the phenomenon of an increase in constant surveillance by those in power within society. This term is derived from a type of prison design.

Question 31

Which of the following is the name for the rhetorical form used by the Lo Dagaas people of northern Ghana, in which the initiate learns twelve thousand verses and tells a personalized version of a community story?

A) Shui
B) Bagre
C) Ebulio
D) Pien

Question 32

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?

A) Civic disputers
B) Strategic advisers
C) Traveling persuaders
D) Rhetorical writers

Question 33

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?

A) Michel Foucault
B) Friedrich Nietzsche
C) Claude Levi-Strauss
D) Jean-François Lyotard

Question 34

Which of the following models does Sally Miller Gearhart say characterizes the male oriented rhetorical tradition, and which she finds fundamentally violent?

A) The domination model
B) The invitational model
C) The conversion model
D) The inculcation model

Question 35

Which of the following was the name Michel Foucault gave to the process of discovering possibilities of rational thought for a particular time period by investigating its discourse and set of social rules?

A) Genealogy of discourse
B) Archaeology of knowledge
C) Archiving thought systems
D) Sociology of surveillance

Question 36

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?

A) Meta-narratives
B) Superstructures
C) Petits recits
D) Meta-grammars

Question 37

Because postmodernism was a reaction against structuralism it is sometimes called post-structuralism.

Question 38

Many feminist rhetorical theorists have tried to distinguish the goals of a feminine rhetoric from other disenfranchised groups, arguing that feminine rhetorical goals should take precedent.

Question 39

For Foucault, discourse was inseparable from knowledge, and determined the way in which power operated within a society.

Question 40

Rhetoric in ancient China focused on writing rather than speaking because there was very little sense of a public citizenry or public oratory.

Question 41

Structuralism examines the "oppositions" embedded in a discourse to point out how concepts are invested with meaning by contrast.

Question 42

George Kennedy uses a study of comparative rhetoric to argue that non-Western forms of rhetoric were less competitive than the Greek rhetorical tradition.

Question 43

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Foucault's term for "the set of rules which at a given period and for a given society define" the limits of discourse, knowledge and power.

Question 44

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-In Derrida, the work of destabilizing discourse by dissecting its underlying structures of meaning and assumption.

Question 45

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-In Foucault, the totality of discursive practices of a society at a particular point in time.

Question 46

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-In Foucault, discourse that is controlled by being prohibited.

Question 47

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.

Question 48

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.

Question 49

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

Question 50

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.

Question 51

What was Foucault seeking through his "archaeology of knowledge"? How does the concept of episteme figure into his archaeological studies?

Question 52

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

Question 53

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?

Question 54

What do Foss and Griffin mean by the phrase "invitational rhetoric"? How would an invitational rhetoric differ from a traditional rhetoric?

Question 55

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?

Question 56

What characterized the traveling persuader tradition in ancient China?

Question 57

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.

Question 58

Michel Foucault and the feminist rhetoricians discussed in Chapter Eleven perceive that rhetorical practices are crucial to either the existence, preservation, or criticism of culture. Summarize the two views of the relationship between rhetoric or discourse and culture represented by Foucault and the feminist critics. Which view do you find more persuasive?